A Man of No Tribe
by Ikedawg43
Summary: Although taken in by Raven as a kid, Jaune never saw eye to eye with her. So when Raven sends him to Beacon to spy on Ozpin, Qrow, and Yang, Jaune must decide what lines he is willing to cross in order to become his own master. What good is being a better person than Raven if you're too weak to break free from her, and why trade one leash for another by joining Ozpin? Complete
1. Prologue

**[REFINED, Dec. 16, 2018] Author's Note: Welcome to this fic, where I will be your overly-flippant host and author, in that order.**

 **This fic is a sort of character study of Jaune Arc, and will delve into Jaune's natural predisposition towards self-sacrifice in the name of protecting those around him, as seen particularly clearly in the culmination of Volume 5 (think: why did Cinder attack Weiss?). This will be foiled by the fact that the premise of this fic is Jaune being raised by Raven as part of her Tribe, seeing how Raven stands for** _not_ **protecting those around you if it is not convenient. They're not diametrically opposed, however, as there does exist some overlap in their cynicism. This story's pairing is Dragonslayer, though it is not a focus of the story until around chapter 30 and doesn't officially happen until chapter 40.**

 **This first chapter is not technically Chapter 1, but is instead the prologue. This story was planned out long-term, and I have it somewhat outlined through the events of the Fall of Beacon from the show, with a set final ending planned corresponding to the events of Volume 5 of the show. This story was started between Volumes 5 and 6, making it over 30 chapters before the released of V6. As such, should the perspective of the world change drastically between those two seasons, things here may feel outdated; think about all the fics written _before_ Volume 3 and the Fall of Beacon for comparison.**

 **I have challenged myself to put some real effort into making this a smooth story experience, and through 30+ updates I have only missed a week two or three times. Considering, well, how fickle we fanfic writers are, I would say that's remarkable consistent. _It's no Coeur Al Aran, of course, but I'm still not convinced that Couer is entirely human._ Too many words get pumped out each week for one person...**

 **Uploads are Sundays around noon-ish, Eastern US time, though that's usually flexible an hour in either direction. Once Volume 6 begins, this is subject to change based on feedback. _I wanna watch the show, too._**

 **All this being said, this first epilogue begins in...**

* * *

Ozpin's POV

* * *

The elevator beeped, alerting the Headmaster of the arrival of his guest, who strode forward into the office without waiting to be invited in. Though the Headmaster appeared to be looking over files, he was in fact very keenly watching the young man before him, and the confidence—or arrogance—displayed buy such an action was duly noted. Of course, it could also just be the confusing layout of the penthouse-style office, where the elevator leads directly into the room. Ozpin would allow that such a design created no buffer in which people would normally wait, meaning that perhaps this wasn't a show of confidence, but rather someone doing what they were supposed to do; pliability, if you will.

"Good evening, and thank you for meeting with me. I'm Headmaster Ozpin."

"Jaune Arc." The young man replied simply. His eyes held the Headmaster's gaze for as long as it was there, and he never motioned to take a seat. It felt almost as if he knew what games the Headmaster liked to play, and was actively engaging in them; a most interesting attribute for a frontier boy, but given this prospective student's surname? Ozpin was, very much so, intrigued.

"Please, take a seat. Was it communicated to you why you're here?" Ozpin asked carefully, though in a manner that pained itself not to feel hostile. It wouldn't do to put anyone on the defensive, especially not before any real talking began.

"No, all I was told was that I was requested to interview with you directly because I didn't have any academic records." The boys answer _was_ precisely the reason he was here, so his insistence that he did not know the real reason led the Headmaster to believe that this Jaune Arc suspected ulterior motives. To his credit, Oz did have his own agenda, but the records were the true reason he was here.

"Yes, it's been Beacon's policy for some time now not to discriminate against potential Huntsmen and Huntresses simply because they did not grow up within a major city and attend a feeder school. Since you passed the entrance exam by a fair margin, and since you indicated that you have had no formal schooling, protocol dictates that I should meet you to discuss these things." Ozpin explained to Jaune, with no reaction. "And for your information, anything discussed during this interview is confidential; no one else on Beacon's staff has the authority to view any notes I make on your file as a result of this conversation."

"That sounds like what doctors tell you to make it easier to stick that thermometer up your butt," The boy crassly replied.

"Yes, well, I assure you that this will be less painful than whatever faux-medical services you grew up with in the wilds," Ozpin retorted back, unfazed by the boys attempt to deflect with crude humor. While normally such comments might have raised an eyebrow, Ozpin had begun to prepare himself for a verbal spar in which the young man wouldn't want to reveal any information, and as such attempt to deflect or distract; the Qrow Branwen school of anti-interrogation, although Qrow running his mouth usually ended up with worse results than just answering a simple question. "Please, take a seat. I'd hate to feel bad for letting you stand this whole time."

Funnily enough, Ozpin had the feeling that neither of them believed that Ozpin would have cared if the boy was made to stand. The boy had been cautious bordering on guarded so far, but as with his entrance from the elevator, it wasn't a situation where appearing guarded was unexpected. But over time, these little scenarios add up, and all Ozpin had to do was keep them rolling; it was a strategy built upon patience in order to ensnare your target, but when you get as old as Oz had, you get used to waiting.

"So, what are you fishing for first?" The boy asked with obvious sarcasm to show that he wasn't unaware of the Headmaster's tactics. Subtle, they were not, but effective, considering that in this instance, Ozpin held all the power, making subtlety obsolete.

"Well, if you'd like to cut straight to the point: in your application you say that you grew up in the wilds. Would you mind elaborating or giving perhaps any actual detail about where you grew up?"

"Sure. All over the wilds. Mostly through Mistral, especially when I was younger, but as I got older I started doing what I could to migrate to Vale; less territory, better Grimm coverage by the government, so it would be a little less hectic." The boy answered with ease, though still not taking this meeting seriously.

"I see. How long have you been on your own?" Ozpin asked with a slight edge that he didn't expect the boy to pick up on. This was the first _real_ question he would ask the boy, as it began a line of questioning that truly interested Ozpin. As such, getting an honest or less thought-out answer to it by asking it before Jaune was taking things seriously would be invaluable.

With all that said, Jaune seemed to pick up on the edge in the tone and his posture shifted slightly.

"What exactly are you asking for here, Headmaster?" The boy asked back sharply. "I mean, I'd hate to give a silly answer. Do you want to know when I could survive by myself, or do you mean how old I was when my parents died?"

The second half of the boy's answer revealed much more about him than Ozpin had expected to see so quickly. The sharp, almost accusatory reply showed an impatience, but coupled with the oh-so-innocent walk-back and the uncertainty of his recovery? The boy was showing that he was perfectly capable of playing this little game, and was intent on winning it.

And he knew that Ozpin knew this.

"Ah, I'm sorry to have broached such a topic so insensibly, but-"

"Don't be. I…didn't know them, my parents. Or rather, I'm sure I did, but I have almost no memory of them. Just my dad's old sword." His eyes trailed off to the weapon, one of two that he carried with the other being a significantly larger sword, though one made with almost the same proportions. "I was four when they died, I think. We were in some frontier village for the night because they liked to move around, never really finding a settlement they liked, and there was a large Grimm attack. After that, I always heard stories about the Grimm that lead the attack, but quite frankly, it sounds ridiculous."

"You were four and out in the world on your own?" Ozpin asked with a raised brow.

"Orphan kids in the frontier aren't uncommon. The villages did their best to feed me and more than once I was passed off to settlements passing through on their way to new places. I bounced around a lot until I was 10."

"And what happened then?" The Headmaster asked somewhat curiously.

"This one group let me train with the men to protect the group, and one night I got to face my first raid; but this wasn't Grimm attacking us." The boy trailed off.

"Raiders?"

"Yeah. That night I unlocked my semblance…and ended two lives." The boy answered quietly.

"Self-defense, I would assume?" Ozpin asked, hoping to give the boy an out and put him at ease. They were talking in good faith, after all. While it certainly isn't the worst the Headmaster has heard, nor would it be the worst thing overlooked in applications (the Branwen Twins come to mind there), it still usually isn't a comfortable topic.

"Not strictly speaking," The boy replied with brutal honesty. "I mean, it was justified, sure. I killed two assholes who were trying to steal food and dust from those who barely had any themselves, but I didn't just defend myself. I actively sought them out during the fight and put them down."

The boy's bluntness coupled with his detachment from the events he spoke off caught Ozpin off-guard, to the point where he did not supply a follow-up question for a few moments, just long enough for the silence to prompt Mr. Arc further.

"It didn't matter though. That settlement was destroyed and we were all scattered. From then on, I just roamed the wilds, surviving where I could and working as sort of a sell sword on occasion. I bounced all over the place for years until I decided to work my way to Vale and eventually Beacon."

"Is that experience why you want to become a Huntsman?" Ozpin asked, curious to press further but wise enough to know that the only way to learn more is if the young man in front of him spoke more.

"I mean, I guess so. If I've lasted this long, I'm sure I could probably become a real Huntsman. Heck, maybe then I could stop the places from getting destroyed. Plus, it kind of fits, too."

"What do you mean by that?"

"My semblance. I don't have anything concrete about what it does, but it flairs up when I'm trying to protect someone, and I figure that's a good enough sign to be a Huntsman as any."

"Well, there are those who believe our aura to be the manifestation of our soul…" In that, they may not be too far off, but the truth is more nuanced than that. Not that Ozpin would ever tell Ironwood _exactly_ how aura works; it would just spoil all that research Atlas does, and how they boast of their technological superiority then? "Perhaps, if you feel you are best suited to protecting others, then Beacon is the right place for you."

A silence passed, as the boy did not really react to the words in any way.

"Well, is it settled then?" The boy asked impatiently.

No. "Yes, that will be all, Mr. Arc." That is not all by a long shot. "Initiation begins in two days and I look forward to seeing you there."

The boy stood up and collected his weapons, strapping the smaller sword and its white sheath around his waist and loading the oversized black sword to a mount on his back. _Hmph, such a Mistralian way to wear a sword._ With a curt thank you, he headed back to the elevator and headed down to whence he came. After about a minute, the elevator dinged again, and in walked Professor Oobleck.

"So, how did the interview go? Are we ready to finalize this year's class yet?" There was a hint of annoyance in his voice at that second question, one that would only grow larger when told that the Headmaster was going to keep it open till initiation like usual. Every year the two have this disagreement, thought right now Ozpin wasn't as focused on it as he previously would be.

"It was interesting. I do believe that that young man just lied to my face about nearly everything he possibly could."

Oobleck was taken aback by my statement, and rightly so, the Headmaster supposed. "W-well, at least that's one less file to add to the paperwork, right?" he nervously joked.

Ozpin made a big show of taking the boy's file and placing it firmly on top of the pile of accepted students whose paperwork needed to be signed and sealed. Coincidentally, that was also the stack that always ended up on Glynda's desk each morning. Oobleck rolled his eyes, but at this point in his career he was so fed up with Ozpin's admittance antics that he didn't feel like arguing it, likely because he knew he'd end up splitting the paperwork with Glynda. _Oh, the joys of professors desperate for tenure._

"Speaking of, do you know where Glynda is?" Ozpin asked, only semi-curiously.

"Miss Goodwitch? Last I heard she was responding to a call in Vale. Something about a dust robbery and a bullhead flying in the airspace."

"Huh. Well, I guess I'll find out soon enough then."

* * *

Jaune's POV

(past)

* * *

I like to think I'm a simple person, and that there aren't many things in life with which I take a real issue. Having to clean the blood of innocent people off of my sword in the name of some stupid tribe was one of them. Fortunately, it wasn't a common occurrence, but this was the last time.

I silently made my way to the main tent, taking care not to trip over anything in the darkness. Most of the tribe, save for the watchers, would be asleep right now.

But not me. And not Raven.

I pushed through the flaps of her tent to find Raven and Vernal pouring over a map laid out on the table. Raven stood up a little at the sound of my entrance, but had her back to me still.

"That it. I'm done." I spat out angrily.

Raven straightened herself up, but never turned around to look at me. She was playing her games, her stupid power-obsession mind-games, and she's about to find out I'm not in the mood.

"Vernal, did you hear something?" Raven asked coyly. "For a moment there, I could have sworn I heard a little bitch whining."

Vernal looked as unimpressed as is possible, but I could _feel_ that stupid, smug grin on Raven's face. My anger kept boiling up until all I could see was the mental image of her stupid grin, the same one hovering over me for years. As the steel of my sword hissed from being drawn, I imagined the scowl that overtook that grin.

I didn't have to imagine for long, because as soon as she heard my sword, Raven had drawn hers as well and spun to lock blades.

"I'm going to ask you to say that again, Jaune, and when I do, I suggest you say something different." Flames danced on the edges of Raven's eyes, a very intentional detail she added as a threat. I didn't flinch.

"I said, I'm done protecting your tribe and murdering people to keep your followers alive during their raids. Go find some other four-year-old with healing powers and make _them_ your shield. I'm out."

"You ungrateful little brat! Do you know what you'd be without me?" Raven asked as her Maiden's powers began heating up the metal of our swords. I flowed my aura into my hands and Crocea Mors itself, using it to resist the magic.

"Not a murderer, for one." I spat back.

"I thought I taught you better than to assign value to others' lives arbitrarily. Maybe you're not worth our time after all…" The flames around Raven's eyes grew in intensity suddenly in an attempt to distract me from her wrists, which adjusted their grip on her hilt. The blade ejected from her hilt and she moved to make me fall forwards from the sudden change, but I stepped aside and drew my shield, just in time to catch Raven's next blade as it aimed for my ribs.

Before either of us could throw our next attack, Vernal casually stepped between us, breaking up the fight without a care in the world for the attacks we were about to launch. "Alright, break it up. This is the third time this month you two have done this."

"Yeah, but this time its final." I spat back, eyes still locked on Raven.

"Just like the other two times. And Raven, shame on you for egging him on." Raven just grinned and shrugged with her stupid, trademark shrug, infuriating me even more. "Go on, tell him."

"Tell me what?" I spat out, though my vitriol was starting to dissipate.

"Well, since you're clearly not going to be helpful for us here, we've come up with an alternate use for you. You see, we could use eyes and ears in Vale." Raven laid out, still grinning.

"And what makes you think I'd be willing to help you out?"

"Oh Jaune, you're an idiot. We both know you're too protective to just up and leave the tribe you grew up with. You'd never just abandon them like that." Vernal chimed in. She wasn't wrong, and she knew it, but that's the part that agitated me.

"You haven't even heard the best part yet. How would you like to 'attend' Beacon Academy?"

* * *

Vernal's POV

(past)

* * *

I threw the flap to Jaune's tent open and strolled in, carrying the gift the tribe was giving him. He was packing up the last of his things in his pack and preparing to head into Haven to catch a train to Beacon.

"Knock knock," I called out as I barged in uninvited. When he was younger, he hated that, probably for the reason all teenage boys don't like being walked in on; fortunately, he's grown numb to it over time. _In a way, that describes a lot of his time here._

"Don't come in." Jaune deadpanned as he looked up to see the large object I was carrying. "Uh, what's that?"

"Your new sword." I called back, handing the clunky, oversized thing to him. "I'm assuming that Raven has briefed you on what to expect from Beacon?"

" _Briefed_? She practically read me a book called "How to Trick Ozpin Into Letting You Into Beacon, by Raven Branwen, Forward by Qrow Branwen.'" He called back with minor annoyance.

"Are you complaining about being overprepared?" He didn't answer. "Thought so. Anyhow, since I'm assuming she told you not to let Ozpin see the crest on your shield, I decided to get this commissioned instead."

He began to look over the weapon. It was black on the exterior to contrast his other weapon, and was as tall as he was. The massive sword, a claymore as it was, held a meaty blade that would certainly pack a punch.

"Um, thanks, but I don't know how to use a tree trunk to fight with."

"That's the point, idiot. If you roll into Beacon after giving a suspicious backstory involving growing up in the wilds, and Ozpin sees you fight, he's going to know who trained you. This way, you at least have to learn a new style while you're at it. Plus, its not _just_ a claymore; try flexing your aura into it." I pointedly took a step back. "It's got a synchronizer in it."

Jaune's semblance being so intertwined with his aura has allowed him to harness it to much greater control over the years, to the point where with a little practice, he should be able to activate the mechashifts in the blade through subconscious aura usage. It didn't take much, and the entire sword split down the middle and the last foot and a half of the sword detached entirely. Jaune pulled apart the two halves of the sword and let the end piece rest on a crate, and the blades shifted and locked into place to form two katanas.

"Okay, now this I can get behind. What else can it do?" He asked, a spark in his eye that I hadn't seen in a while.

"Broadsword, Nodachi, obviously a single katana; there's even a dust-firing mechanism in the hilt if you can figure it out." I challenged. "Whoa, not right now!"

Jaune bumped the katanas back together and they molded back into a single sword, now a short broadsword much like Jaune's regular sword.

"It even has a holding mechanism for your back that syncs with the blade, so basically only you can shift it and only you can take it off your back." I added, quite pleased with myself. Jaune was as well.

"Why?"

"Use your words, dear. Be more specific." I teased, knowing exactly what he meant.

"Why give this to me? I'm trying to leave the tribe, so why give me a gift? That doesn't seem like something Raven would do at all." Jaune asked quietly. While Jaune never got along great with anyone in the tribe, I would by default be the person he bonded to the most, though that was mainly because I was a lenient ear and not as bitchy as Raven most days. _Most_.

"No, it doesn't." I confirmed.

"Oh. She doesn't know. _Great._ " Jaune deadpanned.

"Look, you're as much one of my students are you are Raven's, so you're not allowed to run off and duel other students with a plain hand-and-a-half sword and no shield. If you don't like it, then you can give it back." Jaune gave me a flat look, but he did seem ready to grab the weapon off the crate if I had made a move for it. "Fine, fine, if you're ready then get on with it. Raven will kill you if you miss the train the tribe bought you a ticket for."

Jaune nodded and grabbed his things, strapping the new sword to his back, before walking past me. He stopped at the edge of the tent, though.

"Vernal… I…" he trailed off, eyes facing the dirt. "Thanks."

"Go on, kid. Get out of here." I rolled my eyes as he walked off, and I headed back to the Raven's tent. As I walked in, Raven was pouring herself tea and poured a second one when she noticed my arrival.

"How'd he like the sword?" She asks mildly interested.

"Oh, he just loved it. He gave it a name and he reads stories of great swords to it every night at bed time." I shot back.

"Sarcasm really doesn't fit you, Vernal." Raven cut back in between sips of her tea.

"Yeah, well, humor doesn't fit you either, but that doesn't stop you from smirking so damn much."

Raven chuckled slightly and we both enjoyed our tea in the silence.

"Are you sure about this, sending him to Beacon? With all that he knows, what if he flips?" I asked after the silence started to get to me.

"We'll be fine, Vernal. For all his talk of hating everything here, Jaune's grown far too attached to the people he's grown up with. You know how over-protective he is."

"I do, but…"

"Then you know how hard it would be for anyone to turn him. Even if he's just doing it to spite whoever thinks they're smart enough to play him against us, we'll be fine. Ozpin won't get anything out of him." Raven assured me.

On that note, she was right. There wasn't any foreseeable way that Jaune betrayed us for the Wizard, not with all that he knows about what's going on. No, it's not Ozpin or even Qrow I'm worried about. If Jaune is willing to protect a tribe he hates, I'm worried what would happen if he becomes attached to other students, like Qrow. If Ozpin is as clever as Raven thinks he thinks he is, he'd pit Jaune's desire to protect people against itself.

And if that happens, I'm not certain where we would end up on his priorities list.

* * *

Ozpin's POV

* * *

As I sipped my coffee, I looked out the glass window over Vale. I liked to think that I could have seen Glynda's purported battle with a bullhead from here had I known it was happening, but truth be told the tint on this window made it terribly dreadful for spotting fine details.

Ah, but what a day this turned out to be. Two more students accepted at my request, one of whom wasn't even an applicant; truly, days like this are what Oobleck fears the most when he gets out of bed. Maybe Glynda as well, seeing as her workload just increased by two more student files. All in all, though, I'd like to think that they're two valuable additions to this class. Not necessarily in terms of strength, as this class was already loaded, but they're much more _interesting_ than all the other students. A student growing up in the wilds of the frontier with a problem with authority and the balls to lie to my face (and the ability to lie well), and the other a 15-year-old prodigy with silver eyes.

That isn't even to mention the potential legacies of both students. Ah, Qrow would kill me if I told him that I drafted his niece into Beacon two years early. What can I say, though, she certainly did enough to warrant a spot had she applied; the fact that I offered her a spot in no way was a direct antagonization towards Qrow. I don't expect him to believe such an obvious lie, but it will be best to stick with it.

I do genuinely wonder what Qrow would think of the other new student, however. Such an interesting backstory (all false, of course), and such an interesting surname. Salem mounted quite the campaign to make sure that that specific bloodline was wiped from Remnant. For a couple decades it did seem that they had escaped her wrath, but as soon as Qrow and Raven discovered the last remaining Arc Clan members, so did Salem. Qrow was too late, and Raven went rogue to go back to her tribe instead of checking her leads. Could it be possible that one of them escaped?

Surely not, as Salem wouldn't have let a four-year-old child wonder out of her grasp. And yet, just earlier today I admitted Jaune Arc, with the classic blond hair and blue eyes of the Arc line. And the way he played the game shows that he clearly has been exposed to it before.

Yes, these two late entrants are going to keep this semester quite interesting. I wonder what Qrow would have to say if I told him I admitted both his niece _and_ an Arc with practically the same BS backstory Qrow gave me long ago?

As I took one final sip of my coffee, I made a mental note: _invest in more coffee; I'm going to need it._


	2. Welcome to Beacon

**[REFINED, Oct. 19, 2018] Author's Note: Ah, here we go.**

 **One thing to note is that the switch from a T rating to an M rating didn't take place until a good ways into the story, and even then it was to slowly allow things to get a little grittier during fights. Sadly, this is not a smut fic... :P**

 **Enjoy. Or don't. The FNDM is so crazy these days I'm not certain if, as a true RWBY fan, I am required to love or hate the show.**

 **(...but I wouldn't be writing this if I didn't love the show, so...)**

* * *

 **Chapter 1:** _"Try not to make a good impression. Everyone there is going through the same ordeal and is looking for someone to be their friend to help them through it. The more approachable and nice you seem, the more you'll be bogged down. Just be an asshole for a while, and you won't have to worry about all the fuss of social interactions after a while." -Raven Branwen_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

As soon as the airship started letting people disembark onto Beacon's courtyard, I shot out the doors. Normally, my airsickness would be the main reason that I wanted off an airship; a rather reasonable line of thinking, if I do say so myself. However, the airsickness was barely even there right now, which I suppose is a good thing. The reason it isn't there is because I already threw up, so that's less of a good thing. The reason that I want out of this confined space as quickly as is possible is because I vomited on someone's shoes, and as fate would have it, not just _any_ someone's shoes: Yang freaking Xiao Long's shoes.

Everything Raven briefed me over about her daughter tells me that an angry Yang is bad for my health, but if there is even a _chance_ that she inherited her mother's vengefulness or spite, then I need to take it as a certainty that my life depends on getting the hell out of here fast.

I ducked down and around the ramp before making my way over to a tree, which I promptly used to hide behind. After a few moments to confirm that there was no hulking monster chasing after me, I let myself relax. _Come on, Jaune, keep it together. You're going to be terrible at this whole thing if_ that _is how you handle things._ I took stock of my surroundings—just people mingling, some carrying things—and drew my new claymore. According to how things were run when Raven was a student, there would be an initiation speech later that I absolutely planned on skipping. Something about Ozpin telling students that they suck, and they need his guidance, blah blah blah. Guidance is something that I neither need nor want from anyone, yet it's all I seem to receive from everyone. _But I finally have a chance to turn that around, now that there's some distance between Raven and me. I can't afford to let Ozpin squander my opportunity_.

I decided to tinker around with my claymore to see what other functions I could unlock. Vernal specifically mentioned a couple of things that interested me, like a nodachi mode, and after being trained in swordplay by Raven Branwen, I feel that a nodachi would be a nice surprise to use on any unsuspecting opponents. Unfortunately for that notion, Vernal was right when she said Ozpin might figure things out if I keep lying about my background _and_ I can fight with a katana or nodachi like Raven taught me. Add to that the fact that I can't use my shield because the crest would give Oz too much information about who I am, and I'm left doing what I was guided to do: try out a claymore. _And despite all my pushes, Raven never would tell me what my last name means, who I am or was, and why Ozpin would be so curious about all of that._ _I need to find my own source of info and get to the bottom of that somehow_. Easier said than done, however, especially since the most direct source of knowledge is the same man I can't let know anything.

I put those thoughts out of my head as I focused on flowing my semblance through the claymore. I never could quite define what my semblance is, other than maybe an aura amplifier and manipulator. It certainly can amplify aura, both my own and others, making it invaluable for healing, but it's the manipulation that really comes in handy in a fight. I can concentrate a lot of aura over small patches of myself, making aura "flares" that are super strong and resistant to damage or force. I can use this to give the impression that I can stand rock-steady under any blow, which subtly intimidates opponents as they realize that they can't even move me with a full blow. But my semblance and Crocea Mors also interact, allowing me to extend my aura to it and thus protect it; this seems dumb—why would you risk your aura to protect a sword or shield—but it comes in invaluable because it can negate any force applied to it, including semblances or overwhelming stress. But that is unique to Crocea Mors, because the claymore doesn't mesh with my aura nearly as well; sure, the aura synchronizer interacts with my aura but the sword itself can't be sheathed in my aura. That's as good a reason as any to wear Crocea Mors on my hip and this monstrosity of a blade on my back, but it isn't something I can explain to others. _Technically, I can't explain it to myself either, as I have no clue_ why _I can interface with Crocea Mors, so if anyone asks, I'll just play at being a cautious person who brings two swords._

As I felt my aura interacting with the synchronizer, I could _feel_ the soul of the blade. That's one of the things they never tell you about synchronizers, that since it interfaces with your aura (or some would say your soul), it means you can feel the weapon on a very intimate level. After all, these things were designed for prosthetics so that amputees could feel through their new limbs, so putting one in a sword is weird. It feels right, it feels _good_ , but it feels weird as well. I'm used to my aura and my soul merging flawlessly, but that's a different feeling; that feels more like your soul being extended than it feels like your soul meeting something different than itself.

I closed off that line of thinking, wiped away any distractions, and focused on the task at hand: learn how to shift this thing. Since aura interactions aren't new to me, I decided to focus on shifting the weapon from claymore to broadsword, whereby basically a nondescript longsword detaches from the claymore not unlike how Crocea Mors comes out of its sheath. I focused on my desired broadsword and flexed my aura slightly and was rewarded with a slight vibration from the weapon. I opened my eyes and looked down to find that the weapon had indeed shifted, and I pulled the broadsword out of the extra shell that was left over. _Not bad, Vernal._ I had a feeling that if I wasn't coming to Beacon, this weapon would be black and red to match Raven and the Tribe, as opposed to the solid black that it is now. As it is, I don't mind the look; not a shiny black, more of a matte or almost bordering on charcoal. The only downside is that it wouldn't reflect light very well, so I can't really use it to reflect sunlight in people's eyes. _A pity; it's such a fun tactic, too._

I locked the shell into the holder on my back and took a two-handed grip on the hand-and-a-half broadsword. I took a few slow, lazy practice swings to test the feel of the weapon before deciding it was too short. Instead, I focused my aura again and focused on the twin katanas I had gotten the first time Vernal gave me the weapon. Again, the weapon shifted as desired and I split apart the broadsword to form two well-balanced katanas. While I was trained (extensively) with them, katanas just never felt right to me, despite that my natural style suits them extremely well. Something about the sword-and-shield combo of Crocea Mors always felt better, for both offense and defense. That said, I can't discount the havoc a skilled, agile katana-wielder can wreak. The two in my hands felt wonderfully balance, to the point that I feel bad for anyone I ever need to break them out on. _Whoever Vernal found to make this deserves a medal._

"Oh my dust _THAT IS SO COOL!_ " A voice from the side _squealed_ , startling me. Instinctively, I slammed the katanas back together and slid them into the rest of the weapon on my back, while somewhere in the back of my mind noting that the interlocking _pop_ I heard meant that the weapon reassembled automatically. I turned to face my attacker—wait, no, not attacker. _This is Beacon, not the Tribe. Get yourself together, Jaune._ I turned to face my visitor and as luck would have it, I was greeted by two very wide, very _silver_ eyes.

"Oh! S-sorry. I didn't mean to scare you…" the girl mumbled. "N-not that I think you're easy to scare or anything." She continued to mumble to fill the silence. "Not that I don't think I can't be big and scary if I need to, but…"

"It's okay. You just snuck up on me." I replied, if only to stop the awkward mumbling.

"Oh, yeah, sorry about that. I was just watching you handle your sword, and…" _Dust help you, child, don't say that in public._ "…weapons are like my thing, ya know, so I had to investigate it. I'm Ruby, by the way. Ruby Rose. Normal knees." She continued to mumble.

"Normal…knees?" I asked, perplexed.

" **UH** , I didn't say that out loud, got it?" She nervously shot out.

"Uh, sure. Got it."

"No, seriously, you can't tell Yang I said that to someone!" Ruby continued to plead.

"Who is Yang?" I asked, making sure I didn't get caught knowing things that I shouldn't in literally my first interaction.

"Why do you want to know? Are you… _you are_! You're going to tell her what I just said not to!" Ruby cried out, horrified.

At this point, I was beginning to realize that Raven sending me to Beacon to spy on these fools may be more of a punishment than the compromise I thought it was. I decided to pull out my ace in the hole, or so I hoped.

"Would you like to see my weapon?"

"I…uh, yes! Wait, no, don't you do that! Yang does that too, when she doesn't want me to figure something out. She gives me something to distract me…usually cookies."

"This isn't a distraction," I completely lied to the little girl in front of me. "Consider it a peace offering for whatever I did to upset you."

Ruby's eyes lit up, even as she nervously accepted the weapon that I handed to her. "Do you want me to open it up and inspect the mechanism? CAN I open it up and inspect the mechanism?" She asked with such powerful hope that I wasn't really sure if handing her a giant weapon was a good idea

"Uh, I don't know. Can you actually do that?" I asked uncertainly.

"Pffft. _Can I actually do that?_ " Ruby joked to herself, before realizing that she was mocking me to my face. "Sorry. Yes. I can _totally_ do that!"

An idea ran through my mind, that if she could get the thing open and inspect the mechanism, she might be able to discover anything else it could do that I don't know about. At the very worst, it would distract her for a little while, which seems like a good idea at the moment.

"Alright, sure. I'll let you mess around with it for tonight, and in return you tell me what functions you think it can do." I offered.

"What, you don't know what your weapon can do?" She asked just innocently enough that I didn't think she meant any insult. Probably.

"It's pretty new to me. I know for sure it can shift into the weapons you saw me with, and I feel like there's something else I know it can do but I can't remember it right now. Anything you could figure out about it would be a big help." I asked, downplaying how displeased I was with myself for forgetting whatever it was that I forgot. _It was something pretty important, too._

"Sure, I can do that! This is going to be so much fun!" Ruby squealed as she started to turn around and leave me for who knows where.

"Oh, yeah! I remembered it!" I called after Ruby. "It has a synchronizer!"

As Ruby walked off with my sword, I couldn't help but be proud of remembering that last detail. It wouldn't do to have the mechanism that operates the whole weapon break because Raven's 15-year-old niece (well, not by blood I guess) took a screwdriver to it. _You know, maybe letting her tinker with it is a bad idea._ Or maybe I should have at least told her my name, so that she could return the weapon to me. That probably would have been a smart thing to do. _Oh well, it isn't like I won't be keeping a close eye on her anyways._

"You know you just signed up to be her biggest friend for life, right?" A cheeky voice called from over my shoulder. I turned around and was greeted by a character defined by her _larger-than-life_ features, and by that, I 100% am referring to her hair and nothing else that would get me on Yang's bad side…or at least not any worse than I already am.

"Uh, yeah, I'm beginning to realize that." I answered sheepishly. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Yang. Yang Xiao Long, but more importantly, I'm her big, mean, overprotective sister." Yang introduced herself with an obvious threat. _Not that I would_ ever _be stupid enough to get romantically tangled with anyone who had connections to Raven, no matter how distant._ "And you are?"

"Jaune Arc, a big, mean, overly-attractive masochist, apparently." I answered, mocking Yang's introduction.

"Yeah, right." Yang answered with a snort. "More like the guy who _threw up on my shoes earlier_." Yang shot me a half-way angry glare, but when her eyes did not turn red like I had been warned about, I knew there wasn't any real malice there. Yet.

Talking to Yang reminded me of my plan. Not the one where I go to Beacon on Raven's orders, but the other plan, the one about dealing with Yang. It had been long rumored, though never confirmed, that Taiyang had wormed his way into Raven's heart (and bed, though not in that order) through a dedicated love-hate campaign full of negging, insults, and over-flirting. To everyone else, it was a painful thing to watch, which I suspect would have only encouraged any man brave enough to do this to Raven in the first place. So of course I decided that I would do the exact same thing to Raven's daughter, just to see what would happen. Unlike Tai, I don't exactly have any, uh, _defined_ goals, but if it makes Yang or anyone else uncomfortable, then I'll be satisfied.

"Um, no, I don't think that was you I threw up on." I answered back uncertainly.

"Oh, it was. I wouldn't forget. Don't worry, though; any friend of Ruby's can be forgiven, _this_ time." While I didn't know if Yang was normally a forgiving person, that she would do so because I was nice(ish) to Ruby clued me in that she wasn't merely an overprotective sister, but one willing to put her sister before herself in all things. Honestly, if I didn't know her mother, I would be impressed by her selflessness here; the fact that I _do_ know her mother makes me extremely impressed.

It's a shame what I was about to do to her.

"Sorry, maybe it was then. It's just that…" I trailed of, praying Yang would take the bait.

"Just that _what_?" She asked curiously.

"It's just that I thought I remembered throwing up on this hot chick's shoes." I deadpanned.

"You _what?_ " Yang asked incredulously.

"I thought I threw up over this hot girl's shoes. I remember her being _at least_ a 7 out of 10." I elaborated, making sure not to elaborate on what she _really_ meant.

" _What the hell does that mean?!_ " Yang asked angrily. Her eyes hadn't flashed to red yet, so I figured I still had a little more room to push and I had just enough bravery—and foolishness—to do so.

"Isn't it kinda obvious? Sheesh, she wasn't kidding when she warned me about dumb blondes at this school." I teased, throwing in a mysterious other person for Yang to direct her anger at. Of course, there exists no such person, but Yang will never know that.

"What do you mean she said—YOU'RE BLONDE TOO!" Yang practically erupted after being unable to decide what to respond to first.

"Oh, thank dust! At least you're not stupid _and_ blind. I can't imagine how hard it would be living with both of those handicaps…"

"I'M NOT HANDICAPPED!" Yang screamed as her eyes finally switched to red. As an added bonus, her hair started to catch fire too. _Sheesh, Raven and her eyes, Yang and her hair; does Taiyang catch on fire too? Or Ruby?...I really need to get away from these people._ Somehow, I seriously doubt that's going to happen.

"You see, if I were handicapped, that's exactly something I would say too." I answered calmly, if only to make Yang seem even angrier by comparison. People had started to look our way, and Yang had noticed their stares and started to internalize her rage.

Yang's hair had barely stopped flaming when were distracted by an explosion not a hundred yards away in the courtyard, in the same direction that Ruby had just walked off. Surely that last part was just a coincidence, right? _Right_? One shared glance at Yang, who was clearly having the same thoughts, was all it took for us to head over that way, albeit with Yang moving much faster than me. It was _her_ sister after all; I was pretty sure my sword would survive a minor explosion.

We got over there to find Ruby lying on the ground in a daze, and as we helped her up Yang asked her what happened.

"Ugh. Sword. Dust round. Pommel. Accident. Went Boom." Ruby mumbled dizzily.

"A dust round in a sword handle? You _shot_ a pile of dust on accident while messing with Jaune's sword?!" Yang asked incredulously. "Did you warn her that your sword fires dust?" Yang asked me pointedly.

"Ohhhh _hhhhh right_. That's the function I was forgetting, not the synchronizer." I answered. "My bad."

"YOU. ABSOLUTE. BUFFOON!" A shrill voice pierced from beyond the grave, haunting us with its very ghostly presence. I looked up and true enough, it belonged to a fully-white spirit radiating an aura of hate and bitterness as it deigned to haunt us for the rest of our lives and— _wait a minute, isn't that a Schnee?_

"Do you have _any_ idea how incredibly dangerous dust is or do you have _any_ idea of proper storage of…" The Schnee's voice continued on like this for quite some time, but honestly, I did my absolute hardest to block it out as quickly as I could, though not fast enough.

After what felt like an eternity, the Schnee looked at the three of us (as apparently, we were guilty by proxy) with a very expectant look, and from the utter silence between the three of us, it was clear that no one was paying attention.

"Uh, what did you say?" Yang finally asked to break the awkward stare.

"I _said_ …" She dramatically emphasized, tempting me to already block out what was coming next. "…that I am _waiting_ for a proper apology and explanation of what happened here!"

"Uh… I, uh…" Ruby stammered, completely melting under the girl's fierce gaze, and quite frankly, I didn't like to see that.

"It was my bad. I think my gun malfunctioned." I lied.

"That sure is some coincidence that your gun malfunctioned and just so happened to have ignited the dust I was carrying right when _she_ ran me over." The Schnee accused.

"Yeah, it was really weird." I admitted. "It's targeting system is usually pretty precise, so when I set it to fire at major bitches, I don't know how it missed you…"

Not a sound was heard throughout the courtyard, as everyone had gathered to watch the commotion; that's not strictly true, as one sound was heard, and that was the sound of the Schnee's jaw hitting the ground, followed soon by poorly muffled laughter coming from Yang.

"Why, you little…!" The Schnee cried out in indignation as she immediately moved to back-hand me across the face. As her hand neared, I flared my aura just enough to resist the momentum of her slap. This caused her slap to deliver significant force, but only to her hand, followed by an enormous slapping sound. I tried not to grin, and she tried to hide how much her hand hurt.

"Wow, a Schnee abusing the poor common folk. What a novel thing to see…" a new voice called out from the crowd. The girl owning the voice stepped forward, revealing herself to be a somewhat tall student with yellow eyes and a hairbow sticking up off her head.

"Ugh, and who do _you_ think you are to say such slanderous things?" The Schnee shot back angrily, fully focused on this new enemy of hers.

"Quick, now's our chance!" I whispered to Yang and Ruby, and we very quickly ducked behind the crowd and rushed off to anywhere that wasn't there.

"Her Ruby…" I called out once we were well out of earshot (and visual distance).

"…yes?" She answered sheepishly.

"I'm taking my sword back now."

* * *

Something nudged me in the side, and I did my absolute best to ignore it and go back to sleep. When it prodded me again, I let out angry groan to let this mysterious force know that I wasn't interested in whatever it wanted from me.

"Uh, Yang, I don't think that…uh, _he's_ getting up." A soft voice mumbled. Soft voices are good; they're much easier to sleep through.

"Who?" A distant voice called back.

" _Him_." The soft voice prompted again. _Of course, even a soft voice can be annoying if it never shuts up_.

"Ruby, I'm too busy to look up; just tell me who we're talking about already."

Silence. Sweet, beautiful silence, as whatever pointless conversation that was being had stalled out.

"Do you…not know his name?" The distant voice cried out, with the sole purpose of interrupting the beautiful silence we had just established.

"O-of course I do! I _do_ know how to actually make friends, Yang!" The other voice called back indignantly, while also losing any softness that it once held.

"Then what is it?" The other voice said, getting louder and, I fear, closer.

Once again, a beautiful silence filled the air and I snuggled up tighter under my blanket. The only noise that could be heard was a slight grumble coming from the (previously) softer voice.

"Don't worry about it, sis. I'm sure that I can wake _Jaune_ up!" The not-so-distant voice called out with an edge that worried me.

"… _Jaune…_ " The softer voice mumbled quietly in confirmation.

Suddenly, as I felt the presence of the distant voice approach, my mind shot into overdrive. Normally, this would have angered me immensely, as this effectively ended any chance at sleeping I would have from here on in. But right now, I was _oh_ so grateful it had. Why? Well, I had finally recognized just who was watching me: Ruby (a rather harmless proposition, unless there's a box of dust and an angry Schnee nearby) and Yang. _Yang._ As in, the biological daughter of Raven Branwen, someone who absolutely never should have been allowed to breed. With each step closer that Yang came, my mind was tortured with hypotheticals of what was to come; Yang _had_ declared her intentions to rouse me from sleep, after all. My mind quickly played over any of the horrid ways that Raven might have handled such a situation, stirring a fear deep inside me. By the time Yang had gotten to me, I was bolt upright and ready to plead (or fight) for my life.

"Huh. Maybe you did wake him, Rubes." Yang remarked.

"Come on, _Jaune_ ," Ruby punctuated my name, since she could finally use it. "Initiation starts in like twenty minutes! Everyone's already getting ready."

"Ugh. _Fine,_ I guess I'll go to that." I mumbled, with both of the girls thinking it was a joke. "You guys go on ahead; I've got to go find my stuff."

Satisfied with forcing me out of my blissful rest, the two sisters (or, half-sisters, rather, though even Raven had her doubts about Ruby's patronage) walked off to, well, I don't care.

"At least when I worked for Raven, I didn't have to get up early. It's not like we ever did that much in the daytime." I mumbled to myself, secure in the knowledge that the large hall they had stuck everyone in overnight was empty. It did appear that Ruby wasn't wrong when she said that everyone was getting ready, which reminded me that I actually did need to find my stuff.

Following the very crude and often flat-out incorrect map of Beacon I had on my scroll, I eventually made it back to the arming rooms—changing rooms? Prep rooms? I don't know, the place where they store rocket lockers—and found my locker without much fuss. There were some other people around, but the room had mostly emptied. I considered myself pretty fortunate in that regards, as it was still about three hours too early for me to be ready to deal with people.

With that being said, the sight I was greeted with upon rounding a corner threatened to ruin my day altogether: _the Schnee_. I had been raised by a dictator who coerced her followers into following her through a mix of fear, admiration, and cult-like dedications; I was taken in as a child by a woman who did nothing if it did not benefit her and cut her losses on any whim; I was raised by an overbearing psychotic bitch who demanded the world bend over backwards to accommodate her or she would start killing. All of that is to say that I will not, on _any_ circumstance, be stuck on a team with the same person I came here to get away from. _Or worse, stuck on a team with the Atlas version of Raven._

But lo and behold, it appeared that this Schnee was chatting up another student, and from what bits I could overhear, she was very unsubtly trying to recruit this person as her partner. Unfortunately for the Schnee, this person looked about as uncomfortable with her predicament as was possible for a human body to express, and yet the monster gave no inclination in the slightest that she was aware of just exactly what she was or was doing to this poor young maiden.

I decided then and there that I, Jaune Arc, shall make it my first act as a hero of Remnant to step in and save this poor child from the clutches of the Schnee, a truly selfless and heroic act if ever there were one.

One problem: my feet would not move towards the Schnee. _Shocker, I have no actual desire to be a hero; it's a shame, too, because I wouldn't mind being stuck on a team with_ that _, and if the Schnee had her intertwined in her plans, she has to be good_.

That was when another angle struck me: screw saving that girl. Instead, let's just go antagonize the Schnee and steal her desired partner out from under her.

Amazingly, my feet couldn't take me over there fast enough.

"I don't know what the Headmaster's policies on partnering are, but I'm sure that he would be thrilled to see us put in the initiative to form such a formidable alliance." The Schnee added, completely missing polite-yet-horrified expression on the girl's face.

"Oh, I don't know. I was just thinking that I would let the chips fall where they may." The girl awkwardly countered.

"Oh, _hey there guys_!" I called as I sauntered on up. My heart soared as the Schnee's face fell into a wicked scowl. "Whatcha doin'?"

" _We…_ " the Schnee girl spat out, "…were just discussing plans for forming teams, but unfortunately we weren't thinking of including imbeciles, so your presence is no longer needed. Thank you for your time, though." The absolute ice in her voice while delivering such goofy, Atlesian words was almost remarkable, but not nearly as remarkable as the fact that she thought that it was enough to scare me away.

"Oh, that's good." I replied, completely unfazed by her insults, much to the surprise (and delight) of the other girl. "I was worried that the media were going to see you mishandle your dust again."

The stammers coming from the Schnee were priceless, as she had no idea what to focus on and experienced a range of motions at least double what I thought she would be capable of.

"How dare you— _m-media_ …again?—what does…there wasn't…was there—no, of course not—why would…" The chaos reigning supreme over the girl was as glorious as it was well-deserved, but ended once she finally caught the massive grin on my face. "Y-you absolute BUFFOON!"

"Oh, yes, buffoon. Good one." I mocked, before turning to the other girl. "Jaune Arc, but my absolute bestest friends call me ABSOLUTE BUFFOON!" The girl's giggle only served to amplify the Schnee's anger, both of which only served to boost my ego. _Not that it needed the help_.

"Pyrrha." She greeted back, though not without struggling against laughter at the expense of the Schnee. "Pyrrha Nikos. It's a pleasure to meet you, Jaune."

"Pyrrha, huh? That's a new one. So, where you from?" I asked flirtatiously, making a huge point to completely turn away from _el Schnee-ablo_ in an attempt to cut her out entirely.

"Anyone with half a brain wouldn't have to ask that, you imbecile." The Schnee screeched as she tried to cut her way back in, both verbally and by frantically walking around to fit back into view.

"That's not very funny. I was involved with one of Mistral's most successful lobotomy's when I was younger." I deadpanned. All of the blood drained from the Schnee's face as she realized how insensitive her words were and how unfortunate they sounded now. _Huh. Maybe there_ is _a decent person hiding in there somewhere. Too bad I have to finish the joke now._

"O-oh, I…I didn't mean it like—I'm sorry, I didn't realize…" The Schnee stammered softly, unable to backtrack quick enough.

"Yeah, that poor guy had no clue what hit him. Literally, I mean. He didn't know the name of the object I hit him with for months after that. I mean, a mace isn't exactly uncommon, right?"

It took a second, but the reactions were once again golden. Pyrrha's hand shot over her mouth in a failed attempt at hiding her obvious laughter while the Schnee's rage sprung anew, although this time not quite as hot as usual, meaning she might be getting used to it. _That's unfortunate._

"I literally cannot even begin to understand how you haven't had the stupid smacked out of you in your life." The Schnee whined. "You should recognize her because that's _Pyrrha Nikos_."

"Yes, and I'm Jaune Arc, and you're the Matron Saint of Old Hags. Isn't meeting people so fun?" I mocked. Again, Pyrrha tried her hardest not to laugh in the Schnee's face.

"You don't even know who Pyrrha Nikos is, do you?" The Schnee asked, clearly not having heard a word I said, otherwise she would have tried to stab me. _If she's not listening, then I guess I get to say whatever I want._

"Isn't she the girl who desperately doesn't want to be your partner?" I asked redundantly, much to the horror on Pyrrha's face. As I suspected, the words flew right over the Schnee's head.

"She's only the most successful tournament fighter ever accepted into Beacon Academy, the winner of the Mistral Regional Tournament for four years straight, and the spokeswoman of Pumpkin Pete's Cereal for crying out loud!"

"Oh, so you're a pit fighter? Cool." I asked dismissively to Pyrrha. Pyrrha flinched slightly, as if my words carried some great slight, and judging by the Schnee's mirrored but exaggerated flinch, I might be on to something.

"Uh, _no._ She is _not_ some sort of pit fighter. She's a famous duelist who's never lost a match." The Schnee defended sassily.

"Oh, I see." I let out, much to the apparent relief of the Schnee. "So she's a pretty good pit fighter, but only in solos."

"Wha—NO! She's not a pit fighter! She's a _duelist!_ "

"What's the difference?" I asked plainly enough, and to be honest, I really didn't know. I mean, _yes_ , I knew that pit-fighting and organized tournaments are two different things, but really, I'd rather have a good pit fighter watching my back than a 'duelist.' They fight dirtier and are harder to kill.

"Well, for starters, pit fighting isn't illegal…" Pyrrha chimed in for her own defense.

"Yes, exactly, and—"

" _Oh_ , I gotcha…" I started.

"Somehow, I don't think he does…" The Schnee grumbled to herself.

"…you aren't a 'pit fighter,' because that's 'illegal.' You're a 'duelist.'"

"Seriously, air quotes? What are you, 5?"

"I won't tell anyone, I promise."

" _WOULD ALL STUDENTS REPORT TO THE LAUNCHING PADS. REPEAT: LAUNCHING PADS. NOW._ " The voice of a perpetually angry woman blared over the loudspeaker.

"Oh, thank literally every deity ever that this is over…" The Schnee grumbled to herself again. _She really needs to learn how to mumble quieter._ "Well, _Jaune_ , it was just a…p- _pleasure_ …" the Schnee's prized Atlesian cordialness cracked when addressing me, likely my greatest achievement, "…to talk with you, but Pyrrha and I have to go. We have a team to found, after all."

"Huh, that's funny, seeing as I was pretty sure that that was specifically _not_ going to happen." I countered with a quick glance to Pyrrha, who seemed uneasy about being thrown into the line off fair despite how obvious it was the she was going to avoid the Schnee from now on. "Well, I guess I'm off too. By the way, you're both cordially invited to Team Jaune."

"I would rather mate with an Ursa." The Schnee shot back with disgust. I can't lie that I was impressed that she finally found a good comeback; it's too bad that it took her a day and a half, though.

"Well, Team Jaune has three spots left, and a 100% Schnee-free guarantee!" I added with a wink to Pyrrha that Weiss couldn't see. Her face didn't show any change, but her eyes lit up for just a moment.

"If that's your best sales pitch, you'll end up on a team by yourself." The Schnee called at me as I walked off. The jokes on her, though, as that sounds fantastic; no teammates to deal with, no one to have to rely on, a massive improvement from the tribe in all conceivable ways.

As unlikely as that was, for just a moment I let myself hope that the Schnee was right. Maybe things were looking up.

( _Narrator Voice: Things were not looking up.)_

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: I'll be upfront when I say that when planning this out, Chapters 1 & 2 are some of my least favorite. Not because I don't like how they're written, but because there isn't a lot new to do that the show or other fics haven't covered. Jaune needs to meet everybody, and they have to go through Initiation; there isn't a lot to do to spice that up that wouldn't be such a drastic change that it would feel out of place with the rest of the story to come. **

**I considered the idea of skipping the Initiation and just having it happen 'off-screen,' but the FNDM does not like it when you have fights happen off-screen. lol**

 **All that said, I actually do like this (and the coming) chapter in terms of the characterizations, so that's good. All I can really show here that's new is a little banter, and in that Jaune is a little OoC, but when the premise here is "how different would Jaune be if he was raised by Raven" I think a splash of OoC is necessary. Also, that he is trying not to get close to anyone means he is willing to act a fool or antagonize people ( _read: be a jerk_ ) because in the end he wants them to avoid him. This is Raven's influence over Jaune showing, and is quite intentional, both from Jaune's perspective and from my (the author's) perspective. **

**We'll see how well Jaune does at keeping others away as the story progresses.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by user _Stuccat_

"Getting really tired of these mothaf*cking katanas in these mothaf*cking fanfictions. My point being they are overused."

 **Yes. I see that too, and agree 100%. Too many weebs running around this fandom like they own the place.**

 _ **What's that? You say that this is an anime fandom? That's absurd... wait, RWBY is an anime now? Since when? How did I miss that?**_

 **Jokes aside, Jaune has the _option_ to use a katana (or two), but since he was trained by Raven, he feels it isn't smart to use them anywhere that Ozpin might see. If Ozpin or Qrow ever become suspicious of Jaune's backstory (which they should, because he intentionally gave Oz a bad one), then digging into his past and who trained him to use a katana could lead to Raven. I would say that if I took the time to list a function of Jaune's weapon, it will come back at some point in the story, or is at least planned to. That said, Jaune will try to stick to using the claymore as what it is: an oversized butter knife that swings slowly but packs a wallop. Seriously, this thing is taller than he is, and he's not going to be super great with it immediately, so his hopes are that he'll look like a normal student in need of training. **

**As a little game, I challenge you guys to figure out what Jaune's weapon and fighting style are based off of. It may come as a shock to find out that I am not a leading expert on swordplay or modern swordfighting martial arts, so I am leaning a little bit off of something to help me nail down his style. First person who guesses it right will win...uh, I guess they'll win Comment of the Week that week. After that chapter goes live and you get to see his fighting, I'll give a hint to narrow it down for you guys.**

 **Till next week!**


	3. The Initiation Chapter

**[REFINED, Oct. 19, 2018] Author's Note:**

 **More boring AN stuff at the bottom in the _Closing Thoughts_ , per usual. If you want a little extra perspective on the story or enjoy sarcasm, the _Closing Thoughts_ and _Comment of the Week_ are for you.**

 **Enjoy! Or Don't.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2:** " _If you don't want to be a hero, then don't be a leader. Oz will try to get you on this; I was lucky enough that Summer interested him more. You want to be interesting enough for entrance, but not enough for special attention; strong enough to thrive, but not so strong as to stand out; and whatever you do, don't be a leader, in title or in action." - Raven Branwen_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

"And where do we get landing strategies from?" I asked as the Headmaster finished his very unenthusiastic explanation of Initiation. To my right, students were already being launched one by one.

"You should already have them." Ozpin replied smugly as he took a sip of his coffee.

"Oh, great. What happens when I break my legs during my 'landing strategy?' Do you personally come out there and pick me up, or is that too much of a bother?"

A few gasps and a couple of giggles to my left let me know that most students were shocked at what I was willing to say to the Headmaster and a couple—likely, anyone who had already met me—found it funny.

"Don't worry, Mr. Arc, any injured students will be rescued and cared for by Miss Goodwitch." Ozpin replied, hiding his amusement with his coffee mug once more. "That said, you aren't allowed to die during this exercise, or else you'll be subjected to her wrath."

After taking a quick glance at the glare shot my direction from the woman, I do believe that no one has ever dared test out that policy yet.

Finally, my launcher sent me flying over the trees, though not before I gave a frantic yell for good measure. _Seriously, launching kids at high speeds off a cliff; how has he not been sued yet?_ It's possible that if the Schnee were to get hurt, that streak might come to an end. I have a feeling that if I get hurt, the Schnee might pay for the school's defense lawyers or offer her own.

As I soared over the treetops, I spread myself out to slow down as best as I could. I did actually have a landing strategy, despite all my whining, it was just that one: complaining is really fun, two: I never got to complain around Raven, and three: my landing strategy isn't that fun. Some people had cool weapons they could use to counteract gravity or latch onto tree limbs, or, failing that, they had cool semblances that would help out. Me? Well, technically, my semblance will help me out, but that doesn't make it fun…or painless. As the ground grew closer and closer, I focused my semblance and my aura and concentrated it into my legs. Without any means of slowing down, I was about to hit the ground at an uncomfortably high velocity, all of which needed to be absorbed by my semblance, meaning my aura.

Yeah, this was going to hurt, but it would look cool as hell.

As I neared the ground, I was so focused on channeling my aura and preparing for the blow below that I didn't even notice that I was suddenly traveling a different direction until I impacted a tree. With all my aura in my legs, I was left to smack into the tree pretty hard and had the wind knocked out of me. I looked around, wondering what on earth had happened to send me flying sideways instead of crashing into the ground. After a few moments, I realized that not only had I been slammed into a tree, but I was also not falling down, so either someone turned off gravity, or…

 _Yup. I've been pinned to a tree. How embarrassing_.

There was a yellow and red spear that had pierced the leather of the shoulder guards I wore and then nailed me to the tree. I gave the spear a couple of good yanks, but it was made clear to me that it was not budging. Funnily enough, had I worn the metal armor that Raven talked me out of, the spear would have bounced off the shoulder guard and depending on which direction it deflected, would have either missed me or speared me through the collarbone. _And then it would have torn upwards from there as I slid down, dooming me to bleed out quickly and suffer whatever punishment Miss Goodwitch would give me._

Since my leather armor all attaches to a leather vest, it meant that I was being held up by it. With some difficulty, I was able to drop my weapons down below me and then wiggle my way out of my vest, dropping me to the ground. I still had my undershirt on, but it was just an elastic, workout-style shirt with long sleeves so I could lay my sword across my forearms with less friction.

"Well, it would appear that I made an impression on someone." I joked to myself as I looked up at the spear and my vest. "If they want me that badly, they're going to have to work a little harder than that."

I walked off from the tree after collecting my things, and after a few minutes I could hear what I think are sounds of battle, except with a lot of joyous squeals thrown in. I ducked down as I approached the noise so that I could get a chance to watch what I was dealing with before I walked out; after all, if this was a student without a partner, there was no way I was going to pick them as my partner without a little research first.

It took me a grand total of four seconds to decide that the girl with a hammer who had indeed made the noise was _not_ partner material. Way too energetic, enthusiastic, and crazy for my tastes. Don't get me wrong, I do love the feeling of a battle, but I don't think I love it nearly as much as this girl loved wrestling an Ursa. I was coming here to take _less_ risks with my life, after all.

To my great amusement and relief, as I continued to watch this pink-clad girl descend into madness and slaughter, a new person entered the fray.

"Nora, do you have to be so loud?" A boy dressed in mostly green Mistralian garb asked, with a resignation in his voice that told me he already knew this girl and wasn't the least surprised by her antics at all.

"REN!" The girl—Nora—called out. "You heard my sloth calls! Good job, I was worried when you _didn't show up_!"

"Nora, you were launched before me. I can't make gravity pull me down faster." Ren reasoned, though with that same resignation that told me he knew it wasn't a battle capable of being won.

"Pffffft. Like _that_ is an excuse." The girl dismissed handily. "So, seen any Grimm?"

"Yes. There was a King Taijitu that way."

"YES! LET'S GO KILL IT!"

"Already did."

"YOU TRAITOROUS FEIND!"

"Sorry, next time I'll let it eat me."

" _Oh, Nora, I'm sorry I stole the Grimm away from you._ " The girl mocked, never acknowledging Ren's legitimate concerns over being eaten. " _Fiiiine_ , you're forgiven, but only because we're partners now."

"I need to build an alter of praise in his name for taking her as his partner. The true heroes never get the recognition they deserve." I mumbled to myself.

"Who are we spying on?" A voice whispered next to me with a giggle, causing me to nearly jump out of my skin. I spun around in a frenzy, drawing Crocea Mors and swinging it wildly as I surveyed the enemy.

"Hello again!" Pyrrha chirped as she sidestepped my swings unfazed.

"…don't do that!" I cried out, trying to stop my heart from trying to leap out of my chest. After years of living with Raven, my first instinct was that someone had gotten the drop on me to kill me, before I realized that it was more likely that Raven had gotten the drop on me to teach me a lesson, which is a far worse fate.

"Sorry." She responded with a giggle again. "I'm assuming this is yours?" She asked as she held out my vest from earlier, carrying it by the hole she had speared it through.

"Uh, yeah. That's mine." I answered sheepishly as I took the vest back and put it on.

"I was worried for a moment that there was someone running around the woods shirtless." Pyrrha said with a small laugh.

"Looks like you're out of luck." I responded. "…for now."

"Please don't take your clothes off." A new voice from behind me said quietly. In a repeat performance of my earlier panic, I again nearly came unglued as I simultaneously jumped a foot in the air and turned around, swinging Crocea Mors at my new attacker. The boy from earlier, Ren, ducked the blow easily but otherwise didn't react, unlike Pyrrha who I could already hear giggling at my expense again.

"Now, Ren, let's not rule anything out!" Nora called chirped from next to him, resulting in a glare from Ren to Nora that I suspect was to stop her from taking her clothes off. _That he feels that he needs to cut that off before it starts is a bad sign_.

"How did you find us?" I asked once I felt that my heart had slowed down enough for speech.

"What do you mean?" Nora asked. "We heard some girl screaming for her life and rushed over to save her."

"You know what, never mind. Do you guys know which way the temple is?" I asked, eager to put the whole thing behind us and never seen them again. _Seriously, I didn't leave the tribe of rogue badasses to come here and make a complete fool of myself._

"You bet we do! It's on the other side of that mountain!" Nora called out.

"Nora, that's a cliff."

"It's on the other side of that mountain, _REN_." Nora spat back. " _Anyways_ , why don't we all head there together? That way, any Grimm you find I can have!"

"That sounds like a lovely idea." Pyrrha answered before I could think of a good reason to get lost. "Doesn't it, partner?" Oh, and I have a partner now, too. _Suck it Ice-Queen, the pit fighter is mine._

"In case you couldn't tell, that's Nora." Ren broke the silence after we started walking.

"Yup, that's me! Nora Valkyrie. And he's Lie Ren!" Nora added on enthusiastically.

"About what?" I asked intentionally.

"…what do you mean 'about what?'" Nora asked confused.

"What's he lyin' about?" I asked again, doing my best not to crack a smile.

"Huh?" Nora seemed puzzled. "I don't think he's lying about anything, are you, Ren?"

"Nora, I think that he's trying to mess with you." Ren added back quietly. He had clearly caught on to the joke and seemed slightly annoyed by it, and from how Pyrrha hid her face from Nora's view, she had caught on and appreciated it more than Ren.

" _Ren?..._ " Nora asked uncertainly. "That sounds…EXACTLY LIKE WHAT A LIER WOULD SAY!" Nora's logic was impeccable if you asked me. It was unfortunate that she was so loud that all the Grimm in the Emerald Forest would come find us, but at least it would be funny right up until we died.

"Nora, what are we even talking about me lying over?" Ren asked, cutting his eyes towards me briefly.

"Anything. _Everything._ How long have you been lying for?" Nora accused.

"Uh, I haven't?"

Nora never responded, but continued to glare at Ren, ending with giving him the old 'eyes on you' gesture.

"Well, now that we have that out of the way, I'm Pyrrha Nikos." Pyrrha said, though not without a smile on her face that Ren met with a flat look. "And my trouble-maker partner is Jaune, right?"

"Uh, right. Jaune Arc." I answered flatly.

"Cool. Where ya from?" Nora asked to neither of us in particular.

"Mistral. I grew up in the capital; it made going to tournaments easier." Pyrrha answered, though more softly for that last part.

"Oh, I knew your name sounded familiar." Ren stated quietly. "Nora and I got to see a tournament you won televised when we were staying in Vale last month."

"Yeah, you went out and crushed someone! I think he cried!" Nora added with what I'm beginning to fear is her normal enthusiasm. "That was my favorite part."

Pyrrha looked uncomfortable at the mention of her tournament fights, instead of boastful. It was possible that she was just unnerved from me making fun of her 'pit fighting' earlier, but if not, makes for an interesting disposition: a championship fighter shy of her own success? Raven would have had a field day molding her. Apparently, her technical skill has to be exceptional, so Raven would already be drooling over the prospect of adding another deadly Huntress. But one so timid? She loves timidity, but only in those she wants to control. It makes it easier to subdue and indoctrinate them, and once she has her claws dug in, then she puts them through hell till they develop a thicker skin. Unfortunately, this usually reinforced Raven's principles in that person, turning them into something I'm really not a huge fan of. That being said, very few had ever resisted Raven's teachings, and none had come out better for it, myself included. Deep down, I knew that I was a mess of Raven's brutal pragmatism and my own moral tenants; that I had resisted all that I had meant that I must have been born with some great desire to protect, or maybe I'm just really spiteful towards people trying to make me do things.

Now, though, after 13 years as Raven's disciple, I'm left to wonder how much of that person is left, or if he ever got to develop.

"So how long have you and Ren been together?" I asked, coming to Pyrrha's rescue. Ren had literally no reaction—and I'm starting to like him more and more—while Nora nearly choked on air.

"Uh… we're not _together_ -together." Nora explained. "We've just always been together. Not _together_ -together, just together."

"Uh-huh. I see." I mocked, though it went over Nora's head. Ren rolled his eyes.

"Nora and I are orphans from a failed settlement. We've roamed around together for years." Ren explained.

"Yeah, that!" Nora tacked on.

"So you two have been wandering around, alone, in the woods, _all throughout your teenage years_?" I asked leadingly.

"Yup." Nora answered cluelessly.

"And you're telling me that throughout all that time, you've never…? Not even once?"

Ren's eyes went flat as he gave me an annoyed stare, but other than that never acknowledged the question. Pyrrha seemed to be struggling between laughing, choking, and having her jaw drop. Nora…Nora still hadn't realized what I was getting at.

"N-n-no!" Nora stammered out upon finally realizing it. She was flustered, though. "N-nothing like that!" Her cheeks were as pink as her outfit and she shook her head in an attempt to ignore any thoughts. A quick glance over revealed Pyrrha having a crisis between wanting to die of laughter and die of embarrassment, with a tinge of red on her cheeks as well. Ren was still taking it all as well as he took everything else, just giving me a flat look before resuming his normal walking behavior.

"So where are you two from, originally?" Pyrrha asked to keep the conversation from dying out. _Or rather, to keep me from having killed the conversation._

"Mistral, actually." Ren answered. "That was our roaming ground, although we moved to Vale eventually."

"How did you two survive the wilds growing up?" I asked, mainly so that whatever story I made up wasn't _too_ similar or dissimilar to theirs. If they wanted to give the idea of kids growing up alone in the wilds credence, then I was going to ride that to an easy backstory.

"Eh, we mostly just wandered around and asked for food in the bigger settlements." Nora offered up nonchalantly, as if begging for food your entire life was just a boring footnote.

"That's only when Nora didn't just go out and steal it…" Ren said with a glare to Nora that spoke of a very specific incident that he still held against her. Nora was oblivious.

"Nah, even then we'd still do it! We got _so_ much food like that!"

"Did you ever train to be Huntsman, or does begging get you into Beacon nowadays?" I asked. Ren had the good sense to be offended by the question (or maybe it was a joke; I don't even really know with myself at this point). Nora, however, took it in stride.

"Oh, yeah, totally! Once we started kicking butt, we didn't even have to beg for food anymore. They just started giving it to us!"

"Oh, so you worked as part of a defense force?" Pyrrha asked.

"Not exactly. It wasn't really that organized." Ren answered. "More like we would wander around and help out any towns or villages in exchange for food."

"Isn't that risky?" Pyrrha asked, not in any sort of degrading or insulting way, but showing how sheltered she would have been living in Mistral (and working as a duelist).

"It's not that uncommon in the frontiers." I answered for Ren. "Villages get used to having roaming fighters looking for work. I guess they all realized that it was safer to let them work for you instead of turning them away and risk them becoming raiders."

"Oh. Are things really that…dire?" Pyrrha asked.

"Not always." Nora answered quickly.

"More than you'd think. That's how I grew up." I added, deciding now was a better time than any to go into my 'backstory.' I figure I'd let them draw their own conclusions from my statement and guide them to what they want to believe the most, a tactic Raven had gone over with me a lot. _Not that she needed to tell me to do it; I've learned it from watching her._ I do need to find some way to thank Ren and Nora, though; because they brought up the idea of kids wandering the wilds and becoming Huntsmen, it makes my story more believable. I could probably get away with a bigger or more comprehensive backstory, maybe even admitting to having been some form of raider, and it wouldn't seem as bad.

"You were a _raider_?" Nora asked excitedly. "That's so cool! Did you have an eyepatch or a parrot!"

"Nora, that's a pirate." Ren mumbled.

"Nora, I think he meant he grew up the same way you did." Pyrrha corrected on top of Ren. Note to self: Pyrrha went straight for me _not_ being a raider, so that's what she wants to believe.

"Yeah, sorry. No raiding here. Or parrots." I answered (lied) somewhat sheepishly. Nora looked at me hopefully. "Or eyepatches."

"Drat."

"Huh. I had no idea that Mistral's forests were some sort of pipeline for Huntsman Academies." Pyrrha mused aloud. "I guess it makes sense. If you live long enough to apply for school, you must have been pretty strong." As soon as the words had left her mouth, Pyrrha winced and tried to take them back. "Sorry, that sounded pretty dark."

"Well, you aren't wrong." Ren assured her.

Thankfully, we had finally arrived at the base of the cliff, but to Nora's credit, it did seem shaped more like a big hill or a small mountain. There was a large hole in the rockface that appeared to be a tunnel or cave through the mountain that would cut down our journey time by probably half, seeing as we wouldn't have to go around the cliffs.

"So, I guess we just head on through?" Pyrrha asked.

"Uh, no thanks." I responded, pointing to some colors on the rock. Someone had had painted an image of a Deathstalker impaling several armed humans on the rock, as well as an arrow pointing at the cave. "I think I'll live instead."

"Ooooh, do you think there's a Deathstalker in there?" Nora asked in a tone that immediately told me that she was going to get us all killed. _My respect for Ren seems to grow each and every moment; how he has kept them both alive this long is a miracle._ Maybe there used to be more of them, and Ren and Nora are all that are left. I'd say starting out with more like 50 and losing 48 of them through things like this would make sense.

"Those paintings are pretty old, and Beacon has initiation here every year. I'm sure that if a massive Deathstalker was here, some other group would have found it by now." Ren reasoned.

"Maybe they did, and as a result, there were just four less students in that class." I shot back.

"If you really think it could be dangerous, then we need to find a way around this cliff, and soon." Pyrrha compromised. Or, rather, she gave in to me; a compromise would involve Ren being right too.

I was reminded of the words of Raven: _don't lead_. A decision like this, although minor, could be enough to cement me as a leader in our little group here, if only slightly. But once that's established, if anything goes wrong, they're going to look to me, and that's bad for two reasons. For one, it means more things I have to deal with, but more importantly, Ozpin is supposedly a master at picking up on subtle cues such as who the team follows. If the four of us do end up on a team, which seems likely seeing as teams are made of four and we just made it easy for the Headmaster, then establishing myself as a leader here could get me pegged as the team leader too.

Maybe that wouldn't be so bad. Raven's advice was for her _operative_ , not necessarily for me as a person. This would be a nice way to stick it to Raven and forge my own path. After all, I left her because we are completely different, so it would make sense that I work to separate myself from her worst qualities. But could I risk being a team leader? That would put me on the Headmaster's radar for at least the next four years. With the talent on this team so far, be it Pyrrha's dueling past or the rest of us growing up in the wilds, it wouldn't be a stretch to see Ozpin give us more difficult or important missions later on. That would put me under an even greater scrutiny, and if Ozpin wanted to recruit me into his war? How could I avoid that without seeming suspicious? What sort of Huntsman, when being told that the Grimm have a master, would respond with "Nah, I'm good"?

Damn it all. I'll rebel from Raven's teachings later.

"No, it's okay. If Ren thinks its safe, I'll trust him." I responded, hoping to anoint Ren as group leader. Really, anyone but myself or Nora as team leader would be fine, but with all the crap Nora must have put him through, he seems to be very laidback when handling others, so having him as team leader would make things so easy for me.

And I do like it when things are easy for me.

* * *

" _If you don't want to be a hero, then don't be a leader. Oz will try to get you on this; I was lucky enough that Summer interested him more. You want to be interesting enough for entrance, but not enough for special attention; strong enough to thrive, but not so strong as to stand out; and whatever you do, don't be a leader, in title or in action." Raven's eyes were serious but mine weren't nearly as much so. It's just hard to take this seriously when she grills me on it every night._

" _Oh, okay then, and what if I do want to be a hero?" I asked back mockingly._

" _Do you?" She asked back knowingly, tilting her head to the side and giving me that damned smirk. My silence was enough of an answer. "You're not a complete idiot, but you do have your foolish notions that I have yet to break you of."_

" _Yes, my 'foolish notions,' such as my value of life and desire to protect people, both of which you used to your advantage." I countered._

" _Exactly my point._ I _used_ you _, and its taken you this long to wise up. That's why I need to know that you don't have any foolish notions of abandoning us and playing the hero; there_ are _no heroes. A hero is just someone that the Wizard uses against villains, and a villain is just someone Salem uses against the Wizard. It's been that way long before we came along, and I refuse to die for that cycle. You should too."_

" _Careful, Raven; if you keep talking like that, someone is going to accuse you of caring."_

" _I'll castrate the fool who accuses me of that." Raven cut back, slightly joking. Slightly._

" _It was a joke. No one would ever even think that." I deadpanned back to her._

" _Gods, kid, whatever you do, just be as big a thorn in Oz's side as you are to me." Raven whined. "Sarcasm is the one thing I truly regret teaching you."_

 _A lull passed in our conversation. That was not unusual, as neither of us are great conversationalists._

" _If leading is so bad, then why are you doing it for the Tribe?"_

" _I'm not leading; I'm ruling. There's a difference." Raven answered sternly._

" _What is it, then?" I challenged. "Because as I see it, you do what you want. You don't wait for others to do it. Whatever you want to happen, whatever you want to see accomplished, you do it. These people follow that. As far as I can tell, that makes you a leader."_

" _Alright," Raven challenged back with a smirk. "I assume that you acknowledge that there's a big difference between myself and Ozpin. Can you tell me what it is?"_

" _Well, for starters, Ozpin seems to place more value on morality," I answered._

" _Exactly. At the end of the day, we aren't different. We both take the actions we want done, we are both excellent manipulators towards those ends, and we both have cult followings ready to die for us. In the truest sense of the word, we are both leaders. But that's not what 'leadership' implies…"_

" _And what does it imply, then?"_

" _You tell me." Raven challenged with a smirk._

" _Morality?" I asked._

" _Bingo. When people think of leaders, when they say they want to cultivate 'leadership' or make good 'leaders,' they aren't talking about actually making leaders. Real leaders are so rare in the world. People with the drive to accomplish what they want and the strength to withstand the world, those are real leaders._ That _is what you should be; that's what I am. But when people say they want leaders, what they really want are people who can control other people who can themselves be controlled. If you truly are strong enough to actually lead—and that's still a big if—then the world fears you. They're not trying to empower you and train you, they're trying to influence and control you. The last thing they would do is make someone they can't control stronger than they are. Ozpin knows this. I know this. I thought Qrow knew this, but he was more foolish than I realized._

" _So, Jaune, don't be a leader. Ozpin has spent a long time perfecting his methods, and if he gets the chance, he'll sink his claws into you like he did with Qrow. Like he did with Summer, and Tai; like he's done to anyone that interested him. And the first step to avoiding that is to not become one of his 'leaders.'"_

* * *

Why are things never easy for me?

My thoughts were cut off as a Deathstalker crashed through the stone pillar I had just run past. If I had the time to stop and think about it, I'm sure I could find some profound connection between following Raven's advice not to lead and going into the cave where this Deathstalker was waiting. At the moment, however, I was too busy running to really put any serious thought into it.

Fortunately, we _had_ come out the other side of the cliff and ahead of us, I could even see the temple we were looking for. Unfortunately, I was lugging two different swords (and a shield, technically), making me the slowest member of our group. In a minor change of luck, I was able to bob and weave through rock structures and trees, causing the Deathstalker to slow down as it barreled through them. After a while, I had created enough separation that I was able to turn suddenly and make a beeline for the temple without the Deathstalker seeing me.

"That looked like fun." Yang called out as I ran right past her and some other girl on my way to the relics. I grabbed the nearest one and tossed it to Pyrrha, who caught it and stowed it away.

"F-fun?" I asked between my pants for breath.

"It WAS!" Nora called out. My 'team' had all but abandoned me—hey, fair game, though—and beaten me to the temple. I'm sure they would have said that they were preparing to come save me if I had asked why I was left to die. "Can we do it again?"

"Don't worry, Nora." I called back, still struggling for my breath. _I've been put through Raven's workouts before, but never this much cardio._ I swing a sword, not run marathons; all this running might kill me. "I'm sure it won't be long before it finds us."

"Aren't Grimm attracted to negativity?" Yang asked. "If so, as long as we stay positive, we'll be fine, right? _Right?_ "

No one replied, as our attention was taken up by screaming coming from way above us. Upon looking up, we discovered that Ruby and the Schnee were falling at us at an alarming pace. To her credit, Ruby had orientated herself and recovered to slow her decent by firing her gun at the ground, but the Schnee spun uncontrollably and flailed around as she fell.

As everyone prepared for the worst as she rapidly approached the ground, I made a decision that letting someone die on my watch was not something I was prepared to do, even if it _was_ the Schnee. I held up my hand above my head, pretending to be blocking out the sun to see better, but really using it to help extend my semblance out. It was difficult, though, because I didn't have any strong connections to anyone around. I could feel calm auras around me that were starting to panic, but they were too close and too calm to be the souls of anyone falling from the sky. I closed my eyes and blocked out any noises around me, such as the people on the ground panicking or yelling, and tried to reach out farther. I wasn't sure if it was something I could do, but I was sure that it was something I had to do, so I focused harder and pushed myself farther.

For a split second, I thought I had it, as I felt myself connect to a presence that was falling from the sky, but it felt wrong: it was a small, fragile soul, but not one in panic, rather fear. Fear wouldn't make sense; you don't fear spinning helplessly to your death as it happens. You _panic_ as it happens, and you fear it happening to yourself in the future, or to _someone else_ actively. _That must be Ruby._

I pushed myself just farther and found another aura, another soul, but one in panic. Panic and dread and helplessness. _That has to be her_. I focused my semblance into intertwining itself with her aura. It is a weird process, one that feels strangely personal. Honestly, I would never have bought into the theory that auras are the manifestation of souls if I weren't able to reach out and interact with them. Such a strange feeling, almost as if you get a grasp on who someone really is; not in any way to tell if someone is lying to you, or even if they're going to harm you, but more of what they stand for. What is important enough to them to be ingrained into their being, but only in the most basic, primal terms.

I opened my eyes as I felt the connection solidify. Everything was in place now, and all I needed to do was push my aura into my semblance to activate it. It wouldn't do to show everyone my glowing hand and the Schnee's glowing body as it fell, so I waited until just before impact before activating it to cover her body. It felt like someone had hit me in the soul with a rubber mallet, not enough to really do significant damage, but enough to leave me with a weird feeling. There really are no words to describe lending your soul to someone for the purpose of letting it take damage, but this wasn't a new feeling nor was it overly-strenuous on me. As soon as my semblance was no longer needed, I let it lapse; to anyone watching, they wouldn't have really noticed her flash white as she hit the ground, especially if they had turned away to avoid seeing something gruesome.

"Weiss!" Ruby screamed as she landed on the ground roughly, but not overly so. "Are you okay?!"

To everyone's shock, the Schnee—Weiss, apparently—dusted herself off as she stood up unharmed. Her eyes glanced towards me and she gave me an uncertain, almost timid look that froze me to my core. Time seemed to stop as we locked eyes, but as soon as it had started she tore her eyes away to deal with those around her.

 _Did she…? Does she know?_ I've used my semblance to protect Raven's raiders before, and they always tell me that they can feel our auras interacting much like I can, but those were always people who know what I was doing, and it was always for much more extended periods of time. This was over in almost a flash and was too quick for even me to really get any good feel on who this Weiss really is, but she had stood up and given me a strange look. _Is it possible that she could feel where my semblance was coming from?_

"I am really concerned that you've made two attempts on my life now, Ruby." Weiss responded to Ruby's concern nonchalantly, but without any of the malice she normally spoke with. It was at this point I realized that not only had I stolen out Weiss's preferred partner, but it looked like I had gotten her stuck with Ruby as well. Ruby is sort of endearing, I guess, if you have the patience for her; I would have been fine, seeing as being sent here as a spy has given me a good bit of patience to work with. The Schnee, though, I would not have expected to have any sort of patience whatsoever, so the fact that she already was less harsh could mean that I was wrong about her. _Or almost dying mellows you out; if so, I need to try to kill a lot of people back at the camp._

"Wha-?" Ruby gargled out. "That's not fair! Riding the Nevermore was a great idea! Look how fast we got here."

"It's a miracle that we didn't die, and now we've brought a Nevermore with us." Weiss responded, pointing out the Nevermore aggressively circling us.

"Hey, that's you guys's problem." I called out, motioning to Ruby, Weiss, Yang, and the other one. "We've got our own thing to deal with." I pointed back to the trees, which were still shaking from the Deathstalker hunting for us.

"Fair enough." Weiss called back.

"Last team to kill theirs has to buy the other ice cream." Yang called out as a challenge.

"Ice cream? After the way this day has gone, I need something stronger." I whined. Yang's eyebrows arched and Ruby looked horrified.

"No, Jaune, don't give Yang any ideas! I can't have her kicked out before we even get put on a team!" Ruby pleaded, ignored by Yang.

"Alright, vomit boy, you've got a deal." Yang called out with a grin before dragging her team off towards the Nevermore.

"Are we sure that this is a good idea?" Pyrrha asked cautiously from beside me.

"Why not? It's just a Deathstalker. It's not like it can fly away before we kill it." I answered back.

"You're right! We have an advantage!" Nora exclaimed. "We are _so_ going to win this."

"I meant more that we…" Pyrrha struggled to be heard over Nora's enthusiasm. "Oh, never mind. Let's just kill it."

The Deathstalker had gotten closer and closer during the talking, to the point now where bits of it were visible through the trees. With a few dust rounds fired from Pyrrha's rifle, we had its attention and drew it out into a clearing.

"We should form a plan to get it to expose itself." Ren called out cautiously.

"Nah. It's just a Deathstalker." I called back. "Smack it till it stops moving."

Seriously, these guys act like they've never seen a Grimm before. Sure, it's big, but it's slow and there are four of us. This really isn't so hard.

I drew my claymore and charged the front of the Deathstalker. They're built to withstand frontal pressure but struggle at defending from the sides, with their only real option being to use their tail to protect their flank. As expected, it didn't send its tail at me and instead swiped a claw at me. I planted my front foot and leaned back to avoid the blow, then threw all of my weight into raising the claymore above my head and bringing it down on the arm supporting the claw. The creature was too fresh for the blow to have severed the limb, but the force behind the blow was substantial and the creature's reacting shriek confirmed that.

In anger, the Deathstalker tried stabbing me with its tail, and I sidestepped that. I tried to wind up for another heavy blow with my weapon, but it would have taken too long so I settled for dodging behind the creature's tail so that it couldn't see me.

"Oh, he's distracting it so we can get hits in." Pyrrha called out from somewhere. _No, I'm not, I just don't know how on earth I'm supposed to use this oversized butter knife effectively._

The creature lifted its tail and stabbed it off to the side at one of the others, and by the time it turned its attention back to me, I had wound up and swung my sword at it again. Once it gets moving, my weapon is a force to be reckoned with, and the Deathstalker blocked the blow with its claw, leaving a decent slice in the hard bone. The ricochet was something I was unprepared for, leaving me out of balance as the Deathstalker snapped at me with its other claw. I was just able to avoid that one, but was left with the claw I had struck at coming at me from my left. It was all I could do to take a grip of the end of the blade and block the claw by catching it on the sword. The Deathstalker clamped down on my sword, pinching it by its edges.

It started to lunge its other claw back after me again, but was distracted as gunfire and grenades pelted its unprotected sides, followed by Pyrrha landing on its back and slicing as the base of its tail. With its focus off of me, I shifted my weapon so that the outer shell of the end of the weapon—the part clamped down by the Deathstalker—detached. I pulled a broadsword out of the shell and ducked past the other claw, coming out standing right in front of the thing's face. Now using a much more familiar weapon, I was able to take a large slice at one of its eyes and gouge the other one out with the guard.

The Deathstalker started going crazy and wildly flailing as it went blind, dropping the shell of my weapon in the process and spinning itself around. I ducked under a few blind flails of its pinchers before rolling away to safety. The rest of the team enjoyed attacking a blind Grimm much more than they seemed to enjoy helping me out beforehand, so I decided to leave them to it. They eventually trained it to be scared of Nora's explosives and run away from them, and they used this to lead it over a cliff over near the other team.

I looked up in the sky and, wouldn't you know it, the Nevermore wasn't down yet.

"So that was your plan?" Pyrrha asked as the team joined me in watching the other group fight.

"Plan?" I asked. "I didn't have a plan. I was just attacking."

"But you knew we'd cover you."

"Well, duh, I hoped that the three of you wouldn't just let me take it down by myself." I joked back. "Nora might have attacked _me_ if I stole the Grimm away from her."

"Mmhmm." Nora confirmed.

"I'm not much of a planner." I lied, for the purpose of following my plan of not becoming a leader. I did my best to defer to Ren earlier to make him seem like our leader, and by attacking wildly with no plan just now, I hoped that it would become apparent I should not be trusted with leading the team. _If Pyrrha is going to give me the benefit of the doubt, then I really need to show that I had no redeemable qualities on display._

Pyrrha didn't looked convinced, and neither did Ren, as both gave me uncertain looks. They can look at me all they like, but I'm not leading anybody anytime soon.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: So here we have Jaune, doing his best not to be a leader, and shooting himself in the foot all the while. Sure, he let Ren decide what to do about going through the cave, but if everyone has to convince you to do something, you're probably the one who's opinion matters the most. Sounds like a group leader to me. Also, just going and attacking a Grimm wildly seems irresponsible, but can also be inspiring.**

 **We also learn here that these quotes from Raven at the beginning are usually from lessons Raven tried to teach Jaune specifically about what to do at Beacon as her agent, so there's that. This won't last long and the quotes will soon start to vary in context, purpose, and who says them, but will only expand as the story does.**

* * *

 **On Jaune's Semblance: With where V5 ended, we still do not know a lot about it. We obviously know that he _can_ use to from a distance (thanks, Ruby, for taking his hands off of Weiss while he was healing her, that was smart) and it seems to be connected to his emotions, but this is literally how he discovered it, so it's possible that through training he will get better. Likely, even, since Ozcar took the time earlier in the Volume to mention that Semblances can _grow and evolve._ **

**We also know that in Forever Fall, it was Jaune's Semblance that allowed him to _withstand Cardin's attack without flinching_ , while Cardin took the force of the blow. It's this aspect that intrigues me, as I read that as Jaune flaring/amplifying his aura (via his Semblance) to resist physical inertia. That is how this fic will treat Jaune's semblance, and it will be assumed that Raven stressed Jaune into finding it earlier and made him train with it once it was shown how useful it could be. **

**Also, the idea that Jaune's Semblance could require his aura to interact with the aura of others adds another intriguing element that the show hasn't had a chance to confirm or deny, as the only person to experience this would be Weiss. She's not that talkative.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** left by user _ZenithTempest_ on **Ch. 1**

 _"So I understand that Jaune is going to have some personality changes given his background, but I'd caution against changing him so much that he seems like an OC wearing Jaune's skin. For example, he seems very vindictive, which I get, but it'd be good to see some of canon Jaune's good traits shine through at times."_

 **For context, _Zenith_ (can I call you that? Yes? Yay.) is responding to my closing thoughts on Ch. 1, where I warned that Jaune will be a little Out of Character (OoC). The nature of this fic is that Jaune is _not_ the same character as the show, as there are different elements vying to control him than the canon. In fact, I would venture to say that exploring the struggle between Jaune's natural, canon instincts and Raven's foreign, implanted philosophy is the central focus of this story. **

**All of this is to say that _Zenith's_ point here is a good one, and one that I try to remind myself off often when editing chapters and revising my outline/plan for this story. I have to be careful not to give Jaune cheap development and instead make sure that I take my time showing who he is, what might be different from the show, how this matters, and what it means on a practical level, otherwise I will let down sharp readers like _Zenith_. In this story, Jaune will likely waver back and forth between the wanna-be hero of the show and the brutal, self-absorbed pragmatism Raven purports. **

**Thanks for the comment and the concerns; we share them!**

* * *

 **Bonus Comment:** by user _March2Dis_ on **Ch. 1**

 _"Oh man, I'm just cracking up at The locker room interactions.  
_ _This story has the best scene of Jaune handing it to Weiss in the locker room in front of Pyrrha."_

 **I know you put it like that on purpose, and it worked. Jeez, you guys gotta make this harder for me.**

 **According to the Official RWBY Shipping Chart (OT3 Section), this three-way ship is called _A Man Can Dream_ , and now I'm going to have to try to sleep to night with _that_ mental image in my head, so thanks!**


	4. First Day of School!

**[REFINED, Oct. 19, 2018] Author's Note: Alright, here we go, another chapter on the way. As the author, who knows what is coming down the pipe in this story, I really feel like this is the _real_ beginning to this story, insofar as we get to see Jaune really start to deviate from the canon and forge a different path.**

 **Don't enjoy!** _(Reverse psychology; how'd do ya like that?)_

* * *

 **Chapter 3:** _"Once you're in class, you'll be stuck in a world of social groups and drama. My advice? There's two ways to be left alone: be feared or be hated. If you're the class bully, then you can achieve both. But if that's too mean for you, just don't ever respond to anything. Everyone gets bored eventually, even Ozpin." -Raven Branwen_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

I checked my scroll as I walked down the hallway on the way from class to lunch. It was only the first day, and I was already dreading Raven's response to the first report I had sent her last night. It wasn't really much of a report, as there wasn't anything worth her meeting me to discuss; it was more of just an encrypted text with the results from Initiation. We had an app designed for sending such messages, discrete enough that anyone going through my scroll wouldn't find it. It was disguised as a file-reading application, and to that end it worked, too; I had a couple files about sword-forms and combat techniques downloaded there, which at a Huntsman school wouldn't seem very suspicious. However, if I tapped and held on a specific file for 10 seconds, it opened a secondary application that worked as an instant messenger.

I opened the file-reading app, but as I roamed the halls, I couldn't bring myself to check if Raven had replied yet. I had been named the leader of Team JNPR despite my better efforts and I knew that Raven would be disappointed. I had considered trying to become a team leader on purpose just to spite Raven, and if I had stuck with that idea than I would have enjoyed the frustration that this would have caused her; seeing as I had actually done my best to follow Raven's advice and failed, I wasn't ready yet to see what she had to say. Failure was one of the few things in the world Raven truly hated and refused to come to terms with; she was normally a pliable negotiator, willing to do most anything to further her own interests, all because she feared and hated failing. The last thing I want to do is admit a failure to her face, especially so soon into my mission here.

I finally worked up the courage to open the messages and placed my thumb on the correct file, holding it there until the screen changed. Before I could see anything else, the scroll was slapped out of my hand and a leg was stuck out, tripping me. I pushed myself up quickly, searching around for my scroll rather than for my attackers. The last thing I need is for someone to be reading the messages that I _just_ unlocked.

"Looking for this?" A big brute of a student called out, waving my scroll at me. My panic subsided as I noticed the screen was off. The app was also designed to know if the scroll was flipped over, and when that happened it was supposed to close out the app and turn the scroll off. This was meant for stealthily hiding what you are doing if someone walks in, but in this case the phone spun wildly when it was knocked from me and turned itself off.

"Yes, actually. Good thing you found it." I answered somewhat sarcastically as I walked up to him, reaching out to take the phone back.

"Not so fast, there. I think I should get something for finding it for you. What do you say, boys, do we deserve a reward?" He called out to three other students, although none of them had any really significant physical traits. At least, none that made them a threat; one had a mohawk, but I fail to see how that would harm me. _Honestly, it's not like this brute would be a threat either. I could probably drop him with a knee right now._ I thought about it for a moment, but I decided that these four really hadn't done anything that deserved my wrath yet; they had only tripped me after all, and if I went around beating up everyone who slighted me, I'd be much more like Raven than I would care to admit. _I'm here for her mission, but I'm also here to see if I can't be something different, too._

"Oh, I see. My bad." I started. His grin grew more arrogant by the second, only sweetening the pot. "You're a shy one, aren't you? If you wanted my number, you didn't have to take my scroll."

His face fell and twisted in confusion, and I used that distraction to reach out and grab the scroll without any resistance.

"Your boys here aren't my type, but I'm free this weekend." I called back to the brute as I walked off, leaving the four of them extremely confused. I'm sure when they come to their senses, they'll be pissed. _The only thing better then beating people up is making fun of them to their faces; in that regard, I am very much so like Raven._

I walked into the cafeteria and grabbed my tray before wandering around, searching for my team, who was already supposed to be here. Sure enough, I found them sitting at a table with the newly-christened Team RWBY, lead by (confusingly enough) Ruby. _Of course, all the people Raven wants watched all end up in my friend group by accident._ So much for keeping my distance.

"Hey, there he is! I told you guys he wasn't lost!" Ruby called out as I sat down at the last empty spot.

"What did I miss?" I asked as I settled in.

"Not much. We were just getting to know everyone." Yang chimed in from next to Ruby. "You already know Ruby and me. This is my partner, Blake. Say something, Blake!"

"Something." Blake mumbled, never taking her eyes off the book hidden in her lap.

"That's actually more than I expected." Yang grumbled back at her playfully. "…and, uh, that's Ruby's partner down there on the end." The aforementioned girl eyed Jaune distrustfully.

"Weiss, right?" I asked.

"Correct. Weiss Schnee."

"Together, we're team RWBY, the best-named team in all of Beacon." Ruby boasted playfully. There weren't any objections, per say, but Weiss did roll her eyes at her partner's enthusiasm.

"Well, this is my _partner_ , Pyrrha Nikos…" I started off, emphasizing 'partner' as I made eye-contact with Weiss, who scowled. "…and those two are Ren and Nora, but I'm sure if you've been anywhere near them, you already knew that. We make team JNPR, the most averagely-named team in Beacon." I mimicked Ruby's line from earlier. "100% Schnee-free, though."

" _Excuse me?_ " Weiss took objection to that last part, as Pyrrha was caught off-guard and nearly spat her drink over her tray.

"Eh heh, why don't we talk about where we're from?" Ruby nervously suggested without taking her eyes off her partner, hoping Mount Schnee didn't erupt while she was sitting next to her. "Yang and I are from Patch."

" _Cool_. Where's that?" Nora asked, oblivious to the danger posed by Weiss' temper. _And my willingness to set her off, I suppose._

"Oh, uh, it's an island here in Vale. Our dad is a Huntsman and we live in the woods on the island." Ruby answered back with a tinge of sheepishness.

"Oh cool. Our whole team is from Mistral." Nora responded. "We found out yesterday that Pyrrha lived in the capital and beheaded people for a living, while Renny and I wandered the woods and hunted outlaws. Oh, and Jaune was a pirate who kidnapped children!"

The table went silent, mostly in confusion, as everyone looked between themselves to figure out what Nora had just said. Eventually, all eyes settled on Ren.

"Pyrrha fought in tournaments, not worked as an executioner. Nora and I wandered the woods for shelter, not hunting criminals. Jaune is not a pirate."

"That's it? Just 'not a pirate'?" Yang asked somewhat worried.

"He had a parrot and everything!" Nora interjected again.

"Nora, pirating and raiding aren't the same thing." I explained with a roll of my eyes.

"But you weren't a raider, either, right?" Pyrrha asked from beside me.

"No, totally not." I lied badly. "That's just where the confusion came from, so I figured I would clear it up."

"Are we just not going to address the 'kidnapping children' part?" Weiss asked, completely ignored by the table.

"Then where are you from? Not just Mistral, I mean." Ruby asked me.

"Same as Nora and Ren, actually. I grew up on the frontier, so I didn't stay in one place much." I answered, sticking to my story from yesterday as best as I remembered it, and making a point of ignoring Weiss for the heck of it. If she wanted to believe anything Nora said, then that meant she was gullible enough to fall for my 'backstory' too.

"Oh, that's cool! I bet your family is happy that you're safe in Beacon now. Our dad is just happy that Yang and I aren't there to burn down the house." Ruby responded.

"I doubt it. They're dead." I answered back nonchalantly. As one might expected, Ruby's face froze as she quickly tried to climb under the table to hide from the world. "Don't worry, though, I was the one who did it."

Now it wasn't just Ruby who was stunned, but everyone at the table. Jaws were slack, and I had never before seen eyes as wide as theirs.

"I'm joking, guys. It was the Grimm." I explained with a laugh, trying to put them at ease. It didn't seem to work, but they at least somewhat resumed functioning.

"What about you, Weiss?" Ren asked to get the conversation back on track. "Where are you from?"

"Me? Oh, I'm from Atlas. You know, _Schnee_ Dust Company and such." She explained without too much pride.

"And that just leaves Blake." Yang announced a little loudly, trying to get Blake's attention. "AHEM!"

"Ah, what?!" Blake cried out as an elbow dug into her side and a pair of hands stole the book from her lap. "Yang, give that back."

"We said, where are you from, Blake?" Yang asked with a grin. _Not just any grin, but her mother's damned grin, too._

"Men-uh...Vale, I guess. Technically. Happy?"

"No. Join the conversation." Yang taunted as she tossed the book over to our side of the table. Ren caught it and set it on the floor underneath his seat. "You can have it back when team Juniper think's you've earned it."

Blake grumbled something under her breath resembling 'I hate you guys,' but I was too far away to hear exactly.

"Eh, she can have it back. It's almost time for combat class anyways." I offered. "If she's brave enough to read during Miss Goodwitch's class, I say we let her."

I stood up and started to take my tray, which was a mistake as Yang held her tray out expectantly while flashing me a fake smile. I rolled my eyes and took the tray, and no sooner had I done that I had six more trays shoved in my face.

* * *

Pyrrha's POV

* * *

While I did feel a little bad for leaving Jaune behind to take our trays, he told us he would catch up with us at combat class. Sure enough, Jaune slipped in the back and made his way over to as Miss Goodwitch was beginning to take attendance.

"Good, now that we're all here, we'll start going over singles fights. I expect that I shouldn't have to go over the rules, but there's always one student who proves me wrong, so I'll be brief: once your opponent's aura goes into the red, the match is over. If you leave the sparring ring for any reason, you lose by ring-out. Am I clear?" The crowd didn't respond, irking Miss Goodwitch. "I said, am I clear?!"

"Yes, Miss Goodwitch." We all shouted back in unison.

"Alright. Our first fight will be Cardin Winchester and Jaune Arc. After that, I want to see Lie Ren and Blake Belladonna, followed by Dove Bronzewing and Yang Xiao Long. Please be prepared for your fight to begin as soon as the one before you ends."

"Oh, goodie, singled out already." Jaune mumbled to no one in particular as he stood up. He reached down and unbuckled the straps going to the sword at his hip, before handing it to Ruby. "Watch this for, Ruby. Try not to blow Weiss up with it."

I gave Ruby and Weiss a confused look as Jaune walked off towards the stage; Ruby blushed and refused to meet my eyes, while Weiss only rolled hers.

"Good luck!" I called to Jaune as he began walking towards the stage.

"Thanks, I guess." Jaune called back. " _Luck._ " He mumbled that last part under his breath, thinking no one could hear him. _He should learn how to be quieter._

As Jaune took the stage, we all got the opportunity to size up both him and his opponent. Cardin was a huge student with a very large mace that would likely do a lot of damage if you let it hit you. Normally, I would bait my opponent into swinging it at me, and just use my agility to stay untouched until they were too tired to throw blocks. Such a weapon would work well against lower-level combatants and Grimm, but would require a serious strategist to land blows on a good opponent with such a weapon. There's a decent chance I could close my eyes and dodge that thing only off the sound of it swishing through the air.

Jaune, on the other hand, was not dissimilar in his weaponry. While swords were usually the standard for dueling, Jaune's sword was far too big for normal tactics. His claymore was actually taller than he was, making it also a slow weapon capable of large damage. I would have an even easier time against Jaune, because swords are easier to deflect, redirect, and parry than a mace. If I had to guess, I would say that Cardin's weapon would probably be faster, since it was shorter and Cardin looked to be bigger than Jaune. Jaune did have the advantage of reach and versatility, and in the hands of a good fighter, those were two incredibly important advantages. None of that would matter if he were overwhelmed by the speed and damage of Cardin's mace.

"Have you ever seen anyone use a sword like that before?" Weiss asked from my side.

"No. I was just thinking about it. He'll probably be even slower than Cardin with that thing, so I'm interested to see what his style is." I replied.

"Oh, uh…Jaune doesn't have a style." Ruby added nervously.

"What do you mean he doesn't have a style? That's ridiculous, every Huntsman has a style." Weiss berated.

"I mean, that weapon is new to him. I don't think he's ever used it." Ruby answered softly.

" _Oh._ That's…" Weiss trailed off.

"Not good." I answered for her. All of the advantages I had just listed Jaune having required extensive training and technical skill to utilize.

Miss Goodwitch waved to commence the fight. Jaune took a neutral stance, holding the hilt of his claymore to his chest and allowing the blade to rest against his shoulder. Cardin, however, let out a battle cry as he charged Jaune immediately. He launched a heavy overhead blow that Jaune sidestepped easily, then Jaune allowed his blade to fall behind him as he brought the pommel up to smack Cardin in the face with it. Cardin stumbled back, more dazed than damaged, and angrily swung his mace sideways off the ground from where it had landed during its previous strike. Jaune stepped back to easily let the blind swing avoid him and then took a half-swording grip on his blade to take a fast swipe at Cardin's exposed side. The blow landed, but Jaune had to be quick about it and retreated before he could follow with any real damage.

"Does Cardin always fight this recklessly?" Weiss whispered from my side again.

"He sure does seem angry." Ruby added.

"Maybe Jaune said something to him before the fight." Yang added from the end of the bench, having overheard us. "I mean, would you put it past him to mention Cardin's mother or something?"

"No, I would not." Weiss answered back with a humph. "You're making me want to cheer for Cardin, now."

"Uh, guys, isn't it dumb for Jaune to grab the edge of his own blade?" Ruby asked quietly. "Like, won't that cut you?"

"Oh, you mean when he half-sworded?" I asked.

"He what?"

"Half-sword techniques." Weiss explained curtly. "You place one hand half-way up the blade so that you can be more precise with the tip. It's a pretty old technique."

"But won't that hurt?" Ruby asked.

"Not necessarily. Most swords that require two hands aren't sharpened all the way down, usually for that reason." I explained, with Ruby nodding along. "Even if they are, you can wear gloves to negate the bite, or even just let your aura protect you. With a sword that heavy, it doesn't need to be super sharp."

"Oh. Cool." Ruby added, returning her focus to the fight.

So far, Jaune hadn't done badly. He had chipped away at Cardin's aura just a bit and had avoided any damage whatsoever, but any half-way decent fighter knows how to handle an enraged opponent. Now that Jaune had made a separation, Cardin had the time to cool off.

Jaune took a leap forward and swung his claymore over his head, using his leap to get the heavy weapon moving faster. Cardin reacted accordingly, using almost a half-swording grip on the shaft of his mace and bracing to block the blow outright on the shaft of his weapon. Jaune, however, was feinting: once his feet had landed from his initial leap, Jaune both stepped to his right and spun to his right while at the same time flicking his wrists to bring his weapon down to strike from the left. Jaune's resulting movement (step and spin) both worked together to throw all of his weight and momentum into yanking his claymore from the left to the right, parlaying all that forceinto a powerful strike to Cardin's unprotected side.

"That was nice." Weiss mumbled to herself, and I nodded in confirmation. It was only one move, but it was decently smooth and had taken a large chunk out of Cardin's aura. It also displayed that Jaune had the sense to feint and bait his opponents, meaning he had either been trained in some fashion or had been in fights against other people, not just Grimm.

"Yeah Jaune!" Ruby cheered out.

"Break his knees!" Nora added.

Jaune wasn't done pressing his attack. Cardin had reflexively dropped his right arm to clutch at where he had just been hit; meanwhile, Jaune had recovered from his attack, with his sword dragging the ground behind him on his right and only the pommel in his hands at his sides. With Cardin busy nursing the wound on Jaune's left and Jaune's pommel on his right, Jaune yanked the handle of his weapon out and bashed it into Cardin's other side. When Cardin winced as the weight of the sword bashed into him and shifted to protect that side, Jaune spun with his back to Cardin and drug his claymore to the other side, where he did the same move with his pommel and bashed the side Cardin had just abandoned.

"What do you think so far, Pyrrha?" Weiss mumbled from my side.

"Well, it's not exactly the most orthodox style ever, but he does a good job of exploiting his opponents and frustrating them." I whispered back. "He's got Cardin in the yellow, but he still has a long way before red. He doesn't even have a guard up right now, either."

Jaune still wasn't done with attack, though. As Cardin gritted himself and stood back up to full guard, Jaune pulled his pommel up above him, allowing the blade to rest on the back of his shoulder and still drag the ground. Before Jaune could attack, though, Cardin took advantage of Jaune's lack of a guard and launched his own attack. Jaune was forced to duck under an attack from the side that Cardin had thrown with the intentions of forcing Jaune to pick a direction. Now that Jaune had committed to ducking under and into the direction of Cardin's attack, Cardin reversed his mace and sought to bring his own pommel down to strike Jaune. However, as soon as Jaune had ducked the first blow, he planted his far foot and used his other foot to deliver a hard kick to Cardin's exposed stomach (no armor, not Cardin wearing a belly shirt), knocking him back much farther than one would expect. It was not out of range of Jaune's absurdly-long Claymore, and Jaune raised it off his shoulder and swung it with both hands, slicing hard at Cardin's thigh.

Weiss looked at me with wide eyes again. "Okay, that was nice." She allowed.

"It was…" I answered, a small grin starting to grow on my face. Jaune may not have an orthodox style or weapon, but he certainly seems accustomed to battle and how to play your opponents, not to mention a penchant for improvising. For a brief moment, I began to wonder how much potential he might hold and, not for the first time, I reaffirmed to myself that seeking him out as a partner over Weiss was an amazing decision.

And yet, Jaune still wasn't done with his attack. As Cardin recovered, Jaune pressed forward again and brought his leg up to kick Cardin again. This time, Cardin began to dodge to the side at the sight of Jaune's foot, but Jaune did something different. This time, Jaune stomped his foot down hard, having been faking the kick, and reached out towards Cardin. Too busy dodging the kick that never came, Cardin wasn't able to react until Jaune had grabbed him by the side of the shoulder. Jaune must have squeezed on Cardin's shoulder excessively tightly, as Cardin winced in pain as Jaune threw him to the ground, immediately followed by another two-handed swing of his Claymore that Cardin had to absorb with his aura. Cardin rolled away and Jaune backed up, bringing his Claymore back into a neutral stance once more.

"Why does he even have a sword if he's just going to kick people really hard?" Weiss asked semi-jokingly. A glance up at the aura displays showed that Jaune was at 98%, while Cardin was at 29%, only 4% away from being in the red. _Where did Jaune lose 2% of his aura from?_ Jaune hadn't taken any damage so far, and the only thing even close to taking damage was when he kicked Cardin. It was possible that his blade actually was sharpened, and he lost the aura as a result of his half-swording technique, but that still meant that he had protected himself from the damage instinctively. _Could he be using aura amplification?_ It was an old combat method that required focus and resilience, something that even I am not good enough to use in combat. The concentration required to pool enough aura into one area to be effective in battle is extremely difficult to manage during battle, but it would explain how Jaune lost 2% of his aura. _But it wouldn't explain where he was taught how to use it._

Jaune and Cardin both noticed how little aura Cardin had left, so Jaune was content to just take large swings with his claymore, forcing Cardin to block. It didn't do much damage, but he was chipping away little by little, and Cardin seemed too scared of Jaune's other methods to risk countering. Seeing this, Jaune spun around and wound up a powerful blow that would have blown through Cardin's block. However…

"Oh wow. Nice going there, Jaune." Weiss mocked. Ruby slapped a hand to her face in embarrassment, too.

While Jaune's back was turned, Cardin regained his courage and charged forward. Instead of tackling Jaune, he hit Jaune low and lifted him off the ground, before charging to the edge of the ring and throwing Jaune off.

"…and Mr. Winchester wins the match through Ring-Out." Miss Goodwitch announced, although clearly as unimpressed with the victory as the rest of the crowd. "In the future, Mr. Winchester, try not to lose your temper so quickly into a battle, and do try to be less predictable."

Jaune stood up and dusted himself off, grinning ear to ear for some reason.

"As for you, Mr. Arc…" Miss Goodwitch called out. "Try not to let your opponents win next time." Jaune's grin only grew wider.

"What does that mean?" Ruby asked the group.

"Truth be told, Ruby…I'm not sure." I answered.

* * *

Ruby's POV

* * *

"Jaune! Over here!" I called as I waved. Jaune saw me and moved to carry his tray over our way, with his team following behind him. That was one of the things I wished _my_ team would do, follow me around and make me look like a cool leader. Then again, doing that means I'll have to do all the talking if anyone comes up to our team, so maybe things are fine as they are. _Weiss could still stand to at least_ acknowledge _me as team leader every once in a while, though._

"Hello there, friends. And Yang." Jaune greeted as he sat down.

"Hey, what'd I do to you?" Yang called back.

"I don't know, what would you like to?" Jaune shot back with a grin, catching Yang off-guard. Yang. _Yang._ He caught _Yang_ off-guard with a…uh, flirty comment? Is that a thing? _Ugh, whatever, he did to Yang what she normally does to people_. That's something that I never expected to happen, like, ever. It's about time someone get Yang back for all the teasing she does to me, though, so more power to Jaune, I guess. _Unless he actually is flirting with Yang right in front of us; in that case, uh, less power to Jaune?_

"Well, right now I'm thinking about tearing your head off." Yang responded once she finally recovered.

"Ooh, sounds like a praying mantis. Kinky."

" _Guys,_ " Weiss pleaded. "Some of us are trying to eat."

"She started it." Jaune pleaded immediately.

"No I didn't!" Yang called back. "Ugh, I've got my eyes on you, Arc."

"And I've got my eyes on your…I mean my eyes are staring at you…um…" Jaune trailed off, with his head obviously angled downwards. Next to me, Weiss' head fell to her hand and I coughed into my sleeve to hide my giggles. Across the table, Pyrrha did the same, and we both used it to hide a little redness in our cheeks.

Yang's jaw dropped for a moment, but she recovered quickly and gave Jaune a death stare capable of decapitating an Ursa. "Nora, would you be so kind?" Yang asked overly-sweetly. Without even looking up from her second dessert (probably Ren's dessert, actually), Nora reached up and flicked Jaune hard right between the eyes.

"Ow, _Nora_!" Jaune whined. "Assaulting a team leader? That's borderline blasphemy."

"Yeah, but so is throwing a spar in front of Miss Goodwitch, so I think you have your own problems to worry about." Blake jumped into the conversation from the end of the table. She looked annoyed by the previous conversation, but probably just because it was too loud to read.

"Oh yeah, what was that about? Everyone else here won their fights." Yang tacked on, earning a flat look from Ren, who Blake had dismantled, scoring Team RWBY its first of two back-to-back victories.

"I don't have any idea what you're talking about." Jaune answered with a little confusion.

"Your fight yesterday with Cardin." Weiss explained as if talking to a five-year-old. "You know, the one where Miss Goodwitch told you not to throw the fight afterwards."

"What do you mean? I didn't lose on purpose." Jaune answered uncertainly.

"Uh, yeah, Cardin just tackled him off the side." I answered in Jaune's defense. I mean, us leaders gotta stick together, right? Plus, that wouldn't make any sense. Why would Jaune just loose on purpose? Who even does that?

"Riiiiight, you just spent the whole fight completely controlling everything Cardin does, and then suddenly you give him an opening so big that he can tackle you off the edge?" Yang asked with a smirk.

"Honestly, I'm flattered that you guys think I'm good enough to coordinate all of this, but I have no clue what you're talking about." Jaune replied. "That was my first fight with my claymore; I guess I just didn't realize how long that attack would take."

"Yet you seemed to have a great grasp of how to use it during your other moves." Pyrrha added in, joining the Anti-Jaune side, the traitor. "You seemed to move it faster during those, too."

"But that doesn't even make sense. Why would I want to lose?" Jaune asked, giving up on arguing about the sword.

"Yeah, guys. Who wants to lose to _Cardin_?" I asked in Jaune's defense.

"Hey, there he is!" Yang called out as she spotted Cardin. "Why don't we go ask him?"

All eyes turned to Cardin, just in time to see him and his team corner another student. The girl was a rabbit faunus with two large bunny ears sticking up off her head giving that away.

"See, boys, I told you they're real." Cardin announced with a mean laugh as he yanked on one of the girl's ears.

"OW! That hurts!"

"That's so weird." One of the boys said.

"What a freak." Another said.

"But she has regular ears too? How does that even work?" The last one said. "Does she hear faster?"

"Can I go now?" The girl asked timidly.

I looked around the table to see a variety of reactions. Blake was angry, but also reached up to touch her ears. I reached up and touched mine too, wondering what it would feel like if someone yanked on _my_ ears like that. Ren looked frustrated and Nora looked like she just needed permission to go attack Cardin and she would. Pyrrha wore a sad frown, and even Weiss appeared to be bothered if her furrowed brow meant anything. Yang's hands curled up into fists and her eyes flashed red for a moment. But Jaune? Glancing into Jaune's eyes made my blood run cold. Jaune's eyes screamed one thing: murder.

"Why doesn't she fight back?" Weiss asked quietly, hoping not to be overheard by any other tables.

"She can't. It will just make things worse for her." Blake answered angrily. "Faunus have always had to put up with things like that."

"Are they doing this because she's a faunus?" I asked timidly.

"That, or just because they're bullies." Ren answered softly. "Either way, it doesn't change things."

"The real question here is why no one has stood up to kick their asses for her." Yang grumbled angrily. "I have half a mind to get up and punch their teeth in."

"Then why haven't you?" Jaune spat out angrily.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me, Yang. If it takes half a brain to go protect her, then why haven't you yet?" Jaune's eyes hadn't softened; instead, the very air around us had turned tense.

"What the hell are you trying to say?" Yang escalated the situation, her eyes turning red as she leaned forward. Her hands had curled into even tighter fists, with her knuckles going white.

"I'm saying that you're all a lot of talk, and not a lot of action. What would you do if that was Ruby they were ganging up on?" Jaune asked pointedly. Yang didn't answer, but she didn't need to. She would have broken each of them over her knee without mercy; I mean, back at Signal she actually _had_ gone after people who tried to bully me, which put a stop to most bullying in the whole school for fear of _Yang Xiao Long, the Destroyer_ hunting you down. "That's what I thought. Each of us would have done something. So why didn't any of us?"

"You didn't do anything to stop them, either!" Blake accused, coming to Yang's defense.

"Nope, I sure didn't. She doesn't mean anything in particular to me, and if she's going to be a Huntress, she should be able to fight her own battles. Seeing her get attacked doesn't bother me. But it seemed to bother all of you, yet none of you did anything." Jaune stood up and gathered his tray before storming off angrily.

"What did he mean by that? He just doesn't care?!" Blake huffed angrily.

"Yeah, what's his problem?" Yang complained as she started to cool down. Her eyes had softened back to their normal lavender, and she had sat back in her seat.

"I mean, he kind of had a point." Weiss answered softly, only to flinch as every head whipped her direction at once. "I mean, this _is_ a Huntsman Academy. None of us would need someone to come in and save us."

"Are you saying she deserved it?!" Blake asked, even angrier than before.

"N-no. I...uh..." Weiss stammered, startled by Blake's reaction.

"I think what Weiss means is that if she doesn't learn to deal with it on her own, then when she becomes an actual Huntress, she may not be ready to handle actual life-or-death situations." Ren said, coming to Weiss' rescue.

"Yes. That." Weiss mumbled softly, grateful to Ren for the assist.

"So the ends justify the means?" Yang asked, taking Blake's side. "What about the bullies, then? What's going to happen when people like _that_ become Huntsmen?"

"Well, clearly they need a lesson or two pounded into them." Nora offered, not at all enthusiastic or energetic like usual. This was an actual suggestion, and it wasn't one that any of us disagreed with, if the silence and the nods from around the table was anything to judge by.

"...which brings us back to why didn't we do anything." Ren concluded. "So...one point to Jaune?"

"Oh, next time I see him, I'll give him more than just a point." Yang said, curling her hand back into a fist.

We all sat there, munching on our food for the next few minutes. Not even my cookie tasted good, and looking around told me that no one else was interested in their food either. Eventually, we all got up and returned our trays. Our next class was Miss Goodwitch's sparring class, and no one was going to be late for Miss Goodwitch, so we all headed there together.

It bothered me what Jaune said. Not because of _what_ he said about it not bothering him, because that part sounded pretty bad. What bothered me is I think he might have been lying. He said that it didn't bother him, but he seemed really, really angry. He's normally pretty nice, too, and I don't think that he was really so angry as to talk to Yang like that if it didn't bother him. Maybe…maybe it just bothered him that he didn't do anything. I mean, I feel pretty bad for not doing anything too, so he could just be taking it pretty hard, right?

As class began, Miss Goodwitch called out the names of all the spars going to happen today. "First, Ruby Rose versus Jaune Arc. Then Cardin Winchester versus Yang Xiao Long. After that, Blake Belladonna versus Nora Valkyrie. After that, we will do team battles. All students I just called out are dismissed to get their weapons from the lockers, but do hurry."

We all rushed off to the changing rooms where the lockers were, and I made sure to grab Crescent Rose and hurry back out.

As I waited for Jaune at the entrance to the boys' locker room, I heard strange noises coming from inside. A loud bang of something hitting a locker hard followed by an " **OW**." Another loud bang, just like before, and again another " **OW** " shouted. One more bang followed, but this time no "OW" came with it.

A few moments later, Jaune emerged carrying both of his weapons with him. I stared at him wide-eyed.

"Uh, what's wrong?"

"Are…you okay? What just happened?" I asked nervously.

"What do you mean?" Jaune asked innocently.

"Uh, the loud noises…?"

"Loud noises…? What loud noises?" He asked again. I narrowed my eyes and looked at Jaune uncertainly. "Oh, those bangs?"

"Uh, _yes_ , those 'bangs.'" I confirmed.

"Yeah, I stubbed my toe."

"You…?"

"Stubbed my toe." Jaune finished, sticking his foot out and pointing to it. "It really hurt, too."

"But the second bang?"

"I stubbed my other toe when I was hopping around in pain from the first time." Jaune explained plainly.

"A-and the third?"

"I hit my head on my locker door trying to switch between hopping on each foot. It's not as easy as it sounds."

I gave Jaune a flat stare, but he didn't crack.

"You stubbed one toe, hopped around in pain, stubbed the other two, and then hopped around switching feet, and _then_ you banged your head on a locker?" I summarized, completely unimpressed by Jaune's story.

"Uh, yeah. We should probably go. I'd hate to keep Miss Goodwitch waiting. _She'd probably hunt me down and knock me out_." The way Jaune stressed that last line really worried me. I'm not stupid, after all; there were only two boys sparring today.

As we reached the sparring ring, I looked up to check the aura monitors. Jaune had a 100% full aura, which is odd for someone who just stubbed both toes and smacked their head on a locker.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: So, it appears that someone did not have a fun time in that locker room. Gee, I wonder what could have happened in there, and what it might say about our hero Jaune. Well, okay, not _really_ a hero, but protagonist nonetheless. It seems to me that he wasn't bothered at all by Cardin bullying him, but his protectiveness was triggered when someone helpless was targeted. _Huh_. That doesn't sound like Raven's influence...**

 _But ikedawg43, making a Faunus the helpless bystander is racist towards Faunus!_ **Is it? _Huh_. Well, crap. Nothing that can be done, sadly.  
** _But you're the author. You are the only one who_ can _change it.  
_ **Nope. Too important to the story. Can't be bothered.  
** _I mean, you literally could just make Cardin bully someone else.  
_ **Yes, but then I'm altering the events of the show. That would just be blasphemy of the highest order.  
** _Isn't that the whole point of fanficiton?  
_ **Hey, now, let's not get philosophical here. In a way, aren't we all the whole point of fanfiction?  
** _That doesn't even make any sense...  
_ **Just like you and your face...**

* * *

 **All jokes aside, does anyone know if there's a canon explanation for Velvet's accent in the show? I know that they cast an Australian voice for her as sort of fanservice since RT has a big presence in Australia, but did they ever try to explain it in the show? Because now we've met people from every nation (plus Menagerie) and no one else has that accent. Yes, I'm counting Sun as Vacuo even though he moved to Mistral. Scarlet even has a pirate, er, _British_ , accent, and we've not seen any nations with accents like that. **

**...which mean Velvet and Scarlet just made their accents up to be pretentious. Obviously... lol**

 **Personally, I would have been all for Vacuo being the land of deserts, dangerous animals/Grimm, and badass Australian Faunus. Seriously, give me Vacuo's own Crocodile Hunter (plot twist: he's a _crocodile faunus_ , wrestling with his inner demon)!**

 **Also, here we got a lot more time with Jaune and his claymore, so the challenge for you to figure out what Jaune's style is based off of returns! I will narrow it down and tell you the specific media that it comes from: it's a video game that was launched as a new IP in 2017. If no one gets it, next week I'll give you the company who published it and the genre (which will give it away).**

 **The claymore will be named in a handful of chapters, too.**

 **Good luck!**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by user _Josh Spicer_ on **Ch. 2**

"So according to the rules of fiction Jaune must now become the leader."

 **Lol. I mean, yeah, for reasons.**

 **Looking back as of writing 30+ chapters, I really, _really_ wish I had made Nora team captain, just for how much fun I've had with the limited amount of Nora that's in this story. **

**For plot convenience, it would probably have been most poignant to throw Jaune, Pyrrha, Blake, and Yang onto a team, but at the time I wanted to stick to what I knew, which was JNPR and RWBY. It's not like the teams don't interact, though, and I don't think the story has suffered at all from the team selection.**

 _ **+1 point to** Josh **retroactively.**_


	5. Breaking Ankles

**Author's Note: Oh, what's that, my dear reader? You enjoy Jaune's flippant attitude so far and think that it has been kinda funny? You enjoy the lighthearted banter and the light themes? Oh my, that's just horrible. I must fix that immediately.**

 ** _Now, what plot point could make everyone turn on Jaune while also furthering the narrative?_**

 **Enjoy :P**

* * *

 **[REFINED, Oct. 19, 2018]**

 **Second Author's Note, Oct 19, 2018: Man, that note about fixing the light themes was more prophetic than I realized, and I'm the one who planned this whole thing out... lol**

* * *

 **Chapter 4:** _"You only get to play dumb once. Once it works,_ everyone _is going to be expecting it and you're going to have a much harder time convincing them of anything, so make sure that that one time is worth it." - Raven Branwen_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

Ruby certainly didn't fall for my story about stubbing my toe, but the looming threat of being late to Miss Goodwitch's spar overrode any concerns she might have had. _Not like she needs to be_ that _worried; he did have aura._ I would know, too, because that made it harder to knock him out. When he wakes up, he'll have learned his lesson, whether through the force of the headache he'll have or through the other measures I took. And if he doesn't, I'm sure he'll figure it out after the next time.

"Mr. Arc!" Miss Goodwitch snapped at me, breaking me out of my thoughts. "Repeat to me what I just instructed you."

"Uh…" I stalled for time, earning a few chuckles from the students in the crowd. One glance from Miss Goodwitch and all those laughs died out instantly. "Don't lose?" Honestly, I had spaced out during our walk back to the sparring area, so it's a miracle I didn't trip and eat dirt on the way over.

"I instructed you not to throw your match, in addition to all the standard rules for sparring." She corrected angrily.

"Right. Gotcha." That meant that I couldn't just turn my back and let Ruby carry me out of the ring, if she even could carry me. _A shame, too, because that was such a good idea to have wasted so early._ If I wanted to follow Raven's advice, I would have to find another way to be disqualified from my match.

"Alright, then begin."

As soon as the match was underway, Ruby shot at me in a blur of red. _Wait, no, that's not a blur; are those rose petals_? _What sort of freaking semblance is that?_ I was torn from my thoughts by the reality of a large scythe being swung at me at a high velocity. I ducked under the first attack, taking care to bring my claymore down so that it wouldn't be knocked away by Ruby's swipe. Ruby conserved the momentum of her swipe and spun her scythe around until the end of it was pointing at me, before a dust round came barreling out of it. As impressive as my training may have been, dodging bullets point blank based only on reaction times is not something I am even close to pulling off, and I grunted as the round pinged off my aura.

"That's almost like cheating…" I grumbled at Ruby, who just shrugged and began spinning her scythe again. She spun it around and this time I was ready for a shot to come out, so instead she extended her reach and tried to swipe at me with the blade. Since I was prepared to dodge the shot, I went ahead and dodged the swipe. Undeterred, Ruby spun her scythe around her again and brought it around, this time firing the shot, which I caught on the blade of my claymore. This continued on a few more times, with Ruby using the 50-50 of her swipe-or-shoot method to keep me on my toes, until eventually I decided to take a risk. As Ruby spun her scythe, it came in from my left; I took the pommel of my claymore in my left hand and half-sworded the blade with my right, using the grip to reach up and block Ruby's scythe mid-air with the tip of the blade. The force was jarring, but I pushed a little bit of my aura into my core and my legs—hidden beneath my armor, so no one would see me glow—to solidify my foundation from what normally might knock me over. Ruby was also jarred by the sudden shift in momentum. Now, I had stopped her weapon and in doing so I had stepped into her guard. With my blade holding up Ruby's weapon, I spun with my back to Ruby, keeping our weapons locked above us until I got behind her. At this point, I disengaged my weapon from hers and used my spin to smack Ruby in the back of the head with my pommel. Still half-swording, I attempted to stab at Ruby with the end of my blade after this blow landed, but she wooshed away from me with her semblance once again.

" _Jaaaaaaune._ That _hurrrrrrt!_ " Ruby whined with a tinge of playfulness as she rubbed the back of her head. I looked up to notice Ruby had lost 8% of her aura from that blow, where I had only lost 3% from tanking her shot earlier. This meant that all I needed to do was trade with Ruby during each exchange and I would come out victorious. _So, trade with Ruby to show that I_ could _win, and then find some way to lose_.

"I'm sorry. I'll kiss it to make it better." I answered back, dropping my sword behind my shoulder to bring the pommel up next to me, making it clear exactly what I would 'kiss' her with. _Maybe this wasn't the greatest joke ever, because if Yang decides she doesn't like me flirting with her little sister, that could make things...rough._ Not that I _wa_ _s_ flirting with Ruby here, nor would I, but with Raven (and applied linearly, Yang) you didn't take stupid chances at upsetting her for little or no gain.

As Ruby charged me with her semblance a second time, my plan became clear: give her clear openings to damage me, and make sure I hit her too. It wouldn't exactly be the most fun experience ever, but it would do the job. Ruby rushed in and swiped to the side, knocking my blade out of the way. She spun the weapon around and brought it back to do a strike from the same side again, and instead of working to get my guard back up on that side, I threw an attack from overhead that her attack wouldn't affect. True enough to my intention, Ruby's blow cut into my side and my blow sliced into her unprotected front. It hurt like hell (and likewise Ruby probably didn't feel too great), but it also knocked her backwards and made me stumble an opposite direction.

I checked the aura monitors again, and Ruby did the same. I had lost 22% from that single blow, putting me at 75%, the threshold where green turns yellow. Ruby, who was at 92%, had lost a whopping 44% percent from the blow we traded and was now at 48% left, dangerously in the yellow. _Ruby's a glass cannon, capable of dealing great damage, but with below-average aura; I am usually a tank, but I'm fighting with a weapon that deals much more damage than usual._

Ruby had checked the aura monitor too and was visibly frightened by how much damage I could out-deal her by, if her nervous shift to a defensive stance was anything to go by. She wouldn't be launching any attacks that I could trade with soon, so I decided to press the attack and, if possible, figure out a way to get disqualified while I did it. I leaped out towards her and set up an overhead attack, then used the same move I had used on Cardin to spin and whip the claymore into an attack from the side. To Ruby's credit, she must have paid attention to that fight, as she didn't fall for the feint and did a decent job of using her scythe to keep my claymore away from her. For good measure, I kept the blade spinning and brought it back around, but she hadn't let her guard down and again kept the blade from harming her. I lifted my leg up in the air and stomped it down, faking a kick like I had done to Cardin, but she hadn't flinched and was nervously watching for me to reach out and grab her. If I had tried, she would have dodged around and landed the point of her scythe in my back.

So instead, I did something else. Holding the claymore against the back of my shoulder with my right hand, I reached out with my left. Ruby instantly took it for me trying to finish the move I did with Cardin and dodged accordingly. But instead, I flashed my arm out to the side like I was trying to scare someone and I even yelled "RAH" right in Ruby's face. The panic that had been building for Ruby ever since her aura got low froze her for a moment, and a moment was all I needed. Since she had tried to dodge to get to my back, she had brought herself pretty close to me, close enough that I could step out and stamp down on her right foot hard, pinning her in place. Ruby's eyes went wide, but her instincts were good, as she threw her scythe above her to block the blow from my claymore; or, it would have, had I thrown an attack with it.

Instead, with her foot pinned under me, I threw my weight into my shoulder and rammed it into her chest, knocking her backwards with considerable force. But because I had her foot pinned, her body tried to leave without it, resulting in a sickening pop as her ankle dislocated.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Miss Goodwitch shouted as she raced to get between us, ignoring Ruby's cries of pain. "Back away, Mr. Arc."

I did so, not necessarily because I was told to, but because the rest of team RWBY was running up the stage, and I didn't really want to be around any of them after injuring Ruby (especially not Yang).

"Get her down to the infirmary." Miss Goodwitch instructed Ruby's team, an emotion threatening to display itself in her voice for what may be the first time; unfortunately for me, that emotion sounded a lot like anger, but I could be wrong and it could just be rage. "Carry her down. Do not let her put weight on that."

Team _WBY did as instructed and rushed to take Ruby down to the nurse, but not before shooting me glares. Blue, yellow, and _red_ eyes all tried to burn holes through me.

" _Mr. Arc._ A word in my office." Miss Goodwitch demanded. I silently obliged, heading off towards where I thought it was and consulting my scroll to confirm my directions. On my way out, Miss Goodwitch began organizing the rest of the spars to take place with her absent, including the next one, in which one of the combatants hadn't returned from the lockers yet. The last thing I heard was Miss Goodwitch instructing the members of Team CRDL to go find out what was taking their leader so long. _And so that begins…_

"Oh, this would be so much easier if I didn't need to throw these fights." I mumbled to myself, still waiting for Miss Goodwitch to arrive at her own office. This wasn't even particularly something that I needed to do to avoid Ozpin's suspicions, either. This was still self-preservation, but from something much simpler: attention. After all, I may not be the most technically sound fighter in my class, or the most talented, but I was the deadliest, I was close in all those other categories, and I didn't need things to go my way to take you down. I had spent years training against a Maiden who did not hold back, and then when she was bored of that she had Vernal double-team me. Simply put, I could really apply myself and stand out in spars, and that would lead to attention. I mean, most everyone knew who Pyrrha was because of how good she is; if suddenly Pyrrha has a high-tier duelist for a partner, people are going to want to know about them. With Beacon, all sparring grades for students entering the Vytal Festival were posted, meaning that my sparring record would be public knowledge at some point. And with Beacon hosting the Vytal Festival, I'm sure there will be media searching for any good stories on the fighters; what better than a mysterious fighter from the frontier coming out of nowhere to go undefeated at Beacon? _Now that I've thrown one match and likely DQ'ed this one, I might be able to take things seriously again._ Two losses would be enough to avoid any accusations of being good, right? Unless I go on a win-streak from here on in and become some sort of relatable figure on an impressive win streak.

Besides, I could hit two stones with one bird here. _Did I just...? Two stones and a bird?_ Whatever, this could help me out in more ways than one. Seeing as its still the first week of class, no one's reputation is really set in stone yet. Well, okay, Cardin and his team have solidified their place in everyone's minds, and I would venture a guess that if Pyrrha really is as famous as it seems, her place might be cemented too, but _mine_ isn't. With a little bit of planning, I can ensure that I am not seen as a popular and friendly figure; a strange thought, for sure, but a practical one. It all boils down to less lies to tell, less people to worry about, and less time occupied hanging around with others. Sure, in later years at Beacon networking could become invaluable as a source of intelligence, but right now? Right now, all anyone is worried about is placing well in spars and being well-liked, climbing the local social ladder and establishing their place here. _I'm not exactly your average 17 year old, and given my upbringing, I think I'll be okay ostracizing myself, at least for the first year or two of Beacon._ Once everyone matures and decides that these little social games don't mean anything, then I might reach back out and make contacts I can exploit, but that's at least two years out, and I have no guarantee I'll even make it that far.

Still, it can't hurt to start preparing, I suppose.

"Take a seat." Miss Goodwitch's voice came from behind me. I did as I was told, as she walked around as sat down at her desk.

"Do you know why you are here?"

"I assume I'm here for you to congratulate me on a good fight." I answered back carefully.

" _Congratulate_ you?" She asked back indignantly. "Maybe you weren't paying attention to your own fight. As I recall, you dislocated Ruby's ankle."

"Yes, that's true. I'm with you so far."

"You intentionally pinned her foot." She added.

"I did."

"Did you know the damage you would cause?" Miss Goodwitch asked, with just a slight uncertainty in her voice. There wasn't much, but it was enough for me to take the easy way out and play the fool, albeit while begging on my knees.

"Of course I would. What sort of move would it be if I had no clue what it would do?" _Who needs the easy way out, anyways?_

"You knew her aura wouldn't stop it?" She asked back with a surprised—and angered—look.

"Not unless she focused it to reinforce the joint in her ankle. Most Huntsmen wouldn't even know how to do that, much less have the presence of mind to protect their ankle as I bashed my shoulder into them." We were playing the game now, Ozpin's game, and I was better prepared than she was. "No, I would have been surprised if she _had_ protected herself from that."

"It's troubling to hear, Mr. Arc, that you would freely admit to harming your classmate." Miss Goodwitch responded after a small pause. Now, however, the game really began. "I'll have to confer with the Headmaster, but you can certainly expect significant disciplinary action from the school." I fought the urge to roll my eyes; 'significant disciplinary action' usually meant something like taking a scholarship away or suspending you. _I have my tuition waved because Beacon doesn't charge students from no formal civilization and suspending me would be great; more free time._

"Disciplinary action?" I asked, putting on a perplexed expression. "I-I don't understand." It was Vernal, not Raven, who once told me that playing the fool works best the less you say and the more you stutter. If you speak in long, thought-out sentences and say them confidently, you don't come across as dumb. But fumble through somethings and say very little of substance? Well, you come off as naïve and insecure, which no one perceives to be threatening.

"What is there not to understand, Mr. Arc? You intentionally jeopardized the safety of another student and caused them significant harm."

"Oh," I said softly. "I hope you don't get in trouble too, then."

"I beg your pardon?" Miss Goodwitch asked, genuinely surprised.

"I said I hope you don't get in trouble too." I answered back dumbly. Whereas a smarter person would have begun explaining things, repeating yourself when asked to repeat yourself showed them you weren't reading into things. _Reading into not reading into things; how meta can this get?_

"Why on Remnant would I face repercussions for your actions, Mr. Arc?"

"You're the one who told me to win." I answered back, dragging her into mud with me.

" _I beg your pardon_?" Miss Goodwitch asked a little more angrily than the last time.

"You're the whole reason I did it." I answered back, throwing subtly out the window because I need this point to stick.

"Mr. Arc, off-loading your responsibility is never a flattering thing in any scenario, but in this case, trying to pin the blame on those tasked with keeping you honest is despicable."

"I… it's just that…" I stuttered and cut myself off, looking down despondently to my lap, then over to the corner of the floor. Miss Goodwitch wasn't known to be the most emotional of people, but all I had to do was get her to ask me to explain myself, and I would have her.

"It's just that _what_ , Mr. Arc?" Miss Goodwitch took the bait, albeit while still very angry at me.

"I wouldn't have done it unless I was trying to 'not let her win'." I stated softly, uncertainly, _perfectly_. I paused a few moments to let Miss Goodwitch's own words stew on her mind. "You told me not to let them win. You told me to win the fight. A-and now that I do, I'm in trouble?"

To her credit, Miss Goodwitch was a steady person, one who was difficult to rattle. She held her convictions well and no doubt earned the trust Ozpin has in her, but despite that it was evident on even her face that my lines were working: I could see doubt, and pity, and just the beginning tinges of guilt.

"Mr. Arc…" She started off slowly, trailing off to collect her thoughts. "What you did wasn't sparring. You sought to harm your opponent."

"Uh…duh?" I responded, really hoping that my dumb persona was working, or else I was about to get slapped. When no slap came, I knew I was winning. "That's what fighting is. You hurt your opponent until they can't hurt you. Spars just take a long time because we have aura."

"That is not how you duel an opponent, Mr. Arc. Not in our, or anyone else's, establishment."

"No, that's how you don't die growing up in the wilds." I answered back firmly, showing a little backbone while playing more at my angle. "That's a lesson that I'm thankful wasn't taught to me directly."

That was a good line, if I do say so myself. It might have even sealed the deal. Now I had her doubting her own role in the event, the malice she was certain I held when I did that attack, and the capacity in which sparring was held in the first place. _There's a reason that a school training Huntsman holds its spars against_ other _humans, even if it isn't one that the staff would ever advertise or admit to._

"I…" she cut herself off and reconsidered something. "I may need to apologize, Mr. Arc. I failed to consider that you enrolled not having any formal training, or what combat might mean to someone from more dangerous areas. I hate to ask this, especially after just accusing you of ill-will, but you mentioned the lessons you learned about combat, and the nature of dealing more pain than your opponent. Have you ever had to—"

"Yes." I cut her off quickly, refusing to meet her gaze and staring at the floor. _This is what a sad, guilty conscience would look like, right?_ "Apparently, I have a high pain tolerance, or I just hit really hard."

"And you said you didn't learn these lessons about surviving first hand?" She asked, as tenderly as could be expected from her.

"Someone close to me learned them, yes." I left it at that, letting her fill in any blanks; people are more likely to believe your lie if they're actively involved in trying to make them make sense.

"I apologize for my haste again, then. I failed to consider any external factors, but I do hope that given the nature of the situation, you can understand my impulse." I had her on the ropes. "I am…I am left in a difficult position, Mr. Arc. I would assume that you would prefer our conversation to remain private from your classmates, yes?" I nodded softly. "The issue is that your entire class witnessed that spar and saw what you did, and most of them will leap to the same conclusions I did. As Beacon's staff, we cannot allow the student body to believe such actions will be allowed to stand unchallenged. Do you understand why?"

"Uh…yeah, I guess I can see people getting out of control." _I would probably start a whole bunch of trouble, just for the sake of making things difficult for Ozpin._

"Exactly, Mr. Arc. I must hand you some form of formal punishment, but my initial plan was an…overreaction." I could tell that it was hard for her to admit that she was wrong. To her credit, though, she was sucking it up and doing it, which was an impressive feat; pride is one of the hardest obstacles to overcome, after all, and even if she is struggling with it, she's still owning up to her mistake. _It would all be so touching if I wasn't banking on making Miss Goodwitch of all people feel bad._

"Do you have anything I could do that, uh, _wouldn't_ require a huge punishment?" I asked sheepishly.

"I…yes. I have a solution, but first I'll need to know that you understand that these spars are friendly in nature, and as such, you will not endeavor to injure anyone else. Is that clear?"

"Yes." I said, before being prompted to repeat the actual words. I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes. "I will not intentionally dislocate anyone's ankles, unless challenged to a pickup game of basketball, in which case I will consult with Beacon staff about the legalities."

"Sarcasm is an unbecoming trait, Mr. Arc." Miss Goodwitch deadpanned, but still accepted my answer. "In that case, two things will happen. The first is you must go apologize to Ms. Rose as soon as the nurse allows it."

"I was already going to bring her some cookies, so that's not hard." I answered completely honestly, for probably the first time since I sat down. During lunch the previous two days, it was hard not to notice how many extra cookies Ruby had snuck from the cafeteria and from our plates. At one point, I watched her get up for another drink and come back with four cookies in her hands, despite the fact that she hadn't gone anywhere near where they were located, meaning four people lost their cookies from their trays. "The second?"

"…I'm going to have to count your match as a loss by forfeit." _Yes. Bingo._ "What? Y-you can't do that! I actually won this one!" I protested, careful not to put too little energy into it. It was hard, though, as this was my intended outcome, and it just fell in my lap. For all intents and purposes, I had just expertly played Ozpin's #2, and she was none the wiser.

"And I'm sure that this will be one of your last losses as a student of mine. Trust me, Mr. Arc, when I say that you seem to have a battle acumen that none of the other students can match. Your control of the fight and manipulation of your opponent in both of your fights so far has been impressive. A little polishing on your form and a little more practice on your attacks and I believe you'll find yourself one of your class's top fighters."

"…are you sure?" I asked, letting myself appear to be persuaded by the hope presented to me.

"There are not often any first-year teams that perform well in the Vytal Festival, but… by the time that comes around, I think we can have Team JNPR ready to challenge that."

"I, uh… I don't know what to say." I lied. I could thank her, throw myself on me knees and worship her kindness, or just walk out, but I needed her to keep the image of me she had intact, just a little longer.

"Don't say anything to me. Go apologize to Ms. Rose. I'll take care of the rest. You're dismissed."

"I will. Thank you, Miss Goodwitch." I called out as I left her office.

"Oh, Jaune, you are just too smooth some days," I congratulated myself.

* * *

Beacon's infirmary is a weird place. Supposedly, Beacon always has a resident doctor on call as well as a small nurse staff to assist, along with a small but thorough medical center. It makes sense to have a miniature hospital complete with an operating room when you run a school for kids learning to beat people up with weapons, after all. What doesn't make sense is how I have never actually spoken to anyone who has been seen by Beacon's resident doctor, and neither had Raven; it was a mystery spanning at least a decade. Nurses, sure, we have those, at least, but the hours listed for the doctor are so strange that anytime a real doctor is needed, one is 'ordered' and an appointment made for the following day. As such, the nurses here at Beacon just seem to take care of anything, regardless of whether or not they're licensed to.

The whole 'mini-hospital' thing meant that I had to walk through a small waiting room, completely empty of course. All the other things that hospitals seem to have were placed in various locations, including a set of vending machines. Why Beacon needs vending machines when you can just go to the cafeteria, I have no clue.

My thoughts were cut-off as a hand reached out and grabbed me from the direction of the vending machines I had just come from. I was yanked backwards and slammed into the wall, denting the drywall and scattering the plate of cookies I had been bringing Ruby all over the ground. The next thing I knew, I was face to face with Yang, who must have been the only person ever to have gone to use those vending machines. Red eyes bore into mine as her grip on my shoulder dug into me.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!?" Yang hissed at me, her face mere inches from me. I would be lying if I said I wasn't intimidated; it felt as if I was pinned in Raven's clutches, and just the thought of that was enough to unnerve me. The weird part, though, was I don't think I had ever seen unbridled fury in Raven's eyes like I did in Yang's. It took a lot to get Raven emotionally invested in something, after all, so this was a new experience for me.

"Well, clearly I wasn't going to take those cookies to Ruby." I answered, doing my best to keep my normal façade uncracked.

"Do you think that _cookies_ are enough to make up for what you did?!" Honestly, I wasn't sure what I would say or do to the rest of them, but I really did think that Ruby would be won over with a decent apology and a plate of sweets.

"Not now that they've been scattered across the floor. It would just be rude to—" I was cut off as Yang's grip on my shoulder dug deeper; I clenched my fists in an effort to resist wincing. "I don't think Ruby would forgive you for hurting her friends, Yang."

"And I don't think you're going to _be_ her friend much longer." Yang's words weren't a warning, but a threat. _And I never was good at handling threats subtly._

"I don't think that's yours to decide." I spat back as I reached up with my arm, locking it around the wrist of the hand Yang had my shoulder by.

"If you think that I'm going to let you go in there…"

"Why? What's so wrong about me going in to apologize?" I cut Yang off. "Is it because you know Ruby won't hold a grudge?"

"You hurt her!"

"Why can't I go apologize, then?"

"Y-you did it on purpose! You attacked my little sister!"

"Of course I attacked her! It was a _fight_ , Yang! I was going to do anything I needed to, and now I'm here to make it up to Ruby. Isn't that what I'm supposed to do?!"

Yang didn't answer. Her grip didn't lessen, but her eyes faded back to lavender as she held my gaze. Uncertainty was growing in her eyes, as was doubt, but neither came close to overtaking her anger.

"You really don't care, do you?" Yang asked hesitantly, much softer than anything else she had said so far.

"What?"

"No one matters to you except you, is that it?!" Yang's fire had been stoked and her eyes shifted back to that dangerous red as she shoved me further into the dented drywall. "First that girl at lunch, now Ruby. You do whatever is best for you and that's it, isn't it?!"

"I don't know what you're talking about." I answered back, my own anger starting to build as well. I'm normally all fine to take whatever abuses were thrown my way but having someone accuse me of being selfish was something new, and I didn't like it.

"You never even _looked_ sorry, not even when Ruby was screaming after you dislocated her ankle! The only reason you're here is because things are easier for you if you apologize! If it didn't make life easier for you, you wouldn't even be here, would you?!"

I didn't answer. I wanted to, but I froze. Her words were ironic to me, at first; it sounded exactly like she was describing Raven, which explained why she was so angry. S _he's describing the attributes of someone she finds vile, and she might as well be painting a picture of her mother._ The fact that all of this revolved around Ruby only served to expose just how aggressively protective she could be, and I would be lying if I said I didn't see myself in Yang. After all, if the roles were reversed, I probably would have already thrown Yang through the wall and started a full-on brawl. None of this was why I didn't answer, though; I didn't answer because I _was_ involved in this scenario. I wanted to see myself in Yang because that's what I would want myself to do and what I find the admiral thing to do, but I'm not in the protective role here; I'm in the selfish role, the self-absorbed role, the self-preservative role. _The 'Raven' role._ That's a hard truth to face, that right here, right now, Yang was who I wanted to be, and Raven was who I was.

"SAY SOMETHING, DAMMIT!" Yang yelled in my face. When I still held my tongue, she threw a punch at my face with her free hand. Had her grip on my shoulder held, I would not have been able to avoid it. As it were, I was able to yank her wrist up and turn myself to the side, letting her hand punch through the drywall.

"You're not even gonna deny it?" Yang asked after a few moments to cool off. Her eyes had softened and lost their red tint, and instead a new mix of emotions risked overflowing. She met my eyes one last time, and when I couldn't answer, she ran off to Ruby's room.

"No, I'm not." I mumbled to myself. "I can't afford to lie to myself like that." I felt as if I had been shown a mirror, and right now I desperately wished that I had punched the mirror before it had shown me my reflection. _No, I don't; I needed to see this. I just don't like it._ I had always known that Raven's teachings were a part of me, but until now I had done a great job of telling myself how good of a person I was for resisting them. Now, Raven's own daughter had just shattered that illusion and left me feeling like crap.

Suddenly, I no longer felt like I could go face Ruby. Unfortunately for me, I looked up to see that my team had been standing just down the hall and had witnessed the whole exchange with Yang. I met their eyes only for a brief second before I had to look away. I looked down at the cookies now, and all I could think of is how I really did think that cookies would fix everything; how I sought to take the easiest, and most shallow, path. _The cookies reflect Raven's influence on me._ I looked to the hole in the wall Yang had punched; that hole should be my face, but I wasn't man enough to take it. I should have. I should have weathered any storm and shown myself that I am not Raven. But I didn't. I did what was safest and easiest for me and let the wall take the wrath I had earned. _Why does everything have to be a damn metaphor all of a sudden?_

How is it that I stood face-to-face with her own biological daughter, and yet _I_ was the spitting-image of Raven? Cool, collected, unemotional, calculated, impartial; is that who I really am? Have I been lying to myself this whole time? I always told myself that I was the good one in the Tribe, that I was a rock that not even Raven's winds could move. Had I rolled away without knowing, or had she just smoothed my edges? Protective, moral, unmovable, steady, loyal, familial; _that's_ what I always told myself I was. But between Yang and I?

Just because I came to grips with a harsh reality didn't mean that I took it well, as in anger I put my fist through the wall, just next to where Yang had done the same. I turned and stormed off, unable to face anymore harsh truths for now. My team called after me, but I rounded the corner and left the infirmary altogether, seeking to get lost in Beacon and find a place to avoid everything to think.

It was a selfish choice, I'll admit, but it appears that I've been making more and more of those recently, so what's one fucking more, huh?

* * *

Ozpin's POV

* * *

An alert flashed on the screen of the computer at my desk that I had been working at for a while now; it was an elevator alert, letting me know that someone was in the elevator and headed to my office. My scroll was set up to receive such notifications when I was out of the office, too, always giving me the opportunity to sneak up on any unsuspecting visitors. Seeing as I had been sorting through emails about catering and security clearance requests for the not-too-distant Vytal Festival, I welcomed the distraction and switched over to the security feeds. Beacon had no official security office as it had no official standing security force, such things not being necessary to protect an army of young Huntsmen and Huntresses, not to mention professionals serving as their professors. As such, all of the security footage was ran through Beacon's servers and accessible by all staff, although only editable by myself. I pulled up the security camera in the elevator and, surely enough, Miss Goodwitch waited very impatiently during her accent up Beacon Tower.

"Ah, Glynda." I greeted as the elevator doors opened, pretending to still be doing work at my desk. "To what do I owe the pleasure? I hope I haven't misfiled something again." In all likelihood I had, but she just hadn't found out what yet. Paper-pushing is one of the few skills that I have yet to master throughout my many lives, although I can't say it's one that I've been particularly motivated to work on.

"Murder." Glynda answered back flatly.

"There's been a murder at my school and I'm just now hearing about it?" I asked with an eyebrow arched.

"There is going to be one just as soon as I can find Mr. Arc." She answered back, not caring to hide her anger and frustration.

"I see. Well, I'm not entirely sure of the legality of the issue, but I'm somewhat certain that the legal staff would advise against that." I answered back, closing out of the blank page I was pretending to look at. "What is the issue?"

"Two." Glynda corrected me. "There are two issues."

"Well, please tell me what one of them is, at least." I answered back, revealing my impatience.

"Mr. Arc injured another student during my sparring session today; Ms. Rose, to be specific." Glynda explained flatly, in her usual way. That meant that she had cut out most every pertinent detail, and I would have to coax it out of her, like always. _A rather tiresome game, if you ask me._

"That's unfortunate. Is a claim going to be made against our insurance?" I asked, hoping to stir up Miss Goodwitch by jumping to administrative processes and ignoring what she was getting at.

"It was intentional."

"And how do you know that?" I challenged. Knowing Glynda, she would probably be able (and prepared) to prove it before a jury if she thought it important enough to bring to me.

"Pull up the video records from the arena. You'll see." I did so, clicking through the application until I found what I was looking for. "Click towards the end." I did so and saw a clip of Mr. Arc trading blows with Ms. Rose, perfectly content to abuse his aura advantage. When Ms. Rose backed off, he launched two attacks, the second of which he feinted.

"Hmmm. That _did_ seem like a planned move, but how can you be sure that he knew the damage it would cause?"

"He admitted as much to me freely when I debriefed him in my office." It took everything within me to neither laugh, smile, nor cough awkwardly after that sentence. _Qrow has had far too great an influence on me._ "But he brought up that he had never had 'friendly' spars growing up, so that when I told him not to throw his matches, he took it as win at all costs."

"And you believed him?" I asked.

"I…yes. He made valid points and seemed confused that he was in trouble. I counted the match as a loss by forfeit for Mr. Arc and let him off on the condition that he apologize to Ms. Rose."

"That's very lenient of you." I observed, only serving to deepen her scowl. "I'm taking it that this was a mistake?"

"The _other_ issue…" She avoided my question. "…is that one of our students, Cardin Winchester, was assaulted in the boys' locker room just before my sparring class, which was only discovered when he never showed up for his match. His teammates found him unconscious and…"

"And?" I asked, fully knowing what would come next. There was a reason that I spent so much effort following my students' social media traffic, because sometimes things like this just fell into your lap.

"The attack was meant to be a humiliation of sorts. There is a photo of Mr. Winchester unconscious on the ground while wearing a pair of…bunny ears." Ah, yes indeed, there is such a photo, and judging by the way it spread throughout Beacon's student body, I would say that it achieved its goal of humiliation. "I tracked down the student whose account was used to upload the first image, but her scroll had been stolen and was left in the boys' locker room, next to Mr. Winchester. It revealed no fingerprints, either."

"You dusted the scroll for prints?" I asked, somewhat incredulously. "That's awfully thorough of you. How does this relate back to Mr. Arc?"

"Mr. Arc was the only other male student fighting in the first batch of spars. As such, he's the only one who would have went back with Mr. Winchester around the time of the attack."

"And you let this student convince you that he was naïve enough not to punish for attacking another student, not aware that this was becoming a pattern?" I accused, more to rile her up than anything.

"I was ill-prepared for our conversation, yes. He understood his role of the 'frontier boy' very well and played it to his advantage." _And fooled Glynda Goodwitch completely, no less._ While this new habit of injuring other students is worrisome, it appears my initial impression of Mr. Arc's intuition and cunning was correct. And really, at the end of the day, isn't me being correct all that matters? _If you ask Oobleck, he would certainly tell you that I think it is._

"Well, if this Mr. Arc is so problematic, I'm sure we could levy a suspension; after all, we do have security footage of the locker rooms." I offered.

"Check." Miss Goodwitch hissed out angrily. I did so, switching over from the sparring footage and scrolling through camera feeds until I found the correct one. The camera was on, but it was not recording, and there was no archived footage from the past week.

"There are no recordings." I stated plainly.

"Precisely. Exactly 7 days of footage prior to when my class starts, down to the minute, are missing." She stated, her anger continuing to build. "That screams to me that this was premeditated."

"I'm…going to have to ask you to say that again, more slowly." I responded, trying to get Glynda to think through things a little more.

"The camera has not been recording for a full week exactly. That means this attack had to be premeditated, and if this attack was, then the attack on Ms. Rose likely was too."

"Glynda…" I countered with a sigh. "I do appreciate how thorough you are in protecting the students, I really do, but I also do think that you are holding a grudge against Mr. Arc unfairly."

"How can you say that?"

"For starters, Glynda, classes haven't been in session for a full week. Seven days ago, Mr. Arc was not even accepted into Beacon's incoming class. Do you mean to tell me that he wanted to humiliate Cardin Winchester so badly that he sabotaged Beacon's boys' locker room's camera before he was ever accepted into Beacon, just so this attack could occur?"

Glynda's silence was telling. This was an unusual exchange for us, considering most of our interactions involved her passive-aggressively complaining to me about my inabilities to properly file away paperwork, causing her to do it (with the understanding that I had no intention of doing it, anyways).

"I appreciate your concern and your diligence here, but I think that maybe you should consider any of the students who were not in that class at all and thus free to attack Mr. Winchester without needing to return to the spars. As it is, Mr. Arc is a student that I have taken a personal interest in, and as such, I can tell you that your time would be better spent looking elsewhere for your attacker. Dr. Oobleck has even expressed his concerns to me about Mr. Winchester's disdain towards faunus during his classes; that added to the rabbit ears pinned to his head might have been some rogue form of social justice enacted by an angry classmate. There are rabbit faunus in our school who have very overprotective teammates, after all."

"I apologize. I haven't been thinking straight and I may have—" I cut Glynda off with a wave of my hand.

"It's fine, Glynda. I already told you that I appreciate the seriousness that you treated this issue with. I'm just glad you expressed your concerns before you found Mr. Arc." _I'm also glad that wherever he is, Mr. Arc had the capacity to stay hidden from you._ "If there isn't anything else, I have more paperwork here that I need to work on filing." I lied badly.

"No, that is it. Thank you, Headmaster." As Glynda walked back to the elevator and left the room, I rolled my eyes at her insistence for using formal titles at all times. This isn't Atlas, after all. _Though she would_ thrive _in such a militaristic society if James ever lured her away from Beacon; I can't afford for that to happen. Who will keep Beacon running then?_

With Glynda gone, I opened up the secure files stored only on my computer's hard drive and entered my password. It opened and I scrolled through until I found what I was looking for: security footage from the boys' locker room from earlier today. The video played to reveal Mr. Winchester standing with his locker open when Mr. Arc came from the side and slammed the locker door into the side of Mr. Winchester's head. Not content, he grabbed Mr. Winchester and slammed him face-first into the front of the next locker over, before yanking him down to slam his face against the metal shelf inside the locker. Mr. Winchester slumped to the ground, where Mr. Arc proceeded to place bunny ears on his head and snap a photo of him with a scroll, both the bunny ears and scroll having been in his back pockets. Mr. Arc's last move before leaving the camera frame was to wipe down the scroll on his shirt, presumably for fingerprints, before leaving it behind.

"Well, Mr. Arc, you just get more and more interesting by the day. Lying to my face was impressive, but making a fool out of Miss Goodwitch? It was a shame that you didn't care enough to do something about this footage."

It was fortunate that he was wise enough to wipe his fingerprints from the scroll. I can't imagine any world where such a concern would be taken seriously after an action as, well, insignificant as bullying the class bully, but his paranoia had saved him from Miss Goodwitch. And to think that she thought he had sabotaged the camera a week ago so that it would not record footage. What's more believable, that Mr. Arc is a super-spy capable of sabotaging our security, or a bored headmaster can't risk his most interesting student getting caught and covering his tracks for him? Wiping the last week of footage and then turning off the camera's recording function was just supposed to make it look like we forgot to turn it on at the start of the semester. Who would have thought that Glynda would mistake that for Mr. Arc being an omnipotent agent of chaos?

"I do wish he would stop punching innocent walls, however. He and Ms. Xiao Long are proving to be quite the destructive pair; I would hate to see what they could do together." Somewhere in the back of my mind, I made a mental note to increase Beacon's collateral-damage insurance coverage, just in case the two of them ever went out drinking. _Knowing her Uncle, it's a matter of when, not it._ It's true that every class seems to have its more destructive types, but those two in addition to Ms. Valkyrie? _Sheesh; what would I do without Glynda?_

I closed out of the secure files, but not before adding a copy of Mr. Arc's spars with both Mr. Winchester and Ms. Rose to them. I searched through my applications until I found the one I was looking for, the one I used to communicate with my undercover Huntsmen and Huntresses. It was a marvelously complicated online set of firewalls and encrypted coding, not to mention that all messages were written in my own code anyways. It served more as a discrete message-board, with agents knowing to check in for new assignments or orders periodically. If they needed to contact me directly, there were other protocols for that, but if messages that aren't time sensitive needed to be passed securely, this was the way.

I posted a new order for specifically Qrow. Officially, it was an order for a report, but it was an order for a report _in person_ , making it effectively an order back to base. It was unfortunate that it might waste whatever intel might be uncovered should Qrow stay underground, but with the Vytal Festival being hosted by Beacon this year, he would be called back soon anyways. This was just moving the timetable up a little.

Of course, if he knew why, he wouldn't be happy. He never does like being asked to 'babysit.' That's unfortunate, because that's exactly what he's going to see this as, too. Quite frankly, as weird as this feels to say, I need him here because he's quite possibly the best person for this kid to relate too. If his recent behaviors are any indication, he's clearly grown up with less-than-stellar role models, and given his life in the frontier, it wouldn't be hard to figure out that he was raised by outlaws or raiders. It would explain, too, why he was so unwilling to admit his past, as there are likely sins he would rather not admit to. It does make me wonder why he's here at Beacon; as unlikely as it sounds, there is a chance he's here to grow more powerful like Raven and Qrow, but something about this last incident makes me shy away from that. If he was angry with Mr. Winchester, I'm sure he would have taken it out on him during their spar, not let the man win so easily. His actions seem to have a purpose, and given the bunny ears, quite possibly seem to be vengeance of some sort, if not a comeuppance. That would suggest a basic moral code governs his actions, and no matter how flimsy it may be, it's something I can work with.

I just need the right man, or bird, for the job.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Oh boy, I just can't _wait_ to see what you guys think of this.  
**

 **All kidding aside, this is the start of the first arc of this story, though looking back I feel like we'll say that this was almost more of a mini-arc than anything else. This is Jaune's first real, decisive action taken towards establishing who he wants to be seen as during his time at Beacon, and then that comes back and smacks him in the face when confronted by Yang. Simply put, planning out your actions and accepting the consequences are a lot easier than actually _doing_ it, and Jaune is getting a taste of that here. Plus, the symbolism during his 'talk' with Yang isn't lost on him either.  
 _Oh, and don't forget that Yang is scary when she's Yangry._  
**

 **Plus, we get to see more of the conniving old man Ozpin, he who sips from his mug and smirks at the petty mortals around him. Jaune is fast becoming Ozpin's favorite student to watch because, seriously, anyone who would take on Glynda like that is insane.**

 **Also, yes, 'right bird for the job' is the most obvious reference I think I could make. I still can't wait to see just how mixed the takes will be, so fire up the comment machine and let me have it! :P**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by user _Axle09_ on **Ch. 3**

 _"_ 'Ow, Nora!' Jaune whined. "Assaulting a team leader? That's borderline blasphemy."

 _don't you mean mutiny?_ "

 **Well, yes and no. My unofficial beta for this story is my sister, who has teased me on more than one occasion because Jaune's toxic sarcasm sounds** _exactly_ **like me, which makes sense, considering that I am the one writing the dialogue of my own story. This would be an instance where I subconsciously put one of the staples of my vocabulary directly into Jaune's mouth. Seeing as I am of sharp wit, cynical nature, and inclined towards exaggeration and self-depreciation, I'm actually a pretty spot-on model for what I wanted Jaune to be here.**

 **Whenever I am slighted by someone and don't actually care about it, instead of joking about being betrayed, I almost always go with calling the action "blasphemous" and accuse the person of "blasphemy." I feel like this is even more ridiculous that accusing them of betraying me, as it implies that there is a powerful religion based around worshiping me, and by slighting me, you are committing a crime against the Church of Ikedawg43. I found it so funny the first time I used it that I used it over and over until now it's almost an automatic response when I want to complain in the least serious way possible.**

 **The fact that this made its way into the story just means that my editing isn't foolproof, but if you guys wanna read it as Jaune is secretly a cult leader, I won't say anything. Thanks for the comment** _Axle_ **, and sorry for any confusion!**

* * *

 **Oct 19, 2018 Addendum : Wow. The Church of Ikedawg43 came up as early as Chapter 5. That's...huh, that's something. No mentions of **_Turquoise_ **yet, but still...**

* * *

 **Contest Winner: That's right, ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner. I challenged anyone to guess what Jaune's new claymore and fighting style were based off of, and user** _Xealchim_ **nailed it: it's based off of the Highlander character in the fighting game _For Honor_. If you don't know, _For Honor_ is a fighting game that simulates sword-combat in a 3D setting, where you can attack and block from either side or from the top. I never got into fighting games, but something about the immersion and power fantasy of what feels as close to real swordplay as a controller can offer sucked me in. The system has its quirks, but I can't ever go back to _any_ other fantasy, hack-n-slash, or melee game without feeling like there's a massive hole in the gameplay.**

 **I am approaching a month of playtime in the game. _Yeah, yeah, insert 'dead game' joke here, whatever._ Jaune's style with his claymore is pretty much lifted from how the Highlander plays, at least early on in the story, mainly because I feel it did a decent job of getting across that the claymore wasn't the weapon, Jaune was. After all, he was just as effective with kicks and the pommel of the weapon as he was with the actual blade, and since he was trained more in broadsword and katana styles, it makes sense that he struggle with a ridiculously large weapon.**

 **As fun as it was for me to start with some _For Honor_ moves for Jaune, as the story progresses that will evolve significantly. And it gets _so_ much cooler when it does, trust me.**


	6. Caged

**[REFINED Oct 24, 2018] Author's Note: Nothing of consequence.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5:** _"Look, you have this easier than I did. All you have to do is not get emotionally attached. That will make is so easier to leave when the time comes. Things were complicated for me because I got knocked up. What, you thought I was emotionally attached? Get lost, kiddo." - Raven Branwen_

* * *

Qrow's POV

* * *

"So, are you going to tell me what this is about?" I asked with a grumble as I took out my flask.

"Well, normally when I request a briefing, as shocking as this may sound, I want a briefing." Ozpin replied with a smirk from behind his desk, already starting his little games.

"And you know damn well that I wasn't under long enough to learn anything useful, but you called me back anyways. What's this about, Oz?" I hadn't been under for long, and progress was slow. Any leads I had were flimsy at best and a waste of my time at the most likely. If I am honest, I was glad to have been called back, but worried about whatever games Oz is playing; those tended to result in headaches for everyone Oz trusted to do his work for him, meaning myself or Glynda. I took a swig from my flask, prepping myself for whatever was to come.

"This year's batch of students are…interesting." Oz mused from behind his coffee mug. "Tell me, do you know who my favorite student is?"

"Favorite, or most interesting?" I countered, earning a noncommittal smirk from the headmaster. It was clear that he was genuinely amused, something that I am all too familiar with. It didn't take anyone long to learn that Ozpin placed an inordinate amount of value on 'projects' that needed some serious development or on students whose biggest feature was some interesting storyline Ozpin liked to follow. _Raven and I had both of those, too, what with our original reasons for joining Beacon, and on top of that we had Summer and her silver eyes_. "It wouldn't be Yang, not when you have _Ruby_ too, and those are the only two that you would have called _me_ in to gloat over." I accused, throwing in a glare.

"Ah, yes, and wasn't that quite the surprise, finding out Ms. Rose had helped interfere with a burglary that not even Glynda was able to fully stop; I knew that I had to meet her after that. Such a brave and talented individual was certainly worth seeing in person, after all." Ozpin took a long sip from his mug, letting the silence fill the air. "But to find out when I met her that Summer's daughter had inherited her silver eyes? My, was _that_ quite the bit of news."

"Oz…" I began to plead (or maybe explain; I'm not sure what my plan actually was), only to be cut off.

"Summer's daughter both had silver eyes and had dedicated herself to becoming a Huntress, _just like her mother_ , and yet I was just finding out. Now, Taiyang and I were never on the best terms, but we did not have anything against one another, and I did trust him enough to place him at Signal. You, however, are somewhat closer to me that Tai." Oz accused, still hiding behind his mug. "For my own left-hand man—some would even say my spymaster—to not tell me of such _interesting_ things is disconcerting, is it not?"

Trying to keep Ruby out of this wasn't my idea originally, but it was something I got behind. After Summer's death, when Tai nearly fell apart, I had to step in and convince Oz to take him out of the field. It was a shame, because for all of his flaws, Tai could befriend _anyone_ and because of that he was a really good underground agent. When he came out his spiraling for good, he hated the idea of Ruby following her mom's footsteps, but he just didn't have the heart to deny his girls their dreams of becoming Huntresses. After a long night of talks, we decided that we would do our best to keep Ruby out of Ozpin's interests, or failing that, that we would get to her first…when she was old enough. When Yang applied to and got into Beacon, Tai decided that he would maybe sabotage Ruby's applications when she got that age. After all, with his position at Signal and my former ties to Signal during my brief stint there, we were natural choices to ask for references on those applications. I don't know how I'd live with myself if I had to crush Ruby's dream by writing her a scathing referral, but if Ruby got in regardless, Tai would have my head. I _thought_ we still had time, though, until pretty recently when I found out that Ruby was accepted—no, _recruited_ , really—two years early.

I refused to answer Ozpin's accusation, having learned long ago that Ozpin always used the silences against you, unless you embraced them. Patience was not his strong suit, despite however much he might claim he's learned the value of it over his lives, so all I had to do was wait and see where he wanted this to go. It would be more like Ironwood than Oz to call me out of the field just to berate me over something like this, but I can't deny that Jimmy hasn't had Oz's ear recently.

"You can relax, Qrow; I'm not accusing you." Oz broke the tension, taking a sip from his mug and leaning back in his chair, relaxing is posture to put me more at ease. "Nor do I blame you or Tai from wanting to keep Ruby away from my war, but getting back to my original point, she is not the most interesting student in her class, nor the reason I called you back."

"Then who is?" I asked, slightly confused but relieved nonetheless. I took a sip from my flask to help ease the tension, the same way Oz had with his mug, except my drink helps with that more.

"Jaune _Arc_." Ozpin replied smugly, emphasizing the last name.

" _Arc?_ " I asked incredulously. "There's no way."

"That is about what my initial reaction was, too." Ozpin hid his smirk behind his mug.

"They're all gone. She put a lot of effort into ensuring that."

"That she did." Oz confirmed. "And I'm sure you remember the events leading up to that quite well." Yeah, like hell I did. That was the last major event Raven and I worked on before she abandoned us. Oz needed us to find the last few members of the Arc family before Salem did, and we couldn't. We only found bodies, with no signs of survivors. _I always felt like that was Raven's tipping point, when she decided she'd be better off away from both Salem's and Ozpin's clutches; I never thought her the type to get attached to families, though, but seeing one slaughtered like that was difficult._ "Given what we know now about Raven's motives at the time, it is possible that she falsified her reports or never even investigated the matter. She could have been using the time to orchestrate her flight, keeping our focus away from her."

"I was there, too. My reports aren't false." I answered back firmly.

"And those indicated a lot of ground to cover throughout the wilds of Remnant. Am I to assume that you both worked hand-in-hand the whole time?" Oz asked leadingly.

"No." I answered back simply. It was no big secret that my sister and I never got along great and worked together even worse, outside of fighting, that is. Tai used to joke that Oz turned us into birds so that we could fly as far away from each other as possible, and he wasn't completely wrong. "But her reports were too good to just be faked."

"Yes, her reports gave us great details on how we had _nothing actionable_ left to do, just like yours did. Is it not possible that she mimicked your reports to cover her own tracks or added details that would discourage us from suspecting he actual activity?" Oz set his mug down and dismissed the discussion.

"You've clearly been thinking about this a lot. Do you really think she faked her reports?" I asked after pausing to think.

"I cannot be certain." Oz stood from his chair and walked to the window, looking out over the grounds as he thought. "Whether or not Raven sabotaged us in the past, I have a student who has grown up on his own in the wilds since he was about four with _that_ last name and an ability to outwit Glynda Goodwitch with his life on the line."

"He did what now?" I asked, capping my flask and returning it to its spot. With all this new information, I wasn't convinced that I wasn't passed out somewhere and hallucinating. "I have to meet this kid now... and buy him a drink."

"Well, it appears you're about to get your wish, on one of those accounts, anyhow." Oz answered as an alert popped up on his screen. "He's on his way up the elevator now."

"What, so you want us to meet? Is _that_ the whole reason you brought me in?"

" _Us_? I am about to have a conference with a troublesome student without _anyone_ else in the room, whatsoever. These are private matters, after all." Oz said with a grin that belied his words, not even trying to be subtle about his plan.

"…and where do you propose I hide in the next ten seconds?"

I immediately regretted asking that question, because out from behind his desk, Ozpin reached down and pulled up a bird cage, setting it on the edge of his desk with a genuine and evil smile.

"I'm filing for harassment." I grumbled, shifting into a bird and flying into the cage just in time for the elevator doors to ping open. Ozpin latched the cage shut, playing it off as having just put me in the cage himself.

"Ah, Mr. Arc," Oz called out as the boy stepped forward. He was tall and decently built for his age, with the characteristic blond hair and blue eyes expected given his surname. "Please, take a seat." As the boy walked forward, his eyes never left my cage, giving me a strange look.

"Are we allowed to have pets now?" The boy asked, looking back to Ozpin. I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes or shout something offensive back at the boy about his mother for calling me Ozpin's pet, something that I have no doubts Oz will bring up later. _If Raven could see this, I would never live it down._

"Ah, well…officially? No. But as long as Miss Goodwitch doesn't catch you…" Ozpin trailed off. It would have been a decent joke if it didn't describe most all of Beacon's policies.

"Cool. Why a crow?" The boy asked, looking back over me quizzically.

"Actually, it's a raven," Ozpin lied. "They used to be messenger birds back in _ye olden days_ when I was young, and some of us old people still like the novelty of receiving a scroll via bird in the same way that I'm told younger students find receiving paper mail novel. That's why these things are called 'scrollss'" Oz said, waiving his scroll around to make a point.

"A raven, huh? What's the difference between a raven and a crow?" The boy asked. _A whole hell of a lot, kid_.

"Oh, all sorts of things. Ravens are typically the more useful bird and biologically are better in fights, but if you're asking how to differentiate, I believe they have different tails." Ozpin answered, not at all talking about actual birds. It took everything in me not to squawk indignantly at Ozpin or hop out and take a dump on his desk, but something told me that would blow my cover. _Sentient birds, or at least those capable of knowing when they're being slandered, tend to raise questions._

"Neat. Why am I here?" The boy switched gears as he looked back to Ozpin. I had no context as to _how_ this kid had outwitted Glynda, so I don't have any idea what to suspect from him. If _I_ were going to fool Glynda on something (as a student; she would never trust a word coming from my mouth as is), I would play into her strict, totalitarian adherence to law and order. I would probably go for the naïve goody two-shoes kid who was just trying his best to follow the rules down to the letter, confused by some _other_ kids who weren't doing that. In my quest to understand if it was okay for these students to break the rules, of course I would name them and give such vivid descriptions of what they did wrong, maybe even going so far as to add some things that they 'said' about Miss Goodwitch. That's the only real way I could see someone getting the best of her, since appeals to emotion would get you diddlysquat. _That won't work here, though, leaving me with no expectations of what is to come._

"There are a couple of things I wanted to discuss, starting with your background we discussed last time."

"What about it?" The kid was evasive, which didn't tell me much of anything, but there was no real disrespect or malice in his words. Not yet, anyways.

"For starters, that none of it was true. I would say that's a good place to start, wouldn't you?" Oz cut to the chase. The boy didn't so much as flinch, however.

"Oh, I don't know, I rather liked that backstory. It was so easy and clean." The boy answered nonchalantly.

"Mr. Arc, I want to assure you that I do not actually have any particular desire to drag up your previous life so long as I believe that your future can outweigh it. But whatever skeletons you may have in your closet I do need to know about so that I can protect you from them in the future." Ozpin's offer probably didn't sound believable to this kid, but it wasn't unusual for him, nor was Ozpin's point false. Having been in this kid's place myself, I can confirm that this offer sounds like an obvious trap; it's one of those things that sounds too good to be true. _However, with a little paranoia,_ everything _sounds too good to be true._ Over time, Oz was able to convince me that he actually did mean this. _Actually, it had less to do with Oz and more to do with Summer and Tai working on me._ Looking back, Ozpin has done far worse things in all of his previous lives for me to have been concerned about what I had done. My biggest regret, however, is thinking that Raven ever believed she could leave the past behind and accept the nearly identical offer he extended us both so long ago.

"You should be careful what you want to be complicit in, Headmaster." The boy answered back without any hostile edge to his tone; in fact, he sounded tired or almost saddened, perhaps even weary. "There are no good people in the frontier, only living ones." _He wasn't wrong, per say, but he wasn't necessarily right either._

"And you're not in the frontier anymore, are you, Mr. Arc?" Oz countered carefully. "I'd like to think that I offer people a chance to bury their past and become someone better. You wouldn't happen to know anyone to whom that might apply?" Oz gave a smirk, but not his usual smirk he used when playing games with you; this was more of a friendly smirk you would give someone you were making an inside joke to, which worked much better in this situation than his other smirk would have.

The kid actually considered it, too. His posture _had_ been slumped for most of the time he had been in here, acting as if something had been eating away at him. I was still wary of anything this kid did, more so than Oz because I'm still unfamiliar with this situation, but the kid looked drained. Something had to have been bothering him before this and possibly was still predominantly on his mind right now. Ozpin recognized it too.

"But that's not why I called you in here, Mr. Arc. It is currently my belief that you are _not_ a criminal mastermind, no matter how much Miss Goodwitch may have been convinced so. I don't read nearly as much into events as she does." Ozpin finished and took a sip of his coffee—if he even has any coffee left in there. _One of Ozpin's favorite games is to take so many sips of his coffee that everyone becomes distracted wondering if he is just pretending to drink from an empty cup._ In truth, that mug is just as special to him as his cane, seeing as he imbued some of his magic into it so that it _never_ needs a refill. One of these days, I'm going to get him to do that to my flask.

"Is _that_ what this is about?" The kid asked incredulously, regaining some fire and breaking me from my thoughts. "I thought Miss Goodwitch finally cleared me of that incident with Cardin."

Ozpin didn't answer verbally (he did smirk, though), instead pulling up a video on his computer screen. Because of the holographic nature of the screen, we all could see the video playing, revealing Mr. Arc viciously knocking out another student in the locker room, only to take a humiliating photo afterwards.

"You know, something tells me that had Miss Goodwitch ever found this footage, we would be having a much different conversation." Ozpin added smugly to the surprise on the kids face.

"What, are you going to _blackmail_ me?" The kid asked, trying to hide his defensiveness behind a bit of sarcasm and an accusation of his own. While it didn't work, it wasn't a horrible strategy and it showed that he did have some wits about him after all.

"Currently, I have no such plans, but it has been two days since this incident and there has been no official resolution of this matter. Seeing as the field trip to Forever Fall takes place this weekend—so, tomorrow, as it were—I figured it would be irresponsible for me to allow Mr. Winchester to be alone in a forest with his previous attacker, _whoever that might be_. Wouldn't you agree?"

" _Yes._ " The kid grumbled back, giving in to Oz's pressure.

"As I said earlier, I do understand that growing up in such a harsh environment as the frontier makes people a certain way, but I have seen for myself what time away from that environment and a good team can do to counteract that." _Yeah, and you've also seen how that can fail, too, sometimes with the exact same team._ Ozpin took a sip of his mug, letting the silence fill the air. The kid looked impatient, but otherwise seemed to understand the tactic. "Recently, however, I have been concerned by your actions. The incidents with Ms. Rose and Mr. Winchester I'm sure could be explained away, and I am aware that Mr. Winchester had it coming—Dr. Oobleck informed me on why the bunny ears were so appropriate, and dare I say, popular among the students' social media. However, since these events, you haven't been getting along well with your team or team RWBY, which concerns me."

"I…no." The boy didn't seem surprised at Ozpin's knowledge of the situation, meaning he either didn't care or wasn't surprised that the headmaster knew so much. _He may already know that Oz is watching him, and if so, none of his reactions here might me genuine. Ozpin wouldn't have called me in for nothing, after all._

"I do not believe this to be a failing on their part to reach out, either. Do you know what Ms. Rose told Miss Goodwitch when asked whether you had fulfilled your promise to apologize to her?" Ozpin set his mug down, looking Mr. Arc directly in the eye.

"No. I don't." The boy answered, having the good sense to seem ashamed or embarrassed by the topic, if only slightly.

"She lied straight to Miss Goodwitch's face and defended you. Now, it would take a masterful liar to have fooled Miss Goodwitch, which Ruby is not." Ozpin added that last part, hiding a smug grin behind a sip of his coffee. The boy's reaction was mixed, but the way he returned Oz's stare suggested that he understood that Ozpin was referencing how he did get away with lying to Glynda.

"What's your point to all of this?" The boy asked, finally having his patience worn down enough. It was just what Oz was waiting for.

"My point, Mr. Arc, is that all of this paints a very troubling picture of a young man struggling to leave his past behind him." Oz was careful not to said accusatory, instead trying to come across as concerned and saddened. "I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt to say that you joined my school to become something better, and I am eager to help in that goal; it is why I let you into Beacon in the first place." Chances are, that was probably true, but not 100% of the truth. Oz let this kid in because his name was too interesting not to. "However, now that you have made it relevant through your actions, I no longer can permit not knowing what I'm dealing with here."

"I'm not going to get out of this, am I?" The boy asked after a long sigh, turning to look around the room in an effort not to make eye contact. His shoulders slumped once again, echoing the defeated vibe he gave off at the beginning of the conversation.

"To be fair, the incident between you and Ms. Rose is insignificant; this is, after all, a combat school. Such things happen during spars, whether intentional or not. What concerns me is how a rather minor incident has impacted your relationships to your teammates and Team RWBY. I would prefer to hear things from you and see what I can do to help, rather than let things fizzle out." Ozpin's words were frank as he laid his cards out on the table. It was a gesture of good faith to anyone who was used to verbal spars, but this wasn't just Ozpin waving a white flag; Oz was giving up _a_ motive of his, but not all of them.

The kid took a deep breath but not broke his absentminded stare at the floor, lost in thought. Oz was patient, but not _very_ patient.

"If you prefer, I could give Miss Goodwitch everything I have on you and let her sort things out." Ozpin's joke wasn't exactly the safest joke to make considering the tension, but it's probably far tamer than anything I would say.

"But you'd _never_ blackmail me, would you?" The boy asked back with a roll of his eyes. "Fine. Ask away, why not…"

"Who trained you?" Ozpin started off, opting for a relevant but less invasive question to get things rolling.

"Experience." The boy answered back simply. "It's the best teacher there is, if not the cruelest."

"Your spar with Mr. Rose indicates that, to you, a fight is about survival. You learned that…?" Oz trailed of carefully.

"Through experience, sure. I never allowed myself to learn that one the hard way, but I was around people who did." The boy answered back confidently, but softly still. "I can't always say I was sad to see them gone, either."

"Around people who learned this, or fought against people who learned it?" Ozpin asked, zeroing in on an important detail.

"That's not a question you want the answer to." The boy evaded, looking away to study the colors of the wall.

"Want and need are two different things, Mr. Arc." Ozpin answered sternly. "If it helps you to know, you wouldn't be my first student with an unsavory past. This wouldn't even be the worst in your class, I suspect."

"Somehow, I'll have to see that to believe it." The boy answered softly, turning his head back to face Oz once more. "I'm sure you're aware that a life like mine wasn't black and white. There are things I wish I hadn't gotten wrapped up in, and yes, there are…bodies." The words weren't hard for the boy to say, meaning he had moved on from them, but he was still reluctant to admit them. "And those two things may not overlap completely." The boy's eyes had hardened somewhat as he didn't break eye-contact with Ozpin. _Plural; he said 'bodie_ _s_ Ozpin nodded softly, taking a long sip of his coffee as he looked over the boy and decided what to do next.

"What sort of things do you wish you hadn't gotten wrapped up in?" Ozpin asked, choosing (probably wisely) not to push that one issue too far. That the kid had opened up this much was good, but it was unlikely, and it would be unwise to ruin it.

"I was desperate to find a place I could belong, to find people I could hold tightly. The only ones I found were, well, really bad people. Raiders, bandits, outlaws; anyone who had need of a kid with good sword skills took me in. I worked with people like that for a long time."

"And now you're here. What changed?"

"Me. I never liked helping them attack people, or at least I told myself that. Once I realized that I couldn't keep telling myself I was the good guy in the group, I left."

"And that's why you're here? To try to regain your morality?" Ozpin prompted.

"No. I'm here to find out if I ever had any." The kid answered softly, refusing to meet Oz's eyes. "It hasn't taken me long to realize that I did not. I can't stand being around my team because it's clear that they have what I don't." Everything in me told me the kid was being honest, largely because I remember being in his exact same situation and thinking the same things. I didn't have an Ozpin there to bring me back, though; I had a Summer Rose (and to a lesser extent Tai), meaning that I almost had no choice in the matter; I was going to become a good person whether I liked it or not. _I can see what Oz wants from me now; this kid needs someone, but gods I hope Oz just wants me to help find someone for this kid. I really don't want to babysit, and I am_ not _Summer._

"Mr. Arc, I thought I made it clear that I needed the truth from you." Ozpin countered, taking both the kid and me by surprise. The kid was genuinely confused now, and his posture went rigid reflexively.

"I don't know what you're talking about." The kid seemed confused, and he wouldn't have been the only one.

"All of that came from the simple question about who trained you, and yet your answer there was a lie. Now tell me, Mr. Arc, who taught you how to fight?" Ozpin pushed, apparently knowing something I didn't.

"If you're not going to believe me, then I don't know what I'm still doing here." The kid spat back angrily, rising from the chair and beginning to leave.

"Aura Manipulation, Mr. Arc." Ozpin called out, stopping him from turning and walking out. "During Miss Goodwitch's initial interview with you—you know, the one where you played her for a fool to get out of trouble—you were very familiar—casual even—with the concepts of aura manipulation and how difficult it would be during combat. Something about knowing that Ms. Rose wouldn't have been able to use it to protect her ankle is what Miss Goodwitch indicated to me; that implies a much higher level of training in combat arts than experience can give you."

Ozpin and the kid locked eyes, before the kid broke it with a laugh. " _That's_ your ace in the hole? _Aura manipulation_?" The kid held out his arm before bringing it down to smash the wooden chair he had been sitting in. When he brought it back up, it was glowing with a soft, light-yellow aura. "I know so much about aura manipulation because that's how my semblance works. I can manipulate auras." The kid's explanation was vague, and that felt intentional, but there was no denying what he was showing off.

"And this is why you were so popular among bandits?" Ozpin asked, trying to recover with any question. The kid ignored it completely, instead walking off towards the elevator.

"And to think I got all worked up over this, too. Now, am I free to go?" He called out, already halfway to the elevator. After a few tense moments, Ozpin nodded, and the boy disappeared into the lift a few moments later.

"What do you think?" Ozpin asked as he let me out of my cage.

"I'm thinking that if you ever put me in a bird cage again, I'm going to go work for Salem."

"About the kid, Qrow." Ozpin redirected me with a roll of his eyes, shrugging off the glare I was sending him.

"Yeah, yeah. I see why you wanted me here. Talk about looking into a mirror."

"If it helps, I think most of Beacon's staff would agree that he isn't nearly as lanky as you were entering Beacon. Or still are, actually." Ozpin's normal smirk had grown into a full grin and I wasn't in the mood for it at all. The last thing I heard as I flipped off my boss and left via the elevator were soft chuckles coming from a very amused old man.

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

The roof of Beacon was, for all intents and purposes, a very peaceful place. More importantly than that, it was quiet, secluded, and empty, meaning it would be a good place to give Raven a report. I opened up my hidden messaging app and clicked on the contact belonging to Raven. We had already discussed that I would call in for my first actual report tonight, so I sent her a message telling her I was ready, then stood by. I looked around nervously, checking to see if there was anyone even remotely nearby that could overhear me. Below the edge of the roof were the windows belonging to classrooms and I didn't like how many dorms kept their windows open, so I walked more towards the center of the roof. This would also keep me hidden from anyone coming out of the stairwell onto the roof, meaning they would have to come out the door and turn around before seeing me. _Only the paranoid survive, after all._

The scroll in my hand buzzed, the calling coming from a blocked number. I answered.

"Is it secure?" Raven asked, wearing her mask. I made a show of looking around once more.

"Yeah, I'm clear."

"I believe you have a report for me." Raven prompted after taking off her helmet and sitting down in a chair. She kept her posture comfortable and relaxed, but only a fool would take that to mean she was relaxed or would think that they should relax around her. There was no catching Raven with her guard down.

"Yeah, I do. Nothing of note to report…yet." I answered, falling back into the old routine she would have expected from her tribe. Unless you knew something major, you were to keep it to yourself or report it to Vernal; Raven would probe you directly for what she wanted to know. _And seeing how this role is more long-term espionage than it is discovering anything in specific, the less I had to tell her, the better._

"How much does Ozpin know?" Raven asked, cutting straight to the chase. Her eyes belied her comfortable posture, revealing a seriousness to this topic. Not that I needed any prompting to know that Ozpin is the biggest threat to me, at least here in Beacon.

"I…don't know. He doesn't know for sure, or he at least doesn't have anything actionable, or we wouldn't be talking. He's never specifically probed into my time in the wilds or as a bandit, but's he has probed more into my training."

"How recently was this?" Raven asked.

"About thirty minutes ago. He called me in to probe me further and to…discuss some things." I knew the words were a mistake before I even said them, and Raven picked up on them instantly.

"What _things_?"

"Just some security footage of me. Nothing to worry about." I lied so badly it was obviously intentional. There are very few people capable of lying to Raven and getting away with it, so it was almost better to be seen as not even willing to _try_ to lie to her. The same held true for Ozpin; if I didn't have an incredible lie or angle to spin, then a horribly blatant lie was the way to go. After all, I had been doing this to Raven for years. _Now that I think about it, I do this_ a lot _, and not just to Raven or Oz._

"You _idiot._ What did he catch you doing?" Raven said angrily.

"Nothing much, just assaulting another student in the locker rooms. He was pretty cool about the whole thing, actually." I answered very glibly.

"You did…what?" Raven asked, giving me a flat, disappointed look. "And you were stupid enough to get caught on camera. What did Oz decide to do with you?" Raven asked, obviously leading into the conclusion that Ozpin was going to kick me out and thus, she would lose an asset.

"Nothing, I think. He even protected me from the rest of Beacon's staff by hiding the video footage."

" _Explain._ " Raven commanded sternly, losing her patience with my flippant answers.

"I've done a good job playing the 'former rogue that can't put his past behind him' angle, _like we discussed_ , and Ozpin is too curious to let me fall out of Beacon. So far, we've had two meetings, and I've walked out of two meetings victorious." _Maybe calling this last one a net-gain isn't exactly true, but Ozpin blew it at the end, so that's a win for me_. "He offered to protect me from my past if I was serious about becoming a Huntsman; of course, I would have to _admit_ to that past. He seemed very insistent on that part."

"…which would be consistent with his curiosity into your name. He'd want to know about the people who raised and trained you but wouldn't really care about anything beyond the early years when you might have been around other Arcs." Raven mused aloud, her anger subsiding as she thought on it more.

"Yeah, about that, you wouldn't be planning on, _oh, I don't know_ , telling me about the Arcs? You know, if I'm going to play Ozpin on being the last of some ancient family, shouldn't I at least know _what_ I'm pretending to be?" I asked with a sarcastic tone hiding an angry edge, already knowing the answer. It would be the same answer I had always gotten: _nothing_.

"You know what you need, and from the sound of things, you're not doing badly at it, either. Do be careful that you don't do anything more to increase his interest. The less attention from here on in, the better."

"Oh, yeah. About that…"

" _Jaune…_ " Raven groaned.

"It's nothing bad, I promise. It's just that I sent one of my sparring opponents to the infirmary." I flashed a fake smile as I waited for the blowback.

"Damnit, Jaune, that's exactly the kind of thing that gets your past looked into at a place like Beacon. Was this before or after your incident in the locker room?"

"Immediately after. I was in the locker room preparing for this spar when that happened." I answered back.

" _Damnit,_ Jaune" Raven let out with a huff. "You know what, if you get caught, that's on you for being such a fool. Have you at least been able to monitor anyone?" Raven asked, referring to my other tasks.

"Oh yeah, I've made contact with Ruby and Yang. Ruby was the one I sent to the infirmary, actually."

"That is not what is meant by 'contact,' Jaune." Raven answered, sipping at her tea to calm herself down. "What's your relationship to them?"

"Ruby and Yang are part of Team RWBY. I'm part of Team JNPR. Up until recently, teams RWBY and JNPR have been inseparable, so I would say I have gotten sufficiently close."

"What does 'until recently' mean?" Raven asked, giving me a wary look.

"Oh…" I mumbled, suddenly a lot less confident. I knew why, of course; this was a subject I was still pretty torn up about after my confrontation with Yang, and I had only made matters worse by avoiding all the issues with her and my team since then. "After I sent Ruby to the nurse's office, I kinda forced a rift between our teams. Actually, it's mainly between me and all of them."

"Good." Raven answered back flatly.

" _Good?_ " I answered back, failing to hide my irritation.

" _Good._ The less attached you are, the better. I warned you about this." Indeed, she had. It was one of her chief principles, that the farther I remained from others, the easier getting in and out as her spy would be. It wasn't something I ever listened to all that much, partially because I didn't want to hear it, and partially because I didn't think I _needed_ to hear it. This was my big chance to get away from Raven; did she think I was going to let it go to waste by getting dragged into Ozpin's war by those around me? "You're not like them, Jaune. There _will_ come a point where if you want to survive, you'll have to leave them behind. Getting attached just makes it harder. That doesn't mean that it's _easy_ , though; even I didn't do a great job of it. It was much more complicated for me to get out than I would have liked. You have one advantage that I didn't, though."

"What, a devil on my shoulder?" I shot back, still feeling defensive.

"You can't get pregnant." Raven shot back with a smirk, enjoying my awkward reaction.

"Come on, Raven. That's Yang you're talking about." I whined.

"And?"

"And that's awkward talking about that to me." I tried to explain.

"Why?" Raven asked back, her smirk flattening out as her eyes got dangerously sharp.

"Because she's…" I trailed off, realizing my mistake as the words left my mouth.

"Because she's _your friend?_ Because you're too _close_ to the situation?" Raven finished for me. I had the good sense not to respond, but I didn't need to. "I warned you about this. I should have known you would try it behind my back the first chance you got. _Damn rebellious teenagers_."

"Are we done yet?"

"What about Yang?" Raven asked, returning to her normal, business voice that told me we were going back with the report routine. _I never thought I would be so thankful to go back to formalities like this._

"She's here too, yes. That much I can confirm." I answered back with a bit of snark.

"What's she like?" Raven asked, her eyes belying her curiosity.

"The complete opposite of you in every way." I answered back firmly. "Overprotective, easily angered, fiercely loyal."

"A shame." Raven answered simply to my description. "You sure sound impressed, though. Any plans on sleeping with her?"

" _Raven!_ " I snapped, both caught off-guard and mildly embarrassed. "That's not funny. This is your daughter we're talking about."

"And what difference should that make?" Raven replied with a shrug. I was about to answer, but she gave me a funny look, and I was reminded of what we had just gone over. "You'd be an idiot not to try. She's _my_ daughter, after all."

"I…don't even want to know about what you think _that_ implies." I answered, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Doesn't that fly in the face of the whole 'no attachments' thing?"

"Not if you can't get pregnant." Raven answered back with a smirk and a small laugh, clearly reveling in how much I hated this entire stupid report. "What, did you think I got attached to Taiyang and _then_ we had sex?"

"I don't know what I was thinking." I responded with a shake of my head, referring to more than just that. "Are we done here?"

"No. I have a job for you." Raven shifted gears quickly, surprising me.

"What sort of job?" I asked, already dreading what she might send me on. There really was no telling, and I just hoped I didn't end up incarcerated before my first semester ended.

"Dust."

"Come again?"

"Dust. Vale has a shortage and it's driving up dust prices internationally. Higher prices means higher security involved. This makes things difficult for us." Raven answered back.

"Yes, I will get right on fixing the economy of Vale." I deadpanned back.

" _The price increases_ …" Raven spoke over me, pointedly ignoring my comment. "…are a result of a crew stealing large quantities of dust in Vale. There aren't any reports of massive dust usage, so they have to be stockpiling it all somewhere, and I've got intel on where it might be."

"Raven, I don't think I'm going to be able to steal a nation's worth of dust from other criminals."

"No, but you can get in, and once you're in…" Raven trailed off, biding me to finish.

"…you can teleport in and steal what you need."

"Exactly. I'll send you some sets of coordinates and you start investigating to see which ones have dust." It wasn't a terrible plan. Raven's semblance was normally a sign that the gods _did_ have a sense of humor, since it was based around forming emotional connections to others. For a long time, I thought it meant something that she had a portal for me, but nowadays, I'm not convinced that to Raven, an emotional connection is just someone you don't kill when they screw up once. _Twice, though?_

"Now are we done?" I asked impatiently.

"I want a report on some of these locations as soon as possible." Raven stated expectantly.

"Well I can't do it tonight; we have a mandatory field trip tomorrow with a teacher who scares me more than you do. That's half of my weekend gone, too, so I'll try to do something about it Sunday."

"See to it that you do. You're dismissed." Raven hung up the call, leaving me there to ponder my life decisions once again. I walked back over to the edge of the roof and leaned against the concrete railing, looking out over Beacon's grounds in an attempt to calm myself and clear my head.

All things considered, that was the least disastrous thing to happen to me in the last few days. I wasn't exactly sure what to make of the interview I just had with Ozpin, Miss Goodwitch still had a bone to pick with me (and I'll be on her field trip in a secluded woods tomorrow), Ruby's team hates me, my team can barely speak to me, and I'll still have to deal with Cardin at some point. Out of all those things, I would say Raven teasing me a little and _not_ deciding that I had failed the best of them. _Oh, and I never got to speak with my team after that tense lunch argument, so there's that still swirling around their minds too._ I mean, I was pretty angry because of that whole thing; it's the entire reason I went after Cardin, too. Aside from him just piling onto a defenseless girl, that is. That part really set me off too.

I really was not on my game during my chat with Ozpin earlier, too. From the moment I noticed that Qrow was there, I should have done a better job steeling myself for what was too come, but I let my frustrations with myself over my fight with Yang distract me. _Raven does have a point; I got dangerously close to giving in to Ozpin, all because I got too close once_. More accurately, I got too close and that interfered with me trying to maintain my cover with Ozpin, which nearly led me to losing Ozpin's games so quickly. I should have known someone as experienced as him would be able to pick up on the internal strife of his students and know just how to play them. All in all, if he hadn't overplayed his hand at the end, he could have very easily trapped me in a corner there.

There's also the fact that he brought Qrow in to spy on our conversation. It makes sense that he'd call him in at some point, what with the Vytal Festival in Vale this year and Qrow's nieces in Beacon, but this feels _early_. _Is there any chance that Qrow's presence is_ not _a response to my actions?_ Until I knew better, it was probably safer for my health _not_ to tell Raven about that. Besides, Ozpin doesn't know that I know that his 'pet bird' is his spy, so while he thinks that may give him an edge, it might work out in my favor more. _I'll have to be careful, though, because I can't avoid nondescript black birds for my entire time at Beacon._

There was a soft creak of the door to the stairwell behind me, followed by footsteps trying to be quiet as they walked up behind me. They weren't very successful, though.

"Let's just get this over with…" I called out with a sigh as I turned around to face Ruby.

"Get what over with?" She asked, confused.

"Oh, uh…I figured you would be Yang, come to knock me into next week." I answered sheepishly, my surprise evident on my face.

"That does sound like her." Ruby answered with a soft giggle. "So, whatcha doing up here?"

"I came up here to throw puppies off the edge of the roof." I answered back jokingly. "Or at least, if you ask my team, that's what they'd suspect."

"Don't be silly, Jaune. You wouldn't do _that_." Ruby replied cheerily, either having missed the joke entirely or thinking I thought that of myself.

"You sure? Seems like there's a lot of evidence saying I would do something like that." I responded quietly, motioning down to the brace on her ankle.

"What, that? _Nah._ " Ruby looked down and held her foot out, showing off her brace. It was a very light ankle brace, and given her normal color scheme, the black material was hardly noticeable. It didn't seem to really affect her walking much, either. "They told me my foot was dislocated, which is weird, because it seemed pretty easy to find it. They just grabbed it and popped it back in place."

"That sounds fun." I joked.

"Oh no, that part hurt more than it popping out in the first place! Next time, I'm just going to leave my ankle missing." Ruby added with a pout.

"Dislocated. Not missing."

"Whatever. The point is you're too nice of a person to throw puppies off the roof." Ruby responded with a smile that would have been contagious were she not so dead wrong.

"I…don't think I agree." I contradicted softly.

"Well, I don't care what you _think_. I _know_ it." Ruby crossed her arms defiantly, a very weird and aggressive gesture for such a positive thing to assert.

"Ruby, I don't think you do."

"What about Cardin?" Ruby asked hopefully.

"Exactly, what about I what I did to Cardin." I confirmed. "Wait, you know?"

"Jaune, I'm fifteen, not five. It wasn't hard for me to figure it out. You don't have to worry, though."

"Why not? Why would you defend me from Miss Goodwitch? Ozpin told me how you lied for me about apologizing."

" _That_ was different. You _did_ come to apologize, but Yang made sure that didn't happen. You even brought me _cookies_ and…" Ruby shook her head to rid herself of her thoughts. "Yang kinda made a hole in the wall to my room, so I heard that whole thing."

"Oh. _Oh_." I responded, not really having anything to say for myself.

"But the reason I'm helping you out is because you're secretly a good person." Ruby offered, her beaming smile threatening to turn anyone nearby into an optimist.

"That must be a _really_ well-kept secret then."

"Ours teams still think you're a jerk because of what happened at lunch that day. And then, you know, breaking my leg didn't help things." Ruby began to explain.

"Dislocated your ankle." I corrected again.

" _Anyways_ , since I know you're secretly a big softie, I think it's my job to help you out!"

"I think you skipped a step there, Ruby. The part about why I'm a good person."

" _Uh,_ the bunny ears? Cardin?" Ruby asked, her smile threatening to grow wider and, honestly, threatening to put me in a better mood. _I just wanted to brood for a bit, too._ "You did all that for that bunny-girl from the cafeteria! That's such a Yang thing to do, too. Back at Signal, she would go beat up anyone who even _breathed_ at me meanly. She got a lot of detentions." Somehow, I had a feeling that was underselling it. "You wanted us to think you were this big meanie who didn't care, but you cared the most."

"I…don't think I would call attacking Cardin a very 'caring' thing to do." I answered back.

"Ugh, I grew up with _Yang_. Trust me when I say beating someone up can be a super nice thing to do. Besides, no one else did anything about it." Ruby's optimism remained unwavering.

As much as I just wanted to sulk, she did have a point. I was wrapped up in what I had done to Ruby and just how alike Raven I had become, but maybe that wasn't being fair. Sure, I _was_ like Raven, but Raven wouldn't have avenged that girl. What I said at that table, that she deserved whatever she allowed to happen to her, is what Raven would have said, but my actions didn't stick with that. I had stuck up for her, in my own, vindictive way, sure, but I had done it nonetheless. That didn't speak of me being corrupted by Raven. That was a glimpse of who I could have been shining through; I saw someone helpless and couldn't _not_ be protective of them. That certainly wasn't something I learned from Raven.

"So as far as I'm concerned, that makes you the best person in our group!" Ruby concluded cheerfully, her energy and smile starting to get to me. "So now, we just need to convince the others of that!"

After my confrontation with Yang, that would be easier said than done, but now that I had a better grip on who I was, it was certainly more attainable. Sure, I wasn't the idealistic, stand-up guy that I always considered myself to be back when I was surrounded by thieves and murderers, but I also _wasn't_ a thief or murderer. _Or, well, actually I am, but I'm not_ like _them._ Maybe that's what Beacon is my chance to do; to become something in the middle. There's too much Raven in me for me to really be one of the good guys, but I could easily see myself in an anti-hero sort of role, couldn't I? I didn't have to be the most moral person as long as I could at least be decent?

"Yeah, Ruby, I guess we do."

* * *

Cardin's POV

* * *

All eyes whipped up to the door to our dorm as it opened, with Sky Lark walking in soon after.

"Did you get them?" Russel Thrust asked intently, already hopping up to inspect the package in Sky.

"Ugh, yeah. Do you know how hard it is to get your hands on these things?" Sky whined, handing the package over to Russel.

"Somehow, I get the feeling that this isn't going to stop anytime soon." Dove Bronzewing mumbled with a roll of his eyes from the corner. He was never exactly enthusiastic with anything team CDNL did, but he was loyal enough to stick with us and help out. That would be good enough here.

" _Warning: Rapier Wasps are a common allergen._ " Russel read the label, almost cackling as he did so. "Oh, we are _so_ gonna have our revenge…"

" _Our_ revenge?" I asked sternly. "I was the one who was attacked. This is _my_ revenge."

"Well yeah, but an attack on you is an attack on our team, right?" Sky defended for Russel, earning grins all around, even from Dove.

"So, what's the plan? I know the whole 'tree sap and Rapier Wasps' part, but I seem to have missed the part where we said who exactly we're going after." Dove asked from the corner, leaning in to show he was a little more interested than usual. "I mean, Russel is the one who wanted to pick on that bunny-chick, but Cardin was the one they went after, so whoever we're dealing with isn't very smart."

"You wanna tell him, Russel?" I asked, a grin spreading across my face.

"Well, it seems that we've got a secret faunus somewhere in the school who wanted revenge, and _I_ figured out who it is. If they want to hide who they really are, then I think we should do our best to expose them…" Russel answered.

"That doesn't really answer the question." Dove complained.

"Look, all you gotta do is get us enough sap tomorrow so we can cover them in it. Once we let the wasps out, they'll have no choice but to go wash off in the stream, and there's no way they can hide their faunus traits then!" I explained, earning grins and laughs from the rest of the team. Dove rolled his eyes but seemed down for it nonetheless.

And the best part was our entire class would be there, too, so there was no way they could contain the rumors we would spread. Forever Fall was shaping up the be the highlight of the schoolyear, and we weren't even done with a week of it.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Yay, Qrow! Everyone's favorite drunkle appears much sooner than he does in the show. Since Jaune's situation (as he presents it and how Oz sees it) is very similar to a Young Qrow, it would make sense that Oz might call Qrow back early. In the show, Qrow had been undercover doing something or another when he's called in for Volume 3, and since Beacon is destroyed later that volume, I think it's safe to say that he didn't uncover anything significant. All of which is odd considering it was Qrow that rescued Amber, and you'd think Oz would have pulled him back after that...**

 **Naturally, there's been an outpouring of concern over how Jaune took a pretty big character spin, but I also got a little concern that I may be misrepresenting Raven and what her influence would mean, so I'll address that a little. I don't want to give too much away, because some of it is intentional. The concern was that I see Raven as more of a negative entity than she actually is, that I attribute negative or evil motives to her instead of self-serving ones, or that I don't see her as capable of forming attachments. This arose out of Jaune's sudden shift from aloof to aggressive against Ruby, which was fair, and I'll leave it at this: Raven herself has done very little in this story. Jaune has acted based on her advice and his own impression of how to be like Raven, which may or may not be accurate; after all, he has a history with her and doesn't agree with her outlook very much, so he may or may not be adhering to Raven's guidelines the same way Raven would...**

 **Simply put, who Jaune sees Raven as is not who _we_ see Raven as.**

 **Also, there was a lot of sentiment that 1) what Jaune did wasn't that bad and 2) that Yang over-reacted. To #2, yeah sure, totally agree, Yang was hot-headed and may not have thought things through, but that totally shouldn't form a rift between them as long as Jaune seeks her out and tries to work through it (so far, he has avoided them all, so...). For #1, well, all I can say is imagine that it was pretty clear to everyone that Jaune hurt Ruby intentionally, which even in spars is not normal. If that doesn't help, imagine everyone sitting there and hearing Ruby's ankle pop out of place and Ruby screaming in pain. If that still doesn't make it seem any more significant then, well, you got me, it isn't. It's how Jaune handles things with his friends afterwards (or doesn't handle them, rather) that is the real problem. **

* * *

**Comment of the Week:** by user _The Exiled Darkness_ on **Ch. 4**

If you were trying to make me hate Jaune, well it didn't work. Like you said in previous chapters, Jaune is kind of out of character. And that's because of Raven's influence on him as he was brought up. Everything Jaune has done can be justified, in the cruelest sense, because of how he was brought up. It's not the right thing to do, it still shows us how different he is from CanonJaune and how similar he is to Raven. At least Jaune recognizes that he was out of line and what he did is similar to how Raven is."

 **I realized after I posted it that based on the AN before last week's chapter, it sounded like I was warning you that I was going out of my way to make you hate Jaune. That is not the case; instead, that would be sarcasm that did not carry over well through text. For future reference, just take all my pre-chapter AN's with a grain of salt and filter for heavy sarcasm, because I don't know why but when I write those that's all that comes out. The post-chapter breakdowns are usually more serious.**

 **Other than that, the rest of the comment pretty much is what was intended for that chapter, which makes me feel a lot better that it came across successfully. That, or** _Exiled_ **here is just a literary master who makes me look better. If that's the case, you're getting comment of the week every week, buddy! :D**


	7. Circle (of) Jerks

**[REFINED Oct. 24, 2018] Author's Note: You might begin to notice that the timeline for V1 events seems a little fast, because it is, but that will be the subject of a Closing Thoughts in a coming chapter.**

 **Enjoy, I guess, if you're into that sort of thing.**

* * *

 **Chapter 6:** _"This is the only time you're going to hear me praise Atlas, ever, but they know the value of strength and how to show it off. That can be good; if people are afraid of retaliation, then you'll have less battles to fight. Mutually-assured destruction is a powerful deterrent and one that Raven relies on a lot, but make sure you only use it on those that you_ can _crush. After all, the best bluff is not bluffing at all."_ _\- Vernal_

* * *

Blake's POV

* * *

"You only have a couple of hours, and you do _not_ want to find out what happens if you do not collect enough sap." Miss Goodwitch ended her speech, officially letting us wander around Forever Fall and collect sap for her. The task was pretty simple; collect two jars of sap in at least as many hours, which shouldn't be difficult. What _would_ be difficult are the people around me, but if I'm lucky, I can sneak away and do my own thing.

"Sounds like fun. You ready, _partner_?" Yang asked as she linked her arm through mine and drug me away towards the forest, despite my yelp and the daggers I was staring at her. Dragging my feet was no use, as when Yang wanted something, there wasn't a lot that could be done to stop her. _For that reason, it's a miracle Jaune is still breathing, but that may have more to do with Ruby pleading for Yang_ not _to kill someone in her first week of Beacon._

"There's no easy way you can just leave me alone to collect sap in peace?" I asked, or, well, I whined as I gave up resisting.

"Nope."

"Are you sure? It doesn't have to be like this!" I protested.

"Yep." Yang replied with what I'm sure was a smug grin.

I grumbled and crossed my arms as best I could with Yang still pulling me along further into the woods. It was a pretty scene, sure, with such beautiful leaves and a serene calm everywhere. _Well, everywhere where_ Yang _isn't, at the moment._ The whole atmosphere felt like it was meant to be someplace romantic, as if designed to be the ultimate picnic location by the universe itself.

Say, if that doesn't give me an idea…

"I'm kinda surprised, Yang." I started off, praying to anyone listening that Yang would take the bait.

"Surprised at what?" My partner answered back without thinking on it much.

"That you picked _me_ to drag off for this. I have to say, I'm surprised you didn't go with Ruby." It was obvious from my voice that I was leading Yang somewhere, and her responses indicated that she would not be fooled by any simple trick.

"Ruby's not my partner." Yang answered back simply, tightening her grasp on my arm as she suspected some sort of funny business from this new tactic.

"No, it's just that this place is so pretty."

"Uh huh, it is."

"It almost feels like a romantic forest."

"Now that you say it…" Yang was slowly starting to catch on.

"I'm sure Weiss doesn't have the patience to be with Ruby for a few hours, especially not if she gets some sap in her system."

"And with all the _boys_ that came on the field trip..."

"..." Yang's silence spoke more and more as the seconds ticked by.

"I guess that you trust her a lot, then."

"Of course, I do. Ruby is not someone I have to worry about running off with the boys in the forest. That's me that would do that, actually." Yang answered back, distracting herself from the doubt I was encouraging with the joke at the end. I just have to make sure that she can't ignore it.

"Yeah, well, it's a good thing that Ruby isn't gullible or socially awkward or anything, especially since we're in a secluded, romantic forest with a whole bunch of teenage boys." I had her on the ropes now, as she made it a point not to look at me and try to put the thoughts out of her head; she was failing at it, too. "I mean, it isn't as if any boys have paid her particular interest or anything. Especially not any _blonds_ that she seems overly-eager to be friends with despite incidents between them."

Yang stopped and let go of my arm to stare me in the eyes. She knew I was bluffing. It was obvious; I mean, Jaune going after Ruby in this forest? But it also held enough truth to it to be compelling, and Yang's uncertain stare let me know it was working. _The fact that Yang still wants to tear his head off just means that much more._

"You really don't play fair, do you, Blake?" Yang asked, squinting her eyes at me. "Okay, sheesh. You can collect your sap in peace and I'll go check on Ruby. Next time just say something before you go all nuclear on me." Yang prodded with a roll of her eyes as she walked off.

"I did!" I yelled back with an indignant huff. "I said a lot of things!"

It worked, though, and now I was all alone in Forever Fall. The last time I was alone here, I had just cut ties with Adam and the White Fang—literally, because I severed the train cars holding us together. Nothing I had gone through in this first week of Beacon told me that that was the wrong decision, but it hadn't made things easier, either. It isn't easy to wake up one day and realize that you don't know who you are anymore, to look around and wonder what it is you've done and where you moved the line that you're not willing to cross. _Sure, I wasn't willing to go through with blowing up the train and its passengers, but that didn't mean I was innocent of the things leading up to that point._ I was too close to the situation to see what the White Fang had become, or so I keep telling myself. But once I did realize, I left; that was a good thing, right? Was leaving the Fang enough?

 _Of course it isn't enough; that's why I'm here_. Well, not here in Forever Fall, but here in Beacon. A chance to start over and help people, right? A chance to make up for the wrong that I helped create; there's nothing selfish about that, is there? More and more, I'm not convinced that I'm here to do good and not just here for me, but surely even if this is selfish, at least it _is_ increasing the good in the world. _Is_ that _enough?_

I was taken out of my thoughts as something liquid was dumped over my head, followed by a second. I looked down to find sap dripping all over me and I whipped around, ready to decapitate anyone foolish enough to be the first person I saw.

"Whoa there." Cardin Winchester, a soon-to-be dead man, said with a malicious grin, leaning back to avoid the swipe at his face I took. I took another, but he hopped backwards, putting himself out of my reach.

"Not so fast, there." Cardin taunted with a waggle of his finger, pointing over to one of his teammates, who held a cardboard box. "Those are Rapier Wasps, and they sure do _love_ this tree sap that you happen to be wearing for some reason. It would be a shame if you accidentally tore open the box while attacking me."

"Are you _threatening_ me?!" I asked, anger rising again as I recalled what happened at lunch a few days ago. That person may not have been willing to fight back, but I would love nothing more than a good excuse to knock some sense into these idiots. "What the hell is your problem?"

" _My_ problem? This is payback, sweetie. Plain and simple." Cardin snickered and his team followed suit. "You're the one who started all of this. Did you really think I wouldn't get back at you?"

" _Me_? I didn't do anything to you! What on Remnant are you talking about?!"

"Can it, girlie," one of Cardin's teammates with a mohawk said, instantly earning himself the #2 spot on my kill list for calling me 'girlie.' "This is payback for knocking our team leader out in the locker rooms!"

"WHAT!?" I yelled, both infuriated and confused. "That wasn't even me, you idiots! Why would I even do that?!"

"Clearly, all you faunus stick together. Why else would you do it?" One of the others piped up. I flinched slightly and fought the urge to cover my cat ears with my hands, having to trust that my bow was still there. _How could they have found out?_ No, I can beat that out of them later, but right now, I have more important things to do.

"I _would_ have done it just to see some sense knocked into you, but how could I have done it?" I asked, hoping to get them to think for once in their lives.

"It's not like the locker rooms are locked or anything. You would have just had to sneak in." The last member finally spoke, though he seemed more uncertain than the rest.

"But how does that help me when I would have had to ditch _Miss Goodwitch_ to do it?!" There was silence now as the words sunk in, which, apparently, were working. "Ruby and Jaune were fighting first. I was still in the sparring room with Miss Goodwitch and the rest of your team because I hadn't left to get my things yet. I _couldn't_ have done it." The silence set in longer as they exchanged confused glances, looking back and forth between me and each other.

"She _was_ there. I remember her bow blocking my view."

"Miss Goodwitch wouldn't let anyone breathe out of place, much less let them leave."

"Maybe she's not wrong."

"Why would you even think it was me in the first place?!" I asked, confident that I was no longer in danger and now really starting to build up that anger from earlier.

"We already told you that!" Mohawk-boy answered back obnoxiously. "You faunus are all on the same side."

"I'm not a faunus!" I lied, not sure how four idiots like them could have figured anything definitive out, but deciding to keep up my cover just in case they didn't actually know. Given their track record, they may not have any actual reason to think that and might just be right on accident, so it's worth challenging.

" _Oh yeah?_ Take off that bow then!" One of the others challenged, getting grunts of affirmation from his team. I did my best to hide it, but panic flashed across my eyes for a brief moment.

"No! I'm not taking anything off for you idiots!" I shot back defensively, though certainly surprised. _They know, somehow; what else could they know?_ Now I really need to beat them senseless.

"Take it off, or we release the bees." Cardin threatened.

"Wasps." Mohawk-boy corrected.

"Take it off, or we release the _evil bees_." Cardin repeated.

I froze for a second and looked around at my options. I wouldn't be able to out-run this, since I can't outrun flying wasps. I doubt I could make it to the one with the box before he opens it, and even if I did, the others could get me from the sides before I could do anything. I was stuck buying for time and hoping that Yang decided to come back to bug me some more, but based on how I treated her when I sent her away, I wouldn't count on that. _Of course that would come back to bite me; why did I think I could have nice things?_

"You idiots are going to release them anyways." I accused, earning a shrug from Cardin.

"I have to agree with the lady. You're all idiots." A voice called out from behind the furthest boy. Before anyone could react, a jar of sap had been dunked on two of Cardin's teammates, including the one holding the cardboard box. "Seriously, I wasn't even trying to be sneaky about it. How the _hell_ did you come to the conclusion that Blake knocked you out cold?" Jaune stepped out from behind Cardin's teammates and walked right up to the man, standing in the middle of the four of them.

"YOU!" Cardin spat out.

"Yes. Me." Jaune returned sarcastically. "Seriously, I'm almost impressed at how much you screwed this up. You have a real talent for sucking, but I guess we already knew that." Jaune's words infuriated Cardin and the small, smug grin Jaune wore only served to make things worse.

"Do you have any idea what we're gonna do to you?!" Mohawk called from the side, although he was a lot harder to take seriously while covered in sap. _Not that I can judge, though, but I'd like to think I still look like I could kill someone right now, mostly because I would._

"Well, you're not going to release those wasps, unless you want them to go after your own team." Jaune cut back, putting his back to Cardin to face Mohawk-boy. "And you're not gonna do a damn thing to me or Blake after this."

"And why not?" Cardin challenged.

"Well, because—" Jaune cut himself off abruptly by spinning around and punching Cardin in the face, staggering him back a few paces and allowing Jaune to get his weapon off of his back. "—I said so."

One of Cardin's teammates had launched himself at Jaune immediately following the preemptive attack, and Jaune brought the pommel of his weapon directly into his face as he drew the weapon from his back. With that person stunned from the blow, Jaune forewent the opportunity for a follow-up blow to put the pressure on the one with the box of wasps, who had to drop the box to retreat and draw his weapon.

"RAAAAHHH!" Cardin yelled out enraged as he charged in with his mace from behind Jaune, who swung his claymore around and up to knock Cardin's overhead attack off to the side, parrying the blow enough to allow Jaune to step aside with a few inches to spare. Jaune used this side-step to spin and bring the pommel of his weapon around his back and into Cardin's face, before shifting one hand up the blade of the weapon to take a quick swipe at Cardin's head with a half-sword swing.

The forth member of Cardin's team dove at Jaune and only missed because Jaune was looking his direction after his attack on Cardin, otherwise he would have been tackled. As such, Jaune stepped aside and let the boy barrel into Cardin instead before throwing his weight into a heavy double-handed blow with his claymore to the boy's back, ensured to take a large chunk of his aura and hurt while doing it. Jaune turned away from those two and swung blindly at the nearest of the other two, who caught the blow with his pole-arm. With their weapons now locked, they each threw their weight into each other, trying to shove the other over to break the stalemate. The fourth, unaccounted-for member came from Jaune's left to take a cheap shot, but never got the chance. During the stalemate, Jaune released his grip of one of his hands and grabbed his opponent's shirt before yanking him directly into the line of fire. Off-balance and unprepared, he went head-first into his teammates blow and slumped to the ground unconscious from the hit. _That had to have hurt if it knocked him out despite his aura, assuming he brought his aura up in time; if he didn't, someone might want to check on him._

Jaune didn't have any time to celebrate, as Cardin had closed ground and grabbed the blade of Jaune's sword with his bare hand, locking it in place. Jaune yanked on it once, but Cardin didn't let go and punished Jaune with an uppercut to the stomach from his free hand. Cardin's two teammates regathered and pressed Jaune, and he again yanked hard on the blade, to the same gut-wrenching result. As Cardin's two teammates launched their attack, Jaune yanked again and this time his sword slid out, but not from Cardin's grasp. This time, a regular-sized sword slid out of the rest of the blade, leaving Cardin holding a hollow shell. With his new broadsword, Jaune ducked under the first incoming attack and deflected the second away, neither attacker having been expecting Jaune to be able to recover at all and having thrown lazy attacks because of it. Jaune made the second attacker pay by stabbing into his gut with the tip of the sword—blocked by aura, but unpleasant nonetheless—and then swinging his sword upward to catch him under the chin (with the flat of the blade instead of the edge), whiplashing his neck backwards and sending him to the ground out cold as well.

Now down to two, neither Cardin nor his teammate were prepared for this situation and their apprehension showed on their faces; Jaune took no mercy, however, and his grin was nothing short of menacing. Before Cardin could react, Jaune kicked into the side of his knee, forcing it to buckle awkwardly as it threatened to snap; thankfully, it never did, but Cardin's faith in his ability to stand was shaken and he was sent down onto his knee. Jaune reacquainted Cardin's face with the hilt of his weapon and Cardin was knocked down onto his face, but still squirmed around enough to show he was conscious. Jaune looked up to see Cardin's last teammate put up a valiant effort at a last stand and capitalize on Jaune's attack by landing a free blow of his own, but before his arm could move forward with his attack, it was caught by the ribbon of my weapon. I had finally stirred myself from my stupor and joined the fight, catching his wrist and allowing Jaune to have a free attack. Jaune didn't need to be told twice, as he reversed his grip, grabbed the sword by the blade, and swung the handle around like a baseball bat, easily knocking a third member of Team CRDL out cold with a sickening **thwap**.

We both turned out attention back to Cardin, and I froze as I saw that he had crawled over to the box of wasps and was trying to get it open by stabbing at it with the outer shell of Jaune's weapon that was discarded earlier. Jaune ran up and kicked him in the face to knock him out, but he was too late, as wasps started flying out of the box and swarming those of us with sap. I turned to run for cover, but Jaune reached out and grabbed me by my wrist before I could.

"Are you crazy!?" I shouted, already feeling a few very unpleasant stings and fearing worse as more wasps began swarming.

"Hold still." Jaune called out, locking his eyes on mine. "We can't just leave them."

"Yes we can. _I_ sure can!" I yanked my arm again as more wasps began attacking me, their stings already seeping in and beginning to burn. I was preparing to take a swing at Jaune and take my chances at breaking free of his grasp, when something...changed.

Something washed over me. That's a way to describe it, but not adequately. Starting from where Jaune had a hold of my wrist, something flowed over me, flowed _through_ me, blocking out the wasps and soothing my pain, and in its place leaving me feeling stronger and more powerful. In a matter of moments, I couldn't even feel the previous stings and noticed that new wasps stung me; they didn't even land on me. I opened the eyes that I hadn't even realized I had closed and saw that I was encompassed by a white aura that seemed to be flowing out of Jaune, and I looked around to see it spreading to the four guys on the ground, protecting them from the wasps much the same way. Jaune had a death-grip on my wrist but after examining him for a moment it was clear that he was deeply focused on whatever he was doing and using me to anchor himself, as if so focused that he would fall over without me here. All of us were covered in a white aura, almost like a force-field, that the wasps could not penetrate through. Already, some wasps were buzzing off elsewhere in search of new things to sting.

The sensation was so strange and powerful that I closed my eyes and focused on it, curious to explore and understand it. It was coming from Jaune; I was sure of that now. I could _feel_ that this was Jaune's doing. I could feel _Jaune_ , if that even makes sense. This presence, this _aura_ that was surrounding me felt foreign but it didn't feel bad. It felt warm, and safe, and protective, like a thick blanket. But when I focused on it? When I pushed myself deeper into it? I could _feel_ what this was. This was…it actually _was_ aura. _Jaune's aura; it has to be_. Jaune was...reaching out with his soul and covering us all... _How?_ Was this some sort of semblance, or could anyone learn to do this?

I focused in closer on the feelings, on the sensations, on Jaune's _soul_. A part of me said that this was wrong, that I was being intrusive, forcing myself into places I didn't belong, and I thought for a moment what I would think if the roles were reversed. In the end, it didn't matter, as I was too entranced by the sensation to stop now. It felt like just a glimpse inside of him, just a peak, but it felt so honest and pure that I can't help but feel that I was getting a chance to see what Jaune Arc is made of, on a spiritual level. _And…it's not what I expected._ The most obvious thing was the protectiveness, this entire feeling of being encapsulated and protected by his own aura; it was inescapable, like being submersed in water. It was so comforting and warm and pleasant that I felt calm instead of claustrophobic; this entire feeling of being covered and surrounded by his aura radiated this feeling of protection that I did not expect, nor did I expect to enjoy. As I pushed deeper and focused harder, I could pick up bits of other things, though. There was a tinge of anger and the sensation of fire burning, but it was controlled, internalized, harnessed. It felt _specific_ , like it had a purpose and a reason and if I had to guess I would say it was Jaune's anger at Cardin, but again, this was only a trace of fire. Jaune was protecting Cardin and Cardin's team, too, after all; a small fire of anger in a sea of protectiveness. There was a hint of frustration too, but it felt way too internalized to be directed at anyone but himself, mainly because I doubt that Jaune had any deep connection to Cardin that would manifest this deep into his... _his soul?_

That was as far as I got, because the connection abruptly shut off, and my eyes snapped open as I realized that I had been deliberately trying to pry into someone's secrets through their own aura, and I would not appreciate anyone doing that to me; what's worse is that I _knew_ this, and had still pushed further, and now that it was over, I felt all the guiltier for it. I expected Jaune to be standing there, glaring at me for invading his privacy, but was surprised to find him down on all fours instead, panting and bracing himself on the ground.

"Jaune! Are you okay?" I dropped down to his side to check on him, but he ignored it.

"Are they gone?" He asked through his pants.

"What?"

"The wasps. Did it work?" Jaune did his best to scan the area around him, but ended up just whipping his head to the side frantically.

I looked around, and sure enough, all of the wasps had left when they couldn't get at any of us. I didn't have any context for how long I had been…well, how long Jaune had been doing _that_.

"Yeah, it worked. They're gone." I answered back, to Jaune's relief.

"Good. I couldn't have held that for much longer. Five people is too many to fully cover, especially not if I count as the sixth." Jaune's breathing was controlled and didn't seem to be labored at all, but the way he held himself up (or, rather, didn't hold himself up) spoke of exhaustion.

"What…what was that, Jaune?" I asked, only for Jaune look away from me.

"Well, it was either black magic or a Semblance. Take your pick." Jaune answered back with some hostility that seemed out of place. I mean, before now it would have felt perfectly in line with who Jaune was, but after going through _that_ , hostility and aversion didn't make any sense at all; it didn't seem to line up with who Jaune was, or at least, not with whoever was lurking underneath the Jaune I knew.

"I could feel your aura. I could feel _you_. How did you do that?" He didn't look up and I silently cursed that he had a built-in excuse not to look up at me so I could read his expression.

"Oh, _that_? Yeah, that part works both ways." Jaune answered, pushing himself up onto his knees and looking me in the eyes. "You sure like to run from your problems, don't you?" Jaune's word struck deep into me, freezing me into the spot. _Of course it works both ways._ Jaune was staring right through me and I couldn't breathe through the tension. "You would have to for it to show up in your aura of all places." What all did he know? What had he discovered? _What if he tells?_

"Don't worry, it's not actually mind reading; just a way to feel you out. I take it that you got to know me pretty well during that?" I nodded nervously, a little too on edge to speak but pleased that he hadn't immediately denounced me for being a terrorist and attacking me in the name of righteous vengeance, which was probably a good sign. "I only got that much out of you. I was kinda focusing on spreading out over the six of us and, quite frankly, I'm exhausted; I don't think I can stand, either. But I didn't learn any dark secrets, if that's what you're afraid of. Thank dust for that, too, because I don't want to know _anything_ about Cardin's secret habits."

I let out the breath I had been holding and forced the tension to leave my body, though not without some difficulty. A thought struck me, though, one that said that even if he _had_ read my mind and learned of my past, I don't know if he would have ever told anyone, but as soon as I had that thought, I couldn't figure out why it felt true. It didn't make sense; the Jaune I knew up until now was such an awful person, but that wasn't at all who I just experienced; in fact, this felt like someone else entirely. Something told me that if this Jaune's protectiveness extended to Cardin and his team, then he wouldn't even think of betraying my trust; his very aura felt protective as it covered me, and if aura really is tied to the soul, then he would be inclined to protect me, right?. After all, he just came to my rescue, and on top of that, he always seems to prefer telling stupid, obvious lies rather than admit to literally anything.

 _What could it hurt?_ That was a stupid question, as it could hurt a lot and there were many ways revealing things about myself could come back to haunt me, but it gave me a burst of courage nonetheless.

"That's probably good. I wasn't exactly a great person before Beacon." I admitted, kicking myself for cowering out of saying anything of detail but also relieved that I didn't actually say anything of substance. _The irony that_ that _is my biggest problem is not lost on me, either._

"You too, huh?" Jaune replied with a chuckle. "Well, keep your dark backstory to yourself. I'm good."

"I…wha—huh?" I asked confused, completely disarmed by his sudden rejection as I had been planning out in my head how I would explain this.

"Yeah so if we could just sit here in silence while I try not to pass out, that would be great." He added.

"You're not even…curious?" I asked, absolutely dumbfounded.

"I mean, I doubt its anything worse than mine, so no, not interested." Jaune dismissed easily, frustrating me enough for me to throw caution to the wind. Something about how dismissive he was set me off, and I knew it shouldn't have, but I let it get under my skin anyways.

"I was a terrorist." I blurted out before I realized what I was even doing, and immediately regretted it afterwards, berating myself for being goaded into this by his dismissal.

"Really? _Huh._ " Jaune sounded more amused than anything, looking over me with a little bit of curiosity. "I might stand corrected then. What brought you to Beacon?"

"I didn't want to be a terrorist." I answered back, refusing to meet his eyes while I internally screamed at myself for saying anything.

"Sounds like an odd line of work to be in then." Jaune snipped back.

"We weren't always terrorists. We just… _became_ terrorists, I guess."

"Oh, yeah. _I get it_." Jaune rolled his eyes and gave me an overly dramatic wink from his seat on the ground. "You just woke up one day and suddenly everyone _else_ was evil and you decided that, being the last good person left, it was time to leave." Were it not for the incredible amounts of sarcasm mixed with his condescending tone, he would have been spot on. That he was mocking me only served to further get under my skin. "Me too."

"I don't need to explain myself to you." I countered defensively.

"Exactly my point. Please don't." Jaune answered with a grin, content to smile to himself and lean back to rest on the ground in silence. His retort was still confusing to me and I spent the moments of silence trying to make sense of things.

"How many?" Jaune asked, suddenly shifting to a much more serious tone without leaning up.

"How many what?" I answered back confused.

"You know what." Jaune answered with another roll of his eyes as he leaned up to look at me. "How many were you responsible for before you go out?" Jaune's stare was also serious now, but it was also soft enough that it felt sympathetic, not hostile.

"Responsible for? Before I got out?...are you asking how many attacks I led?"

"Deaths, Blake. Seriously, that should have been obvious." Jaune didn't roll his eyes this time, but his condescending tone wasn't gone either.

" _What!?_ I never killed anyone!" I practically yelled back in surprise. _Why would he even_ go _there?_ I never insinuated that I was a murderer and outside of wanted Team CRDL dead a few minutes ago, I haven't done anything that would make him suspect that.

"Oh. And here I was thinking you had an evil backstory." Jaune answered back more quietly than his other condescending remarks.

"I do!"

"Uh huh."

"Just because I was a terrorist doesn't mean I _ever_ did...did that!" I berated Jaune, still too worked up to think about anything else.

"Sounds like you were a pretty crappy terrorist if you never caused any casualties." Jaune enjoyed prodding me and I was only just calming down enough to realize that. After all, so far his entire side of this conversation has been telling me to my face that he didn't want this conversation, so of course he wasn't going to take this seriously. "I would have made a pretty good one, though."

"Wait…you…you would?" I asked as the realization finally sunk in. "You... you've...? You did... _that_?"

"Aaaaand this is why I didn't want to swap backstories. We done here yet?" Jaune looked a bit miffed and refused to make eye contact, instead choosing to look literally anywhere else.

"No we aren't done here yet! Why would you tell me something like that?"

"What, that I wasn't a terrorist?" Jaune answered back defensively, but without any of his normal snark. His tone was bordering on dangerous, his patience having ran out. _If he can't deflect the attention now, he may lash out to get me to stop; that's what I would do in his situation, at least._

"No, not..." I trailed off before taking a deep breath to calm myself down. "You know what, maybe we should stop talking about this. _Forever._ "

"I agree. Just so we're clear, you worked for the White Fang, right?" Jaune's voice and face were serious as his eyes bore into mine.

"H-how...?"

"There aren't many terrorist organizations, Blake. That and the whole faunus thing that Team CRDL was talking about made it obvious." I froze under his glare and couldn't tell what the emotions behind his eyes meant. I never intended for anyone to find out about my past, but especially not so soon. Everything in me was screaming to run and take my chances, but I found myself unable to break away from his eyes. "You're here at Beacon to do better, right?"

"I...y-yes." I answered, struggling to get the words out. "I'm trying to make up for it."

"Well, you were a terrorist and I have killed people, and on top of that I used to raid villages in the frontier." Jaune stated rather quickly and in a strangely detached manner, given the sheer weight of what was just summarized. "There, now you can trust that I won't tell anyone. Our fates are tied together and all that crap."

"W-why tell me _that_?" I asked, confused and upset. Things had taken a turn for the strange and I didn't think I liked it, and him just giving away information like that only served to exacerbate things.

"Do you suspect that I'm going to give you up?" Jaune asked simply. I shook my head to indicate no, though I wasn't completely sure why. The Jaune I knew up till now I wouldn't trust with anything, but after whatever that semblance was and after feeling for myself who he actually is, I find it much more difficult to believe that he would. His question begged another question, and that was what did telling me that extra information accomplish? After a few moments, I realized what it was: _it means that we both have blackmail on each other, no neither of us has power over the other._ The fact that he just established mutually-ensured destruction solidified that, at the very least, he wasn't going to tell anyone. The way he implied that as the answer to my question told me that he wanted me to feel confident that he wouldn't tell so that I wouldn't get spooked into telling anyone either. "Good. Since I know you aren't afraid of me giving you up, that means I can rest easier knowing that you won't do anything stupid."

"What is going on here?!" Miss Goodwitch's voice boomed as she appeared over the top of the hill, just barely having missed a very dangerous conversation. Jaune and I looked up to find a very angry Miss Goodwitch, trailed by the rest of our teams.

"Oh hi, guys. Who snitched?" Jaune asked, looking over the group of our teammates and not missing a beat as if he _didn't_ just find out I was a terrorist and divulge that he was a...a murder? _He never actually said what happened or that it was actually_ murder _, per say_ , _but he sure wanted me to_ think _it was bad; does that mean it actually is_ bad? "Come on, one of you had to. Why else would you all get here so fast?"

Pyrrha refused to meet his eyes and he locked in on that quickly.

" _Pyrrha?_ I thought for sure it would have been Yang."

"Mr. Arc, would you care to explain what happened to Mr. Winchester and his team?" Miss Goodwitch asked with a venom to her voice that went far beyond her normal stern persona. Jaune's eyes flicked to her and despite his position laying on the ground, his posture went stiff.

"Oh them? They were attacked by an Ursa." Jaune explained as if it were the simplest thing in the world, earning couple of snickers from behind Miss Goodwitch that only served to rile her up further, to the point where she looked ready to explode.

" _That_ is the story you're going with?" Miss Goodwitch collected herself enough to sound condescending.

"It was a really big Ursa." Jaune answered unwaveringly.

"Mr. Arc, if you expect—"

"It was an Ursa," I defended Jaune after a long sigh where I tried to convince myself not to. He _did_ come over and stop CRDL from attacking me, not to mention protecting me from the wasps and…whatever it was that happened during that. If nothing else, no one deserves whatever punishment Miss Goodwitch had in mind. _Besides, if he gets in trouble, he might not have any reason to keep my secret._

Wait, was that his plan all along?

"Ms. Belladonna, this is not worth getting yourself involved in." Miss Goodwitch shot me a glare that nearly knocked me over before returning her ire to Jaune, not having believed a word I said. To be fair, it _was_ a bad lie.

"Mr. Arc, I—"

Before Miss Goodwitch could finish her thought, what should come barreling out of the treeline other than a freaking Ursa Major. The shock and disbelief on Miss Goodwitch's face was incredible, rivaled only by the sheer magnitude of the shit-eating grin Jaune wore from his spot on the ground. Miss Goodwitch's eyes flicked back and forth between Jaune and the Ursa, as if trying to decide what the odds are that he was making up the Ursa story just as an actual Ursa appeared. _Apparently, those odds were 100%, but there was absolutely no way Jaune knew that…right?_

Miss Goodwitch did a decent job of suppressing the range of emotions and thoughts showing on her face and as she sent the rest of our teams to deal with the Ursa. It wouldn't actually take all of them, but everyone could tell she wanted a chance to get at us without anyone standing by. However, now that an act of god had just validated our excuse, I felt a lot less nervous about the whole situation. _Not that I should be nervous about_ anything _; they attacked_ me _, after all._ And come to think of it, Jaune shouldn't be evasive either, since he did a good thing. Sure, after the incident with Ruby he's got to be in hot water with Miss Goodwitch, but that's no reason for him to be afraid that she can't see that we were in the right. And yet, he's taking the heat here anyways. _Why risk sticking your neck out like that for no gain?_

"So explain to be how that Ursa Major was strong enough to knock out Team CRDL but wasn't able to kill them, how you two are unscathed after this but so is the Ursa, and how you all have sap on you but there's no broken glass anywhere?" Miss Goodwitch asked, homing in on details that I'm sure Jaune would rather she not as soon as all of our teammates were out of earshot. I hadn't even thought about the fact that sap was _dumped_ on us and not jars shattered during a fight.

"Oh, we weren't unscathed. I can't really stand that well." Jaune answered back simply, trying to both defuse the tension and offer a distraction from the other two questions that we couldn't answer. _Great, now I'm so invested in this lie that I'm actually trying to help._ "Or at all."

"And Ms. Belladonna?" Miss Goodwitch asked, referring to how I wasn't in bad shape after a fight if the way she gestured up and down me was any indication. _That, or she was inviting Jaune to look me up and down, which would lead to-okay, in my head, that was starting to resemble the plot of a book Yang will_ never _find._

"Oh, her?" Jaune asked, turning to look at me to make a point. "I don't know what to tell you. I guess she was just too scared to join the fight."

"HEY!" I objected. I was ignored.

Miss Goodwitch didn't respond, instead scanning over the grounds as the sounds of battle washed over us from a distance. Things like " _Watch out_ ," " _Get down_ ," and " _YES! There's ANOTHER Ursa! Could this get any better?_ " made their way through the tension around us. I followed Miss Goodwitch's eyes to see just what she was examining: the outer shell of Jaune's sword, still clutched in Cardin's hands from where he used it to tear open the box of wasps, not to mention the box of wasps itself, which was the most suspicious thing. Miss Goodwitch's eyes flicked from the box to me—more specifically, my sap-stained clothes—and then back to the box as I imagine she was starting to put pieces together.

"I don't know why I even asked." Miss Goodwitch complained, taking a deep breath. "I'll find out what happened back at Beacon straight from Cardin and his team. Since you're all spent, I'll order a Bullhead to take your teams and Team CRDL back early." Miss Goodwitch shook her head as she walked away, presumably to go take out her wrath on some unassuming student or tree, but not before giving Jaune a look that very likely could be considered a weapon of mass destruction. Perhaps more incredible was that Jaune was unaffected, returning a neutral, flat look as our professor marched off.

"Does this mean that we don't have to collect any sap?" Jaune asked as he reached his hand up, silently asking for some help standing up.

" _That_ is what you're worried about?" I asked as I pulled him onto his feet, careful not to let him wobble and fall over. If he did, it would be my fault since he's only in this state after protecting me. _Well, us, but something tells me he didn't do it as much for CRDL._

"I mean, do you want to go collect two jars of sap right now?"

I didn't make to answer, and fortunately our teams finished up with the two Ursas and interrupted us before I had to concede the point. Jaune and I both noticed that Ren seemed to be carrying and protecting a significant amount of sap jars, easily more than our two teams combined would need to turn in, and it wasn't hard to tell why, as a few feet away Nora was slurping down a jar of sap.

"Well, Blake, I see how it is…" Yang started with a grin so wide that if I had any means of cutting off both sets of ears to avoid hearing whatever was about to come out of her mouth, I would. "You had me all worried about Ruby running off in the woods with some guy, just so _you_ can go sneak off with FIVE!"

"Yeah, not cool, Blake." Ruby teased with a scowl, though not nearly as mean-looking as Weiss' normal face (the purest form of Resting Bitch Face known to man). I had the decency to be embarrassed at how I had used Ruby and could even feel a little color in my cheeks, though that could have been from Yang's stupid innuendo, too.

"I run off and when I come back, you're surrounded by five guys and covered in their sap!" Yang hollered out WAY too loudly. I tried with everything in me to make Yang join Cardin's team in their 'nap' as my cheeks grew brighter, but the villain had the sense to duck under my frantic arm-swing, laughing all the harder for it. To my great relief, no one had joined her in outright laughter, but most tried to stifle a giggle or hide their grins, with the exception being Ruby, who looked as mortified as I probably did.

"Now _that_ sounds like a weekend retreat!" Nora added on with a grin that was starting to match Yang's and also let everyone know she knew _exactly_ what Yang was saying, making for a terrifying alliance between the two that could threaten the world.

"I hate you all." I grumbled through gritted teeth. "I hate you all _so much._ "

"Nora! _Yang!_ " Ruby whined, as awkward as was possible with the subject matter. Even Ren shot Nora a glare that seemed to have no effect.

"Aww, come on, sis! You have to admit that it was fu—" Yang was cut off as two jars of sap were simultaneously dumped directly in her hair from behind her, her mouth freezing in its position as the shock of the situation washed over her and she confirmed that, _yes_ , someone had the audacity to do that.

"Don't worry, Yang." Jaune mocked as he walked around in front of her. "There's plenty of my sap to go around."

It was incredible that I could _watch_ the very moment Yang's eyes went red and Jaune's life effectively ended.

* * *

"Be careful not to hurt him when you put him down!" Ruby called out to Nora, who responded by somewhat carefully setting Jaune's unconscious body down in the cargo-mesh seating in the Bullhead Miss Goodwitch had called for us, unlike Team CRDL, who was unceremoniously dumped on the floor. "At least not any more than he _already is_!"

"Hey, he got what he deserved and he's lucky that the first punch knocked him out of my reach!" Yang called back apologetically.

"But did you have to knock him out, though?" Ruby whined back as she reached down and checked Jaune for a pulse for what must have been the twentieth time by now. When she did not freak out, I assumed that for the twentieth time he still wasn't dead. _He did take quite the shot from Yang for that sap stunt, though, so I can't say I blame her for checking the first time._

"How was I supposed to know he was already weak?" Yang called back as she sat herself down. "If he was brave enough to dump sap in _my hair_ , then he should have been prepared to die!"

"Would you two give it a rest already?" Weiss called from the other side of Yang. "We already have five unconscious passengers; I'd hate to have to make it seven."

"Heh, I'd like to see you try." Ruby mumbled as she sat down to my left, assuming that being on the opposite side of the team from Weiss would protect her.

" _What was that, Ruby_?" Weiss' shrill voice called out.

"N-nothing, Weiss! I was just…uh, I was just telling Blake how she should be quieter so we can enjoy the silence, silently!" Ruby looked to me with pleading eyes, begging for my help, but I gave her a look that let her know she was on her own. I had already gone along with _one_ ridiculous lie today, and Ruby's might have been worse; after all, at least the freaking Ursa _did_ actually show up.

"So, how _did_ you actually get sap in your hair, Blake?" Pyrrha asked from across the aisle, giving Ruby her much-needed distraction. "I happened to be close enough to see most of the fight before I ran off to get Miss Goodwitch, but it only got my attention once I heard weapons clashing." Well, That explains the weird glances Jaune and Pyrrha gave each other when Jaune talked about snitches, I guess, but not why she wouldn't have stepped in instead of getting Miss Goodwitch. Did she _want_ Miss Goodwitch to catch Jaune in the middle of a fight?

"Cardin and his team dumped it on me." I answered back quickly as I became the focus of the group.

"Why would they do that?" Nora asked from beside Pyrrha.

"They said that they thought that I was the one who knocked Cardin out the other day, and that this was revenge." I answered truthfully enough. _I can't tell them_ why _they thought that or how they were so sure I was a faunus, but I don't need to tell them that_. If they start prying, I can always deflect and use Jaune to distract them, seeing as how most of the group still isn't sure what they think about him (and Yang has redoubled her efforts of plotting his death).

"Did you?" Yang asked from besides me with an unreadable, but certainly not disapproving, expression.

"No! I was sitting next to you guys."

"That was their big play? Dumping sap on you?" Weiss asked from her spot on the end.

"No. They had a package of Rapier Wasps that they were going to release on me. I guess they're attracted to the sap."

"They're lucky you and Jaune knocked them out before _I_ did, then." Yang stated with a growl. "I might still go have a word with them later. I'm actually still pretty worked up." Yang finished off by giving an obvious glare to Jaune's unconscious body that was sat between Pyrrha and Nora.

"Yeah, I guess they are." I mumbled, looking away from Yang. I didn't really do all that much other than catch that one guy's wrist, and I'm pretty sure that one free hit from him wouldn't have stopped Jaune. I'm not sure of much that _could_ stop Jaune after seeing him do that, asides from maybe someone like Pyrrha. I looked up at her only for her to meet my eyes and exchange a nervous look that reminded me that if she saw the fight like she said, then she knew who it was that took them out. When she didn't say anything about it to call me out, I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding.

"If how easy it was for me to punch him across the forest is any sign, then he just barely held up against them. You sure seemed like you did fine, Blake." Yang pointed out, but without any accusatory tone towards me. "I guess Team RWBY is just stronger than Team JNPR, huh?"

"Maybe, but we're 100% sap-free over here." Ren replied calmly, irking Yang immensely if the way she shifted in her seat and leaned forward is any indication. Oh, and the death-glare she zoomed in on Ren with gave it away, too.

"100% Schnee-free, too." Pyrrha whispered under her breath; I only heard it because of my other ears, and even then, just barely. Weiss didn't come unglued, so I can only assume that she doesn't have a secret pair of faunus ears hidden away. _Wouldn't_ that _be poetic justice, though?_

"Why did he do it?" Weiss asked once the banter died down.

"Who, Cardin?" Nora asked confused. "We just went over this. Revenge. Stupidity. Thirst for violence." Nora finished listing off all the main reasons, or maybe she was describing herself; I'm not really sure. _Okay, maybe that's not fair to her, but in my defense, that last one_ is.

"No, why did Jaune come to help Blake?" Weiss corrected with a huff. "Isn't that the same situation that happened at lunch? He didn't help that girl then, and it was with the same bullies, too. What changed?"

Aside from the hum of the Bullhead, the room was mostly silent, and eventually more and more pairs of eyes turned towards me, expecting me to have some magic insight. Fortunately, I didn't have to say anything. Ruby had a smile a mile wide and was actually shaking from trying not to blurt out whatever she had to say, before eventually, she couldn't take it anymore.

"That's because he's not a meanie after all!" Ruby finally articulated—or, well, 'articulate' may not be the correct verb, I suppose. Ruby had all eyes on her now and didn't shy away from it. "Jaune didn't want to let them get away with that at lunch; he just wanted to get revenge on _his_ terms!"

"What are you saying, Ruby?" Pyrrha asked with an intense stare that was shared by most of the room.

"Jaune's the mysterious attacker that humiliated Cardin! I could hear them fighting in the locker room before our spar."

"And you didn't tell anyone?!" Yang asked with a start from next to Ruby.

"Heh heh, let's keep our focus on J-Jaune, okay?" Ruby backed off easily but still refused to let her optimism be dampened entirely. "Don't you see? The _bunny_ ears? He was _totally_ getting him back for that, which makes him the best person here!"

"You're going to have to explain that one really slowly there, sis." Yang countered with some actual anger in her voice, probably due to Yang's dislike of Jaune over what he did to Ruby. _This feels so backwards, with Ruby defending Jaune after what he did; is she just that nice or did something happen that we don't know about?_ To be fair, we didn't know that Ruby knew about this, so clearly, we're missing something. "We all remember what he said at lunch that day. He said she deserved it for not defending herself."

"Well, none of _us_ did anything to stop Cardin and _Jaune_ did, so _dripso sacktoe_ Jaune's better than you guys, no matter what he said." Ruby punctuated with a dramatic cross of her arms, though the fact that she didn't include herself in that stuck out to me.

"I think she means _Ipso Facto_." Weiss cut in to help the rest of Team _NPR and Yang, who looked lost. "I used that yesterday and she hasn't stopped trying to copy it."

"Yeah, but didn't Jaune send you to the infirmary for fighting dirty?" Ren asked Ruby uncertainly.

"Okay, _fine_ , those cancel out, so he's just as okay as the rest of us." Ruby defended, doing her best not to waver.

"Yeah, well he also got Blake attacked by doing it, so now he's in the negative." Yang added on more enthusiastically that she should have.

"B-but that's not fair!" Ruby whined when she couldn't think of a defense.

"He _did_ come to my defense, so he's back to even." I offered, unsure if I was doing it for Ruby or for Jaune, but confident enough in my words. Truth be told, I haven't had nearly enough time to think about what happened earlier and what Jaune said, but his actions were clearer.

"YES! Blake to the rescue!" Ruby cheered, not noticing Yang grimace and cross her arms grumpily as she slumped back into her seat. None of the others seemed to be holding a grudge against Jaune, but it already felt personal for Yang, and the fact that Ruby was against her likely didn't put her in a better mood.

"So, we're back to square one?" Pyrrha asked, trying to keep up with the running score.

"Yeah, I guess we are." Weiss confirmed. Although Ruby looked as if she was prepared to jump in and score more points for Jaune, she sat there content with having tied the score up for him.

 _No, he should have more points, but I can't argue that yet._ He had done more than just help me with the mess he created, after all. He had done it by himself, and when it was done he seemed to put a lot of himself into protecting all of us from those wasps, CRDL included. _I mean, he could have been doing it so that the wasps had no choice but to leave, but he_ still _protected them too_. He didn't even rat Cardin and his team out to Miss Goodwitch, despite the fact that they _really_ deserved it. If the rest knew just all that Jaune was willing to do—what he _had_ done—I have a feeling they would cut him a lot more slack, but for some reason he doesn't seem to want them—or anyone—to know. I need more time to figure this out before I just defend the guy, especially after that talk about our pasts, so if he doesn't want anyone to know about him, I can respect that; I wouldn't want it either, I suppose.

I turned my head to look at Jaune, something that more than just me had done during this discussion. He looked peaceful, which was surprising after the punch he had taken. _I don't know how it's possible that I got tangled up with maybe the only person here with a worse case of hiding from their past than me, if that even is why he's doing all of this._ It would make sense, but maybe that's just because it's what I would do—or, well, it is what I _am_ doing.

And all of that doesn't even begin to get into whatever was going on during that Semblance…

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Well, props to Cardin and company for figuring out Blake's cat-ears thing. Now, take away those props for being super dead wrong on the whole "who attacked Cardin" thing that they totally just based on "she's a faunus, so it was her!"**

 **Here we get to see more of Jaune clashing with Cardin but also see that that famous protective streak I've told of but not shown is finally emerging. It does help that instead of the Initiation Chapter where Jaune only connects with Weiss briefly to protect her from her fall, here he had to much more liberally apply his Semblance. He couldn't afford to just flare it for a moment, but instead needed to so thoroughly boost all of their auras that the wasps could get to the sap and got bored enough to leave. This does bring up a question for the show about whether aura only protects your skin and we just see it as a 'force field' for better visuals, or if it covers the clothes (and thus sap) too. I feel like, since everyone's clothes don't get torn until their aura shatters (Weiss in V5, Pyrrha and Penny in V3), it is more of the second one. Also, Ruby's cloak in V4 has tears, but it hangs freely and isn't necessarily in her aura, so loophole!**

 **Poor Ms. Goodwitch. I really pick on her so far in this story. I'm planning on making things up to her and balancing her back out a little in coming chapters, because even though I'm the author, I'm a little scared of her. She has always had a presence that makes you feel like, if a fictional character were capable of and willing to come out of their medium and murder you for being annoying, it would be her. _And I totally have the annoying part down._**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by user _DavidQrowWashongton716_

"When I read this all I can see and hear Jaune as is felix from RvB Chorus trilogy. As a smartass asshole don't know if you were going for that vibe or not but I like it."

 **Ah,** _David_. **May I call you** _David_ **? Or would you prefer I call you by** _Washington_ **?**

 **Is that intentional? I mean, not really, but it certainly makes sense. It's hard for me to ever envision Jaune being sassy, sarcastic, assholey, or a jerk without immediately imagining Felix. I'd like to think that this is because Miles Luna is just absolutely fantastic in both of those roles and really brings both characters to life, so anytime you think "Miles Luna's character being cocky" you immediately go to Felix.**

 **That said, Felix definitely has an Evil aspect to him that Jaune does not (and really, Raven doesn't even have it, either). Felix certainly has the self-interest and self-preservation that Raven does (and thus, trickles down to Jaune), but Felix also desires power over others and revels in this. Raven's smirk when she has Cinder beat at the end of V5 might show a little bit of this, but generally her character is understood to be much more neutral than evil. Jaune is fighting an internal struggle between being neutral (which he thinks to be evil, a little unfairly) and being protective/attached to others (which he thinks as "good", also a little unfairly). He hasn't yet really encountered something or someone evil like, say, Cinder. That does beg the question of how his view on his own morality will shift when a third aspect (true evil) is introduced to the two forces he struggles to balance.**

 **I absolutely loved every second of Felix and if Asshole Jaune feels like Felix to you, that does not bother me one bit!**


	8. 1 Step Forward, 1 Step Back

**Author's Note: So, a common comment has revolved around Jaune and his "dark" past, more specifically about it doesn't sound that terrible, objectively speaking. After all, in the actual show it's implied that Team RWBY probably has a body count, as you don't just thrown people off trains with a horde of Grimm following without condemning them to death. To those points, I have two basic counters for why I think it doesn't hold as much weight here, or just doesn't apply:**

 **1\. Those events haven't taken place yet, so while Team RWBY seems to handle that burden very maturely in the show, they have no way of knowing how they would react yet. As such, when considering causing someone's death in the abstract, things are different if you don't have that perspective to fall back on.**

 **2\. Those deaths were justifiable. It is safe to say that most of us would agree that terrorists dying in their attempt to kill others is not a bad thing. That doesn't apply to Jaune here, because as it has been implied, he has killed while on missions (raids) with Raven's Tribe. This would make them (and Jaune) the aggressors and thus any blood is on their hands. Jaune isn't too keen on bringing that up because, well, it's a decent case for murder. Sure, Jaune mainly worked in a protector role for the raiders, but if you kill someone for attacking a raider in self defense, is that the same as throwing a terrorist to their deserved demise?**

 **That's the perspective I'm going for with why Jaune is apprehensive of telling anyone. In truth, Jaune hates it too, as it _was_ the final straw that made him leave the Tribe. Think of it as Blake's final moments with the WF in the Black Trailer, except she actually goes along with blowing up the train.**

 **On that happy note, enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 7:** _"Look, it's inevitable that you're going to get caught in some lie at some point. Being a good spy isn't about not getting caught lying, it's about getting away with telling as little of the truth as possible." - Raven Branwen_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

Well, yesterday was a mess. Just a complete, utter catastrophy on my part. On the plus side, I got to knock around Cardin and his team. On the down side, that is the only thing that happened that could be considered good, or even just 'not bad.' The idiot somehow decided that _Blake_ was the one who attacked him and sought to seek revenge with Rapier Wasps, which meant that I had to stand aside and let Blake suffer because I couldn't help but get angry over Cardin attacking that faunus. And of course, by 'stand aside' I mean 'intervene and break the isolationist persona I've been crafting.' _Seriously, how did Team CRDL even get into Beacon? Doesn't Ozpin screen for bad actors?_ It did occur to me that it's possible that Ozpin screens for bad students and then purposefully lets them in. I mean, just yesterday we had four (possibly violently racist) bullies, an ex-racial terrorist, and a spy all having a brawl during a school field trip, so...

And that's another thing, too; it appears that I've found that one student Ozpin believes has a worse background. Surely he meant Blake by that, mainly because I find it hard to believe that there could be _another_ student with a secret past walking around in our midst. _I do wonder what life as a terrorist was like, and if it was really any different than life as Raven's tribe._ I mean, at least they had a higher calling to purport to; we just liked to loot people. _Given the fact that their cause was, well, terrorism, does that make them better or worse for it?_ Whatever the case, at least Blake had the sense to get out of it before it was too late, unlike me. Raven used to like framing the White Fang whenever we tried raiding Schnee Dust Corporation transports, and that worked so well because it was believable; the White Fang has been getting more and more radicalized, so it's good that Blake left when she did. _Or did she leave at all?_ What are the odds that Blake was doing the same thing I am? A spy for the White Fang inside the very walls of Beacon, to deliver valuable intel right as Fang activity is about to increase, or maybe a recruiter, sent to find and convert talented faunus students. That would be really funny, I have to admit, if Ozpin knowingly let two people with suspicious pasts into his school only for _both_ to be spies, but I have a feeling that isn't the case. Blake was way too open to sharing information on herself yesterday to be a trained spy; as it is, I find myself believing her story.

Of course, it helps that I got to use my semblance on her, even if I couldn't focus on her for long. What I did feel—guilt, helplessness, aversion, a sense of fleeing, hope—were not the hallmarks of a spy; if it even _is_ possible to fool my semblance, I doubt she would be the one to do it. It would require manipulating your very aura to feel differently, changing your soul to look like someone else. No, Blake couldn't have faked that, but then again, neither could _I_. I don't remember much of what happened once I tried to spread out and fully amplify all six of our auras, but I certainly remember feeling Blake push herself deeper into the connection. It's a weird, intrusive process (pushing deep into the connection, that is) that I usually don't engage in because it serves no purpose other than allowing deeper insight into who someone is and, in the past, the only people I could use it on were tribe members I did not care to know better. For as much as I know that Blake isn't evil because I felt her through my semblance, she would have gleamed more information about me, too. That thought was terrifying in the moment and is why I made sure we left with mutually-assured destruction in place, because I don't remember how deep she got and I can't know what she gleamed. _She wouldn't be used to the process, so she might have lost some things or not been able to focus deep, not to mention that at the moment my desire to protect them should have drowned out most other things._ Still, though, I don't like this; if nothing else, she can blow the lid off my whole 'loner' persona by telling our teams how I protected her, and further more, she would know it is fake sense she got to sense what I should actually be like.

And speaking of our teams, they decided to spend the last day of the weekend going into Vale and exploring, and both Blake and myself were dragged along by our respective teams. Part way through the day, our teams decided to split up as Weiss wanted to go to the docks and Nora wanted pancakes, which is how I now find myself sat in some open-air café that is my namesake (which is weird; who names a place "Jaune's" anyways?), awkwardly sitting around as Nora engulfs her food and the rest of the team awkwardly looks around, trying to avoid looking at me. Things had been strained between us ever since my spar with Ruby, mostly because we had avoided each other since then. Ruby had tracked me down and unfortunately I made quite the impression on her, and after yesterday I probably had Blake convinced that I was worth getting to know, but so far those were the only two threatening to get close to me. The one thing that _could_ save this thing is that neither of them are on my team, which means as long as I can convince my team that I wasn't worth the effort to get to know, I might salvage this yet.

"Nora, could you maybe eat a little quieter?" Ren asked, breaking the awkward silence.

"Uh, _no._ " Nora answered without skipping beat, still inhaling the pancakes. "You all should just talk louder."

"Talk louder?" I asked, bemused. "We aren't talking at all."

"And whose fault is _that_?" Nora accused, shooting me a much more serious glare than I was prepared for from someone covered in maple syrup. She was, of course, referring to how our team really didn't talk with each other whenever I was around, ever since the incident with Ruby. I'm assuming that Ruby hadn't told everyone about our meeting, or else they probably wouldn't hold it against me so much. _To be fair, I think Yang just hates me on principle now; why couldn't I have gotten them all to do that the first time?_

"Nora, now isn't the time." Ren leaned in to softly steer her away from any confrontation.

"Uh, I have pancakes and we're all sitting together for once. Now is the _best_ time!" Nora contradicted loudly, making the three of us flinch and look around to see if we were causing a scene. Either this café wasn't usually busy around this time or Nora had scared everyone off with how she inhaled pancakes, because our area was empty. "So, _Jaune_ , my man, my boy…what's going on?"

"Um… Right now? Just watching you eat pancakes." I fumbled in reply, not really expecting this scenario or certain what Nora's plan here was. A quick glance to both Pyrrha and Ren revealed that they were just as confused, but neither seemed willing to step in and stop it. _There is no telling what may happen when Nora gets an idea in her head._

"Okay, so you wanna play this the hard way. _Good._ " Nora's words—was that a threat, actually? —rung out and hung in the air as she took one large bite to finish what was left of her pancake so that she could turn her whole focus to me. Her eyes had their normal crazy look to them but hidden behind it was an intense stare that unnerved me, like staring into a serial cannibal's eyes during dinner. "Why are you hitting on Blake?"

"What?!" I answered back with a yelp, completely caught off-guard despite having just steeled myself for the worst. I wasn't the only one, as Ren looked confused and Pyrrha actually choked on her drink. "I'm not hitting on Blake! Why would you even think that?"

"Well, the way I see it, you're too much of a jerk to just save someone out of the goodness of your heart, so _obviously_ you have other motives for what happened yesterday!" Nora explained, never breaking eye contact and showing me that she was much more perceptive than her normal demeanor let on. Her eyes were challenging me, too, and she knew exactly what she was doing. "And since you're a guy, and Blake's a girl, it's not hard to figure out what _those_ motives are…"

"I didn't do it to hit on Blake, Nora." I explained slowly, trying to buy time to think. Nora's angle was obvious: pressure me into explaining myself by accusing me of something else where defending myself would require explaining the events with Ruby and Yang. Honestly, it was clever and not something I was prepared for, and at the moment, I'm stuck. One thing is now certain, though: _Nora is dangerous in all senses of the word._

"Then why did you do it?" Pyrrha asked softly. Her posture was still uncertain, but the curiosity I could see in her eyes outweighed an apprehension.

"I don't know. I guess I don't really have a reason." I answered, giving the least satisfactory answer possible. I know that they won't accept that for an answer, but it will still buy me a few moments to think.

"It seems to me that, after you took a stance during lunch basically supporting Cardin bullying someone, you would require a bigger reason to intervene in Cardin bullying someone." Ren added, showing that the whole table was now turned against me.

"I don't know, it was just different. I was already there and already had my weapons and it was just easier to do it." I lied again, hoping that they would focus on a new aspect or at least let me get more time to think. _Not that I seem to be coming up with anything, though._

"Are you a bad person, Jaune?" Nora asked as the table fell silent. Ren and Pyrrha couldn't seem to meet my eyes and they seemed to actively avoid them, but Nora stared straight into my eyes with a sternness in her gaze, but also some concern thrown in at the last second.

"I don't know." I bowed out in what seemed to be a cop-out answer, but actually may hold more truth than even I know. _It's not exactly a question I have an answer to at the moment, and not for lack of trying._

"Well, it seems to me that a bad person would let someone get bullied and not do anything. Does that sound right?" Nora's tone was a mix of accusatory and rhetorical, but she looked around as if waiting for all of us to confirm her statement. Ren and Pyrrha nodded along, but she looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to verbally agree.

"Yes, I guess." I mumbled to satisfy her unspoken demand.

"So that means a _good_ person would do the opposite and protect people." This time it wasn't a question, but rather a statement of fact that would seem almost cheery if it wasn't designed to pin me specifically. I didn't really have anything to come back with, so I rolled my eyes and pretended not to be affected by the statement. "And an awesome person would track down a bully in the locker rooms and take their holy vengeance!" All eyes shifted from Nora's enthusiastic outburst to me as I sat there, mouth slightly agape for a few moments before I could recover.

"I…you know about that?" I asked, trying to recover. It wasn't the greatest shock in the world that the secret got out—I had just beat four people up over it, with one faunus as a witness—but I feel like I would have had a better sense when they found out.

"Ruby told us on the Bullhead back yesterday." Ren answered curtly. _Why had Ruby waited so long?_ After our talk, I got the impression that Ruby saw through my persona and was determined to get me to show the rest that I wasn't a jerk, which, while a sweet gesture, wasn't what I needed. It especially didn't help that I was pretty vulnerable at the time and still deciding if going through this was worth it, but at least I thought that Ruby wasn't going to share what happened because she wanted me to show everyone on my own. _So, what changed?_

"The real question is why you didn't tell us about it in the first place?" Pyrrha asked, finally rejoining the discussion—or, rather, the 'Roast-Jaune-Over-A-Spit' party. I tried to come up with a good answer for that one, but they all fell short and I decided to keep my mouth shut. After all, the only real answer I had to that would involve talking about being a spy and not wanting them to get close to me, and I had a feeling _that_ would be a really bad answer at the moment.

"No, the real question is why Jaune is okay with everyone thinking he's a bad person." Nora countered, looking me dead in the eye. It even felt like her words were somehow physically aimed to cut into me. Nora's stare had lost its softness and now bore into me, challenging me to answer truthfully but, if this is even possible, there was still some hint of concern mixed in. _If nothing else, this will all be valuable intel for the future: Nora is terrifying._ When I couldn't answer, Nora decided to answer for me. "Maybe he thinks Blake will go for the bad boy type!"

"I'm not hitting on Blake!" I countered loudly, thankful beyond belief that Nora had given me some other topic to focus on as a distraction. Out of the side of my eye, I noticed Pyrrha shifting around awkwardly, as if she was bothered by what was said. She wasn't doing that when Nora was putting the screws to me, meaning she wasn't uncomfortable because this was an awkward scenario, so there's something about Nora's joke about Blake specifically that's unsettling her. _Could…she be a little jealous?_ There's absolutely no way I could have made an impression on her, right? _Right?_ Well…this might need to be explored, just in case. That is, if I make it out of this café alive, which is looked less and less likely. _Oh, yeah, the whole 'no attachments' thing might put a damper on that..._

"And you're not a bad guy either!" Nora countered, matching my enthusiasm and then some. "So why do you want us to think that? Because it feels like you don't want us to like you." This didn't feel like a set-up question, though; this didn't have the air of a rhetorical question. This felt like Nora's whole point. Nora had come to an emotional climax with this question and looked at me intently, her eyes stern but with mixes of concern and hope swelled in. There was exhaustion and exasperation in Nora's voice, letting me know that this was the culmination of several days of frustration.

I still couldn't answer, though. I hadn't come up with anything in all the time I had bought for myself, and I was left trying to avoid Nora's eyes by looking around the table. I made the mistake of meeting Pyrrha's eyes and looked away before I had to stare into the unreadable swirl of emotions going on there.

"If Jaune _is_ a good person, which we all think he is, then he probably has a reason for trying to stay away, and he just may not feel like he can trust us enough yet to tell us." Ren came in to my rescue, instantly earning him the title of #1 Teammate for Team JNPR. Pyrrha seemed all-too eager to accept that answer and back off, but Nora, _oh, Nora_ … Nora was not phased in the slightest.

"oooo _oooOOOHHH!_ Jaune doesn't trust us enough yet!" Nora answered with an ever-widening grin that shook me to my core. That grin means _something_ , and I was not going to like it, I just know it. "Sounds like we need to have a Team JNPR Trust Exercise!"

"That…doesn't sound like the worst thing, does it?" Pyrrha added on apprehensively, but apparently was warming up to the idea fast. Ren didn't really have any objection, and something told me that my objections would be overruled, so I decided not to draw attention back to myself.

"This is going to be awesome! Alright, we'll go around the table and each share a deep, personal secret until Jaune feels comfortable enough to _spill the beans_!" Nora pronounced emphatically, only for Pyrrha's face to go through an impressive range of emotions, starting with agreement, going through confusion, and ending in profound regret. Ren showed no emotion whatsoever. He didn't even seem surprised. "Let's start with Jaune!"

"Let's not." I panned back flatly.

"Let's start with Pyrrha!" Nora pivoted, unphased.

"Uh…" Pyrrha froze and retreated in on herself, looking at Nora nervously. After only a second, Nora got bored and moved on.

"Let's start with Ren!"

"Pass."

" _I said…_ " Nora grit through her teeth, leaning in to very obviously threaten Ren. "Let's. Start. With. Ren."

"What deep secrets do I even have, Nora?" Ren asked in his defense, clearly buying himself time the same way that I had earlier, but doing it under a much greater threat upon his life.

"You could tell everyone of any serious crimes you've committed, or you could tell us who you're secretly in love with, or you could tell us how you discovered your semblance…" Nora rattled off things from the top of her head. Pyrrha met my eyes and seemed just as concerned as I was that those were the sorts of things Nora wanted to hear. _Serious crimes, huh? Yeah, this is not good._

"None, no one, and you already know how I got my semblance." Ren answered back flatly. His posture looked like he was annoyed—more so than usual, I suppose—but he held remarkable control over his voice and sounded patient still. _Maybe_ that's _his semblance._

"Good idea, _I'll_ tell them how you got your semblance _…_ " Nora's words weren't aimed at me, but _I_ felt threatened by them. Ren's face looked like he was lost in thought for a split-second before realizing that he had made a huge mistake, but he didn't recover in time to stop Nora.

"So, we're in this village that's getting _rekt_ by Grimm. Like, burning to the ground, women and children and men screaming—yeah, they all screamed. It was intense—people keeling over dead from pure fright before the Grimm even ate them, when suddenly, Ren rides into the town, shirtless, on a white horse, playing the bongos—"

" _Nora!_ " Ren clamped a hand over her mouth, much to the dismay of Pyrrha and I, who were beginning to enjoy the story, mostly because it sounded like it was going to be long and distract Nora from everyone else having to share anything. "That is not what happened."

"Then _you_ tell them!" Nora cut back with a huff.

"Okay, fine." Ren finally gave in with a huff and turned to Pyrrha and I to set the story straight. "She wasn't far off about the Grimm attack. It was something called a Nuckelavee that lead the attack. Nora and I were just kids, and we were hiding under a porch when it walked right by. We were scared to death and Nora was crying—"

"I WAS NOT!"

"Nora was _bawling her eyes out_ and we were putting off way too many negative emotions to not be found."

"I still wasn't crying." Nora grumbled and refused to look at Ren, who seemed fine with the new development.

"And that's when I found my semblance. I could suppress our emotions so much that the Grimm couldn't detect us, and we were able to slip away."

"And that's how you were able to survive alone in the wild?" Pyrrha asked softly.

"Yes. You can imagine how helpful being able to suppress someone's emotional outbursts can be in my situation." Ren said, followed by taking a sip of his drink so as to avoid Nora's glare, the girl having very easily caught on to his meaning.

"Is that how you met?" I asked, sensing that there was more to this story than just getting his semblance. Based on how his semblance seems to work, he would have discovered it before if he and Nora had tried to survive in the wilds, so that meant this might have been the first time they were attacked. If nothing else, it was a good guess that would buy more time.

"Yup. That was the last time I ever had to be alone." Nora answered back more reserved than I had ever seen her. She didn't seem sad, despite what she had just said. _Nora seems more and more to be able to roll with things easily and change whatever she can without hesitance; that would be admirable, if it wasn't directly aimed at me at the moment._ "Don't look so sad, Pyrrha. We're _orphans_ , remember?" I'll be honest, I don't know how that's supposed to help. Judging by Pyrrha's (and even Ren's) reaction, she didn't know either. "I don't even remember my actual family, so that makes Ren the only family I've ever had. That means the day we met was the best day ever!"

"It was also the day my parents died." Ren added quietly.

"Uh...the second best day ever?"

"How did they…uh...go? If you're okay with me asking." I asked, both genuinely curious and hoping to keep the talk away from me. Concern washed over Nora's face as she finally looked as if her energy had been sapped (thank dust for that, too) and she looked over to check on Ren, who didn't really seem phased by the question.

"It's okay. My dad was part of our town's defense force, which was wiped out. My mother…I don't really remember much about what happened, but I remember her being there and then her…not." Ren's tone softened, and I even had maybe just the slightest suspicion that he did know what had happened but didn't want to share. For a split moment, I thought about pressing a little further, but realized it would be a bad look if I established that it was okay to push further if you suspected someone of lying. _That would set a bad precedent that would come back to haunt me_. Instead, I left Ren's words at face value.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Pyrrha mumbled from the side, clearly uncomfortable with where everything had gone to.

"You're fine." Ren answered, taking another sip of his drink before shaking the thoughts from his mind.

"Well, that's Ren and I's big secret! Pyrrha's turn!" Nora announced, pivoting to stare directly at the girl in question. Pyrrha went from being uncomfortable to nervous and frightened, both by Nora's sudden outburst and by the pressure put on her. Her pained expression made it obvious that she was not ready to just go out and share something personal when put on the spot like this, but Nora's determination would _not_ be stopped if this entire conversation so far is anything to go by. _Honestly, I kinda feel bad for Pyrrha; Nora is just doing this to get_ me _to open up, and now Pyrrha is getting dragged through it._ Wait, no, bad Jaune. That's what I'm trying to avoid here, and if Nora wants to focus on Pyrrha, then _good_ , that buys me more time; maybe she'll even forget about it by the time it gets around.

Then again, I wouldn't have to tell them _everything_ , would I? Nora seems pretty intent on getting to me and going through all of them to do it, so I probably will have to give them _something_ at some point. _Wouldn't it just be better to get it over with now and save Pyrrha the trouble?_ I could 'open up' and give them some vague details about my past and then play off Ren's 'doesn't trust them' angle that he gifted me. Since it does appear that my loner persona has been ruined, I might as well help Pyrrha out, right? _Oh, if Raven could see me right now, getting ready to partially blow my cover just to save my hot partner some embarrassment…_

Actually, given who Yang's father is, she might be more understanding about that...

"Why don't we just skip Pyrrha's turn?" I asked and was greeted by three wide pairs of eyes, which I promptly shrugged off.

"Uh, okay. Your turn, Jaune!" Nora called out, recovering quickly but not regaining her full enthusiasm, instead adopting some semblance of caution.

"What do you want to know?" I asked, thinking back to one of Raven's lessons. Whenever it was inevitable that someone was going to dig deep, always control _how_ they dig; don't get caught having to spin a new story, but instead have them ask for what they're interested in. Let them tell you what their interested in so you can focus on that and avoid whatever important things they aren't looking for. _It wouldn't do to tell them all about my life as a raider if they were really interested in my spar with Ruby, for instance._

"That's not how this works!" Nora blurted out, before being promptly smacked under the table—twice, actually, meaning both Ren and Pyrrha didn't want to ruin a good thing. "But _apparently_ we're making an exception."

"Why did you want us to hate you?" Pyrrha asked, her previous timidity and nervousness over being the subject of Nora's investigation completely washed over by her own curiosity. _That she went straight for that question is interesting, given my earlier observation._

"Uh…it was easier that way." I answered back, taking care to avoid anything specific and tell truths where I could. For instance, this answer was neither specific nor false, nor would it come back to hurt me.

"Easier to do what?" Nora asked, leaning in closer.

"I thought not getting close to anyone would make everything about Beacon easier, but so far, that has been the opposite of true." I answered, again, truthfully enough.

"Why wouldn't you want to get close to us?" Ren asked, carefully repeating my own words. It was an amateur move as far as interrogation goes, as you should ask things in different wording to see if they correct you, and if they do, that means the details were important enough to change. Clearly, I wasn't being interrogated by Ozpin, but that didn't mean it would be _easy_.

"Because I…" I trailed off, not entirely sure what I was about to say, but realizing I didn't have a good line or a good spin to put on things. If I was going to do this, I was either going to have to lie or admit to some decently serious things and hope they took them well. I took a deep breath for good measure and made a show of briefly looking into their eyes before looking away again. "I'm not like you guys. I didn't join Beacon to protect people or get stronger. You all joined because of your future; I joined because of my _past_."

They were all silent, patiently waiting as I spoke, as if they were afraid that if they cut me off or spoke at all, I would never open back up again. Ren and Nora shared a glance, but otherwise didn't move, and Pyrrha's eyes were so soft that I almost felt bad that I was trying to hide my real self from them still.

Almost.

"I wasn't exactly truthful when we talked about where I was from. I actually was a raider, at least for a while."

" _YES!_ " Nora exclaimed suddenly, making nearly everyone at the table jump. "I knew it!"

"No, Nora, I was not a pirate. I did not have an eye patch, and I did not have a parrot." I countered quickly, before things could get out of hand.

" _Darn._ "

"What… _kind_ of raider?" Pyrrha asked, trying to get us back on track but also uncertain how to navigate things now that my 'big secret' was out.

"What…kind? What does that even mean?" I asked, a little confused if I'm honest but also not willing to give up any more information than was absolutely necessary. "What kinds are there?"

"No, I totally get it!" Nora backed Pyrrha up, which instantly made the rest of us nervous. "There's the 'loot and plunder' type, the 'high-way robbery' type, the 'sack the town' type, the 'rape and pillage' type—"

"Whoa now, _what_?" I tried to cut in, only to be ignored.

"—the 'pirate' type, the 'evil militia' type, the—"

"Okay, Nora, we get it. That's enough." Ren announced as he put his hand over Nora's mouth to stop her.

"Uh…let's go with 'sack the town' and or 'highway robbery.'" I announced, trying my best to avoid saying the 'evil militia' type, because honestly, _duh_.

"How long were you a criminal for?" Pyrrha asked with a new tone in her voice and a wary look in her eye that hadn't been there before. There was a slight hostile edge there that seems to have appeared, along with the term 'criminal' being thrown around.

"Technically, I was never caught, so... _not_ a criminal." I shot back somewhat playfully, but it seemed to have been poorly received. "But, around when I was 12 was when crews started to take me in. I bounced around a lot based on, well, who was still alive and who had room for me. I _did_ work as a sellsword, just…there weren't any good people who had room for me."

"Did you ever kill anyone?!" Nora cut in with a mix of enthusiasm and morbidity that I actually couldn't decipher, other than to realize that Nora is going to be a big headache for the next four years.

"What? No!" I lied. It wasn't a bad effort on my part, but I can't be 100% sure that Ren and Pyrrha bought it—especially Pyrrha, who looked leery of everything that was saying anyways. Neither of them challenged me on it, so they were content with not pursuing it further, which was a blessing.

"I take it that since you said your past is why you're in Beacon, you're here because you didn't like being bad?" Ren asked, putting things into maybe too simple of terms, but not saying anything that I wasn't prepared to jump all over and play into.

"I…yeah, I guess you could say that. I'm here to make up for my past." I answered, making sure to look down at my lap and avoid eye contact to sell it better. If I was honest with myself, which apparently very often I am not, I wasn't actually sure _why_ I was here and what I intended to do, but that wasn't a very good answer at the moment. _Besides, I did want a chance to get away from Raven and see who I could become, right?_ "I'm just recently finding that I don't really know how to do that."

"Well, silly, that's what _we're_ for!" Nora exclaimed, apparently overjoyed to have finally cracked the case. Ren, while he didn't share her enthusiasm, did look slightly pleased as well. "As your team, it's our job to help you, right guys?" Nora looked to Ren, who nodded silently, and then to Pyrrha, who looked like, well, I don't actually know. Previously, she looked as if she was really hung up on the whole 'criminal' aspect, which is fair, since she grew up in the capital of Mistral and never experience outside life. Ren and Nora don't even seem phased by it, partially because Nora is Nora and partially because they understand the circumstances better. Pyrrha would have grown up in a more black-and-white setting. But now, Pyrrha's aversion looked like it had shattered to pieces and what was left was a mix of sympathy and guilt, like she felt bad for judging me in the first place now that she heard my sob story. _It wasn't even really that great of a sob story, but hey, if it works, I won't question it._ Maybe the mix of just enough of a tragic backstory combined with Nora's rallying call to help me not suck was just what Pyrrha needed to be convinced, or maybe she really is hot for me and sees this as the perfect chance to get my up to her standards, as unlikely as that sounds. _If it's that second one, I won't be objecting too much._

"Yes. We'll do whatever we can to help you, Jaune." Pyrrha finally confirmed, looking me in the eyes to show me that she meant it. If I had a choice, I would _absolutely_ prefer Pyrrha to help me over Nora, mostly because I feel I could survive Pyrrha's teachings.

And hey, maybe there _is_ something to that look she gave earlier, in which case, I should absolutely look into things further. I feel like Raven probably wouldn't approve of me willingly getting entangled further, but right now, I can't bring myself to care. When I'm presented with a team that is genuinely crazy but genuinely cares and even the possibility of talking up with someone that looks like Pyrrha, I think I'm taking that opportunity, Raven's advice be damned.

* * *

I did absolutely everything I could to break off from my team and get away from Nora in particular, and after the long, drawn-out confrontation we'd just had, Pyrrha felt the same way. In less than ten seconds as we walked down the street, we both found separate reasons to break off from the group and go our own ways; Pyrrha mentioned something about needing to go buy some armor polish and I joked that I needed to go drink myself into oblivion. As it turns out, Ren saw through both of our bad lies but decided to help us by taking up Nora's attention upon himself. _There's no telling what the world would be like if Nora didn't have Ren to anchor her; I suspect perpetual war would break out across the lands if Nora was kept unchecked._ One can only wonder at the wanton destruction that Salem could wreak if she ever held influence over Nora. Then again, I'm not convinced that even _she_ could control the sugar-powered dynamo.

Anyhow, I made my way to the airfield to take a Bullhead back to Beacon, and by chance I rode the same ship back as Team RWBY. However…

 _"I still don't see how you could defend a hooligan like that. And that's not to even mention the White Fang!"_ Weiss huffed at Blake, who did not receive the words well.

"Jaune!" Ruby yelled as she ignored her team's fighting and ran up to me and tried to tackle me into a hug, which didn't move me at all. I was a little caught off-guard but returned the hug with one arm while also shuffling her off to the side, mainly because of the pair of lavender eyes that were staring at me and that I did not want watching me hug Ruby. "Where's your team?"

 _"How can you know he's a hooligan? You've never even met him!"_ Blake cut back at Weiss, only being held back by Yang's grip on her arm. Yang didn't seem interested in the argument in the slightest, and wasn't even facing the same direction, instead turning to follow Ruby with her eyes and holding Blake from behind her.

"Oh, we split up. Things got awkward after Nora forced us to share our feelings." I answered back, doing my best to tune out Blake and Weiss like Ruby and Yang had.

"Forced you to share your feelings?" Ruby asked, confused.

 _"I_ know _he's a hooligan because good people don't stow away on boats!"_

"Yeah, Nora sat us all down and made us talk about our secrets and whatnot. Fun times." I answered back, only to catch a weird look from Yang.

"Oh gods, Jaune, what have you done?" Yang and I both looked to Ruby, who was flicking her eyes back and forth from me to Weiss, with an ever-widening grin spreading across her face.

 _"You don't know his life! You can't just judge people without knowing them!"_

"Ruby, _no._ It won't work." Yang did her best to dispel the notion from Ruby's head, but neither of us really believed that the idea was fully banished, if the lingering smile was anything to go by.

"Anyways, how was your day?" I asked, hoping to steer back towards normal conversation. I had had way too much abnormal conversation today and for once, I really wished to keep things mundane and routine.

 _"I can't judge people based on their actions!? What the hell should I judge them by, then?"_

"Oh, it was good! We walked around Vale and met this weird red-headed girl. She was nice but, uh, she made _me_ look socially aware." Ruby answered cheerfully, completely neglecting her still-feuding teammates.

"That's saying something, too." Yang teased, failing to get a rise out of Ruby, who instead just nodded along as if it were as an acceptable thing to say as the grass is green.

 _"I'm not saying you shouldn't judge people on their actions, I'm just saying that you can't dismiss them without any consideration to their situations beforehand!"_

"Oh, yeah, and then we went to the docks where we saw this one guy use his tail to swing on a pole and evade the police. Oh, and he was a stowaway, so that was pretty exciting, too." Ruby added on after realizing that her team was still yelling at each other.

"And that's why their arguing?" I asked, eyeing the two very angry, very worked up girls cautiously.

 _"Oh, and I'm sure that I should stop and sympathize with the terrorists who blow up my family wherever they can, too?!"_

"Yeah. Weiss had some choice words about the faunus guy, Blake had some choice words about Weiss, and Ruby and I have been gracious enough not to strangle them. Yet." Yang answered for Ruby, still holding Blake back with her arm.

 _"Are you incapable of considering the circumstances of anyone but yourself?!"_

"Oh, sounds like fun." I lied, for once actually wondering if I didn't get a pretty good team. I mean, aside from Nora strong-arming everyone earlier (which, in its own right, is impressive), I do seem to have a pretty good team. Pyrrha is supposedly some sort of super warrior, Nora is…Nora, Ren has a pretty practical semblance and a talent for containing Nora, and I am a spy trained by a Maiden. Overall, I'd say that we're a pretty strong team. _And currently, we have 0 people yelling at each other._ Not to mention, 100% Schnee Free still.

"Yeah, just don't bring up Torchwich when they get like this." Ruby mumbled, only to flinch when Blake stared her down.

"Oh, nice going, Rubes." Yang added despondently.

 _"Thank you, Ruby! I bet that monkey faunus is working hand-in-hand with Torchwich and his White Fang terrorists!"_ Weiss called out, having also heard her team leader.

 _"There is no way the White Fang would_ ever _work for a human like Torchwick! They'd rather kill the guy than take orders from him!"_

"How long have they been going on like this?" I asked, doing my best to whisper as quietly as I could, seeing how they both seem to have superhuman hearing when it's about them.

 _"Oh, so I guess you know better than the police, now, huh?"_

"I really have lost track, to be honest. There was this one moment where it looked like they were done, then when we walked by a shop on the way here a news report about the White Fang was playing." Yang answered, looking as fed up with what was going on as was possible. "Weiss made a snarky comment, Blake took her head off, and they were back at it like that."

"Oh, thank goodness, we're here." Ruby called out as we touched down, her relief threatening to overwhelm her as she nearly flung herself out of the Bullhead, dragging her partner in tow as Yang did the same. "Alright, guys, as team leader, I decree that you will both _not_ yell in public. _Please._ "

"Oh, crap!" I exclaimed as I made a show of patting down my pockets frantically. "I think I left my wallet at that café!"

"Nice." Yang taunted immediately, as if biting sarcasm was a reflex.

"Yang, stop being so mean to my friends!" Ruby whined at her sister, also having caught on to how quickly Yang responded and the lack of any real amusement in her voice.

"Way to go, nimrod." Weiss called out angrily, taking the opportunity to vent her frustration at me. Blake looked like she wanted to do the same, but held herself back from coming after me, which was thoughtful; I would have been touched if it wasn't probably out of guilt after yesterday.

"Oh, so _Weiss_ can insult him, but _I_ can't?"

Yang received an elbow to the side as Ruby turned her back on me, starting to walk away. " _Weiss_ doesn't actively hate him, unlike _someone_." I had a feeling Ruby meant to be quieter with that, but, well, Ruby isn't quiet.

"I'll see you guys around at class tomorrow, I guess. I gotta head back down and find that!" I announced, waving as the doors shut back. As soon as we were off the ground, I reached around and grabbed my wallet out from where I had tucked it into my waist behind my back. I took a quick glance out the window to reassure myself that it was night-time, which was a mistake because it threatened to aggravate my vertigo but did reveal that the sun was almost completely set, and it would be dark within minutes.

"Well, this oughta be fun." I mumbled to myself as I pulled out my 'file reading' app and opened the hidden application I used for contacting Raven. Tonight wasn't supposed to be a raid, but Raven did want eyes put on at least one of the locations she sent me, and it would be unwise to refuse her so soon into my term here; I really hadn't done anything to help her yet, and an unsatisfied Raven is an unpredictable Raven. _Heh, I bet Taiyang learned that lesson the hard way._ Then again, he knocked up at least 50% of his team, so he might be more talented there than he gets credit for.

I pulled up the address that I previously had picked out. From what I could find, it was a small warehouse in the docks that had been empty for a while and was currently owned by a company that didn't seem to be using it much. Chances are, it was either abandoned or the company owning it was a shell, but that didn't really matter much; what did matter was why the place was in Raven's intel, and if the answer was storing stolen dust, then I would have a target to report back to Raven with.

"Hey, kid, shuttles stop running in an hour." The pilot called out to me as we touched down. I yelled back something to thank him for the heads up before disembarking. I looked around to make sure I wasn't about to run into anyone I knew because, let's face it, that would be exactly my luck. Fortunately, this airfield was pretty empty and the walk to the docks wouldn't take more than twenty minutes, so I headed that way. Along the way, I ran through scenarios in my head of what could go wrong—and trust me, I thought of a _lot_ of those—and what I could do should things go wrong. I didn't have the option of fighting, at least not with my weapons; fighting with Crocea Mors could be tracked back to me at Beacon, seeing how flashy and identifiable it is, and bringing my cumbersome claymore to an evening walking around the town would have been suspicious. If I _really_ needed it, I could call my rocket locker and retrieve it, but then there would be a log showing when and where it was sent. _Which reminds me…_

I stashed my scroll under a dumpster behind a sports bar as an alibi should I really need it. I _had_ proclaimed that I was going to get wasted and, while it was a bad lie, meant that any tracking data of me out late at a sports bar fit my lie very well. At the very least, it was plausible enough that I couldn't be charged with anything, as long as they only checked where I was late at night and didn't look at why I flew to Beacon and back. Even then, I had my alibi established with Team RWBY that I left my wallet somewhere; all I had to say is that I found it lying on the ground of the airfield, and then I would technically be set. _None of that would do to dispel any suspicions held against me, but it_ would _protect me from having to give real answers._

I reached the warehouse district and located the one I needed. It was a riverfront warehouse, which made it suspicious that it was empty; typically, that would be prime real estate unless this port was unused, or the area was so rough that businesses went elsewhere, and I had a feeling given the nature of what I was doing, it was that second one.

I ducked behind an ally as soon as I noticed a sentry on top of the warehouse. He wasn't actively patrolling, as that would be too obvious and suspicious, but instead was peering over the edge of the roof and looking around. Without my scroll, which I had definitely just left at the dumpster and did not have on me anymore, I didn't have much in the way of zooming in to see what was going on, meaning I would have to get closer. I ducked through some back allies until I could find a closer spot with a better angle of the building, which revealed no other sentries other than the guy up top, who I could now see was wearing a mask. _A White Fang mask; of course, Raven sends me after this._ This went from robbing other dust thieves to taking on a terrorist cell, and this is still just the first thing Raven has sent me to do so far.

After a few moments, the sentry disappeared and walked off to some other corner of the building; I swept the perimeter and, upon finding no other bodies in sight, made a break to the base of the warehouse. There were no ground sentries guarding the alleys around the warehouse, which there _should_ have been if this was an active cell location or a storage house for stolen dust. As such, all I had seen so far was one man lazily watching from the roof, so I didn't think it likely that I would find any dust inside. With this knowledge in mind, I found one of the side entrances that looked run-down and out of use and tried my best to silently pry the door open. To my great luck, the door still worked despite its obvious disrepair (the handle was missing) and I was now inside unseen.

There wasn't much there, but there was enough to hide behind. A bunch of wooden crates but nothing stacked higher than two or three were littered around, giving me great cover to crawl around behind. I would say that the low-light helped too, but given than I'm dealing with faunus terrorists, the low-light was probably an intentional move to give them a sight advantage. _That, or this place is just such a dump it wouldn't matter._ I crawled towards the sound of voices and the beeping of a forklift, to find three or four White Fang Members unloading crates from a shipping container and checking the contents to reveal weapons. There were two boxes of dust rifles, either high-quality civilian or standard military models but from this distance I couldn't distinguish, along with at least four or five spare magazines per rifle. Two more boxes were filled with body armor that didn't exactly look up to Huntsman standards or even military standards, but certainly was rugged enough to be useful to terrorists. The fifth and final box they opened and checked through thousands of rounds of dust ammunition, more than enough to supply all of the magazines I had seen.

It was an impressive array, to be sure, but it didn't make sense. None of this did. The White Fang were a terrorist cell fighting on behalf of oppressed faunus against the governments of Remnant, at least as far as I knew, and I couldn't see how this would help. Don't get me wrong, arming a hidden cell is always high on terrorists' lists of things to do, but just two boxes of rifles sent to the middle of a rundown warehouse district? There weren't any high-profile targets to hit around here and no one would care about any message if the only victims were a few crates of industrial goods from the nearby warehouses. Besides, the weaponry didn't make sense. There was plenty of ammunition, but when all was said and done, you didn't have guns and armor for more than maybe thirty people there; these weren't shipping containers full of supplies, just a few wooden crates. None of this screamed 'political statement' to me.

 _If it isn't for a statement, then it's for a more practical purpose._ That sort of weaponry would arm a pretty strong raiding group, actually; it would be pretty spot on for what Raven would send out for a big heist of her own, even if this weaponry was a little nicer than what she acquired for her tribe. If this was the staging-grounds of a heist, that means they were planning to hijack something coming into the docks, and the best commodity to hit the docks for would be a shipment of dust. Given that the weapons were already in place, the attack couldn't be more than a day or two away, three at the most. If I got back to Raven with that, she could probably get someone to track down when the next big dust shipments are coming in to this port, and if I know Raven, she'll want to steal the dust on the back-end from the Fang.

That was all I needed for now. I looked around again for any prying eyes but found my path back to the door I came from clear. I took care to keep my footsteps silent, and once I got outside I ducked around the corner and booked it once I was out of sight. It wouldn't have mattered if the sentry saw me leave, because they would _not_ be finding me or catching up to me anytime soon.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Oh, yay, Jaune is coming around and starting to break out of Raven's grasp, even going to far as to give in and build some trust with his team? Isn't this just great? He's even-oh, wait. He's back at it again with Raven. _Huh_.**

 **For all of you that are concerned about Yang and her dislike towards, aversion of, or hatred of Jaune so far in this fic, I hear you. I know it feels like Yang has a weak reason to dislike Jaune, because she does. This isn't the mature, _Volume 5_ version of Yang who in one season launched herself into my top 5 characters. This is still young, 17-year-old, hotshot, hot-headed, _pre-Volume 3_ Yang who is still a little immature and overprotective of her baby sis; she is equal parts Taiyang and Raven, though maybe no one realizes to what extent. Were Jaune's actions against anyone else, she would have gotten over it, but so far he's hurt _her baby sister_ and then they had a confrontation without any resolution; since then, Jaune has pretty much avoided everyone and it isn't as if he has been _trying_ to patch things up with anyone. **

**Yang will come around, don't worry, but she will be probably the last to do so. That doesn't mean it will take long, though. She's one of the four tagged characters in this fic for a reason; give it some time.**

 **Also, I love Nora. Is that okay? _Am I allowed to love this precious cinnamon roll?_ She's just so fun to write, and because she's so unpredictable, going inside her head to figure out her next move is more entertaining on my end than on yours!...probably.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week** **:** by _ExiledDarkness_ (it was a guest account with this label, but I'm assuming it's the same as user _The Exiled Darkness_. If not, someone stole your identity, bro) on **Ch. 6**

"Goodwitch is just annoying, both in canon and in fanfiction. Also loopholes are great to exploit. But I have to wonder, with Volume 1 coming to a close, and the docks event bound to happen, will our 'douche' Arc play any part since he knows a certain secret?"

 **Okay, so like, I didn't _mean_ to pick another comment from you, I swear. But Ch. 6 only had three comments when I sat down to write the AN, Closing Thoughts, and C.o.t.W.; one I addressed with the AN and the other I addressed with the Closing Thought, so this was literally the only thing I could put here. If anyone out there just has a burning hatred for people who win Comment of the Week twice, or you just can't stand to see the word "Exiled" for any reason, then I recommend leaving a comment to give him some competition.**

 _ **No, that isn't a shameless plug asking for more comments. I don't know what you're talking about.**_

 **Anyways, on Glynda Goodwitch, I mean, yeah. She kinda grates on you, so I don't think that 1) anyone is going to mind if I 'bash' her character a little for my plot and B) anyone is going to think she's really too far OoC. I do think that her character can be used pretty well and pretty convincingly (I would say the middle and end of _Not this time, Fate_ handles her pretty well), but she is not a draw for the FNDM. _How things played out with her VA didn't help things..._**

 **On that second note, why, whatever do you mean that Jaune could be involved? Don't you know that in Jaune-centric fanfiction, Jaune _never_ is involved in things that do not include him in the show? That's like, the rules, man. Sadly, it does appear that the 'douche Arc' persona is cracking, but if we're lucky, his abrasiveness and sense of humor stick around as remnants of it.**

 **( I mean, considering my sister accuses me of literally inserting myself into this story via Jaune's abrasive humor, I would say that is probably going to stay... :D )**


	9. -Bonus Scene-

**[REFINED Oct. 24, 2018] Author's Note: This chapter was originally a bonus chapter, which was uploaded unplanned on a Wednesday between the normal Sunday updates. The original AN explained why:**

Alright, so technically, this is more of a bonus half-chapter or a bonus scene, but the last chapter was too long to include this and after all that has happened recently, Jaune hasn't had a chance to sort through things yet, and that needed to happen before the next chapter for continuity reasons, so enjoy chapter 7.5, also known as "Isaac is too longwinded to fit all of his plot points into one chapter..."

 **This is also why my personal chapter numbers at the beginning of each chapter will, from here on, no longer match the # counter on the website.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

Well, the good news today is that I did not get captured by racial terrorists after infiltrating their warehouse. On the down side, my team keeps pushing further into my life and I gave in to them earlier, so that wasn't so good. Overall, I would say that today balanced out to be even, but that was before I realized that I had missed the last shuttle to Beacon by about half an hour.

That is how I find myself trudging through the edge of the Emerald Forest in the middle of the night. Although Beacon was usually accessed by Bullhead, there were actually ways to get to the school on foot; after all, our initiation started on the cliffs next to the school, which lead directly into the Emerald Forest. This meant that there had to be a way to get back up that cliff, which was where I was headed, but that meant I had to navigate a dangerous forest at night. I had several hours of hiking ahead of me, and I did not look forward to any of it.

"I bet no one else at this stupid school has had to do this," I grumbled to myself as I ducked under some branches. Of course, it didn't need to be stated that no one else in this school was a spy, because proper context would not make me any less miserable.

" _Oh, hey, how did Jaune die?_ " I asked myself, putting on a new voice.  
"Oh, well, he was walking through a Grimm-infested forest alone at night with no backup and no weapons." I answered back in another voice.  
" _Oh, well, I guess he should have expected to be eviscerated by an Ursa._ "  
"Oh, it wasn't an Ursa," my second voice responded. "No, it was a giant Nevermore that pecked off chunks of his flesh."  
" _Oh well. At least he doesn't have to go to Port's lectures anymore._ "  
" _That's true, but I hear that Ms. Goodwitch is planning to reanimate his corpse so she can kill him herself._ "  
"Classic Ms. Goodwitch. What about those rumors about Ozpin?"  
" _Oh yeah, he's planning on reanimating Jaune again after that so he can use him as a child soldier against Salem._ "  
"Poor Jaune. Guy just can't catch a break."

If I was honest with myself, I was only talking because I was trying to fill the silence around me, and because mocking the world is my best coping mechanism. Something about being unarmed in a dark, silent, Grimm-infested forest was extremely unsettling and after infiltrating a White Fang hideout earlier, my nerves were already frayed. The silence around me was currently the only thing that I could change, since I couldn't get rid of the Grimm, the darkness, or being unarmed.

"Well, okay, I could use the flashlight on my scroll to do something about the darkness, but only for like thirty minutes." I affirmed to myself. Part of the reason the silence was so unnerving was that it left me alone with my thoughts, and more and more recently I've tried to _avoid_ that. I know that I'm heading for a big confrontation some point soon, but I'm really trying not to think about that. _Is that smart? No. Am I going to change anything because of this? Also no._

"If I had a weapon, I could knock out two birds with one stone," I added longingly. After all, being unarmed and there being Grimm were practically the same problem. It made sense to not bring my weapon on the town earlier, and it also made sense not to call in my locker before going to the warehouse, since it would raise questions I couldn't answer.

"I could actually get away with calling my rocket in now," I mused as the realization came over me. I pulled out my scroll and opened it up. My alibi for the night was decently thorough; I split off from my team, went back to Beacon with RWBY, forgot my wallet, and then spent a few hours at a sports bar like I joked about to my team. _I'm going to have to come up with an excuse for why I walked back through the Emerald Forest anyways, and it would me_ more _suspicious if I_ didn't _call my locker now._ After all, any normal student who had to walk back after staying out late doing normal things would call in their weapons, right?

I went ahead and called the locker into a clearing nearby. I was fortunate to have a pretty strong scroll signal, likely because the Emerald Forest was relatively near to Vale proper. After about a minute, I saw the rocket flying through the sky before sharply descending down and impacting the ground in front of me, the door popping open and revealing my things.

I reached in and grabbed Crocea Mors first, strapping it to my side as a backup weapon like normal. For some reason, I felt a compulsion to draw the weapon and I went ahead and did so. The blade felt fantastic, if a little short. It was of an incredible quality, with both its strength and balance being unrivaled by any other swords I had ever handled. It's only downfall wasn't even its own fault, too; I couldn't use this weapon at Beacon because it wasn't designed to be used alone. Sure, in a pinch it would make a great backup sword, but it was a one-handed sword and had neither the weight nor the reach to be an effective weapon on its own. After all, this sword was only one-half of Crocea Mors.

"Now, doesn't that just feel better?" I asked myself, or maybe Crocea Mors, as I drew up the shield for the first time since coming to Beacon. All of the qualities of the sword applied also to the shield, making the two a fantastic combo ripe with versatility. This is what I trained with originally, meaning that this was where my true skill lay. All of Raven's teachings of two-handed swordplay, whether katanas or broadswords or nodachis, they were all supplementary; good old-fashioned sword-and-shield was where I truly excelled. _That's not to say Raven wasn't a good teacher with those other forms, though._

I took a few practice swings, testing out my form. A lunge, an imagined parry followed by a stab, then a feint into a bash with the shield, finished off by a large slash across the air where an enemy's torso would be. "It's a shame this shield has that crest on it, or I would be undefeated in spars." I took a look at the crest and it felt like it was mocking me with its unanswered questions. _What does it mean that Ozpin would recognize it? Why won't Raven tell me about it? What secrets about me does this simple symbol hide?_ I shook the thoughts from my head. I have too long of a walk ahead in the silence to start thinking about such things; the last thing I need is to have a two-hour long existential crisis in a forest of vicious, _emotion-sensing_ Grimm. "Then again," I spoke, trying to distract myself, "I could be undefeated if I wasn't trying to throw my fights."

I folded up my shield and put away my sword, placing them back on my hip as I went back to my locker. My other weapon, the oversized butter knife, was too large to fit into the locker in one piece, so it was currently in broadsword form with the exterior shell also sitting beside it. I reached in and grabbed the harness that lets the weapon holster onto my back, putting it on quickly. One thing you never consider is how hard it would be to draw a sword from your back, seeing as you would have to pull it straight up out of a sheath and that would require ridiculously long arms for even a normal sword; for a claymore taller than me, it would be impossible. This thing was basically a clamp that would hold the weapon in place that would only release when the weapon was being tugged upwards. It worked pretty well in an otherwise clumsy situation, but it still left a lot to be desired. For a while, I had been thinking of getting a normal sheathe for the weapon when it is in broadsword mode and wearing that on my hip, leaving the extra shell to stay in the clamp on my back, but at the moment I didn't have the funds to invest in such an idea.

Now equipped with my weapons, I prepped the locker to send it back to Beacon. "Of course, this stupid locker gets to fly back, and I have to walk the whole way," I grumbled to myself before stopping in my tracks. I opened the door to the locker back up and looked around inside. _I could fit in this, couldn't I?_ It would be cramped, what with all of my weapons and myself in there, but I could crouch down and make it work. The real question would be whether or not this was a good idea. This wasn't exactly built as a drop-pod for people, after all; this was a very heavy-duty rocket that slammed down into the ground for landings and was only concerned with getting weapons from Point A to Point B. Weapons weren't usually that fragile, so it didn't make a ton of sense to land all that softly. _Even still, though, I have aura and a semblance to absorb the shock._

"Of all the dumb things I've done today, this would take the cake." I shut the door to the locker. It was tempting, but in the end if I had gotten in there, I would have doubled the weight of the locker, and there's no telling what would have happened. It's possible it would have worked fine, but it was also possible that it was too heavy to steer causing it to crash through the glass of Ozpin's office. _Then again, is that such a bad thing?_ Before I could talk myself into it, I pressed the button to send the locker back to Beacon, and after it lifted off I was once again left alone in the forest.

As I walked, my mind wandered back to my shield, and all the problems associated with it. I wanted to get into Beacon and to do that I needed Ozpin to suspect I had ties to the Arcs—which I do, maybe, if I knew what that meant—but I didn't want him to know for _certain_ or else I would have to answer things I didn't want answered. _More accurately, Raven wanted me in Beacon and Raven didn't want me to tell Ozpin about the Arcs._ If I did confirm to Ozpin that I was an Arc, I'm sure that would lead to a whole new round of questions, but not questions that I can answer.

"Raven can answer them. She could have told me the answers, but she seems to want to avoid that." The realization didn't necessarily carry a ton of weight, mainly because this wasn't an altogether unexpected revelation. I had always suspected that Raven doesn't want to tell me something about it, and this just confirms that she'd made efforts to keep from needing to tell me. I spent—what is it now, fourteen years?—a long time under her wing, if you could even call it that, and she always avoided the subject. It's not like I just let it go, either; I was a curious kid and growing up in a harsh environment like the Tribe certainly made me wonder why I was there. All I know is that when I was four, I came into Raven's possession somehow, and ever since she has done all she could to not explain the circumstances. As for why she would do this, I can't be certain, but it makes me weary.

That, of course, leads into the topic I've been avoiding: my role at Beacon. It wasn't a secret that I wasn't happy being a part of Raven's tribe and that I wanted out, but I never expected her to just _let me_ _do so_ this easily. The decision certainly caught me off-guard when she and Vernal told me the plan to send me to Beacon. As such, I didn't actually know what I wanted to do with my life or even what I stood for; it was all so easy to protest Raven's actions, but once it came my turn to make the decisions, things were a lot harder than I had realized.

My first option was supposed to be my easiest option: serve as Raven's spy. "Simple enough, right? Yeah, no." Things had actually been going pretty well for this, too, because I got into Beacon as planned. I could have accepted Ozpin's most recent offer and been rolled into his war already, giving me access to spy on him, but this would require giving up that I was actually a spy for Raven. It's not easy to admit to being a spy and then immediately lie about not being a spy anymore, so Raven decided I would play the longer game instead; Oz's offer was something she pretty much warned me of, seeing as it was the same thing she and Qrow had been offered. From there, however, things got more complicated, as I have done a terrible job not getting attached to my team. _Actually, putting it that way is deceptive; I did the opposite of not getting attached._ If I were going to stick through with Raven's plan, at some point I would have to break ties and leave, and probably in a hurry. The thing about being a spy is you don't really get to have a happy ending in the same place you're undercover at; sooner or later, things are going to fall apart for you. The problem with that is I find it hard to see myself breaking off my ties with my team (and Team RWBY, for that matter) out of nowhere. It does occur to me now that this is why Raven spent so long lecturing me on not getting attached, but something tells me she wouldn't be surprised. _At least I'm not pregnant._

Things were going well until Yang knocked me into a wall and I realized that I was turning _into_ Raven instead of using this as the chance to _escape_ her influence. _I still need to go back patch things up with Yang, and maybe thank her for knocking some sense into me._ I still don't know what I what to do or what I think I _should_ do, but I think its safe to say that turning myself into Raven 2.0 is not on that list.

That leads me to my other option: embracing Ozpin's offers. My gut instinct tells me that anytime someone makes you such a generous offer as wiping away your past if you join them, it's usually too good to be true; however, I do know that Ozpin would be willing to do that, considering he would have had to forgive the same sorts of things as he did with Qrow. This has the added bonus of putting my conscience at ease, too, since I know Ozpin's war at least serves a decently good purpose. _That also brings up the problem: Ozpin's war._ A cycle of fighting between two ancient entities that has seen countless lives sacrificed and no real progress made on either side, but with such a clear Good vs Evil narrative making it hard to ignroe. While I often disagree with Raven's methods and her ruthlessness, I mostly agree with her philosophies and her desire not to die for someone else's war. Accepting Ozpin's offer would be signing my life away to die a pawn in some ancient chess match, and that's not a fate I want for myself or my friends. _There are ways to protect people that don't involve dying in the shadows, if that's the sort of thing I decide to do._

"Oh yeah, my friends complicate this even more, because of course everything I do makes life harder." I had not expected it to be easy to stay distant from them, but dammit if they're not making it harder. Nora especially is going to be a problem if I'm going to continue being distant, but honestly, I'm struggling to find any reason to be so. I mean, I was doing it for Raven, but if I don't want to be like her or stay with the Tribe long term, what's the point? "If nothing else, it would be less work to just give up being distant, seeing how they've all conspired against me to be my friend." At least Yang doesn't like me, so I'm one for eight. _Isn't that just funny, too?_ Also, if trying to break her leg wasn't enough to deter Ruby from befriending me, I don't think I'm willing to find out what it would actually take.

"And that leaves me hoping for a very precarious middle-ground, doesn't it? A magical option where I get all of the benefits of both sides without any of the drawbacks." If it could be done, I would absolutely go for this, but it's not something I'm convinced is possible, let alone feasible. I want to combine the freedoms and independence of Raven's lifestyle with the moral reassurance and the friends that come with Beacon, without any of the moral drawbacks from Raven or getting involved in Ozpin's war—and for that matter, I would have to keep my friends out of it, too.

There are so many things that make that difficult, though. First, it would require betraying Raven at some point, which is an extremely dangerous thing on its own. Joining up with Ozpin would also mean betraying the Spring Maiden, but then I would have Qrow and Ozpin, not to mention all of Beacon, to protect me. _Betraying Raven on my own, though?_

"That sounds like the beginning of a horror movie, starring me as the idiot who dies." I swatted away a tree branch as I chuckled at my own joke. _Seriously, though, betraying a Maiden with a mean streak and the ability to teleport to me at any time?_ Inviting those odds onto me would be suicide unless I had people backing me. Maybe down the road a few years when our teams are stronger, I could convince RWBY and JNPR to stand with me against her, and that might be enough deterrent for Raven to let me go. That would require me turning all seven of them to my side and having them willing to protect me at all costs, despite the fact that I would have to explain to them that I had been spying on them for years at that point. _Oh, and I would have to turn all seven of them away from Ozpin to join me instead_. There were some of them that that just would not work for; Ruby and Weiss struck me as the two who absolutely wouldn't put up with it, for different reasons. Yang, ironically enough, might actually be convinced to do so, but I would have to take her away from Ruby, which is unlikely. Nora and Ren would probably do it, and I feel like I could turn Pyrrha if I had the other two with me.

"So, Team JNPR versus the Spring Maiden… _that_ can't end disastrously." Even if I did solve the issue of betraying Raven, I then have the issue of having to convince those closest to me to _not_ join Ozpin's war before I ever convince then to stand with me against Raven. _And since Raven is a Maiden, that ensures that they would_ have _to know about everything and still be persuaded._ With Ruby's silver eyes, she's all but guaranteed to be fast-tracked to Ozpin's inner circle the same way that Summer was. Seeing how Summer's involvement also spread to her whole team, I can mark down all of Team RWBY as people who will be folded into Ozpin's war unless I can stop them. _That would be a pretty solid team, too; might give STRQ a run for its money. Then again, Team RWBY can't get each other pregnant, so they'll probably last longer._

My team is a variable here, though, as I can't guarantee that Oz will want to include all of us. Nora and Ren could both be useful, but I can't see them becoming someone as powerful as Qrow or Summer. The problem lies with Pyrrha and myself; Pyrrha because her skill in fighting human opponents is unrivaled in Beacon so far and myself because I've already done too much to catch Ozpin's eye. _And I've only done that because the whole purpose of being Raven's spy is to gradually get folded into Ozpin's services._ If Ozpin had already decided to bring in Team RWBY and he wanted both Pyrrha and myself, he would probably go ahead and loop in Ren and Nora, since it would be difficult for the six of us to hide it from them.

"So, I just need subtly outplay Ozpin for the hearts and minds of my friends while simultaneously projecting enough power that I could betray Raven and get away with it. Easy enough, right?" That was even assuming that I never attracted suspicion or got caught helping Raven doing any of the raids she was plotting. _What are the odds she'll let me be with just helping her scout out one building?_

It wasn't doable. Not as is, anyways. There were a couple major points that were holding me back. If I could find a sure-fire way to keep Raven at bay pending a betrayal, I could focus on winning over my friends. _And as callous as it may sound, do I need all of them?_ If I let RWBY join Ozpin but kept JNPR away, that might be enough to satisfy me. Then again, I would have to live with knowing I sent Team RWBY to go fight in Ozpin's endless cycle, which wouldn't be easy.

As unlikely as it may feel, it could work, given that the four of us could hold our own against a Maiden, which we can't. Not as is, anyways; I either need more power or more powerful friends before this option can even be considered.

"Look at me, scheming betrayals and plotting downfalls from years out. Raven would be so proud." I laughed softly to myself. "Proud right up to the moment she killed me for betraying her, anyways."

 _I really don't make things easier for myself, do I?_


	10. Here, kitty kitty kitty

**[REFINED Oct. 24, 2018] Author's Note: About the timeline... it's confusing. I mean the show's timeline, not mine, although that probably is a little confusing too. Playing fast and loose with time is a pretty easy tool to make things fit for writers, which is why I'm writing this AN, so you guys can understand what's happening.**

 **So in the show, the length of each "semester" is dubious. Roosterteeth is based in Texas, so is it based on typical US school semesters? Because that would make them 4-5 months, but Vol. 1 does not seem to be that long. It feels a couple of weeks long, really, which is where this ties in to the story. Basically, I, as the Sovereign Writer of This Fic, have decided that events for Volumes 1-2 will _both_ take place within the same semester, and Volume 3 events will take place in the beginning of the second semester. **

**What does that mean for now? Well, we just got past Forever Fall and we are barreling headlong into the "Blake Runs Away" plotpoint, which normally leads to docks and then the end of the volume/semester. Now? After this arc wraps itself up, we'll just go straight into Volume 2 territory. This does mean that the Food Fight looses its original context, happening on the first day of the second semester. Who knows, maybe it will show up anyways; _it isn't as if we know of a character who has been enjoying being a jerk and antagonizing Cardin, and it certainly isn't as if Cardin would overreact and cause a scene..._**

* * *

 **Chapter 8:** _"You're such a sap, too, you know that? I know you won't listen to this, but ignore the problems of others. Everyone has problems, so no one is special. And we're all alone in this world. Don't waste your time trying to change that." - Raven Branwen_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

There are few things in this world that can make me wish I was listening to Raven lecture me. Actually, before coming to Beacon, there were _zero_ things that could do that, but it appears that Ozpin has found a way to weaponize boredom: Professor Port's lectures. Seriously, all this man does is talk about his exaggerated tales of killing Grimm, and somehow, he's such a poor storyteller that he even makes _that_ boring. To my left, my team shared that sentiment, as Pyrrha's eyes were closed, Nora's head was face-down on the table, and Ren…well, Ren looked normal, but there was even more of a glaze over his eyes than normal. To my right, Ruby was doodling away in her notebook and Yang was playing on her scroll underneath the table. On the other side of Yang was an empty chair and at the end sat probably the only person who cared to take these lectures seriously in Weiss, but even for all her efforts, she looked like she was about to doze off, too.

Oh yeah, and I shouldn't even be conscious right now. I didn't make it back to Beacon until, like, 3:30 in the morning, and naturally a lecture as boring as Port's can only take place at 8am. The fact that I didn't drop unconscious on the spot was thanks to a miracle of science I like to call 'overdosing on energy drinks and coffee.'

"So, is Blake so mad at Weiss that she wouldn't even sit in the same class?" I whispered over to Ruby, whose pen slipped and left a thick mark across half of her doodle. Yang perked up too and put her scroll away, leaning over to eavesdrop.

"Uh huh…well…yeah, sure. Let's go with that." Ruby fumbled horribly, causing Yang to smack her forehead against the table.

"Ruby, I didn't think it was possible tell a lie worse than _Jaune_ , who tells bad lies on _purpose_." Yang groaned from her spot on the table. I shot Yang a half-curious glare, not because she was wrong, but because she wasn't. _I mean, it isn't like after the fiftieth time someone wouldn't realize I'm just lying for the sake of it, I guess._ I don't even really need to keep that up since I'm pretty much giving up on Raven's lessons for me, but deep down, I knew a dark truth about myself: it is a lot of fun to be an asshole to everyone. _And despite that, these guys have_ mostly _drawn me in anyways, so why stop being a jerk now?_

"We're…uh, having some team bonding troubles." Ruby admitted with a nervous grin as she flicked her eyes to Blake's empty seat. "Nothing to worry about, though. Team RWBY is okay!"

"She ran away, didn't she?" I asked, thinking back on the time I used my semblance with her. Something about her spoke of already being on the run, which turned out true (to her credit, she probably _should_ have run away), and also spoke of a predisposition towards fleeing when things got hard, which I guessed here. _It would make sense that if her own_ aura _wanted her to run away, then that would be her go-to move._ Then again, that's assuming a lot of things based on my semblance and the nature of aura and a lot of crap that was too confusing to think about, so I just settled on calling it a hunch.

"How did you know?" Yang accused, lifting her head from its spot on the table to give me a look. I didn't answer immediately, instead looking past Yang and Ruby to put eyes on Weiss, who was oblivious to our conversation. Ruby and Yang followed my eyes to the heiress.

"Lucky guess." I answered back, my point having been made. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to beat some sense into Weiss." Yang grumbled, cutting her eyes in Weiss' direction despite almost having her back to her at this point.

"We are _not_ going to beat up Weiss. We'll go find Blake without her if we have to." Ruby countered, but not without showing a little bit of the same frustration towards Weiss. _Angry Ruby comes off more as adorable than threatening, but I guess that's why you keep Yang around._ More than that, though, her panic shone through her eyes, despite how much she looked to be trying to control herself.

"Weiss won't help?" I asked as we all looked back at the girl in question, who was still trying to take notes on some obviously-false story about Grimm in the sea. Yang wouldn't answer and would only glare and curl her hands into fists in an effort not to make a scene. _To be honest, I would_ love _to watch that meltdown, but it probably would be best to avoid it._

"We had a… forced heart-to-heart moment of our own last night." Ruby admitted shyly with a little color in her cheeks as she pointedly did not look at Yang, who was giving Ruby a flat look. "It…didn't really work so well. Not as well as Nora's seems to have, at least."

"MISS ROSE!" Professor Port's voice boomed out, apparently for once in his life having actually bothered to check if his class was paying attention. "Do you have any reason to be distracting Mr. Arc from my lecture? As a future Huntsman, he will no doubt need the information I'm offering to save his and others' lives, after all." If there was a button in front of Ruby that would have killed her instantly, I suspect she would have slammed it so hard it broke, as any color from her face drained and she sunk so low in her chair that I thought she was actually trying to hide under the table.

"Sorry, professor." I countered for Ruby, who was still frozen and making some sort of babbling noise. "Ruby was just asking me how many Beowolves I thought it would take to bring you down in a fight."

"Jaune, what are you doing?" Yang snapped at me from under her breath.

"Mmhmm." Professor Port rang out, unreadable as to whether or not he was buying it. "And what did you say to her in return?"

"I didn't say anything." I answered, letting my words settle in the air for a few moments. "I'm still counting." Silence hung in the air as his eyes—well, his eyebrows—stared at me.

"Well, my boy, _so am I!_ " Port cried out with a hearty laugh, much to the relief of my row of friends. "In the future, Ms. Rose, please try to contain your awe until after class. I do keep office hours to answer questions just like that." His focus shifted back to Ruby, who was still recovering but was finally breathing again, which was an improvement. Her face was no longer as pale as Weiss, which was even better. "And, for autographs." With that, the professor turned back around and launched back into a story about...tentacle Grimm? _Is that even a thing? I thought that was just a Mistralian...uh, '_ folklore' _thing..._

"There is no way that just happened." Yang leaned over to whisper once Professor Port jumped back into whatever weird story he had been telling beforehand.

"What were we talking about?" I asked to deflect Yang's comment. In truth, I felt _really_ good about myself, but I really hadn't even expected that to work. Honestly, like Yang said earlier, I was trying to lie badly to take the pressure off Ruby, but if he wanted to fall for it, then I would absolutely make a note of that in the future. "Oh yeah, Ruby's failed feelings-sharing session and shortcomings as a team leader."

" _Jaaaaaune._ " Ruby whined.

"Yeah, I really don't think we should talk about this with, uh, certain parties so close." Yang replied, nudging her head over towards Weiss. "Let's just say they were arguing and Blake dropped a bombshell before walking out."

"What sort of bombshell?" I asked, ignoring Yang's plan to not talk about it entirely. I had a pretty good idea of what Blake could have said to shock them, but I wasn't sure just how much Blake would have said and, more importantly, how much I should pretend not to know, so I needed to dig around a little bit.

"Didn't I just say not to—"

"Blake's a faunus!" Ruby shot out, cutting Yang off before covering her mouth with both of her hands, instantly regretting having said anything.

"Oh, wow. A _faunus_. That's _terrible_." I drawled out and overplayed my surprise in an attempt to mock them, partially because I just wanted to mock them, but also because I had a legitimate reason, too. By mocking the supposedly big reveal, it might irk them, and they might defend themselves by telling any other, more serious things they learned but wanted to hide, like, _oh, I don't know_ , Blake being a terrorist.

"I know, right? _Wait, no_ , that's not what I meant!" Ruby blurted out again, with Yang looking like she was seriously considering strangling her. My little games were working on Ruby, but Yang saw right through them and was not having it. "She was also—" Ruby's words were cut off as Yang very forcefully clamped her hands over her mouth. I had heard all I needed, though.

"In the White Fang?" I completed.

"How did you know?" Yang asked with an edge to her voice, still not letting Ruby speak despite her sister's frantic efforts to pull her arm off.

"I didn't. Not until you just confirmed it." I teased back, earned a scowl from Yang. It wasn't anything compared to Weiss, but it got the point across. "And that explains why Miss SDC wouldn't exactly want to help find her. What are you two going to do about it?"

" _We…_ " Yang emphasized, again cutting her eyes to Weiss, "…are going to find her and drag her back here for another mandatory heart-to-heart session, but this time, _I'm_ going to run it."

"Yeah, that didn't work so well for me." Ruby mumbled, trying to shrink out of the way of the glare Yang was giving off.

"How are you going to find her?"

"We're going to just search through Vale and ask people if they've seen her." Ruby answered back quietly, likely aware of the fruitlessness of that option. Vale was a big place and it wasn't as if they knew where Blake would go in Vale, because Blake was new here and wouldn't _know_ anywhere specific to go.

"You can't track her scroll?" I asked to test what options they even had. In all likeliness, Blake would be smart enough to have it turned off, or at least only turn it on for a few seconds at a time when needed.

"Not without reporting her missing." Yang replied with a frown. "We don't want to get her in trouble before we've even gotten to talk with her about things."

"Plus, then they'd know I suck as a team leader." Ruby added on dramatically.

"Yeah, tell me about it." I teased.

" _Hey!_ " Ruby whined back, recognizing the joke but still not appreciating it.

"Can we help look for her?" I offered. "My team really isn't doing much, and I'm sure Nora could probably track her better than a GPS if she thought Blake needed some…adjusting."

" _Adjusting_? Is that what happened to you?" Ruby asked.

"Let's not make this about me. Do you want help looking for her?"

"Yeah, sure. The more the merrier, right?" Yang asked, cutting Weiss one last glare as the bell rung and people trampled over each other to escape Professor Port hellish lectures.

* * *

Honestly, searching through Vale to find Blake really hasn't been that bad. I suggested that we should maximize our Blake-finding capability by splitting up and covering as much ground as possible, and if that just so happened to get me away from everyone and give me space to think, then that was completely a byproduct and not at all what I intended back when I offered to help look for Blake. I wasn't even really doing a whole lot of searching, either, because honestly, going shop to shop and showing people Blake's photo was not going to work. Instead, I had ducked into some back-alley coffee shop where my teammates couldn't have seen me unless they walked inside and looked around, giving me the privacy I needed. I had two different people to contact on my scroll, and I didn't need either of them being interrupted. I opened up my contacts and clicked on the first one, Blake. It registered somewhere in the back of my mind that I never actually added any of my friends numbers in my scroll; since these were Beacon's scrolls, they already had the contact info of all other Beacon scrolls, so I could start a conversation with anyone. Naturally, I had done this with precisely zero people, but Nora created a group chat for Team JNPR and for both Team JNPR and Team RWBY, so all I had to do was click on Blake's name out of the group chat and start a private chat.

* * *

 _Me: We need to talk. Your team isn't tracking your scroll yet, and I'm alone._

* * *

I sent the message and then got busy on my other task. Without any idea of how long it would be before Blake checked her scroll—if she even did, that is—I decided to go ahead and get other things done. I flipped through my file-reading app until I had opened up my hidden messages. I had already sent Raven the details I had discovered last night during my little stint at the docks, and it appeared she had some intel for me, sent from one of the numerous numbers she has.

* * *

 _R25: Sources telling me SDC has a shipment coming in Tuesday night. Is an unmarked, unguarded shipment. Off the books, so they won't expect it to be hit.  
_ _Me: How do you know about it then?_

* * *

Tuesday, huh? That means tomorrow night, which gives me time to prepare. Chances are, the White Fang wouldn't have to go far from their warehouse to hit the container, and if they were thorough enough, they could even stash it in their warehouse without anyone knowing, allowing them to come back when the heat was off. And if that was their plan, then Raven was about to steal a lot of dust from the White Fang.

My phone buzzed in my hands, and I clicked on the notification to reveal it was Blake messaging me back.

* * *

 _Blake: How do I know you're not setting me up?  
_ _Me: Your team knows you're White Fang, so I don't have leverage on you.  
_ _Me: Mine doesn't know about what we discussed, so you have leverage on me.  
_ _Me: You don't need to trust me if you can leverage me._

* * *

In all honestly, after the intervention Nora staged yesterday, I don't really think that the leverage Blake has would really matter all that much anymore, but if it helped me get through, it couldn't hurt to try. I would feel infinitely more comfortable reaching out to someone if I felt that I had enough blackmail on them that they wouldn't betray me, so I was hoping that offering that would ease Blake's tensions a little. And I mean, for as lenient as Nora and Ren seem to be, Pyrrha looked to be struggling with the newfound information of her partner being a criminal. If Blake came to her and just said the word 'bodies,' I can't be certain what would happen.

I flipped back over to the other messaging app, where Raven had already responded.

* * *

 _R25: This wasnt exactly a big secret  
_ _R25: Dust shipment expected at dusk. I assume I don't need to tell you to intervene  
_ _Me: I will be nearby and will let you know when it's going down. From there, you can coordinate how you want to get the dust._

* * *

My screen was suddenly occupied as I was receiving a call from, who else, Blake. I pulled out some headphones and plugged them in before answering the call; I may be secluded from my teammates, but I was still in a public shop, after all.

" _Show me your surroundings._ " Blake's voice rang out over a black screen. I rolled my eyes but did so, flipping the phone around to show her that I was sitting in a secluded corner booth with no one nearby; that coupled with my headphones was enough for her to relax slightly, as she finally removed the covering from her camera, revealing herself in what also looked like a café, but not one I recognized. It was open air, but that was about the only detail I could make out from the area surrounding her, not that I knew anything about the layout of Vale. _"Okay, that's good. Why did you need to talk?"_ Her tone implied she knew the answer to that, but she waited for my reply nonetheless.

"Oh, no big deal, actually. Ruby and Yang were just sharing with me how their teammate ran away during class. Really sad story; Ruby was bawling and mumbling something about being a horrible team leader and wanting to quit Beacon…"

" _Did…did she really?"_ Blake asked, her nervousness being overtaken as a flash of guilt washed over her face.

"No, but they feel awful and they're hunting throughout Vale to find you. You need to come back." I answered, not wasting any time cutting into her.

" _I…you know I can't do that, Jaune. They know."_

"I know that. Yang and Ruby don't care; they just want their teammate back." I countered, not being able to afford Blake any leeway.

" _And Weiss?"_ Blake asked back with a frown. _"Are you going to tell me that little miss Schnee Dust Corp is willing to let my past go?"_

"Look, Blake, I'm sure you two don't like each other, but you _left_ the…you left _them_." I caught myself before I mentioned the name of a terrorist group in public. "If that isn't something to bond with her over, I don't know what could be."

" _She won't see it that way. She'll turn on me the first chance she gets."_ Blake answered back with a frown. Her ears—oh, she has cat ears now? Neat—drooped and her eyes didn't have any fight left in them. She looked tired, like she just couldn't put up with it anymore, which might explain why she ran. _Leading a double life at Beacon hasn't been exactly easy for me, either._

"Why hasn't she yet?" I asked, challenging her to at least consider other options. "She might be angry, but she hasn't turned you in directly, so she clearly isn't sure what to do. If you come back now, you can put all this behind you."

" _I can't come back yet, Jaune. I can't… I can't face Weiss without proof."_ Blake refused to meet my eyes, instead looking down at her lap.

"Proof of what?"

" _Proof that the White Fang isn't working with Torchwick. That's how our argument started, and if I can just get to the bottom of it, I'll feel confident enough to come back to them."_ Blake answered, a twinge of hope finding its way into her voice and her eyes. Even her ears seemed to perk back up a little. Idealism, plain and simple; one of Raven's least favorite things ever, if how much she complained about it was any indication.

"How long is that going to take?" I asked, my voice making it clear that I did not like this plan at all.

" _I don't know."_

"How are you going to do it?" I added on sternly.

" _I don't know yet."_

"What happens when you're wrong?"

" _When I'm wrong? What do you mean?"_ Blake asked, a little confused.

"Let's say you do find the White—let's say you find them. What happens if they _are_ working with Torchwick?" I pressed further.

" _Jaune, I'm telling you, they would never—"_

"But what if, Blake!?" I raised my voice slightly, trying my best to break through to her without having to shout in the middle of this restaurant. "What are you going to do then?"

" _I…I don't know."_ Blake answered quietly, shrinking back in on herself.

"I'll tell you what you're going to do then. You're going to come back to your team on your knees, begging them to forgive you and telling them everything they need to know." I commanded.

" _But…what if I can't? What if they won't take me back and turn me in?"_ Blake's eyes were scared and her face belied her panic, but she seemed to be shrinking in further on herself.

"It doesn't matter, Blake! They're your best chance!" I wanted to shout at her. _No, what I really want is to reach through the scroll and shake her until she comes to her senses._ "Your best option in life now is Beacon. You can't go back to being a terrorist, Blake, and you've lost the ability to hide your past from everyone. Your best chance is trusting your team and letting them help you."

" _I… I don't know."_

"Blake, look me in the eyes and tell me that you think Ruby wouldn't do anything to help you. Look me in the eyes and tell me you think that Yang would give up on you, ever." I challenged, waiting patiently for Blake's response. She avoided my gaze, staring down at her lap again for a few seconds, before finally looking up at me with wide eyes.

 _"And Weiss?"_ Her voice was soft and timid.

"Forget Weiss, okay? What if you come back and she makes everyone choose between you or her, huh?" I asked challengingly before taking a deep huff of a breath. "Do you think that Ruby and Yang could find it in them to pick _against_ you, knowing that you're here to be better? Do you think _my_ team would side with Weiss, knowing how similar you and I are, especially once I pick your side? What is Weiss going to do, turn you in?"

 _"Yes! That's what I can't afford."_

"So she goes to the Headmaster and tells him what he already knows, then what?"

 _"He...he what?!"_ Blake asked, startled.

"He and I have had several 'talks' so far, and he mentioned that I didn't have the darkest past in Beacon. So, unless there is _another_ formerly-radical terrorist hiding somewhere in our class, I think he knows."

 _"That-"_

"Doesn't matter." I cut her off, trying to get back to the point. "What matters is that you don't screw this up, Blake. You can't afford it."

" _O-okay. I'll come back and tell them everything."_ Her head was bowed, but she looked up at me just enough so I could see her eyes. She was still scared and withdrawn, but she wasn't lying. She _would_ come back.

"Good."

" _After I find out about the White Fang."_

"Blake, forget about—" It didn't matter, she had already hung up the call, leaving me ranting to no one. As much of a good person my team may think me to secretly be, that's not what this was about. Blake was a reflection of my own situation, and part of me needs to see things work out well for her. If she can't reconcile her past, then that means that I may not be able to either. _Sure, our situations aren't exactly the same, but it's still something I need to see happen so I know that I have that option, too._ If not, then that meant that there really may not be any escape from Raven and the tribe, and which would take away any options I had. To that end, it would be best not to tell the others than I had made contact with Blake, especially if she hadn't reached out to anyone else.

A buzz from my scroll broke me out of my thoughts again.

* * *

 _Blake: Thank you._

* * *

I rolled my eyes. _Yeah, sure, just don't get caught and don't drag me down with you, kitty-ears._ Seriously, kitty-ears, no wonder she hid those, or else no one would ever take her seriously. I know I won't be able to.

Well, since that didn't go horribly, I might as well check and see how the other thing was going. One downside to a hidden app that's designed to close itself whenever you aren't looking at it is that for every time you leave the app, you have to go through the process of unhiding the messages again. It took a whole, what, 15 seconds total out of my life? And yet, it was enough to get on my nerves.

* * *

 _R25: I'll send you a tactical plan tonight. All you need to do is be nearby the heist in a secure location I can teleport in from._

* * *

Perks of turning into a bird, I suppose. I won't have to stick my neck out trying to get us into any guarded areas. All I have to do is let Raven show up in the area with her portals, and then she can fly off to wherever the dust is and bring in her own reinforcements. It's not even necessary that I participate, too, and the less asked of me, the better.

Well, with both of those things taken care of (more or less), that left me with one last thing to do. Seeing as my entire team plus Yang and Ruby were out searching the town, that meant there was no one back in Beacon to interrupt one last little chat I wanted to have.

Making my way to the airfield without running into any of the group went off without a hitch, and in a few minutes, I was back on Beacon's grounds, albeit a little queasy. From there, it was just a guessing game as to tracking them down. I tried the library first with no luck before going down to the private sparring rooms and, surely enough, Weiss was in there, slicing away at training dummies. Her movements were rigid as she worked through forms and sliced through dummies with speed and power; muscle memory training, as it were, where she made sure she worked on absolutely perfect form so her natural form would improve automatically. _Such a typical 'duelist' thing to do, too; one of these days, she'll fight someone who uses that rigidity against her._

Say, now if that isn't an idea.

"You know, Ruby, just because you beg a seventh time doesn't mean my answer will change." Weiss called out angrily without looking, apparently having heard the doors as I entered. She delivered a powerful thrust with perfect form, but very slowly as she focused on her precision down to the millimeter.

"Who said I was here to beg?" I called out, causing Weiss to turn around in surprise. "You know, taking your anger out on these dummies isn't going to help anything."

"What, now _you_ are going to lecture me?" Weiss huffed with a cross of her arms. "What could you possibly do differently than Ruby or Yang? You can't be as mean as Yang, and I _know_ you can't be as nice as Ruby."

"That's hurtful." I teased, to be greeted with a scowl. "Well, I'll only lecture you for as long as I can last in a spar." I offered, or, well, challenged. Weiss gave me an apprehensive look and studied me for a few moments.

"You don't even have your weapon."

"Nope." I confirmed, walking over to a rack on the wall and picking up a training sword. It was dulled on all edges and was built in a hand-and-a-half style—or really, it was built to that length; saying this thing was any sort of style would be an insult. It was a crappy weapon and both of us could see that. "How long do you think I'll last with this?" It was bait, and she probably knew it as such, but it was really good bait.

"Alright, if it's going to get you to leave me alone sooner, I accept." Weiss took a few steps away from the dummies and brought her rapier up in an offensive stance. I did the same and took up a very plain stance with my sword held at my right hip.

"So, why do you hate faunus?" I asked immediately.

"Why do I _what_? I don't hate th—" I cut her off by charging her, which she recovered in time to avoid. She tried to throw a small cut once she was clear of my blade, but I brought it back around and caught it on the blade, forcing her to retreat. "What sort of interrogation is this if you aren't going to let me answer?"

"Why do you hate Blake?" I asked again, noting that her guard never dropped and she watched me more warily as she spoke.

"I never said I hated her specifically, just what she represents." Weiss summoned a glyph beneath her that shot her forwards at me with incredible speed. Out of pure reactions I was able to knock the tip of her blade to the side and sidestep to avoid taking any damage, but Weiss' momentum kept her well out of reach of any follow-up strike. She stopped as she collided with another glyph that launched her up above me before her feet struck yet another that was aimed to shoot her down at me. I did _not_ feel like parrying such a thin blade from directly above me, so I rolled out of the way before Weiss could even shoot herself down at me. She created a glyph underneath where she landed and immediately shot forwards at me in a lunge. I was just barely getting to my feet and still had my back to her when she started moving, but she didn't fully capitalize on her speed, instead spending precious time perfecting the form of her strike over capitalizing on my opening. It was enough time for me to spin around as I stood up, catching the underside of her blade with mine and knocking it straight up into a gridlock with my blade. In such close quarters, my strength advantage let me use one hand to keep enough pressure on the locked blades that she had to keep both hands on her rapier, although it didn't help that after her lunge she was out of position and was losing the leverage battle because of my height.

"Really, are you sure you don't hate her? That's what it looks like to the rest of us." We were face to face now and Weiss was struggling not to be pushed over and had no means of disengaging safely. "It sure seems like you don't want her to come back." Weiss didn't react much, but her eyes did shift slightly in response, thought for better or worse I could not tell.

With my other hand, I reached up and grabbed the wrist of the arm facing me and tightened a grip. I could feel the muscles in Weiss' wrist tighten in anticipation that I would try to disarm her, which also meant her arms were going stiff to resist any slaps or pulls. Instead, I pushed up with that hand and held her arms in place while I disentangled my sword and swiped down at her exposed underside, releasing the grip on her arm and breaking off to create space all in one motion. _With an actual sword, that would have done some serious aura damage, but with a sparring sword, I would be lucky for that to have taken 8 percent._

"Well, I'm not keen on trying to sleep in a room with someone who might try to murder me because of who my family is." Weiss shot back, her temper flaring, whether from the subject matter or anger after taking damage.

"Trust me, Weiss, if anyone on your team was going to kill you, they already would have."

Weiss angrily charged in again, probing me to see how well I defended. She threw a thrust that I knocked aside and then went to slice at her exposed arms, which she dropped down to avoid taking damage and spun her arms back around and over her shoulder to go for another thrust, this time behind my guard after my missed strike. I reversed direction and knocked her blade above my shoulder with my cross-guard before swinging my sword up to fully knock the blade out of the way before coming down with a strike to her chest. Without her rapier ready to defend she was forced to step to the side and back to avoid contact, taking us out of range again.

"And what am I supposed to do, huh? Just forgive this…this terrorist who worked for the people who have been hunting my family?!" Weiss shouted, her patience wearing thinner and thinner.

"What, like they don't deserve it." I challenged back, getting under her skin as intended.

"Why you little!" Weiss screamed as she lunged out again. I stepped to the side and allowed the blow to miss by inches as I threw a small slash of my own to force her back. She took the damage instead, trying to push her attack further in her anger. A slice at my face dodged, a poke at my leg deflected, a slash across my chest parried and knocked aside, a return slash the opposite direction ducked. Weiss was angry, but her form was impeccable…and slow. I had trained under Raven, who refused to let me learn to block and parry before I could dodge; I was never agile enough to out-dodge Raven, but I had honed myself to dodge just the amount I needed to avoid contact against a much better fighter than Weiss. Right now, that meant that I was pretty good at avoiding anything Weiss could throw at me, making her wear herself out during her outburst while also frustrating her further.

"Would you stop dodging?!" Weiss yelled out of frustration during her strikes. "You aren't even that agile! How are you avoiding me!?"

"Why doesn't Blake deserve a chance here, huh?" I yelled back at her as I avoided a stab at my face. "What's so special about you that Blake doesn't have!?" Weiss finally had enough of this game and threw a heavy chopping slice (that made no sense for a rapier) that I caught on my blade, putting us into another deadlock.

"Because I'm not a terrorist! _I_ haven't done anything evil!" Weiss shouted at me with rage behind her eyes.

"I'm sure Blake could give all sorts of stories about the SDC that would beg to differ!" I shouted back, matching her intensity. Weiss' brow furrowed and her knuckles went white as she gripped her rapier even tighter.

"Even if any of that holds merit, I didn't have anything to do with it! I am _not_ my family!"

"And Blake isn't evil!" I broke the gridlock by lunging my sword upwards. Weiss disengaged and threw her weight behind a slash at my side but was surprised when her blade bounced off my side, my semblance having flared the aura there moments before and blocked her attack, limiting any damage. Weiss looked up just in time to see me bring my sword back down across her body, knocking her backwards and taking the fire out of her.

"You never even gave her a chance to explain, did you?" I asked Weiss from her new spot on the ground. She was coming down off her rage and didn't respond, but her eyes were wide. "When did she leave? Did she ever personally do anything terrible? Does she denounce them? These are all important things to know that you didn't care enough to find out!"

"I-I didn't…need to know. That's…that's not just something you c-can forgive, right?" Weiss asked timidly, her confusion and uncertainty showing through her eyes and her demeanor having changed now that her anger was subsiding. I had finally broken through to her.

"I sure hope it is." I threw the sword down on the ground between us. "If you're going to start kicking out everyone who doesn't have a clean past or a perfect upbringing, then I'll see myself out. I'll be sure to bring Nora and Ren with me when I leave. Maybe you guys can replace Blake with Pyrrha." I turned around and marched off as the words hung in the air, only now realizing how legitimately angry I really was. I thought was just getting into things to work up Weiss and make her see things differently, or at least, that was the plan, but I had somehow struck a nerve with myself as well.

"J-Jaune, wait!" Weiss called out very timidly. I didn't want to turn around. I didn't want to stop, but something in her voice struck me, some part of how helpless it sounded resonated with that part of me that Raven hates. "I don't...I can't just kick out everyone like that."

"Good. At least you understand the most basic point I was making." I shot back angrily.

"H-how do I fix this? What do I do?"

"You should look for her. You should be her teammate when she needs you." I answered, turning around and walking back to where Weiss was still on the ground. "Let her explain herself and tell you who she was, who she is now, and who she wants to be, and if she's honest, make your judgments based on that."

"I…I will. I promise." A little bit of resolve shone through Weiss' eyes. I offered her my hand and she took it readily as I pulled her up onto her feet.

"Don't promise me. I don't care." The look Weiss gave me told me she didn't believe that. I struggle to believe it myself. "Promise yourself."

"I will." Weiss reassured me. _I'm still not sure if she really gets it, but I absolutely don't want to ruin whatever I have going on here._ "How do I find her? It doesn't sound like Ruby has had much luck."

"I…look, Weiss, you can't tell Ruby or Yang, but I spoke to Blake today." Weiss's eyebrows rose in surprise, but she didn't interrupt. "She's too scared to face you without finding out whether the talk about Torchwick and the White Fang are true. She promised me that she'd come back once she found out." Weiss' eyes were wide, resolve and hope having settled in where rage and then uncertainty once reigned.

"I…I didn't mean for her to…" Weiss trailed off, before shaking the thoughts from her head. "What do you need me to do?"

"I don't know. I couldn't stop her and I'm afraid she's going to do something stupid. If you could magically find her before she does that, then that would be best." It was a poorly-timed joke, but the look in Weiss eyes told me that that didn't matter. She looked like she had just been challenged and had already determined that anything short of success would not be tolerated.

"Alright then, if that's what it takes, consider it done." Weiss emphasized her words by walking of and out of the room, but not before stopping to look into my eyes, letting me see how serious she was; she looked as if she was about to say something, some sort of apology or sappy thanks for intervening, but she never did. She walked out, leaving me alone with both a training sword and a mess of practice dummies spread across the ground.

"Well, someone's gonna have to clean this mess up." I mumbled to myself, picking up the training sword and absentmindedly running my finger over the dull blade. I tossed the blade on the ground towards the dummies, making a loud clang as I walked out of the room. "But it's not gonna be me."

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Blake has run away and with Jaune now determined to let himself form some attachments, it makes some sense that he would start by trying to reconnect Blake with her team. After all, technically he is closest to her after Forever Fall, plus her situation mirrors his a little, so there is a selfish angle to wanting her to reconcile.**

 **That this drives him into a confrontation with Weiss is interesting, though _terribly_ needed on Weiss' part. I will be honest and admit that Best Girl was easily in my bottom tier of all RWBY characters pretty much until Volumes 4 and 5, because I could never get past how much I _hated_ V1 Weiss. Now, she's in my top five and she's currently my #1 Living Character in the show (RIP Pyrrha, Roman). Yang is right behind her, too, though I didn't hate Yang in the early volumes; I just didn't find her compelling. Both of their character growths in V4 (and some of it finished up in V5) were fantastic.**

 **After having rewatched the whole show in preparation of V6, I can honestly say I have no idea _why_ Yang wasn't top five from the start. I just...Yang's awesome. Don't know why that didn't ever click with me. The two characters I can see the most of myself in are probably Yang and Jaune, though more in the sense that we share a dry wit and tendency for sarcasm. In serious matters, I'm probably more of an Ozpin than anyone else. **

**So basically, I am Qrow.**

 **Funnily enough, yet another character who has flown up my list is none other than Jaune, who suffered from the same affliction as V1 Weiss: being so freaking annoying. He got better faster than Weiss for me, so by the time V3 came around I found him much more likable and was an ardent Arkos shipper. _sigh_. V4 Jaune kinda took a back-seat, other than that heart-wrenching Training Video scene, but _oh my god_ Volume 5 Jaune was incredible. I cannot get over how great of a Voice Actor that Miles Luna is and damn did his confrontation with Cinder get good. They gave us a glimpse of a broken, angry, suicidal Jaune with nothing left to lose yet still preserved Jaune as a mostly powerless character on his own. I really want to see Broken Jaune start to spiral because 1) he still can be developed and that's a fantastic chance for it and 2) he can't do it alone, so _someone_ needs to help him here. **

**WI'm curious about any characters that have grown on you guys recently, so let me know during your comments when you tear my soul to pieces telling me how I'm a terrible writer! :P**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _Eomer_ on **Ch. 7**

"This was a great chapter! Jaune's internal issues seem to be accelerating, and I loved the whole discussion with NPR; very in character for them. The only nitpick I have is that you have Jaune shoving his scroll under a dumpster, and then two paragraphs later he uses its zoom function to identify a White Fang member. Did Raven give him an additional scroll to his (presumably) school-issued one?"

 **...fcuk.**

 **Yeah yeah...no, I've spent all week thinking of any strange plot points or things I might have said to justify that but I got nothing. Such an obscure thing for me to specify, too. I went back and re-edited the chapter an additional time because I was concerned about the "Nora Is OP" confrontation scene, and yet somehow I missed that.**

 **What I'm really ticked about is that** _Eomer_ **left this comment like an hour after I went through all my documents on this site and deleted everything that had been posted so I didn't accidentally upload the same chapter twice, meaning going back and changing that would be much harder.**

 **Oh well, I'll chalk that up as one of my two biggest mistakes so far in this story, the other being not making Nora team leader. Team NARP? Team VARN (Team Varnish? Does that count as a color?)?**

 **Oh well. Thanks for the heads up** _Eomer_ **, and for even giving me an out with the whole "second phone" idea, but nope, that was just a good ole fashioned goof! xD**

* * *

 **I've since gone back and re-uploaded that chapter with like literally four sentences changed to fix that, so if it _really_ bothered you, it's fixed now. I made sure to go OUT OF MY WAY TO EXPLAIN THAT JAUNE CANNOT ZOOM IN BECAUSE HE DOESN'T HAVE HIS SCROLL  
This is more of a dig at myself than anything, so if you're down to see me make fun of myself, you can go read that part again. **

**The change will not have any effects on the story as a whole, so you will not be missing anything if you take it at my word that I changed it so that Jaune had to get closer to see the mask. Once again, thanks to **_Eomer_ **for spotting it!...just, like, next time spot it an hour earlier so I save some work! :P**


	11. The Docks

**[REFINED, Oct. 27, 2018] Author's Note:** **This chapter has a _lot_ , so...**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 9:** _"It appears that you thought you had a choice. I wonder how you ever could have made that mistake..." – Raven Branwen_

* * *

Qrow's POV

* * *

"Alright, good to see you all here. Before we start, do we have any questions?" Ozpin asked the room as he took a seat in the rolling chair of the Beacon Staff Lounge. Port had made himself comfortable on the old couch with a plate of snacks in his lap that wouldn't last five minutes. Next to him on the two-seater couch was Oobleck, who hadn't settled into his seat but sat on the edge of it, although he too had a small plate of snacks—it was possible they were to give to Port so that the man wouldn't interrupt the whole meeting going for snacks several times. Just across the small room, sitting at the small table not occupied with food, was Glynda, who had no snacks but did have a glass of tea and was gripping it with a ferocity that was not unusual and yet was unnerving all the same.

"Yeah, why am I here?" I asked from the chair I had pulled up directly to the snack table, a tactical decision if ever there was one.

"You know why you're here, Qrow." Oz dismissed with a roll of his eyes, walking over to grab a cookie for himself from the snacks. "Any other questions?"

"Yes. Why is Qrow here?" Glynda asked, cutting her eyes at me without any real vitriol. _If I didn't know better, that might even be a joke._

"For the same reason that none of our less experienced teaching staff are here. Normally, this would be more of a war council, but seeing as the semester just started, I figure we could use it to bring up any concerns. Qrow is here because I called him back early."

"Trust me, guys, not my idea." I defended. "Also, don't use me to deflect. You called us specifically because this counts as a monthly staff meeting that you're required to hold."

" _Anyways_ , Port, let's start with you," Oz redirected, probably to get Port while he was still paying attention but very pointedly not acknowledging my accusation. "Any standouts from your lectures?"

"Other than my students don't care in the slightest to hear about Grimm Theory, like usual, no." In the defense of those students, I've gone to Port's lectures once or twice, and saying that it is Grimm Theory that they don't want to hear is not strictly honest. I highly doubted that any of them suspected that Port had the social awareness to know that they weren't paying attention, considering even the best of students treated the class like a scheduled nap. Port used to tell of how when he first started lecturing, he would call out anyone if they looked like they were dozing off, but got tired of confronting so many students every class. If they didn't want the information, then they would risk failing his class; that being said, when _everyone_ fails your class, the curve brings everyone up to passing.

"What about the older students?" Ozpin asked, feigning interest masterfully. Oz _hates_ faculty meetings, even those containing details about secret things or even sham meetings like this one. One of the reasons he always menacingly sips from his mug so much is he really does rely on the coffee to have the energy to pay attention.

"The upperclassmen? Most of the groups aren't due back from their first missions until later this week, with CFVY being the exception, but I have gotten a few fun check-ins. Some of the groups really loved being sent into Grimm territory and I've heard tales that made me proud." I had to cough into my arm not to laugh. I remember coming up through Beacon and how Port handled a lot of our Search and Destroy missions then, too, and all the groups would compete to see who could exaggerate their missions the most. It was rare for Port to ever accuse anyone of making things up, and even when he did, as long as they maintained their story, he would be persuaded. _One time, we convinced_ Summer _of all people to just skip the mission and let Raven and I make up our report; we got an A on that assignment and Port asked us to speak to the first-years the following semester before they started their missions._ From the rolling of eyes over from Glynda, it was clear that I wasn't the only one to find this funny. Port wasn't as oblivious as his lectures would suggest, but that didn't mean he _wasn't_ oblivious; after all, for almost twenty years now there has been a tradition of exaggerating reports specifically to fool Port and the man was none the wiser.

"Glad to hear it. Dr. Oobleck, anything of interest that you've noticed yet?" Oz asked, turning off from Port as quickly as he could.

"It is too early to tell if any of my students truly connect with the material, but I have noticed at least a couple that have really latched onto their studies. Like always, the section on wars of the past and their lasting prejudices was hotly contested." Oobleck answered, hardly taking a breath in his normal manner. "I do believe that, while we have gotten sidetracked by such discussions, at the end of the day they are more fruitful than a planned lecture could ever be."

"Any students in particular that worry you?" Oz asked, taking a sip from his mug. "Each class does have its difficulties."

"I am keeping my eye on a couple, but for separate reasons. I have nothing new for the group, if that is what you are asking."

"It was. Thank you, Bartholomew." Oz looked around the room and locked eyes with Glynda for a moment. "No one else has concerns? Well, thank you all for coming…"

"Ozpin." Glynda called out, agitated.

"Oh, what is it, Glynda? Did you have a negative experience with a student that we should be concerned with?" Ozpin asked exhaustedly, knowing what was coming.

"I believe it's time we came up with an official plan on what to do about the bullying problem in our new class of students." Glynda answered back, avoiding the expected argument Oz was waiting for about the Arc kid. Her voice wasn't nearly as angry as the tales I had been told about her deathlust for this kid led me to believe.

"Bullying problem, huh?" Ozpin asked from behind his mug. "Well, that does sound like something we're supposed to deal with, I suppose. Go ahead."

"I think we have a problem with Mr. Arc going out of his way to antagonize Mr. Winchester."

Ozpin gave Glynda a flat look that asked, 'is that really the hill you want to die on,' and Glynda's returned expression did soften.

"You're going to have to explain that one further." Ozpin stated.

"Mr. Arc went out of his way to taunt Mr. Winchester during their spar, showing some history between the characters. The day after Mr. Arc's defeat, he attacked Mr. Winchester in the locker room and humiliated him. Most recently, they were involved in an altercation during the field trip to Forever Fall."

"As I recall, Mr. Arc was cleared of that incident in the locker rooms." Port piped up, more in a matter-of-fact way than an antagonistic way.

"Indeed. And if I read the report correctly, Mr. Arc and Ms. Belladonna helped protect Team CRDL from an Ursa. Their own account backed this up, too." Ozpin added on.

"Of course Mr. Winchester and his team corroborated the story if they were afraid of repercussions from Mr. Arc. That's how bullying works, after all." Glynda defended. "Look, I admit to having leaped to conclusions the last time I dealt with Mr. Arc and that my judgement may be skewed, but is all that I just listed not cause for concern?" Glynda seemed to be restraining herself, likely because of what she had mentioned, how she jumped the gun last time.

"It is an interesting take, Ms. Goodwitch." Oobleck called from his seat, breaking his silence on the matter. "However, I would ask what actions you propose against Mr. Arc that would discourage bullying throughout the student body, because as I have observed it, his actions actually serve to prevent bullying."

"They what?" Glynda responded, caught off-guard. In her surprise, a little of her anger or frustration revealed itself, but since this is Glynda Goodwitch, international Ice-Queen runner-up that we're talking about, there was no telling if Mr. Arc was truly the source of that frustration. _For all I know, a file could have been misfiled earlier and she's still fuming over it._

"Mr. Winchester is one of the troublesome students I have been eyeing and had even considered proposing similar measures to control him instead of Mr. Arc. He has expressed—well, racist views is the best way to put it—during my class, but I have also gotten complaints from a few students that his whole team bullies faunus in the school, meaning he acts out on those disgusting views. If it were Mr. Arc who attacked Mr. Winchester in the locker rooms, then I would suggest we do nothing to discourage Mr. Arc's actions."

"He openly assaulted another student! We can't just let that stand." Glynda responded.

"Why not? Team CRDL could use some good sense knocked into them, and if Mr. Arc is willing to oblige, I say we let him." Oobleck countered.

"Now _that_ is a plan I can get behind! Why aren't our meetings like this more often?" Port added enthusiastically as I prayed to everything that Glynda wouldn't look over to see me hiding my laughter.

"Ozpin, do you hear how ridiculous this sounds? _The ends justify the means?_ " Glynda asked, turning to the headmaster for backing. "You can't just justify doing bad things because they happen to equally bad people!"

"I gotta say…" I started, only to be cut off by Glynda.

"Oh, please don't…" Glynda mumbled to herself.

"…that I'm with Goodwitch here. As much as the kid may have deserved getting the tar beat out of him, that doesn't really make it right. I think."

"Exactly my point. We cannot allow Mr. Arc to carry on without any sort of consequences." Glynda rallied behind me without a care in the world for the concern over what I was going to say but a few seconds ago.

"We're not." Ozpin answered back with a smirk. "Mr. Arc has and will continue to be subjected to punishments that should deter other students from crusading around the school and attacking others in the name of vengeance."

"What are you talking about? He hasn't faced anything yet!"

" _You_ are his punishment, Glynda. We have done and will do nothing to stop you from punishing him during his sparring sessions. It's simply up to you to make him hate your class, whatever form that may take." Ozpin answered as his smirk widened, obscured from view by taking another sip of his coffee.

"That… that's it?" Glynda asked, her confusion slowly fading as she thought on the idea. It clearly wasn't the official, top-down punishment or action she was hoping for, but something told me that she did realize the potential that such a _flexible_ ruling holds.

"Trust me on this one, it's more than the kid deserves." I answered, earning a glare from Glynda.

" _Fine_. I want it noted that I'm doing this under protest. And that he's fighting Ms. Nikos with his hands taped behind his back the first chance I get."

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

 _Me: In position._

* * *

I let out a long sigh as I sent the text and then shut off my scroll entirely. _What are you even doing here, Jaune?_ Wasn't the whole point of getting away from the tribe and Raven to, you know, get away from the tribe and Raven? That should be a rhetorical question, but the sound of a portal opening from behind me crushed any hope I had of this getting called off. So much for washing my hands of all the raids that made be want to leave the Tribe in the first place.

"Jaune." Raven acknowledged as she stepped out and closed her portal behind her. He voice was low and her actions quick to avoid being noticed by anyone, but she didn't need to worry. We were in the warehouse district, sure, but we were a few blocks from the Fang's actual warehouse and the site of the incoming shipment. I didn't actually need to get close to it; after all, the plan was for Raven to show up and create a portal for her crew to steal dust through. Since Raven can, you know, _fly_ , all I needed to do was get her somewhat close to the target, and that was it. "Walk me through what you've seen so far."

"I got here about an hour ago, as the sun was setting." I explained, walking over to the edge of the roof with Raven. We were well out of sight of the docks themselves, but you could see over the tops of some warehouses. As long as we stayed low and behind the ledge of the roof, we wouldn't be spotted by the naked eye due to the distance—I wasn't going to take a chance with Faunus eyes being better than mine, so I even left some extra space. "Closest dock to the water in that direction is the warehouse, and about a hundred or so yards from there is where the SDC Dust is supposed to come in. I still don't know if they're hijacking the dust to put straight into the warehouse or if it is just a staging area, though."

"Good." Raven mumbled, leaning forward to scan the area through her mask. She took her time and scanned the peripheries, making sure to memorize her location and other escape routes, not that they would be needed when you could fly. She was thorough, though, and would never be caught in a trap that she hadn't seen coming.

"Police response is variable, but this isn't a high-population area and it's at night, so chances are the Fang will be in and out before any authorities show up." I offered the last of the information I had.

"How's your alibi?" Raven asked, catching me somewhat off-guard. "Your team going to come looking for you?"

"Why would they?" I asked, staring back into her mask. "I won't have been gone for more than an hour, and we were already searching through Vale for someone anyways."

"Where's your weapon?" Raven asked, getting off on a tangent that I did not like.

"We're not hunting anyone. We're just tracking down a friend." I defended back, sensing what Raven was implying and resisting it. Raven cocked her head to the side slightly upon hearing that last word. "Friend, acquaintance, teammate, whatever. Spare me the lecture of the evils of friendship."

"You don't seem to understand your role in this operation." Raven responded, her tone a mix of flat nonchalance and annoyance. She was still leaning forward against the ledge with her head turned towards me, where I had turned to face her entirely now. "This is _your_ intel. I'm going in there blind and bringing my men. If this is some sort of set-up, then you're coming with us. If I'm captured, then it will be really easy to convict me of murder when I eviscerate you in front of everyone."

"The hell I'm not going in there!" I shot back. Raven pushed off the ledge and faced me head on. "This is _your_ heist. I wanted no part of this."

"I don't really think you understand how little of a choice you have, Jaune. There are three ways this plays out…" The tension in Raven's arms and shoulders relaxed, which served to put me even further on edge. A tense Raven was dangerous, but a loose and relaxed Raven? That was the type of person who could draw a blade in the blink of an eye without a care in the world. "One: you sold us out. You go in there with us. You die." To emphasize, Raven slowly drew out a red blade and snapped it over her knee, dropping the shards to my right. "Two: you refuse to go in there. You die right here, and it doesn't matter if you sold me out or not." She took another red blade out and did the same, snapping it and letting the shards fall to my left. "Three: you see your op through. The op is successful. I get my dust. You do not die." The blade Raven drew out this time was white instead of red, and she did not snap it, instead leveling it at me. "What's it going to be?"

"I told you I wanted out, Raven. Why would you trust me with anything like this?" I asked, keeping my anger in check by balling my fists at my sides.

"Well, I'll admit that you aren't usually the type to betray anyone, so I'm not very concerned about this being an ambush. I am concerned _just enough_ to make you go with me, though; you should feel honored." Raven sheathed her sword again as she spoke.

"Gee, you're making me blush." I deadpanned back.

"And if you're really so dedicated to those… _wonderful_ morals Ozpin's cronies preach about, then I can trust that you'll see this through without any complications." I couldn't see through her mask, but I could _feel_ her smirk at my confusion.

"Explain."

"Why, this is a radical terrorist group who has been growing increasingly violent that is about to steal tons of dust. Whatever your feelings about me, surely _me_ having the dust is a much better scenario than the Fang having the dust, right? After all, I am a very calculating person who wouldn't use that dust randomly, unlike terrorists." Raven's words hung in the air, the smugness of them mocking me, but the point mocking me even more. It _was_ a valid point, as much as I would not admit it to her. "And you don't want to see any bloodshed, so you'll see to it _in person_ that everything goes according to plan."

When I didn't respond, I heard Raven give a small chuckle before drawing her weapon and summoning a new portal. "Well, go on in. Vernal is prepping the teams. She'll be expecting you."

"I hate you." I mumbled, stepping forward to go through the portal.

"Mmm yeah, whatever. Tell Vernal I'll give her a sixty second warning via text." Raven's voice echoed out from the other side of the portal as I stepped through to find myself back in that stupid camp.

"Wow, you lasted in Beacon, what? A couple of weeks? Impressive." Vernal's voice called out from the side, where several of the tribe members who were arming themselves laughed at my expense.

"In my defense, each one of these guys here couldn't last two minutes." I shot back at the assembled group without any playfulness. _Gods, I forgot how much I hate these people._

"Is that so, huh?" One of the most problematic of the bunch piped up. He was a real asshole that honestly, I never even cared to learn his name, but I had sparred a few times when he annoyed me too much. "The way I hear it, you have a really big sword now. Compensating for something?" His posse loved the comeback as he sauntered on up to me.

"Well, by your analogy, the bigger your weapon, the smaller your penis. First off, not that original; second, if you look really closely, you'll notice that my weapon is so small you can't even see it on me." I brought my hands up to show that I was unarmed, before pointing down to the cutlass-style sword on his hip. "But I see yours, _so…"_

"Listen here you little shit, do we need to settle this the old-fashioned way?" The man challenged back angrily, trying to get in my face and act tough.

"What the hell are you talking about? We've sparred before. A lot. Usually for this same reason. _You've lost every time._ Why are we even talking about this? Don't we have something better to do?" My frustrations from my chat with Raven was coming through and I had to divert myself from this pointless, stupid confrontation before I knocked him off his feet and beat him with his own shoes.

"Yes, we do. See to it that the men are ready. Jaune and I need to discuss the plan." Vernal stepped in, forcing the group to back down immediately. There was a reason Raven liked this tribe so much, and it was because for all their aggressiveness and tenacity, she and Vernal had them absolutely whipped. As far as they were concerned, Vernal was the Maiden, too, so the speed with which they dispersed was not surprising in the least. "Here," she called out, tossing some sort of polearm at me. I caught it by the shaft, looking it over.

"What's this?" I called out. It was a long staff, about six or seven feet in length, with a metal blade at the end. The production felt simple but sturdy, meaning that there likely weren't any hidden features other than stick and pointy end. The blade was a foot in length and sharp on both edges, tapering off into a point. There were no asymmetrical features to the blade, unlike a typical halberd or other weapons like a katana.

"A naginata. You'll be guarding the front and the guys will be unloading dust in the back." Vernal called out, also tossing to me a black hoodie and a Grimm mask. "The masks aren't identical to White Fang décor, but they'll fool anyone who chances to stumble across us, or any security footage."

"I understood what this weapon was, Vernal. I was asking why you gave me any sort of polearm when I've never trained with them." I cut back, holding out the naginata to get a feel for its balance.

"What's so hard to understand? Long range. Poke and stab. Slice and cut. Don't die." Vernal mocked back at me.

"Yes, because it's that easy." I deadpanned back.

"Alright, I didn't want to do this, but…" Vernal waved for someone from behind me to come forward, and I turned around to find that asshole from earlier charging towards me with his cutlass drawn and a grin on his face. Instinctively, I jabbed the pointy end at him and he jumped back with a yelp, barely able to contain his momentum. "See, was that so hard?" Vernal mocked again.

I kept the pointy end facing him and made sure to wiggle the weapon in the air so that he couldn't knock it aside and charge in, which he tried a few times. Eventually, I let him knock the blade to the side and used the staff's torque to bring the bottom around to smack him in the face before he could get his sword back up. His blind swing missed me and I kicked him in the side to create some space before getting my guard back up.

He went back to trying to swat or deflect my blade away to charge in again, and I continued to draw circles in the air with the weapon to keep him at bay. Eventually, I stepped forward to lunge and feinted a stab at his face. Understandably, he flinched at the feint and swung his cutlass up to knock the blade away, but I had already pulled my naginata back in time to avoid his strike and take free stab at his belly. Were it a real fight, I might have had enough momentum behind the point of the blade to piece aura and impale him but settled for poking him.

"That's enough, boys. Do you have any other stupid complaints?" Vernal asked me rhetorically, a grin growing on her face. It wasn't nearly as hostile as Raven's grins usually were, and I found myself grinning as well, though more out of chagrin than anything else.

"I will never run out of complaints." I shot back automatically. "But none about you. At least not right now."

"Oh, so cryptic and emo of you. Let me guess, making friends has been hard at school?" Vernal's tone indicated she was mocking me, but the way she fought to keep herself from rolling her eyes let me know there wasn't anything behind it.

"More like problems _not_ making friends. I never thought that acting like Raven would make people _want_ to get closer to me." I grumbled more in general than at her.

"Oh please, like you've actually been doing that." Vernal dismissed readily, catching me by surprise. It was her and Raven's plan (more Raven's, but still) that dictated that I try to avoid making any strong connections while at Beacon, but that comment felt very contrary to that goal. _Never mind that I had recently decided to pretty much give up on that, because they couldn't have known that; I only decided it like two days ago._

"Uh, _yes_ I've actually been doing that. Is this some sort of trick? Did Raven put you up to checking in on me?"

"I mean, technically yes, but not that specifically. More like she told me to knock some sense into you, if necessary." Vernal answered back, not looking up from where she was loading fresh dust into her weapons. "Do you mean you really tried to push everyone away?"

"Yes! That was the whole freaking point, wasn't it?" I answered back exasperated.

"No," Vernal cut back quickly. "The _point_ was to avoid forming any attachments that would keep you from doing what's best for you. That doesn't mean going out of your way to avoid making connections, you idiot." Vernal's words didn't have any malice behind them, but she did sound as if she was berating a toddler.

"That would have been a _fantastic_ thing to clarify before you sent me into Beacon!" I shot back, a bit of sarcasm added in to lessen the implicit accusation there.

"Tell me, Jaune, what would be your natural reaction if your teammate intentionally tried to make you dislike them?" Vernal asked. I didn't answer immediately, catching on to her point and realizing that I would look like an idiot. _Or I already do._ "You would probably be suspicious and want to _dig further into who they are_ , wouldn't you?"

"…I don't think I should answer that."

"Did you really think that Raven's advice was to cut yourself off from the world?" Again, my silence spoke volumes. "Gods, you really _are_ an idiot, aren't you? Is that how you see Raven? Or me? Unfeeling and unattached to anything?"

"No…" I lied poorly, with the good sense to look a little ashamed.

"That's incredible; you _actually_ do think that's what Raven is like after, what, over thirteen years? You have got to be the densest person to walk Remnant." Her indignation had given way to genuine surprise and she was starting to find the situation funny if the smile was any indication.

"What did you mean that Raven's advice was to do what's best for me?" I asked, thinking back on what stuck out. "Isn't the whole point to get me to do what's best for the Tribe?"

"I know you're smarter than this, but I don't have time to wait for you to figure this out, so..." Vernal responded, putting her things down to look up at me. "Raven's smarter than you, Jaune. She's certainly more clever. We know you would betray us if it meant you could be free of us." I opened my mouth to object, but Vernal gave me a glare that shut me up. To her credit, she wasn't wrong completely wrong, though I feel like I wouldn't betray them so much as I would cut ties with them. "But you're also smart enough not to follow Ozpin, either, so she's testing you. You're free, Jaune; the moment you left for Beacon, you had everything you needed to break ties with us, but that would require joining Ozpin. As long as you don't want to do that, we have leverage over you."

We never broke eye contact as Vernal paused, letting the air grow thick with tension. I gripped the staff of the naginata harder, preparing myself to react should the worse happen. There wasn't a threat made, but the fact that she was aware of what I was trying to do was telling; I _had_ considered betraying them, and I have even gone so far as to establish that I _would_ if I had the power to protect myself from them. What she was telling me now was that they knew that I would try and were preparing for it, which was a _terrifying_ prospect; I was banking on being able to blindside Raven if I ever went through with this, but if she had _years_ of foreknowledge, that all but guaranteed a messy end. Vernal had even acknowledged my biggest roadblock, being that my only realistic choices were joining Ozpin or working for them; I didn't have a third option yet.

"But, as long as you're going to be in Beacon, we're not going to use leverage over you if we can help it. Think of us as allies, or at least, mutual benefactors. You keep us informed about Beacon, we let you go to Beacon. You help us plan heists..." she broke eye contact and turned to look over the Tribe members preparing themselves. "...we'll make it worth the trouble."

She looked away suddenly, he eyes drawn down to her leg where she pulled out a scroll. "That's Raven. She said she's opening the portal in sixty seconds. I'm going to round up the group." She started to walk off, turning to get one more word in. "Raven's advice wasn't supposed to turn you into her perfect spy; it was supposed to teach you to be like her. Attachments are fine, Jaune. Raven had them then and she has them now, too. Just be very, _very_ certain you know which ones are superficial and which matter the most. When the time comes to choose, you should already have made your choice."

* * *

I stepped out of the portal to find myself in the warehouse that I had checked out a few days ago. The first thing I noticed were the several shipping containers in the center of the room that were surrounded by bodies of White Fang members, not _all_ of whom were obviously dead. There was a chance that a lot of them were unconscious, though it was obvious that a couple wouldn't be going anywhere. As I stepped through, I looked to my right to find Raven standing next to her portal, arms crossed and leaning against a wooden crate in a very relaxed manner, as if she _hadn't_ just taken out a squadron of terrorists.

"What's the situation?" I asked as members of the tribe started to emerge from the portal and figure out what to do next.

"There's some sort of fight outside but doesn't look like authorities. Maybe a rival gang or something; point is, they redirected the dust in here for safe keeping. Pillage everything you can and get it back through the portals." Raven's words were loud enough to be heard by all and it was clear that she was giving them commands, as they started running around and breaking into the unmarked containers. "Jaune, take a few and guard the entra—what is that?" Raven motioned down to the weapon in my hands.

"Uh, some sort of polearm?" I answered back.

"Do you know how to use a polearm?"

"The pointy end goes into my enemies." I answered back oversimply, hoping that she'd take my sarcasm as a sign that I actually did know how to use it.

"Whatever. If you get killed, that's your fault. Guard the entrance." Raven shook her head and pointed me in the general direction of the large hangar doors, which were only opened wide enough for one person to fit through. Chances are, that's how the Fang had left it after they brought the dust in here, as I doubt Raven would have risked moving the doors; if they were rusted, the creaking noise could easily give us away.

I made my way to the door and I wanted to peak out and see what exactly the commotion Raven had mentioned was about. Some sort of SDC security, maybe? Their shipments normally had something, but I had never heard of an unmarked (and therefore unofficial or hidden) shipment having a contingent of body guards; that would seem counter-intuitive. As far as rival gangs go, it wouldn't be impossible, but how many common criminals would have the intel to suggest that an unmarked SDC shipment would be easy pickings? _For that matter, how did the White Fang find out?_ Based off the news reports, this Roman Torchwick guy was the main cause of the dust shortage in Vale, so it was possible that he was outside causing trouble for the White Fang. Even then that might not explain it, seeing as Blake's entire reason for leaving Beacon was to find out if Torchwick really does work with the White Fang. _When this is done, I should peak out and see if I can't get any evidence that would satisfy Blake's curiosity._

I never got to find out who really was behind the fighting, as before I got to the door, a small figure sauntered on through. She was short and was even wearing some sort of boosted boot that made her taller, meaning she was _really_ short. It was her outfit that put me on edge, though; she wasn't wearing typical White Fang gear, nor was she even wearing a mask. She wore stylish clothes all centered around the colors pink, white, and brown, and had the hair to match. She had a small umbrella slung over her shoulder and the surprise in her eyes at seeing our operation was quickly replaced by a malicious grin.

"Get her." I ordered the two men who had come with me. I had a sneaking suspicion that whoever this person was had Huntsman training or skill comparable to it, and the fact that she showed up to a heist wearing such blatant colors told me she didn't fear being spotted; she might have even been _looking_ for a fight. That's why I studied the manner in which she dismantled the two men I sent at her closely, though it didn't tell me anything useful. She didn't even draw a weapon, instead playing each of them against each other and using one of their weapons against the other. In a matter of seconds, they were both unconscious on the ground, and she made a show of stepping on them as she walked towards me.

I pulled my naginata into a defensive position and waited to see what she would do. She did nothing, just standing there with her umbrella on her shoulder and a bemused look on her face. If nothing else, I had a _massive_ reach advantage, and that was before you even factor in the length of my weapon. I stepped forward and stabbed at her core, which she sidestepped without changing her lax stance. I pulled back and went in for another stab at her face before feinting it and going for her core again; I was hoping to get her to dodge to the side and when she committed to that I wanted to catch her before she could recover. The first part worked and the second should have, but she displayed an incredible agility as she had leaned back to avoid the first attack and bent over backwards to avoid the second. I was distracted by the move for a split-second, and in that time instead of bouncing back up, she caught herself with one hand and kicked her legs up in the air, knocking my naginata straight up where it would be no use to me. Before I could bring it back down, she had returned to her feet and charged into my guard, lunging at me with the point of her umbrella, which now had a blade protruding from the end. I turned to the side and avoided being impaled but did take a tough swipe from the blade, but nothing my aura would be stressed by.

I finally brought my naginata back down, but she was to my side, away from the pointy end. I turned to prepare for an attack as she lunged back at me again. I brought up the staff to catch and redirect the lunge, but the blade retracted just before I could knock it aside and her lunge suddenly stopped. Instead, her umbrella unfolded with a pop and I froze in my defensive stance with the weapon perpendicular to my body, which was enough time for her to spin and kick from behind the umbrella. Her first kick came down almost vertically and knocked my weapon down, and to avoid losing it, my guard was brought down with it, before a second spin and kick delivered a boot across my face. My instincts roared at me to get my guard back up and had I not, the lunge she took at me would have ended with a hole in my stomach. Instead, my guard forced her to go for a less threatening stab into my side, and my aura reserves kept the blade from piercing, instead sliding off. I was able to smack her in the side of the head with the blunt end of the staff as she retreated, but such a blow was more annoying than it was damaging.

 _To hell with this, she's smaller than Ruby; there's no way she has a big aura pool._ Trading damage would suffice, which means I need pressure. I didn't let her retreat and regroup, instead launching another series of stabs and feints. She managed to avoid and parry them without difficulty, but I did a good enough job of throwing in sweeping slashes and cuts that she couldn't or didn't capitalize on anything yet. _That's good because it means she's acknowledging that the range difference is an issue, meaning she is at least concerned by it._ As soon as I had thought that, she had knocked a stab aside and spun around behind it to quickly close the distance. Now inside of my guard, she finished her spin by dropping low and swiping with her umbrella blade at my legs, expecting the action to panic me and get me to either flee backwards or drop my guard down to block it with the staff again. Instead, I used my semblance and focused my aura on the outer leg, catching the blade and stopping it dead in its tracks. It didn't hurt but it certainly was not good for my aura to just take hits like that, since my semblance doesn't make my aura immune to damage, it just lets me resist the momentum of strikes to 'tank' them. What it did do is surprise this girl and leave her open to my other foot, which I leaned forward to kick her in the chest with, focusing my semblance on my foot so I didn't break a toe or anything.

The blow did some damage and forced her to retreat, but by no means tipped the scale of this battle in my favor. I had touched her twice for all the damage I had taken for it, and she must have known this, too, because the grin on her face grew more mischievous. She looked me over once or twice and I couldn't help but feel like I was little more than a fun challenge to keep her from getting bored, an observation that did not help my confidence here. I would need to swing this fight in a big manner soon, or else my survival would come down to whether or not Raven felt like my position inside of Beacon was worth the effort of saving my ass. _I did surprise her by resisting her attack, so if I can do that again, maybe I can get something big in_.

I decided to go on the offensive again, needing to force her into another mistake to turn this fight around. Her defense again made me look silly, but without any actual training with this sort of weapon, all I could really do is poke and slash and see what sticks. I poked to her side: blocked. I brought that poke into a slash back across her: too slow. I feinted a poke then feinted a second poke then slashed at her ankles: she backed out of measure. Eventually, as I got more desperate, I started throwing slower but heavier slashes that she almost looked insulted by, given how easily she avoided them. I threw a large slash diagonally that she stepped sideways to avoid all the while giving me a disappointed frown, as if she was upset that I wasn't nearly the challenge I had shown myself to be. I kept the momentum from that slash as I spun and released my near-side hand, extending the weapon one-handed for extra reach as I slashed at knee-height in a circle all around me. She jumped over it easily—she almost looked bored, now—and when she landed she jumped at me, spinning to kick at my head.

What she did not expect was for her foot to impact my head and it not budge an inch, thanks to my semblance. I still took most of the damage, but felt no pain and didn't flinch, whereas she took the damage, pain, and the shock of kicking something that didn't give in at all. I didn't let it end there, though, because she made the mistake of kicking to my side where my hand was no longer holding my weapon. I brought that free arm up and pinned her leg against my neck, trapping her in an awkward position in mid-air. Before she could react and stab with her umbrella, I dropped the naginata from my other hand and brought my other elbow down hard on her thigh, hoping that I could bruise or snap her femur due to her slight figure. Her aura flexed, resisting the blunt blow, but a yelp escaped her mouth as she frantically tried to get me to drop her. Somewhere in my mind, it registered that she had just flexed her aura the old-fashioned way, which means that I was dealing with someone who was either seriously trained or had fought for a long time.

She tried to get me to drop her by stabbing at me with her umbrella's blade, but I pushed my semblance to cover my whole self, preventing any damage she could inflict from stopping me. With her still pinned and hanging from my shoulder at an awkward angle for her, I spun around a few times and flung her full-force away from me. She flew through the air and impacted the hangar door with her back, bouncing awkwardly as the edge of the hanger wall split right down her back; the crunch of the impact and the painful contraction she went through made me wince, but not enough to get me to give up on the fight. Her aura visibly fizzled a little but it managed to recover and didn't break entirely, meaning that she was dangerously low but not broken. I thought I would fix that as I hurled the naginata at her like a spear and saw the whites of her eyes as she stared at her death, before suddenly she shattered into pieces and the naginata sailed right on through, piercing the sheet-metal of the wall and imbeding itself in it. With no body left behind and the pieces fading from memory a few moments later, I was left assuming she had fled using some sort of semblance.

"Well, that was lucky," Raven called out from across the warehouse. I turned to find her still leaning against the box from earlier but facing me and clearly having been watching the fight. "Mind telling me what you're doing using a weapon you suck with on _my_ mission?"

"Vernal made me," I answered back, uncertain of what I should say. Raven stared at me through her mask and for once I saw why she liked wearing masks, because while this White Fang mask may only just barely cover my eyes, I felt infinitely more confident when she couldn't see them and read my emotions. Eventually, Raven turned to her crew.

"You two, go pick them up and drag them back," She called out, motioning to pick up the two guys I had sent at our attacker beforehand. "Everyone else, wrap it up. I don't want any more company. Portal closes in thirty seconds!"

That was my queue to leave, but not without that naginata. It was the only thing I had touched so far, but that meant it did have my prints on them. If this place were to become a crime scene, which felt likely when all was considered, I did _not_ need my prints on record. _Not that they have any records of me to compare them to, but that meant that if anyone ever did record my prints, they'd find out immediately that they matched this heist._

"Jaune." Raven called out before I made it to where my weapon was stuck in the wall. I turned back around to see what was up and was greeted with a small sack flying at my face. My reflexes kicked in and I snatched it out of the air, only realizing once I caught it just how slow it had been tossed. I opened up the pouch to find a somewhat significant amount of lien and looked back up at Raven quizzically. "Good work, kid. We'll be in touch."

"You're…paying me for this?" I asked, somewhat bewildered by the scenario. My mind did go back to Vernal's words earlier, though: _we'll make it worth the trouble._

"Don't be silly. That's the money I took off all the Fang I knocked out." Raven called back with a laugh, disappearing through her portal.

"Yeah, 'knocked out,'" I called back as she left, looking around at the bodies slumped on the floor. To her credit, some were actually knocked out; just...not all.

"Well, I guess taking it is no worse than stealing dust from terrorists." I mumbled to myself, looking around the room at the result of our heist. I shook myself from my stupor quickly, remembering that I was currently wearing a Grimm mask and needed to leave, and that there was another battle going on outside. I was tempted to check my aura levels, but that would mean turning on my scroll, which would then keep a record of where I was. It was bad enough that I had to turn it on to call Raven in the first place, but having a second record of my presence would be much harder to explain away.

I ducked out the opening to the doors and found a crate nearby that I could hide behind. The sounds of fighting were still going on, but as I peered around to the side I noticed a few White Fang members loading dust onto a Bullhead. They weren't loading very much, since the Bullhead appeared to be an escape vehicle. _It could be a diversion; since they have witnesses, make them think their plan was to load and steal dust instead of hiding 100 yards away._ I crawled around to the other side of the crate to get a view of the fighting. A man fitting the news' description of Roman Torchwick was locked in combat with a…yellow faunus monkey? _Is that it, just one guy causing all this—_ nope, there was another one lying on the ground who was already knocked out of the fight and—

"What the hell… _Blake?!_ "

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

I barreled down alleyways without any regard for what or who was in my way. I wasn't far from the docks and as soon as I got Weiss' text I put everything I had in getting there as quickly as possible.

* * *

 _Weiss-cream: Found Blake! docks, in trouble. White Fang. NOW_

* * *

It wasn't the most coherent of texts and it didn't make any sense, but it didn't need to. My stomach had dropped the moment I read the words and I redoubled my efforts to get there faster. I could already see smoke overhead, giving me a pretty clear guide for where to go.

When I got there, I spotted Blake immediately and fury shot through me; she was lying on the concrete with a White Fang member crouched over her. With one blast from Ember Celica I was flying across the docks towards this asshole, who had the gall to duck my punch upon hearing my shotgun blast.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" I growled, and he obliged, backing away with his hands going up. I wanted with everything in me to go ahead and knock him into the sea, but right now Blake was more important (and the other guy unconscious there, too) and if he was going to back down, I would let him.

"Whoa whoa whoa, Yang! It's me! Calm down!" A familiar voice came from the man as he took of the small Grimm mask he wore.

" _Jaune?!_ " I asked in complete disbelief. "What the hell? What are you doing with the White Fang!?"

"Yang, calm down." Jaune repeated, annoying me and causing the opposite effect. "I just found the mask. I was _trying_ to sneak them to safety."

"What about the White Fang?" I asked, too worried to challenge his answer and stepping forward to check on Blake.

"I think Weiss has them pretty well handled at the moment. Torchwick included." Jaune motioned to the area behind me, where Weiss was currently having a field day with her glyphs and all of the spilled dust containers lying around. "She's kinda in her element, surrounded by outrageous amounts of dust."

"We'll let her hold them off. Ruby and the others should be on their way." Jaune took the silent command for what it was and picked up the guy faunus, slinging him over his shoulder, and I did the same for Blake. It may not be gentle, but it would let us get out of here quicker. "How did you even know about this?"

"Same way you did, I suspect." Jaune answered back, checking over his shoulder to see if we were followed.

"Weiss thought to text you?" I asked, a little surprised. Weiss didn't necessarily have anything against Jaune that I knew of, but she was so practical that I didn't think she would have bothered checking if Jaune would help. It's not like she ever came with us to look for Blake, so she wouldn't know that Team JNPR was helping. _What's more, how did she even_ find _Blake if she wasn't looking?_

"Apparently. I was already nearby the docks and got here just after Weiss did." Jaune and I had found an abandoned warehouse that was well out of the line of sight and we set down Blake and her friend against the wall. The guy was out cold, but Blake was starting to stir and come to.

"Yang, go help Weiss; you're more useful in a group fight than me. I'll protect these two." Jaune ordered. For a moment, I thought about telling _him_ to go out there because Blake was my partner and _I_ would be the one to guard her, but I dismissed that thought. _Weiss is my teammate, too, and he's right; besides, I need someone to punch._

I left the warehouse and sprinted back to the docks, but by the time I had gotten back, Ruby had shown up with that weird redheaded girl we had met the other day, and they both were carving into the White Fang. Torchwick was holding off Weiss, but with his Fang support cut-off, he disengaged before I could make it to Weiss to double-team the bastard. The coward threw a White Fang grunt at Weiss and dashed up to the Bullhead behind him, but just before he made it to the ramp I had caught up to him, launching my first right into his back.

And his back shattered, causing him to disappear and pieces of glass to scatter all around. I looked around confused before looking up to see Torchwick on the Bullhead, waving goodbye with a laugh at my expense. _The next time I see him, he's a dead man._

* * *

"Look, pal, I'm gonna level with you here. You guys have already taken our statements. None of us are hurt. We've been here for an hour and a half now. We've been checked by paramedics, detectives, forensic analysts, and reporters. We've all been cheek-swabbed, given fingerprints so they can distinguish ours from actual suspects', and we've given DNA samples. If you don't let us go in the _next five minutes—_ "

"Yang, you're torturing the poor guy." Blake whined wearily from her seat on the back of an ambulance nearby.

"Yeah, you're just angry that they plucked a hair for the DNA stuff." Ruby added on with a giggle.

" _That's not funny, Ruby!_ " I shot back, too exhausted to contain myself. Fortunately, they didn't find me serious, so I didn't offend anyone, but unfortunately, they didn't find me serious, so they didn't stop.

"L-Look, l-let me just go a-ask the detectives if you can l-leave, alright?" The officer before me and object of my endless ire stammered out. The poor guy looked young and his role as the guy in charge of guarding the crime scene fit with that, but that didn't matter right now. I was _tired_ , _hungry_ , and in a _bad_ mood.

"Eh, that won't be necessary." One of the two detectives in charge called out, walking up from behind the poor beat cop with his partner. For some reason, they both still wore their sunglasses, and it wasn't as if they could pull the sunglasses-at-night look off, either.

"Yeah, this one looks pretty... pretty... pretty... open and shut." The other drawled out, putting emphasis on weird parts of his speech.

"Lookin' like the ole' White Fang are burning a new Torch, now, don't it?" The other responded in just as strange of a speech pattern, making me worried for the future of the police if these idiots were running investigations. Something about them told me they couldn't have figured out what type of faunus Blake was even if she didn't wear a bow.

"New…Torch…" The second drawled back.

"Anyway, you and your little friends here can leave. We've got your files if we need to find you." The first one confirmed, causing everyone to perk up. Nora even kicked Jaune in the stomach to wake him up from his nap on the ground.

"Unless, of course, any of you are _dirty liars_!" The second one shifted moods so unnaturally that, for a second, I thought he might be pregnant, before I remembered the obvious reason that's impossible: _no one would have ever done that with either of these two._ Oh, and the whole being a dude thing, too.

"You know, I really hate when people lie to me." The first added on.

"You know, as fun as this isn't, I think we're just going to leave." I called out, trying my best to ignore whatever had just happened as I walked off. The sounds of footsteps behind me confirmed that everyone came with, and once we were out of earshot I stopped to address the group. "Alright, gang, this has been just… _exhilarating_ , and I know it's late, so why don't you guys go back to Beacon?"

"You're not coming?" Pyrrha asked, giving me a strange look that, honestly, I was too tired to read into.

"No, I am starving and Team RWBY needs to have a little chat—" I looked dead at Weiss and Blake before continuing, "—so I think we're gonna go get waffles."

"Aww, we can't come?" Jaune whined, mocking me.

"Uh, _no_."

"Actually…" Blake started, before trailing off as all eyes shifted to her. She retreated in on herself immediately, but it was Weiss of all people to come to her rescue (again, I suppose).

"What I think Blake is saying is that it's fine if Jaune and his team come." Weiss looked to Blake tentatively before they both turned to look at Jaune, who nodded. Blake looked back at Weiss and nodded also. "And I guess Ruby's new friend can come too, since she helped out."

"SENSATIONAL!"

"Well, that's settled. Let's go eat!" Nora called out before marching off with the group in tow. No one actually knew if she knew where she was going, but chances are, following Nora was the best way to get to waffles. Before I moved I caught Jaune's eye and gave him a quizzical look, trying to find out what the hell had just happened between those three. Jaune returned the stare before shrugging softly and jogging back up to the group as if nothing had happened.

"Did…I see that right? Did they…?" I trailed off, unable to put my thoughts into words because I wasn't actually sure _what_ I thought I just saw. "I'm too tired to deal with this crap. I need a waffle."

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Ah, yes, finally, the introduction of everyone's favorite characters from the show: Detective Burnie and Detective Joel, better known as the Hardy Boys.**

 _"They call us the Hardy Boys, because we're so hard...on naughty little boys."  
"Hard...boys..."  
"Ugh, that's disgusting."_  
 _"You made it disgusting."_

 **Oh, and Neo was there, too, so that's neat. And before anyone can comment about it, _no,_ Jaune should not have won that fight with Neo. He is _not_ skilled enough to beat Neo with a brand new weapon, and it would be a fair split if he was using his best weapons. If Neo hadn't retreated, I feel like Jaune still would have lost that fight, since he landed like only 4 hits, half of them coming from that stunt he pulled. Neo only fled after loosing an alarming amount of aura from getting smacked into that wall, which suddenly makes you reconsider taking on an entire warehouse full of enemies. Neo is a wildcard because we've seen her twice in the show, once when she dismantled a tired and irritated Yang (read: not level headed) and once when she and Roman tag-teamed Ruby. We don't have a true idea of what she's capable of.** **_If Neo and Jaune ever meet again, I can only imagine the dynamic between them..._**

 **Oh, and Vernal smacking Jaune around with words a little was a long time coming, too. One of the more consistent comments/concerns has been that Jaune doesn't exactly see Raven perfectly accurately, and yes, he didn't. Now that someone has had to correct him on it, his perspective might be shifting and that might lead to him making firm resolutions to take actions.**

 **As always, feel free to break my heart down there in the comments section (reviews, whatever)!  
It isn't as if I obsessively check my phone for new reviews every couple of hours or anything. That would be crazy.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by user _Josh Spicer_ on **Ch. 8**

"Too bad most fans seem to hate Jaune, including Miles, considering Jaune has the biggest upside in character development."

 **Last Closing Thoughts, I was talking about character development from the show, and got off on a tangent about Jaune, who I started off disliking in V1, quickly becoming okay with and shipping Arkos through V3, and then really liking his character's darker driftings in V4. This culminated with V5, where Dark Jaune quickly became one of my two favorite things about that fight at the end (Yang v Raven was #1).**

 **Jaune is such a strange character in terms of audience reception, because the poor guy can't catch a break. If you go on Tumblr, Jaune's sole purpose for existing is to ruin RWBY and he also is the embodiment of cockblocking all lesbian ships, which is a war crime on Tumblr.  
** Note: is it called cockblocking if you interrupt two girls? Asking for a friend  
 **This kinda stemmed out of V1 Jaune being whiny and having a _lot_ of screen time, and since then both issues have been resolved, yet the disdain lingers on. He's kinda the Nickelback of RWBY: everyone has agreed to dislike him.**

 **Not on my list of things to do today was to out myself as a quasi-fan on Nickelback, but here we are...**

 **That being said, "Hating Jaune" is almost an ironic thing to do now for a lot of people, myself included, because it is funny; at the end of the day, there are a lot of secret Jaune fans out there. I certainly am one, though he can't hold a candle to Weiss and Yang, but honestly, who can?**

 **As for Miles hating Jaune, I do not understand at all where you are coming from. Miles seemed to love voicing Jaune in V5, if his comments from the AMA's or his overall fantastic performance are any indication. If anything, Miles isn't even the one to blame if you think the writing disfavors Jaune, because Kerry admitted that Miles does not write any of Jaune's lines because he voices him; it's all Kerry. That said, I don't understand the idea that the writing hates Jaune either. I've maintained for a while that Jaune is the character in need of the most character development, but he is also the character with (BY FAR) the most character development already. **

**I certainly do get** _Josh_ **'s frustration here with how Jaune is typically received. I feel like a lot of us never gave him a chance to shake off that V1 stigma, the same way I never gave Weiss a chance until V5.**

 **Then again, there are a _lot_ of Jaune-centered fanfics, so maybe I'm just dead wrong here. LOL.**

 **Thanks for the comment,** _Josh_ **  
See y'all next week.**


	12. Waffles

**[REFINED Oct. 27, 2018] Author's Note: T** **his was the last of the pre-written chapters, meaning that from here on in chapters were written weekly, putting me on a little more of a time crunch. I did decide that it was better for the story to miss a week than to cram out a bad chapter, though; quality over quantity, in a way.**

 **Before this chapter, I saw Infinity War, and it inspired me to kill off every character. Yes, every one of them.  
No survivors except the shopkeeper and Zwei, because obviously I've been building them both as the Big Bad.**

 **I'm kidding. Probably. Enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

 **Chapter 10:** _"Guys, look over there! A distraction!" - Jaune Arc, probably_

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Pyrrha's POV

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I have to say that I have never been to a place like this before. That statement holds true about a lot of things all at once: Beacon, our dorms, our classes, the attack at Vale's docks. More than all of those, it describes the…restaurant that Nora picked out. Calling it a restaurant might be a stretch, though; the fact that this place was open in a less-than-reputable side of town at this hour (it was approaching 1:30 in the morning now) should mean it needs no description. None of us were really that surprised that we followed Nora right up to a big sign that merely said "WAFFLES," but the culture inside the place was so unlike anything I had ever experienced. I will permit that I led a somewhat sheltered life in Mistral and while I did travel more than most of my peers for tournaments and such, I never, ever found myself in such a run-down place as this. There were a whole two people working this diner and they didn't really care for etiquette or even really try to be nice, instead displaying how unhappy they were to be working a graveyard shift in a terrible part of town. The two other customers they had were sitting at the bar-style counter and while they weren't drunk or even drinking, they certainly were loud enough to be. We sat over in the far corner so no one would be able to overhear us easily, and both the ladies working shot us glares telling us exactly how happy they'd be to take the longest route in the building to get to us.

With all of that said, our teams seemed to absolutely love this place, and it was starting to grow on me. Yang acted as if she had been raised at this table, riffing back and forth with the wait-staff as if she was trying to get kicked out, and to my surprise they responded well to it, perking up a little and firing back as mean as possible. This clearly was not Yang's first time in a place like this, which makes me curious as to the circumstances that one could find themselves in a place like this from, seeing as we are only here because we just came from a terrorist attack. Things only went downhill from there, because once everyone saw what was both accepted and possibly expected from the customers, they figured they would try it as well. It was at this point that things really got out of hand, as we were all tired and worn out from the stress of the day, meaning we were not on top of our game.

"Righty, here's three waters for these boring chumps—" our server (waitress? Hostile employee?) announced, setting three glasses of water down ungracefully in front of Ren, Nora, and myself,

"—two coffees for the prima donnas—" she set two mugs down, one for Jaune and one for Weiss,

"—and the creamer for the princess who can't drink the real stuff—" she set down packaged creamer pouches for Weiss, whose face was absolutely priceless,

"—tea for the one who thinks she's so 'phisticated over here—" setting down a regular glass with a cloudy, brown mixture than resembled either tea or run-off water,

"—and cow juice for the toddler," she announced, setting down a sippy-cup of milk in front of Ruby.

"Hey now, I know you didn't forget me!" Yang complained, turning around in her seat to follow the lady back behind the counter with her eyes. "It's not like you have to squeeze the oranges! Just pour me some juice!"

"If you're so damn thirsty, you've got two of 'em willing and able sitting 'cross from ya that I'm sure'll fix that." The other woman crowed back from behind counter while pointing towards Ren and Jaune, stunning Yang.

"I mean, I don't know if Ren's willing, _but…_ " Jaune tacked on loudly so that the ladies would hear; just as loud was the scuffle of feet underneath the table and the yelp Jaune let out after Yang kicked him in his shin. Despite that, Jaune couldn't help but laugh.

"What are you eating?" The waitress asked with a grumble as she set Yang's orange juice on the table with a loud clop, causing some orange juice to slosh out of the cup and onto the table.

"Let's just go with two waffles per person." Yang suggested, taking the orange juice and sipping it without any care as to the spill on the table.

"Hun, you're paying extra if you think I'm fixing to do maths." The waitress grumbled back at Yang.

"Ugh, at this rate we won't even _be_ paying you." Yang's joke didn't go over well, earning a half-lidded glare from the lady before her. "Fine. Ten of us, two waffles each. Twenty waffles."

"Ten of ya?" The waiter asked with a confused look.

"Uh, yeah. _Ten_." Yang looked around the table, making a big show of counting us out. "Four for Team RWBY. Four on Team JNPR. And two…extra…uh…guys?"

" _Ten_ , huh? Sure looks like eight to me." She mocked viciously. "Bessy, start dropping sixteen plains and then four imaginary ones!" The waitress hollered out suddenly at the only other waitress in the building, before turning back to taunt Yang. "Don't worry, we won't charge you extra for your imaginary friends."

"Where did…uh, the weird girl and the monkey guy go?" Yang asked confused. Many of us, myself included, looked around and realized that yes, they were gone. Given how late it was and how tired we were, it wouldn't have been hard to disappear without us noticing, but I feel like since the whole point of the night was a search and rescue mission, we would have been a little more alert.

"Oh, Penny?" Ruby asked, grabbing our attention. "Yeah, some guy picked her up in a car while we were walking over here." Seven pairs of very concerned and surprised eyes stared at Ruby, who seemed oblivious. "What?"

"…did we just let someone get kidnapped?" Yang asked.

"She said it was her father picking her up, Yang. I wouldn't just let her get in the car with a stranger." Ruby answered back with a huff, though it didn't do a lot to quell the table's uneasiness.

"...Ruby, did you do anything to verify that it _was_ her dad?" Weiss asked slowly as the table descended into tension.

"Well, she recognized the car and said 'oh, that's my ride' and left, so...maybe?" Ruby answered back.

"What about Sun?" Blake asked after a pause, taking our attention.

"Who?"

"Oh, the monkey dude?" Jaune asked, with Blake nodding. "Yeah he dipped."

"What?" Blake asked, surprised.

"Yeah, something about recognizing the officers by their sunglasses and stowing away on boats. I wasn't really listening by that point." You know, come to think of it, I never did see him giving the police officers his statement. I never actually saw him anywhere _near_ the police, now that I really think about it. "All I know is he decided not to stick around," Jaune finished.

"Stowing away on… _BLAKE!_ " Yang outburst suddenly. "You went and got that stowaway to help you before you came to us?!"

Blake shot Jaune an angry look for causing Yang's outburst before answering. "…would you believe me if I said no?"

"Well, that seems like a perfect transition into finding out why we got to fight terrorists and blow stuff up!" Nora announced. Her voice had its usual wild, playful drawl to it, but her eyes and her posture were serious as she switched between browbeating Blake and Weiss. This was the same Nora who had forced Jaune to open up at that cafe, meaning this was the most dangerous Nora there was: a focused Nora.

"Gee. Subtle." Jaune mocked sarcastically. I gave him an elbow to the side to shut him up, since we didn't need him doing anything to ruin this. _Nora's confrontational style may not have been the best way to broach the subject, but so far Nora is one-for-one using it, so it's worth playing out._

A few moments of silence followed as everyone looked around the table, trying to judge emotions. Yang and Ruby both focused solely on Blake, but more apprehensive and hopefully than confrontationally like Nora had; they were clearly content on being patient with Blake since they at least _had_ Blake now. Nora kept switching between browbeating the two until one talked, and Ren was content with watching Nora do this. Blake and Weiss both looked to have gone stiff, with Blake a little more so than Weiss, but they both scanned around the table nervously. As I was watching Blake, her eyes scanned over my team and over me, but stopped for just a moment after passing me. Something in her eyes changed; instead of the apprehension or even fear that she had scanned over us with, her eyes got wider as if asking some silent, unknowable question, and shortly after they narrowed as determination set in. _She was looking at Jaune?_ I turned to my side to see what Jaune had done to catch her eye, but by the time I had gotten to him, Jaune was deep in a yawn and not looking at anybody.

A couple of thoughts shot through my minds and I had to sort through them more quickly than I would have liked. _Did Blake just look at Jaune for reassurance?_ That would speak of the two of them being close, and so far, Jaune isn't close to anyone. At least, not that we as his team know of. A pang of something that would probably be called jealously if I didn't refuse to acknowledge the possibility shot through me, causing me to panic for a brief moment before I could stamp it out. _Of course she might feel more comfortable with him around after how he protected her at Forever Fall_. Another pang of the same thing shot through me as I realized that Nora's joke about Jaune trying to get with Blake may not actually be that far off now, and this time it was much harder to suppress the feeling. It was a joke, after all. _Wasn't it?_ I had assumed that since it came from Nora, it had to be, but given Nora's apparent ability to see through Jaune...?

Suffice to say, this feeling settling into my gut was not a welcome one, nor was I able to shake it.

"Okay, this is harder to say than I thought I would be…" Blake started off shyly, clearly fighting off panic. Her team did a good job of not pressuring her or invading her space—which for Ruby and Yang didn't mean much beyond _not_ hugging her outright—but her nervousness was clear.

"If it would make things easier, we don't need to be here." I offered, still feeling somewhat awkward that we were brought along for what was supposed to be a very intimate moment for Team RWBY.

"No, it's…okay, actually. You all were invested in finding me and bringing me back, after all. I don't want you to think I don't appreciate what you were willing to do for me." She took a deep breath to collect herself, letting her nerves fizzle out. "Besides, I have a feeling that you'd find out what I'm about to say, anyways," she said, cutting her eyes in both Yang and Ruby's general direction. For all intents and purposes, she was probably right.

"I…well, first off, I'm a faunus." Blake explained underwhelmingly. Her team didn't react, meaning they likely already knew, but neither did Jaune, or if he did, I couldn't tell without having been looking at him. To be fair, the only reactions I had to judge his against were Ren and Nora's. Ren reacted to it the same way he seems to react to much of life, which is to say not at all. Nora, however…

"What's your faunus superpower?!" Nora burst out after processing Blake's words, slamming her hands down on the table as she leaned forward in excitement. "Is it night vision? Oooh, do you feed on grass or are you a carnivore?! Or are you more of the blood-drinking type?!"

" _Nora._ " Jaune of all people cut in sternly, an edge to his voice that caught us all of guard. It was so sudden that it shocked Nora's system, getting her to back down off the table and reconsider her outburst.

"I'm pretty sure most of what Nora said was either racist or…she thinks you're a vampire?" Ren took over for both Jaune and Nora, taking on the role of Team JNPR's official Nora-Apologist. Blake, despite Nora's outburst, hadn't shrunk in on herself or taken Nora's words harshly at all, instead watching the exchange with a strange bewilderment that most people outside of our team usually have. When the focus was shifted back to her, she appeared to think for a moment before rolling her eyes and taking off her hairbow, revealing a set of cat ears.

"EEEEE!" Ruby and Nora both squeaked out at the same time, gushing over the fact that, yes, one of their friends had a hidden set of kitty ears. Blake seemed to immediately notice that they were going for the cute kitty angle with their squeals and instantly regretted her decision, if the flat look on her face (and the flattening of her newly-revealed ears) were any indication. _If I'm honest, though, they are adorable; I can see why she'd hide them._

"Can I pet them?" Nora asked, her hand rising as if it had a mind of her own.

"Please don't." Blake responded back quickly.

"Blake, _as your team leader_ , I demand that you let me touch your kitty ears!" Ruby called out with mock-determination. Her hand froze when Blake turned and looked at her before Ruby put her hand away entirely. "If that's okay with you, I mean."

"Is _that_ why Cardin attacked you? Did they track you down because you were a faunus?!" Yang asked, breaking her silence as a wave of anger threatened to wash over her. "I'm going to kill them!"

"No, they really did think that I was the one who humiliated Cardin." Blake answered back quickly, suppressing any real anger Yang could muster before it went anywhere, which was a good thing. The looks of Ruby and Weiss' faces told me they were glad for Blake's quick response.

" _Fine_. Killing them is off the table." Yang grumbled.

"Yeah, but tell them how they came up with _that_." Jaune taunted from his seat. Yang's eyes went from Jaune back to Blake, who gave Jaune a frustrated look.

"Well?" Yang asked.

"They thought it was me because I was a faunus." Blake answered with a frown pointed directly at Jaune.

"Killing those bastards is back on the table!" Yang announced emphatically, banging a fist on the table and earning a yell from the ladies still working on our waffles behind the counter.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but could we _please_ focus back on my confession and _not_ what you're going to do to Team CRDL?" Blake asked Yang, her nervousness from earlier adding to her frustration. Yang grinned and shrugged her shoulders before leaning back. "Anyways, when we all saw Sun stow away, some of us had a heated argument about…things." Blake looked down at her lap guiltily and pointedly would not turn to her other side to look at Weiss, who looked similarly sheepish. "That would have been okay, but then we started arguing about the White Fang and I got really defensive. I refused to let them be called murderers and refused to believe that they would work with Torchwick because…

"Because I grew up in the White Fang." Blake finished after pausing to collect herself. "I had to see for myself because I refused to believe it, but I should have. I left the White Fang because of what they had become, because I didn't agree with what they were doing anymore. I wanted to believe it wasn't true because I didn't want to believe I wasted my life with them.

"I need to apologize to you all, for hiding who I was from you. It wasn't fair of me to think it wouldn't affect any of you, and after seeing how much you all tried to find me, I think I'm realizing that it was silly to think it would be an issue." There were a few nods from around the table, all reassuring and relieved. Blake took a deep breath before turning around to face Weiss. "I also need to apologize for almost destroying our team. You…you were right about the White Fang, Weiss, and I…I'm…I'm sorry for what I was. If you can't have me on your team, I understand."

Except for the distant sounds of pancakes being made by an angry staff, the table was silent. Despite her insistence on us being here, I now wished that Team JNPR had left this to be a Team RWBY-only affair. The tension in the air was also displayed on Nora's face, as she looked like she might explode at any second, but not in her normal way. Even Ren looked shocked, which matched both Ruby and Yang, though those two looked extremely worried about whatever was to happen next. I glanced at Jaune out of the corner of my eye—not wanting to take my eyes off of the exchange going down on the opposite side of the table—and I could have sworn I saw a smirk for just a few moments, but when I checked again his eyes were as wide as everyone else's.

"As much as I do like hearing 'you were right, Weiss,' the fact that you—someone who was part of the White Fang—are here, apologizing to me…that kinda disproves my original point about them all being evil." Weiss' words were carefully put, with a large helping of grace and uncertainty that made them feel honest. "Of course, you can stay on the team; I would…prefer it, actually."

"You…would?" Blake stammered out with wide eyes and just a hint of hope starting to creep into her voice.

"I would. You're not the only one who needs to apologize, anyways. I was stupid enough to consider all faunus the same as the White Fang, and even treat all White Fang members as evil terrorists, which wasn't fair or honest. I made you pick a side that you shouldn't have had to, so you never should have left the team in the first place."

"Ruby, _no!_ " Yang called out suddenly, breaking our attention away from Weiss and Blake to find Ruby had spun out of her seat, gotten up, walked behind Blake and Weiss, and was launching herself forwards to hug both of them. Neither recipient seemed to appreciate this fact, but only Weiss struggled against it and even then, she didn't truly put much effort into it.

"Yang, get your sister off us!" Weiss commanded limply.

"Maybe." Yang replied with a genuine grin.

"What do you mean by that? What do I have to do?"

"First, I need you both to agree that Team RWBY is back, permanently."

"Fine. We're back." Weiss drawled.

"I agree." Blake whimpered softly, trying to flick her head to keep Ruby's hand from sneaking up and petting her ears.

"And Weiss, you have to apologize to Ruby and me for being a total bitch these past few days." Yang commanded with a little playfulness to soften the firmness in her tone.

" _What?_ "

"Yeah, you were kinda mean…" Ruby added on from next to Weiss. For what it was worth, Ruby appeared to be on Cloud 9, what with her team back together and her forcing them into a hug.

"I mean, it was maybe uncalled for, but I wasn't _that_!"

"Yeah, you totally were." Jaune called out to our surprise. Weiss met Jaune's eyes and exchanged looks with him, not unlike how Blake had earlier. Suddenly, the totally-not-jealousy I had been fighting down came back, this time with a large helping of confusion. _Why would_ Weiss _of all people look to Jaune like that? At least with Blake I could make sense of it._

"Yeah, and Jaune here would know all about being a bitch to his friends." Yang teased, taking a free shot at Jaune.

" _Fiiiiine_." Weiss drawled out, her exhaustion from the evening's activities having taken their toll on her. "I admit that I was...I admit that to you and Ruby this week, I was…I was acting like…"

"You were being a bitch?" Yang led on for her mockingly.

" _Yes._ I was…being…a bitch." The words were difficult for her, but Weiss powered her way through them.

"Well, good, you match yer yellow friend then." The waitress from earlier added loudly as she walked up with a large tray covered in waffles. "If it helps, I doubt you'll be as big o' one as she is."

"Keep it up," Yang taunted back. "I'd love to save some money by not tipping."

"Speak for yourself, Yang." Jaune countered. "I'm thinking they deserve an extra tip!" Yang kicked Jaune under the table again.

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Yang's POV

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"I still cannot believe the three of you!" Weiss berated for what felt like the tenth time. "What do you have to say for yourselves?!"

"That I don't regret any of it?" I answered back teasingly.

"Same." Ruby mumbled from behind me, though she was clearly using me as a human shield should Weiss explode.

"Agreed." Blake added on.

"I can't believe this! What's going to happen to your grades?"

"Well, considering we only skipped Oobleck and Port's class…" I started.

"And Port doesn't take attendance. Or teach anything." Blake tacked on.

"…and we never understand anything that's going on in Oobleck's class, I would say we'll be fine." I finished. Weiss was not convinced and was still quite angry. "Weiss, skipping class is a thing that happens. It'll be okay."

"I think she's just mad that she _didn't_ skip class to sleep in." Ruby offered with a giggle from behind me.

"I was the _only one_ from either our team or Team JNPR to show up! Do you know how awkward it is to sit in a spot surrounded by seven empty seats!?"

"So, you're telling me that we all got back at like 3am, and you were the _only_ one who didn't sleep in till lunch?" I asked leadingly.

"YES!" Weiss practically shouted. We were walking down the halls of Beacon on our way to lunch and Weiss was attracting a lot of strange looks from everyone we passed.

"Then it sounds to me that _you_ are the crazy one, not the seven of us." Weiss did not appreciate my logic, however.

"I can't believe you people." Weiss let out with a sharp huff. "Everyone was staring at me, too!"

"I mean, we did just destroy the docks. Not that surprising that you would get looks." I replied.

"And I was the _only one there_ for them to give those looks too!"

"If you had slept in, you wouldn't have."

"UGH." Weiss let out an angry huff, the bags under her eyes serving to make her look like a tired toddler in need of a nap. "Let's just go find where JNPR is sitting and get lunch."

"You say that as if that isn't what we've been trying to get you to agree on doing this whole time." I countered back with a grin, earning nothing more than a cut of Weiss' eyes.

"Oh, and Yang? Do us a favor and stop glaring at Jaune every time he speaks. It's kinda…unsettling."

"What is _that_ supposed to mean, Weiss?" I answered back, a bit confused and defensive.

"You're whole 'hating Jaune' routine is getting old and it's really awkward for the rest of us. What part of that didn't you understand?" Weiss tacked on.

"Well, _excuse me_ for holding a grudge against the jerk who hurt my sister." I answered back angrily, not really caring if I was lashing out or not.

"Uh…I'm kinda with Weiss on this one." Ruby added in softly. "You kinda overreacted."

" _I_ overreacted?! He dislocated your foot on purpose!"

"Shouldn't I be the one who gets to hate him, then?" Ruby asked.

"And if Ruby decided that he should still be a friend, shouldn't we all at least give him a chance?" Weiss added on.

"That doesn't count! Ruby would forgive anyone if they asked her to. He was even bringing her cookies to try to bribe her!"

"Yeah, which was a super nice thing to do. I sure wish that I had _gotten those cookies_ , too…"

"Why does it matter if Ruby was going to forgive him?" Blake asked from my other side, joining the fray and picking the wrong side of the issue. "It's still her choice to make, unless you're saying that your opinion about Ruby's life is more important than hers."

"You too, Blake?!" My frustrations were boiling over. "How do you not see it? How do _none_ of you see it?! He wanted to hurt Ruby! He's always so abrasive and distant and he didn't care about that girl in the cafeteria! He doesn't _want_ us to like him and he doesn't care about anyone!"

"Yes he does." Ruby stopped walking with the rest of us, instead turning to look me in the eyes. Her eyes were set firmly against mine, and when she didn't back down at all, my anger started to retreat in on itself. Ruby had always perfected the puppy-dog eyes, but dad and I built up a resistance to them; this wasn't Ruby's puppy-dog eyes look, though. She wasn't begging with me, she was pleading with me. I could see it in her eyes that she was scared to stand up against me but the way her eyes were threatening to glass over showed me the concern there. Before long, all my anger had been sapped away and I was left with a very strange, empty pit in my stomach. "He does care, Yang. You just have to give him a chance to show it."

"I…" I stammered, words and thoughts failing me as Ruby's sad but determined eyes melted through me. I looked around to Blake or Weiss for help. "Guys?"

"Ruby is right. I think he may not want to show it, but he's not a bad guy. He's just…" Blake trailed off with a frustrated frown, words having failed her. "He's really defensive. It just takes him a while to open up."

"Well, it sure didn't take _you_ too long to open up, if Nora's rumors are anything to go by." Weiss added jokingly—wait, that can't be. _But it is. Did…Weiss just make a joke?_ Blake started to object before Weiss cut her off. "Which they're not. No one would believe Nora on that."

"Am I just…why are we all seeing a different person?" I asked confused, that uneasy feeling growing in my stomach making me nervous.

"Well, it sounds like _you_ are the crazy one, not the seven of us," Weiss quoted back to me.

"That's…that's not fair." I whined for the sake of whining. "You can't quote me to me!" Given the satisfied smirk on Weiss' face, she could and would.

"Look, if it helps, we won't make you like him or anything. Just…give him a chance." Blake offered, looking around the group for confirmation and getting it from Weiss and Ruby. "Forget about everything before now and start over."

"Okay. _Okay._ " I huffed out, doing my best to force myself to take the advice. It was going against my instincts and that wasn't something I ever did, but I was making a choice to trust my team here. _If nothing else, it's on them if they're wrong._ "I'll try."

" _Good_. It was embarrassing that Blake and I got along better than you and Jaune, given we actually had reasons to dislike each other."

"Uh…" Ruby babbled out in shock, looking to Blake who looked similarly surprised.

"What? I used past tense. It's behind us." Weiss defended before resuming walking, leaving the rest of us behind. Ruby shrugged her shoulders and ran off to catch up with Weiss, leaving only Blake and I behind.

"Now that there gone for the moment…" I announced, turning to catch Blake's attention. "Seriously, though. Partner to partner: you and Jaune? Maybe something there?" I asked, a mix of actual curiosity, 'concern' for my partner, and a general desire to tease guiding me.

"No." Blake responded with a flat-lidded look.

"Aww, that's so adorable, I can see your bow wiggle when you flatten your ears!" Blake's hands shot up to feel her bow and make sure it wasn't out of place as I turned and left to catch up with Ruby and Weiss, who had already disappeared behind the doors to the cafeteria. As I opened the door, I heard Blake catch up from behind me.

We rushed through the line and grabbed our food before wandering around to find the rest of our team. We did so eventually, as they were sitting in the far back corner, with at least one empty table between them and any other group. Per usual, Team JNPR were already at the table, sitting on the side nearest the rest of the cafeteria with Ruby and Weiss sitting on the side near the wall.

"Jeez, guys, aren't you a little close to everyone?" I joked, taking a seat next to Weiss on my left and Blake sitting down to my right.

"Yeah, well, Jaune went off to get us a table before we got in line." Pyrrha answered a little sheepishly, not at all hesitant to throw her partner under the bus.

"And I got the best table available. No outside interactions whatsoever!" Jaune announced from his seat at the corner of the table closest to the rest of the cafeteria. Jaune was sitting with his back to the rest of us for some reason, a fact which everyone else at the table seemed to ignore.

"Oh, him?" Pyrrha asked, noticing Blake and myself staring at Jaune's back. "Yeah, he had two coffees and an energy shot in the past half hour to wake himself up. He's…uh, struggling to focus."

"That's not fair! It's hard to see past all these sounds!" Jaune announced from his seat. "Did you guys know that purple smells like grapes?"

"That's because you're holding a purple grape, Jaune." Pyrrha responded.

"Oh." Seemingly bored with the grape, Jaune chucked it across the room at some poor sap.

"Ignoring him…" Ren started. "How did everyone sleep? I hope no one is too tired after last night."

"Well, _actually—_ " Weiss started off, only to be cut off by Ruby.

"We are all doing great and there is _no reason to ask Weiss why she is so much more tired than us_." The glare Weiss gave Ruby make her scoot away from her a little, but Weiss didn't go off on her tangent again, meaning Ruby's gambit worked.

"Nice going, sis!"

"I take it that Weiss—"

" _Pyrrha!_ What did I just say!?" Ruby cut at the champion fiercely.

"Uh… not to—"

"YES! _That!_ Not to!"

My eyes flicked over back to Jaune, who had thrown another grape across the room, reaching back for more grapes.

"Jaune, why did you get spaghetti?" I asked, noticing his plate. "Their spaghetti is one of the worst things I've ever eaten."

"Wouldn't know. I'm too buzzy to eat."

"Too busy?" I asked.

"Buzzy. As in, buzzing. Can't sit still or get the food in my mouth."

"Uh, did it ever occur to you guys that Jaune might need an infirmary?" Weiss asked, giving Jaune a strange look.

"Enough about my impending heart-attack. Talk about last night or something." Jaune cut back, taking another grape and launching it across the room.

"WHO WAS THE MONKEY?!" Nora blurted out, making noise for the first time. In hindsight, the stack of pancakes that were here when I first sat down were nowhere to be seen, so chances were that the peace and quiet was over.

"Um… you mean Sun?" Blake asked, earning a wild nod from Nora. "He's a student from Haven, actually. He's in town early for the Vytal Festival."

"And he still stowed away on a boat?" Weiss asked, taking care not to sound too abrasive or aggressive with the subject matter. It was still a potentially touchy subject.

"Um…yeah. I never did get a great answer about that." Blake answered sheepishly. "How…did you guys find me so quickly?" All eyes—except for Jaune, who threw another grape—turned to Weiss expectantly.

"I went down to the CCT and checked to see if the Schnee Dust Company had any dust shipments coming through. I figured that if the White Fang were going to hijack dust with Torchwick, then SDC dust would be their first target." Weiss explained calmly. "Once I saw an unguarded shipment, I figured that was the best chance of finding the White Fang."

Most of us nodded and accepted the information readily, except for Blake. Blake's shoulders stiffened, and she stared off in the distance as if some realization had come to her that startled her. She then looked to Jaune('s back), then to Weiss, then back to Jaune, before settling on Weiss.

"How did you know I would be going after the White Fang?" Blake asked softly, watching Weiss closely.

"I…" Weiss trailed off, showing us clearly that she did not have an answered prepared for that question. She looked around like she wanted some way out of the question, but upon realizing she had everyone's attention, she resigned herself to her fate. She never got the chance to answer, though.

"ALRIGHT, WHO KEEPS THROWING GRAPES AT ME!?" An angry voice shouted as its owner stood up in the middle of the cafeteria, revealing themselves to be Cardin Winchester. As soon as he stood up, Jaune threw one more thing at him, impacting his head and leaving Cardin covered in a slop of spaghetti.

"FOOD FIGHT!" Jaune announced with a scream as he leaped forward, flipping the extra table between us and the next group onto its side to form a barrier. Jaune lobbed a soda can over the barrier like a grenade, and as it burst on the floor of the cafeteria all hell broke loose.

"What on Remnant are you doing?!" Weiss berated Jaune, who was huddled behind the barrier like an old-timey trench-warfare fighter.

"Surviving!" Jaune called back in character. Nora and Ruby were all too quick to join him, bunkering down and bringing their trays for ammo.

"What's going to happen when Ms. Goodwi—" Weiss was cut off as a large stream of mustard was shot at her, leaving a big yellow stain across her dress. "WINCHESTER!" Weiss screamed out, grabbing her tray and throwing it at the guy like a frisbee. It never made it, what with all the pandemonium going on over on the other side of that barrier, but Weiss had joined the fray, meaning something serious was about to go down. _Well, I mean, it does look like fun._ I made a decision to join the fray before I was forced to like Weiss was, so I hoped over the table we were sitting at and slid behind the protection of Jaune's makeshift trench wall.

"What exactly is your plan here, Jaune?" I asked while ducked down with the rest of them. Jaune peaked his head over the edge of the table, and when he wasn't immediately plastered with food, the rest of us did the same. There was still general chaos, but it had died down as several teams decided not to get involved and had left, leaving their food trays as ammo for the groups who stayed. On our right, Team CRDL had established a small fort out of overturned tables like ours in the middle of the fray, holding out against the chaos around them. To our left on the opposite side, a mountain of tables was stacked with a _massive_ guy carrying two tables at a time to stack them even higher. He was being guarded by a fox faunus as he carried the tables, creating a fortress that was ruled by none other than Coco Adel, a person every underclassman recognizes. Not only did she always stand out, but she always went out of her way to flaunt specifically to underclassmen. More interestingly, standing next to her was the rabbit faunus that Cardin's team had been bullying last week.

"That's high enough, Yats." Coco decreed from her high castle. "I have eyes on Winchester. I want you and Fox to bring him to me."

"Alive?" The monstrous man—Yats, apparently—asked.

"This really isn't necessary…" The bunny Faunus whined, hiding her face in her palm.

"For now."

"Alrighty gang, now's our chance." Jaune called out, keeping his voice down as he ducked back down beneath cover. "Nora?" The girl in question looked to him with wide, anticipatory eyes. "Go take the castle."

" _YES!_ " Nora cried out as she leaped over the barrier the moment the words left Jaune's mouth.

"Ren and Blake, use Nora as a distraction and flank that castle. We'll keep the rest of their team away."

Ren peaked over at Nora, who had picked up a chair and was threatening to use it as a melee weapons as she assaulted the castle walls, with Coco and her teammate throwing things down at her to slow her ascent. With a quick shared look with Blake, they both split off in search of 'weapons' before heading to sneak behind Coco.

"Weiss, Pyrrha: crowd control." Jaune pointed out over the wall to the middle area between Cardin on the right and Coco on the left, where several scattered groups were haphazardly lobbing food without any real objectives. "I don't want any of them getting any ideas of taking the castle or Cardin's fort for themselves."

Weiss looked like she was about to object to taking orders from Jaune, but Pyrrha leapt over the wall and charged off; not to be outdone, Weiss followed after her without voicing her complaints.

"Ruby, you go fast, right?" Jaune asked.

"Uh huh!" Ruby responded enthusiastically, shaking from anticipation—or from the empty soda can at her feet that she was hoping I wouldn't notice. _I'll let it go for now, as long as her energy helps us here._

"Find as many liquid things as you can and making bombing runs around Cardin's fort. I don't want them or Coco's two teammates to have any easy time doing anything."

"Got it!" Ruby confirmed before disappearing in a whirl of rose petals, zipping around the place and collecting sodas, ketchup and mustard packets, and anything else she could use.

"You're just going to send Ruby into the middle of that?!" I asked angrily, ignoring what my team had told me earlier. "She'll get creamed!"

Jaune stood up and kicked down on the edge of an empty food tray, popping it up in the air where Jaune caught it and arranged it like a shield. In his other hand he grabbed a baguette and gave it a few test swings, having turned himself into some sort of faux-knight of the food fight. "Then let's keep that from happening." He leaped over the barrier, charging off towards Cardin's fort.

Not to be outdone, I grabbed my own tray and baguette, charging behind him. The no man's land area was chaotic, with food flying every direction seemingly randomly, but once you settled into a rhythm, everything started to come naturally. Cardin and his teammate with the mohawk were engaging Yats and his teammate outside of the fort while the other two members of CRDL were laying down cover fire with several squirt bottles of whatever they could get their hands on, including ketchup, mustard, mayo, and even ranch dressing. However, they were struggling to keep their support up as Ruby kept them pinned with a seemingly endless supply of soda can grenades and water bottles with holes that turned them into squirt bottles.

"Yang, take the fort! I'll topple these four!" Jaune called out, veering off towards Cardin, Yats, and the other two. I had my doubts about Jaune going off by himself into that skirmish, but didn't mind him going and getting smacked around a little, so I kept them to myself.

By the time I neared the fort, one of its occupants saw me coming and tried to man the defenses, but as soon as he stood up to squirt ketchup at me Ruby hit him square in the face with a tomato. The next thing he knew, I was vaulting over his wall. His other teammate had a better idea of what to do, having a mustard bottle ready and squirting it up and me as I leaped over, but I balled up behind my lunch tray shield and blocked the steam, landing crouched behind the two.

"Any last words, boys?" I taunted, a grin coming over my face as I watched them look around themselves desperately for something to fight with. There were multiple bottles of condiments laying around the ground, but those wouldn't help them much in a fight. They each reached down and picked up the closest thing they could use as a weapon, with one of them picking up a link of sausages and the other coming up with only a watermelon.

"Really? How are you going to fight her with a watermelon?" The one with the sausages complained, taking his eyes off me for a moment. That was all I needed, as I threw the tray at him, impacting his stomach and doubling him over for the moment. The other one flinched at seeing this and looked up to find me charging at him, already leaping through the air to punch at him with the hand not holding the baguette. Out of sheer panic he held up the watermelon to take the blow for him and I punched right through it, getting my hand stuck inside.

"I can't believe that worked!" He exclaimed, seeing my hand stuck inside the watermelon and assuming me disarmed. I looked at my new watermelon-gauntlet with a shrug before punching him in the face with it, bursting the watermelon and knocking him flat on the ground.

"You can't believe what again?" I taunted. "I couldn't quite hear you the first time."

I turned back to the other guy just in time to avoid the sausage-link whip slung at me, ducking under the links and swiping at my attacker's legs with my bread. He pulled his sausage links back to him and started spinning them around, keeping the chain moving while he waited to attack. I faked a step towards him and he flinched hard, throwing his chain out prematurely but without me actually stepping into range, all he did was open himself up. Not one to miss free damage, I charged in before he could get his guard back up and delivered a good few smacks with the baguette before he retreated out of range again.

We stood apart for a few seconds again, each off us feeling out the other, before something grabbed my ankle from behind. I panicked and turned around to find the other guy—still with watermelon all over his face—reaching out to grab my ankle from his spot on the floor. I kicked my ankle free but by the time I had looked back up, the guy I was fighting had stepped into range and had lassoed my wrists with his sausage links. I don't exactly know why he thought that was a good idea, because with one firm yank I was able to pull him towards myself, and the last thing you wanted to do against me was get in close. As he was yanked in, I stuck my leg out to trip him and as he fell I made sure to swat him with my baguette a few times for good measure. _It's so hard to actually deal any good damage when you're fighting with bread._ Even with my wrists linked together, it was a pretty simple task to swat downwards.

"Man, you guys could at _yeast_ put up a fight…" No one seemed to appreciate my comedic genius, so I turned my attention to the other fights going on. After all, I had just taken Cardin's fort, so my job was done. Coco's castle was, well, toppled is the best word, but there was still fighting going on in that front. Pyrrha and Weiss were in the thick of chaos still, but the two didn't seem overwhelmed or even all that challenged, though Weiss did look a little frustrated. Ruby was still zipping around, collecting and then throwing ammunition everywhere. Jaune was…well, he was in the middle of fighting both that big Yats dude and Cardin, and his baguette had snapped in half and his tray was no where to be seen, but other than that I'm sure he's doing fine.

"Well, I guess I gotta deal with the two of yo—" I was cut off as I turned to speak to my two defeated enemies as a stream of mayonnaise hit me in the chest. I froze out of shock, before slowing looking down to confirm that _yes, that just happened._ I slowly looked back up at where the stream had come from to find watermelon face holding a bottle of mayonnaise pointed at me. He looked excited, jubilant even, at his success until he saw the murder in my eyes, no doubt already turning red as my blood started to boil. My hair burst into flames as I took my first step towards them and panic washed over my target as he tossed the bottle to his teammate, babbling about it actually being his teammate who did it. It wasn't as if his teammate was any better, as he was crawling away from his friend while simultaneously pointing at him, letting me know who exactly needed to pay for it. _What he didn't know was that they would_ all _pay for this, down to every last person who caused this._

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

"Aww, that's just not even fair," I whined, looking down at the baguette in my hands that had snapped in half as I hit this Yats dude over the head with it. It had already snapped in half earlier and I had been fighting with a half-baguette dagger, but now I was reduced to a quarter-baguette. "What's the point of having a food fight if you're frickin' invincible?"

The big man grabbed me by my arm and hoisted me into the air in front of him. "Coco just wants Winchester. It's easiest if we comply for now." He looked past me to where Cardin was picking himself off the ground after being pelted by another strafing run by Ruby, before turning his attention back to me. _Clearly, he hasn't noticed Nora going after Coco's fort, or I have a feeling he wouldn't let me off so easily._ As if he read my mind, he wound up and flung me into Cardin's fort, and I reflexively brought up my semblance to pad my landing. Technically, it was a successful landing as I could walk away from it, but…

" _Dammit_ , that hurt!" I groaned from my new spot in the middle of the bent tables and chairs that had 'padded' my fall. Of course, by 'padded' I mean 'caused my back the agony of a thousand suns.' I picked myself out of the wreckage before standing up straight and trying to work out the knots in my back this dude had just given me, mostly unsuccessfully. For a moment, I heard a groan of excruciating agony and thought that it might have been mine, only to be really confused how I made that noise with my mouth closed. It wasn't until a second one sounded that I could trace the sound to the other side of the small fort, if you could even call a one-wall high circle of tables that, where Yang was standing over two very unfortunate souls.

"Oh, hey Yang!" I called out glibly, hoping to talk her into fighting Goliath so I could focus on easy targets who _couldn't_ throw me across the room, like Cardin. "Are you enjoying the food fight?" Apparently finished with whatever torture she had just put her two victims through, Yang stood up and turned around to walk over to me, except her chest was covered with…um…

" _Not. a. word._ " Yang hissed through teeth clenched so tightly I could hear them grinding.

"I—"

" _I said_ ," Yang cut me off, looking sharply into my eyes with red eyes that terrified whatever rational part of my mind was still around these days. "Not _one_ word about it, Arc." I opened my mouth to speak again, but she cut me off a second time. "I mean it. You're putting your life on your tongue here, Jaune." For a moment, her mom's eyes drilled through me and any courage I had wavered. That is, until I realized that if it _was_ her mom in this situation, I wouldn't miss this sort of opportunity.

"I…uh…I take it you aren't enjoying the food fight?" It was a gamble to say anything at all, but if I can't bring myself to make fun of Yang for getting covered in (what I assume is) mayo, then do I really stand for anything? _Yes, when you really break it down, this is about taking a moral stand… to make a dirty joke._

" _No._ " Yang answered back sternly, but with her gaze softening when I didn't immediately test her with a joke. She let her guard down _just enough_.

"Well, clearly," I said, gesturing with an open hand very obviously to her breasts, " _someone_ did."

Yang, who had started to walk past me, froze, as did time itself, for what felt like an eternity. Slowly, Yang's head turned to look at me, her expression unreadable and distant but not good for me, as she looked me up and down once. " _They would never find the body,_ " she mumbled under her breath as she looked back down over me again.

"Jeez, talk about double standards. My eyes are up here, Yang!"

Yang looked me back in the eyes, hers no longer being red but instead now being a strange mix of emotions. She was still _very_ angry, but she looked to be fighting a small grin, meaning my joke may have been good enough to keep her from killing me. That, or she's fantasizing about what she's going to do to me. _It's a shame that_ that _isn't an innuendo._

"Why do you make this so difficult?" Yang asked, turning to walk away and go join the other fights.

It wasn't until now that we realized just why it seemed that time itself had stopped during our…let's call it staredown. The fighting around us _had_ stopped, and a quick scan of the room revealed why: Miss Goodwitch had walked in and I could see the veins in her neck from here.

" _WHAT_ IS GOING ON HERE?!" She shouted in demand. She didn't need to be so loud; just her walking in had turned this place as silent as the library, which was impressive because the library never had anyone inside it because no one really studied all that much.

Cardin looked around for his team, only to catch eyes with me. I nodded my head towards him and gave him a firm glare and he resisted it at first, only to flinch when I took a step towards him. _Good, at least he's capable of learning; now I just have to work on that whole 'racism' thing._

"Miss Goodwitch," I called out, drawing all eyes to me. The way Miss Goodwitch's face fell from bursting to anger to preemptively disappointed told me she wasn't about to believe a word I was going to say. _Fine by me_. "I know how this started."

" _Mr. Arc…_ "

"It's actually my fault."

"It's…what?" By the double—nope, make it triple-take she did and the sheer surprise on her face, she was not expecting that.

"I think that I'm responsible for the food fight." I reinforced.

"Well, then…" She trailed off for a moment, still not fully prepared for such an easy confession, least of all from me.

"You see, what happened is," I pivoted as her face fell into another disappointed—though certainly not surprised—frown. "Earlier at lunch, _someone,_ who it would be mean to name, asked me out, but I didn't…uh, _return the sentiment_ , if you know what I mean." I made a _big_ show out of turning my head to look directly at Cardin the whole time, making my implication very clear to _everyone_ around. "I guess he— _they_ —didn't take it well because they kept throwing food at me and things just escalated he— _they_ —hit someone else on accident."

"Mr. Arc, if you expect me to believe such a blatant li—"

"He's telling the truth. I…saw what he's talking about go down." Cardin jumped in to my defense after I severely browbeat him and made him wonder what I might do if he didn't step in, an action that did no go unnoticed by Miss Goodwitch. Her anger began to rise again, but I had insulated myself well enough that her only options were to snap and kill me in front of the whole cafeteria— _you know, I really haven't considered that option as much as maybe I should have—_ or deal with Cardin basically confessing to the crime (and his love for me!) in front of the whole school. Her anger fizzled out as she had to face that reality, meaning I had successfully escaped her wrath once again. _In fairness to her, though, I guess that technically this makes me a bully to Cardin, but somehow I don't feel like being a bully to a racist is nearly as bad as being a racist bully._

"You know what, just…everyone, go clean yourselves up and don't do this again. I'll have this area cleaned. Just get out of here." Her exasperation was plainly evident, and no one dared make any noise within earshot as they filed out as quickly as they could. It was clear to everyone that the next person to even mildly inconvenience her was about to have their head torn off, a fact which wasn't lost on me; _at some point, I'm going to pay for all of this in sparring class, I just know it._

"What was _that_ about?" Yang whispered to me as we walked out of the cafeteria together. Part of everyone scattering meant that our teams were all split up for the moment, with me assuming we would all just meet back up at the dorms.

"Oh, the food fight? I just thought it would be fun." I answered back, dodging the question.

"No, not _that._ The whole…Cardin thing?"

"Oh, _that_? Yeah, that was pretty great." I answered back, a small grin spreading across my face. I would say it's harmless fun, but if it were harmless to Cardin's reputation, then that would take away the whole point. _How do you embarrass someone who's openly racist? Well, chances are if he's racist then he probably won't handle being outed as gay in front of the whole class well._ Better yet, now he'll spend weeks trying to live that down, which will naturally raise the question about why that's a bad thing, which is _another_ thing he'll have to deal with. Truly, I was a master at this. "Think he'll learn his lesson yet?"

"Learn his…?" Yang trailed off, before letting out a short, surprised laugh. "Is this still about what he did to that Faunus?" Yang's laughs started to come more freely now that she didn't feel nearly as bad about it, which either meant what I was doing wasn't so bad or she had just as loose of a moral compass as me. _In our defense, I was raised by Raven and she's related to her, so "morals" don't come all that naturally._

"Well, more about him trying to go after Blake." I stopped, thinking for a second. "So yeah, technically it still is about a Faunus."

"Do you plan to go after everyone that messes with any of us?" Yang asked, still a smile still plastered on her face that didn't look to be leaving anytime soon.

"Who is 'us'?" I asked back evasively. "Last time I checked, you weren't a Faunus. Unless you're hiding some traits from view. Maybe a cow Faunus?" It would be difficult to tell, especially given that any traits would be pretty easy to conceal. "You don't plan on showing us your Faunus parts anytime soon, do you?"

"If you ever say that again, I don't care how much Ruby begs me not to, I'm ripping your tongue out." Yang shot back, more of an automatic threat than one with any real anger behind it. "There you go again. You're always trying to tick me off."

"And you look like you're covered in—" Yang's head whipped to me and the way she stared into my eyes told me that this time I would be met with an _actual_ response. "—mayonnaise."

"That's what I _thought_."

"Practice safe lunch. Always use condiments."

Yang stopped walking, and I turned around fully prepared for a fist to the face. _I would deserve it for that pun, too_. Yang had her fist clenched and her face scrunched up, looking angry but also very conflicted. "If that wasn't such a good pun—and if I wasn't going to steal it and tell it to my team later when they ask about my clothes—then I would kill you."

"Should we go celebrate?" I asked, having run out of bad jokes to make and thus ready to switch the topics to something less volatile.

"Should we what now?"

"Celebrate our victory. Go out to the town, do something to commemorate the food fight?" I repeated.

"Are you… _seriously_ asking me out after what you just said?" Yang asked, either too confused or shocked to react.

"I like where your head is at, but nope. I mean like with our teams."

"Oh. _Good_." Yang responded before thinking about the idea a bit. "I mean, it's a weeknight, so not the best night ever."

"Eh, Wednesdays are the new Fridays." I shrugged off her concerns. "Besides, I remember you losing a bet during Initiation. Something about taking our team out for drinks?"

"I'm pretty sure we said ice cream." Yang answered back quickly.

"I'm pretty sure that _we_ said 'something stronger.'" I countered.

"I mean…" Yang trailed off, clearly thinking on it for a second. "If you could convince your team, I know about a place we can all go. I'm sure I can get inside…" Yang added that part with a small, potentially terrifying chuckle—the same kind her mother used when she found something funny because of how insignificant it was. "I would have to drag my whole team, but I'm sure I could accomplish that."

"It's settled, then. You go let them know they have no choice and I'll let my team know, too." After a cough from Yang to draw my attention, I realized I was forgetting something. "Oh yeah. After we all get cleaned up."

We had reached the rooms finally, and since we left out the far side of the cafeteria we should have been the last ones. Yang waved her scroll and unlocked the door but knocked and waited to be called in before opening it, probably a smart move, given that everyone would be cleaning up.

When she did open the door, I didn't miss my chance.

"Alright, Yang! Sorry again about the mess and your clothes. I promise I'll pick you up for a proper date next time!" I yelled into the open door before sprinting away as quickly as I could.

" _WHAT!?_ " Three voices with varying ranges of surprise, shock, outrage, and disbelief rang out from Team RWBY's dorm. Yang froze in the door way, letting out under her breath an impressive string of curses describing in great detail how much she hated me before having to go in there and face _that_.

"Am I the greatest or what?" I asked myself as I rounded the corner to safety.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: I don't really have anything to report. Feels kinda weird not being longwinded for once.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by user _NoxXelor_ on **Ch. 9**

"why do you feel your Jaune wouldn't be able to beat Neo even if he was using his favored weapon? i feel like you yourself don't seem to understand the changes you've made to Jaune, he was trained since he was 4 by Raven then also Vernal and sometimes had to spar against Raven while she was using the Maidens power and also double teamed by Raven and Vernal.

how the hell do you believe he isn't skilled enough to beat Neo?, she's good yes but not that good.

there literally shouldn't be any student first or fourth year who should be able to match him in skill, or do you believe Raven would half ass her training.

In the show Jaune only had 3 to 5 months max of training under Pyrrha and he was able to hold his own against people who had years of training, your version of Jaune started training at a much younger age than normal and with someone who would not hold back for the sake of hurting someones feeling.

from my perspective you still haven't let go of the vol 1 stigma for Jaune. that or you haven't really thought out just how severe the changes you've made are yet.

the end result basically is yes Jaune could and would destroy Neo in a fight if you could even call it that.

not trying to be rude or anything, just pointing out the extent and nature of the changes you've made."

 **A couple of things here. First of all, this is the 98th comment on this story, which is significant because at the time of this chapter, my completed RWBY Fic "Wash It Away" has 98 comments and almost double the chapters. Clearly, that means you guys found more things to complain about in this fic.**

 **I'm kidding, it means that I started writing this one right after the volume ended when we all were looking for more RWBY in our lives. The fact that this story has almost as many words as the other one and half the chapters should make it obvious that this story has more effort put into it, but being honest, that really isn't saying a lot. That's not to say I half-assed the other story, and looking back I really do like it, but it was a flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants sort of thing: no planning, no long-term goal, no predetermined plot or story. As such, each chapter was as long as I could come up with stuff for.**

 **As for the Jaune v. Neo subject, you may be right, but there are a couple outside factors that keep me from wanting to outright decide that Jaune is superior to Neo when they both are at their peaks. The first is one you even mentioned, the stigma of Vol. 1/Canon Jaune. Quite frankly, Jaune is already a decently polarizing character and I am not a fan of the "Jaune but OP" fanfic types, which makes it funny that this is basically a "Jaune but OP" premise. Not exactly, but close enough.**

 **When writing it so far, I feel like buying _too far_ into Jaune's abilities without having had several chances to show _exactly_ what he can do does one of two things: either you might feel that Jaune is too strong for no reason or you might feel that Jaune shouldn't be that strong. Either way, it can break immersion or suspend disbelief, so I've been playing on the safe side of building him up more slowly in that regard. That said, the fact that you feel it has been sufficiently established that he _should_ be strong is a good sign that my story's version of Jaune can stand on its own now. This means that pretty soon we'll see him fighting with weapon forms he's more comfortable with (that's another reason for giving him a staff-based weapon, too, to get him out of his element and slowly build him up). _Three chapters from now, you will see what Jaune can do._**

 **The other main reason is we as a FNDM have an infatuation with Neo because she's such a wildcard and because she's cool, okay? She just is. _I am not fanboying out over here, I don't know what you're talking about._ It's that unknown quantity that makes it difficult to say who would win, because in the show we don't actually know how high her skill-ceiling is. We've seen her take out Yang and Ruby rather easily in 1v1 scenarios, so it is easy to put her in a decent fighting tier. She also fled at the sight of Raven- _which takes me on a whole rant about how they might know each other-_ which means that after fighting Yang she didn't feel up to another fight. It's possible that her skills max out at mid-huntsman tier, which is enough to beat up on some students but would lose to Jaune here, or it is possible that literally _every_ fanfic is right, that she's Roman Torchwick's unstoppable assassin, where I think she would take advantage over Jaune.**

 **The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle, but I would be really curious to see what the consensus thinks her skill cap is. Let me know who from Canon would beat Canon Neo. In the meantime, I've got some plot points to plan out and some finals to fail.**

 **Thanks** _NoxXelor_ **for the concern and the review! It's certainly let me take another look at whether the story is ready for Jaune to step himself up a little.**


	13. The Club

**[REFINED Oct. 27, 2018] Author's Note:** ** _Remember back when my goal for each chapter was 5,000 words? Pepperridge Farms remembers._**

 **Anyhow, enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 11:** _"Morality isn't some sort of spectrum, with bad things to the left and good to the right. It has many more dimensions to it. And it's not some sort of line in the sand that you shouldn't cross, either; it's more like a serious of lines, all arranged in different directions and some overlapping to trap you entirely. A maze, if you will, and not one I particularly care to get lost in when I can just fly over it." – Raven Branwen_

* * *

Blake's POV

* * *

"Yang, I thought you said you knew a place that we could all go to…" Jaune stated warily.

"That's right. We're here." Yang answered from her spot at the front of the group.

"Then why are the bouncers pointing guns at us?" Jaune asked again.

"Oh that? Ah, it's just a little misunderstanding we had…"

"They're forming a ring to contain us."

"That's pretty standard for all groups that show up." Yang lied badly.

"I'm pretty sure I heard the phrase ' _the golden demon bitch is here again_ ' being screamed into radios." Jaune mumbled, clearly not amused to see his own normal routine of blatantly-obvious lying used against him. _As much as Yang does not need to make a habit of this, she plays Jaune's own game pretty naturally._ The situation might even be funny, if I weren't firmly on the side of "why are we being detained by a nightclub's paramilitary forces?"

"Wait a minute…" Ruby mumbled. "I recognize this place! _YANG!_ "

"Okay, so maybe they might remember me…" Yang admitted slowly as she (and the rest of us) watched the bouncers' reinforcements haphazardly surround us in a very wide, loose ring. "Maybe not in the best way a club should remember me..."

"This is that club that you destroyed right before Beacon!" Ruby accused loudly, with Yang replying with nothing but a shrug and a sheepish grin.

"What? _Me?_ I would never do such a thing…"

"Don't take your eyes off her, boys. We can't afford to rebuild this place again." One of the bouncers, who seemed in charge, shouted out to the others.

"Yang, just exactly what sort of place have you brought us to?" Weiss asked nervously but with an accusatory edge to her voice. Now that she mentions it, there were a _lot_ of bouncers with various weaponry that ranged from self-defense to street-gang level. The black suits and red ties they all wore also gave them an eerie vibe, not to mention the sunglasses they were wearing at sundown.

"What the hell is going on out here?!" A man shouted as he came out of the club. He was dressed similarly to the bouncers, except he wasn't wearing a suit jacket, and he was flanked on both sides by two girls that appeared to be about our age, if not slightly older.

"Ah, Junior! Just the guy I wanted to see." Yang called out cheerfully. All of "Junior's" men tensed and kept their focus on Yang, though from the frequent looks back and forth between each other, it was clear that they were nervous.

"Oh, great…" Junior mumbled, clearly recognizing Yang. The two girls next to him must have as well, as they stepped up to either side of Junior and looked to be readying themselves for a fight. "What the hell do you want _now_ , blondie?"

"Well, a strawberry sunrise sounds fantastic at the moment." Yang answered back with a grin, eerily similar to Jaune. Like, creepy similar. "You guys want anything?"

"I thought I made it clear last time that you're not welcome here." Junior stated angrily, his men picking up on the tension and raising their weapons up again.

"Oh, my bad. It was hard to hear over the sound of me kicking _all of your asses simultaneously_." For emphasis, Yang turned and stared directly at one of the random bouncers, who flinched at receiving her focus and nearly broke rank, for no apparent reason other than to make a point. "Anyways, that's all in the past. We're just looking for a place to celebrate and spend some lien, and I thought we could make up and move on from last time."

"If you think I'm stupid enough to let you in and cause another scene…"

"Right now," Jaune cut in, stepping up beside Yang, "it seems that the only ones causing a scene are wearing black and red."

" _Hey!_ "

"Sorry, Ruby. Black suits and red ties." Jaune corrected quickly. Junior looked unconvinced but was clearly not as hostile now that he wasn't dealing with Yang.

"Kid, do you even know how much damage your sister there caused us last time?" Junior asked Jaune directly, though he seemed off-put by the couple of chokes coming from our group, especially from Ruby, at the implication that Jaune and Yang were siblings. Weiss went so far as having to cover her mouth and I had to turn my head to hide a grin.

"Excuse me?!" Yang responded, slightly stunned by the slight against her.

"We're not siblings. She's not nearly hot enough to be related to me." Jaune explained simply.

" _EXCUSE ME!?_ "

"Look, I'll be personally responsible for keeping Yang in check. We aren't even staying that late. We just want a place to hang around and celebrate a little." Jaune explained, taking a few steps forward to help diffuse some of the tension and, more importantly, get out of melee range of Yang.

"You couldn't handle me." Yang retorted to Jaune at his comment about controlling her, walking forward with Jaune to help negotiate the deal and, I suspect, to keep Jaune within punching range. "But you know it would help you out to let us in and _not_ cause any more of a scene. After all, there are five chicks to two dudes in our group. That's always good for business."

"What does that mean?" Ruby mumbled.

"Having single girls at a bar makes the bar money because desperate guys like to buy drinks for them." Pyrrha whispered to Ruby.

" _Yang,_ how do _you_ know that?" Ruby asked suspiciously.

"I count six girls." Junior said, mulling over Yang's words as he looked over our group. I may not necessarily like what Yang is playing at here, but when you look at our group, _yeah_ , that would work. The combo of Yang and Pyrrha alone could probably get us all into any club, anywhere, and I wouldn't count out myself, Nora, and Weiss, either. _Then again, if anyone even_ thought _about hitting on Weiss, we might have a body to hide on our hands._

"The small one doesn't count." Yang stated simply.

"Hey!" Ruby objected.

"Which small one?" Junior asked, looking back and forth over Ruby and Weiss.

"HEY!"

"That one counts. The other one doesn't." Yang responded without even needing to turn around to know it was Weiss objecting.

"You know what, _fine_. Are you guys at least even _close_ to old enough to be here?" Junior asked, giving one last reservation.

"You served me before, so what's the problem now?" Yang asked.

"Vale's drinking age is what, 18?" Jaune asked, getting a nod in response. "Yeah, we're good. We're all Beacon students." Junior wasn't completely convinced, but it was clear at this point that it was less of a hassle for him to comply than it would be to resist, and on top of that he _would_ be turning away paying customers. Jaune's lie about our ages wasn't a bad one for once, since most Huntsmen and Huntsmen students were just often assumed to be drinking age anyways; the fact that most of us were one year shy of that limit wouldn't really be noticed. Vale wasn't really all that strict about the enforcement, anyways, as really only Atlas is; Vacuo and Menagerie don't even have minimums.

"All except Ruby. The small one." Yang said, pointing out her sister to Junior.

"Hey, I'm a Beacon student!" Ruby objected. "Just, like, a really young one."

"Alright, let me see your wrist." Junior said, walking up to Ruby, who complied, although confused. Junior took a rubber stamp from his pocket and stamped the top of her hand with a big X that would keep anyone inside from giving her a drink. Ruby actually looked visibly relieved, although whether that was because she didn't have to tell anyone not to give her drinks or because Junior didn't chop her hand off, I'm not too sure. _At this rate_ _, getting a drink was easier back in the White Fang, of all places._

"Cool, let's go!" Yang called out.

"Not so fast." Junior called out, making it to the door just as Yang was opening it. Junior caught her wrist and stopped her from getting any farther. "I have one condition that's non-negotiable."

"And that is…?" Yang drawled, not pleased to have her arm pinned.

"This." Junior took his rubber stamp and placed a big X on Yang's wrist, before stepping aside to let us inside.

* * *

"This is bullshit." Yang grumbled from her seat before taking a sip of her plain soda. We had all taken a big table off in one of the corners and Yang was sat between Ruby and Jaune, who were very obviously there to keep Yang in check. Since it was a weeknight, the dance floor wasn't extremely busy, so the bar had a few waitstaff going around and delivering drinks in a role that I assumed would not be performed if it were a busy Friday night. After all, this place was built around an impressive dance floor and wasn't a bar so much as it was a club, hence its moniker, The Club.

"I don't know, I think that went pretty well." Jaune responded, smirking behind his glass as he nursed a brandy. "There wasn't any bloodshed."

"I swear if he doesn't give me a strawberry sunrise by the end of the night then there will be." Yang grumbled again, eyes staring across the floor at the bar where Junior was cleaning glasses.

"Or if I tell dad that you brought me to a club there will be even more." Ruby countered from Yang's side, the genuine smile on her face betraying any actual threat. In truth, Ruby seemed more than happy to be sat next to her big sister and drinking her own matching soda, even if this didn't feel like a place she would _ever_ willingly step foot into.

"Is anyone else concerned about whatever backstory there is between Yang and the army of bouncers at this club?" Weiss asked after finishing a sip of her drink. Out of curiosity, the heiress had ordered Yang's favorite drink, a fact which had earned Weiss a good helping of side-eye so far.

"Ooh, yes! Tell us the story of you destroying a bar in a drunken rage!" Nora called out, slamming down her giant beer mug—already half empty only a few minutes into the night, the implications of which were terrifying—on the table. Rather than respond to Nora, we all shot concerned looks to Ren, who understood the silent message: please keep Nora from getting drunk. _Even a slightly buzzed Nora could be catastrophic, and I'm not convinced that Sober Nora wouldn't destroy this place._

"That's…actually, yeah, I guess it couldn't hurt." Yang replied slowly, thinking it through. "So I'm guessing you've all figured out that I've been here before, huh?"

"Uh, duh." Weiss responded back for all of us.

"Well, last time I was here, they tried to throw me out," Yang explained, with Ruby hiding her head in her hands out of embarrassment. From her reaction to the sight of the club earlier and now this, it was becoming obvious that either she had a role in this, or knew about it. "I swear, that was the first time that I've ever destroyed a bar!"

"They seriously tried to throw you out?" Pyrrha asked from across the table.

"Yang, what did you _do_ to get thrown out?" I asked afterwards, giving my partner a sharp look. As my words sunk in, some of the others did the same.

"My money is on her not holding her liquor well." Jaune drawled from beside Yang, earning a "soft" jab to his ribs with Yang's elbow.

"For the record, I am a champ at hold—" Yang cut herself off as she looked over to Ruby, realizing whatever she was about to say would most likely make its way back to her father in record time. "— _Actually_ , Blake, I didn't even get to finish one drink before they tried to kick me out."

"Nice save." Weiss mumbled, catching on to the same thing I had.

"So what happened then?" I asked.

"Okay, so Junior is pretty well known as an information dealer in Vale, and I've been…looking for someone for a long time, so I got it in my head to ask him how to find her." Yang paused for a moment, staring down at her drink before shaking the thoughts from her head. "It was a pretty stupid idea, looking back at it."

"And they threw you out for asking him a question?" Ren asked, his eyes narrowing.

"I…uh, I might not have been very diplomatic…"

"…or sober…" Ruby mumbled, loud enough to be heard.

" _Ruby!_ " Yang cut at her sister, only half-serious.

"Hey, you made me hide that part from _dad_ , not them!" Ruby answered back defiantly.

"Well, this whole picture just got a whole lot clearer…" Jaune added, leaning in more closely now. "Even better, it sounds like I was right about you holding your liquor."

"Okay, fine. The whole thing was a bad idea from the start, and there _might_ have been a good reason for that." Yang admitted with a little sheepishness.

"So what actually happened?" Nora asked, setting down her empty mug, much to our collective horror.

"Okay, so I walk in, find Junior…uh, _convince_ him to answer my question…"

" _Yang…_ "

"Okay, I attacked him and when he told me he didn't know her, I got really angry."

"And Yang's semblance makes her blow up when she's angry." Ruby added on.

"And that's when you destroyed the place?" Weiss filled in, rolling her eyes for what felt like the fifth time since the story began.

"No, Junior's men attacked me, so _that's_ when I destroyed the place. Well, not before kicking those two girls' butts too. And Junior's, once he got his weapon." Yang paused to take a sip of her soda. "So, I was still in the right."

"But you attacked Junior in the first place." I reminded her.

"So, we called it even." Yang corrected. "If you can't stop me, then you were probably in the wrong."

"Uh, that's not how anything works." Weiss added, shaking her head. "Actually, that's how history works. You might be on to something." Weiss trailed off as she went into thought about it, before shuddering. _A Schnee admitting that history is rewritten by the victors? Did I miss something?_ I had to remind myself that it isn't fair of me to judge Weiss by her family, considering she didn't have a choice who she was born to; it was difficult to readjust my instincts about her, but then again, that probably went both ways. _As long as we were both trying, that's all that matters right now._

"Look, aren't we here to celebrate or something?" Yang tried to deflect badly, but the smile on her face belied how much fun she was already having.

"Yeah we are!" Nora announced as she shot up out of her chair. "A toast," Nora called out as she raised her mug without a care in the world for where it sloshed. Tentatively, we raised whatever drinks we had to meet it. "To us, for being super awesome, for kicking the White Fang's scrawny butts, and for scaring off Roman Torchwick! Let's go dance!" Without even waiting for anyone else, Nora broke the toast and wandered off towards the one section of the dance floor that was open for tonight. We all stared at her as she just walked off without us.

"Should we…?" Pyrrha trailed off, uncertain.

"Go make sure she doesn't pull a Yang? _Yes._ " Jaune answered, rising from his own chair and walking off to follow Nora, with Pyrrha mirroring him. The four of the five of us remaining looked to the remaining member of Team JNPR, Ren, expectantly.

"Don't give me that. This is the last quiet moment I'm going to have all night." Ren answered, slowly taking a sip of his drink—some sort of Mistralian drink that I had only had once, and that was more than enough for me—and taking his time savoring it. Once he finished it, he slowly stood up and stared off towards the dance floor absentmindedly, before finally convincing himself to walk that way.

"It's a good thing we don't have a teammate who we can't trust to not destroy this place if we turn our backs on them…" I quipped sarcastically, shooting Yang a look.

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up, kitten." Yang shot back. I gave her a flat look and had to consciously remind myself not to flatten my ears at her, because she would see the bow moving and wouldn't let it go.

"Who exactly were you looking for while you were drunk, anyways?" Weiss asked with a dismissive tone to her voice before taking a sip of her own Strawberry Sunrise. I motioned to mimic her, taking a sip of my own Sunrise that I had ordered for the same reason as Weiss: I don't have any experience ordering drinks.

"My mother." Yang answered back quickly and nonchalantly, causing Weiss to choke on her drink.

"Your _what_?" Weiss got out between chokes.

"Not Ruby and mine's mom, Summer, because she was totally awesome and never would have left us. My _biological_ mother, on the other hand…" Yang trailed off, one hand curling into a fist before Yang let out a breath and relaxed herself. "I don't like talking about it much. There's a reason I wasn't exactly in my right mind when I did this."

"Liquid courage?" Weiss asked softly.

"A little, yeah."

"Little?" Ruby asked with an edge.

"More than a little."

There was a small pause as no one said anything, but that was interrupted by another server coming over to our table. "Looking for a Weiss?"

"That's me." Weiss answered back, a little curious as to what was going on. The waitress set a shot-glass full of a clear-ish liquid down in front of her. "I didn't order this?"

"It was sent from a tall blonde guy over on the dance floor. He said it was a gift for the leader of Team RWBY, if that means anything." The server explained curtly before walking back off.

"...is Jaune making fun of Weiss for not being a team leader?" Yang asked aloud, not really directed at anyone. We all looked at Ruby, who was just as confused as us, before looking back to Weiss, where a small smile had started to spread across her lips.

"I think I know what this is." Weiss announced, catching our attention. "This is Jaune's way of including Ruby in the fun." Weiss slid the drink over to Ruby, who looked at it as if it were a giant spider with venom dripping off its fangs.

"Nuh uh. No way. Nope." Ruby chanted, before looking around and finding that I was on Weiss' side here, for no other reason than I couldn't be bothered to intervene.

"There's no way I'm letting Ruby take a shot." Yang defended instantly.

"If it was my idea and not Jaune's, would you still be against it?" I asked, playing a little devil's advocate. If nothing else, this was another chance to hammer home that point we finally got across to Yang before lunch. Yang's silence after my question meant a lot.

"Besides, I seem to recall Ruby thinking that if she locked all of us in a room, that would make Blake and I sort our problems out." I looked to Ruby, remembering how she tried to copy Nora's technique and ultimately ran me off. _That's not fair, either; I chose to run. That...just didn't help, though._ "It seems to me that Ruby owes us a favor, Blake. I think we should cash it in here."

"Do I _have_ to?" Ruby whined.

"Yes." Weiss and I answered simultaneously. Ruby huffed and stared back down at the glass.

"Fiiiiiine. If I die, you're all responsible." Ruby reached out and nervously picked up the glass, slowly bringing it up to her lips and even more slowly tilting it to take the tiniest of sips ever.

"No, not like that!" Yang objected to Ruby's poor shot-taking form, her 'cool big sister' instincts having finally kicked in over her 'protective and responsible big sister' instincts. Something tells me that later on, she'll regret teaching Ruby how to do shots, but at the moment that doesn't seem to be on her mind. "They're called shots, Ruby. You just tilt it all back at once."

"But that means I have to taste it all at once!" Ruby objected.

"That's the point! Otherwise, you wouldn't drink it all."

"That sounds like a good reason not to drink it all." Ruby pointed out, to no avail.

With another huff, Ruby brought the glass back up near her mouth. Visibly nervous, she very softly tilted the glass back to get maybe half of a shot, testing Yang to see if she would object again. We could all tell the moment the drink hit her tongue, and she immediately began hacking and slammed the glass back down as she fell out of her seat, bringing up both of her hands to her neck like she was choking.

"G-guys! Help! D-D-dying!" Ruby choked out as she fell onto the floor. Yang reached over to Ruby's glass and took the rest of the shot, reacting a little strongly to the drink herself but not, you know, almost dying like her little sister.

"Ugh, I think that's tequila." Yang coughed out as her face was scrunched up. Clearly, she didn't like the drink, taking some of the embarrassment off of Ruby who was just now climbing back up from underneath the table, as dramatically as possible.

"I can't believe Jaune tried to kill me!" Ruby whined dramatically, eyeing the now-empty shot glass as if it were a snake and keeping herself far away from it. "Some celebration this is."

"What exactly are we celebrating again? Jaune starting a food fight?" Weiss asked.

"No, silly! We're celebrating kicking Roman Torchwick's butt!" Ruby corrected her.

"But he got away after knocking Blake out…" Yang added.

" _Hey!_ "

"Then we're celebrating Team RWBY getting back together!" Ruby pivoted.

"Then why is JNPR here?" Weiss asked, enjoying poking holes in Ruby's fun.

"Why did we go to a bar instead of, like, ice cream or something?" I added, joining Weiss' side.

"Technically, it's a club." Yang corrected, but other than that not coming to her sister's defense.

"Would it kill you guys to have some fun?" Ruby gave up with a whine and a roll of her eyes, standing up from her chair.

"No, but it almost just killed you." Weiss pointed out.

"Where do you think you're going?" Yang asked as Ruby stood up.

"Uh, this is a club. You do _dance_ at clubs, don't you?" Ruby asked sarcastically as she headed off in the same general direction that JNPR had a few moments ago.

"…has Ruby ever been dancing at a club before?" Weiss asked after a long pause.

"Nope." Yang answered as she stood up, apparently having decided that whatever worst-case scenario could happen was bad enough to warrant action. She followed after Ruby, leaving Weiss and I alone at the table. _I have a feeling that_ anyone _who tries to come within five feet of Ruby is going to have a bad time._

"Is this normal?" Weiss asked somewhat softly, still watching Yang go off after Ruby.

"Probably not. What are we talking about, though?" I answered back automatically.

"All of us coming here. Is going clubbing a normal thing teams do in Vale or should this feel weird?" Weiss clarified, only looking at me briefly before looking back over the dance floor.

"I wouldn't exactly know. The White Fang didn't exactly have planned excursions like this…"

"That…is a good point." Weiss stated back after pausing.

"I take it the high-society in Atlas doesn't include shady clubs run by information dealers?" I asked back cheekily.

"No, it certainly doesn't. My sister might kill me if she caught me here." Weiss trailed off, looking back around the place as she took another drink of her Sunrise. "This is actually really good, though."

"I wasn't going to say it in front of Yang, but I was thinking the same thing. I might get a second." I took another sip from the drink, as if I needed to reaffirm to myself how it tasted. It was still pretty good. "You know, we never got to finish our talk at lunch."

"And whose fault would that be?" Weiss asked back with a small huff. Both of our eyes trailed over to the dancing floor, trying to catch a glimpse of the man in question. "As I recall, _someone_ started a food fight during the middle of lunch. What were we talking about again?"

"You were telling the story of how you found me at the docks," I reminded her, with Weiss nodding along to show that she followed me. "And then I asked you how you knew I would be chasing the White Fang." I gave Weiss a flat look and she put on the politest face possible that still screamed 'I've been found out.' "I suspect that I probably know the answer. In fact…" I trailed off, looking back over the dance floor again, but more intently this time. "Something tells me that the food fight interrupting our conversation before we got to that point was intentional."

"Do you really think that Jaune would start a food fight just to keep you from finding out that he talked to me?" Weiss asked rhetorically, confirming that they _had_ talked, for what it was worth. I didn't answer her question, instead staring at her flatly as her own words rung out. "You know what, I forgot who we were talking about. Of course, he would do that. It sounds _exactly_ like him."

"Well, I guess now's the time where I go kill him for going behind my back," I announced, mostly joking. I _was_ going to talk to him about it and give him a piece of my mind, but in all likeliness, I would accuse him of something and he would confirm it by lying horribly and that would be all that happens. _He has a really good system going for that, now that I think about it._

"Oh, come on. Don't do that." Weiss called out before I could stand up. "What would Yang do if you took that away from her?"

"Probably go back to trashing bars," I mused aloud, earning a laugh from Weiss that I shared. "How did…" I trailed off, deciding to ignore the subject.

"How did what?" Weiss asked softly, open to the question.

"How did Jaune convince you to do anything?" I asked, making sure to take a sip of my Sunrise right after asking so I wouldn't have to look her in the eyes for a few seconds. Attention wasn't exactly something I ever wanted, but especially not when bringing up this subject. That said, though, I couldn't stop it from making me curious. "From what I've gathered, you weren't exactly the most helpful of people in the great hunt for Blake."

"Ruby?"

"Mmhmm. From how detailed the things she told me were, you'd think she wants to write a book about it."

"I don't think publishers accept texts in crayon." Weiss joked back lightly, without any of her usual harshness towards Ruby's age and/or demeanor. Either she had softened up and I hadn't noticed it, or those Sunrises were a lot stronger than I had thought. _Leave it to Yang, too._ "In all honestly, Jaune knocked some sense into me and gave me a much-needed opportunity to…reset my views."

"How did he do that?"

"Without any gentleness, I assure you." Weiss shook her head softly as she recalled the memory. "First, he accused me of hating all Faunus, then he accused me of hating you. Mind you, the bastard mixed all of this in with a sparring session where he made me look silly only to make me angrier." Weiss stopped to take another sip of her Sunrise, which to her dismay, was nearly gone. "Then he accused me of being like my father and by this point I'm furious and then he loses _his_ temper and tells me that if I hold your past against you, then I would have to hold his against him."

"Did he…say what that was?" I asked cautiously, a bit confused because I wasn't sure we were talking about the same Jaune for a moment.

"He…no, he didn't. But he made me realize that I couldn't just write people off like that, and once that happened, I realized there were more than a couple things I needed to do differently." Weiss paused, staring at the table. "Why do you ask? Do _you_ know?"

"I…" I trailed off, realizing that I couldn't lie here, not when our relationship was just coming off the rocks. That said, I couldn't just out Jaune like this, either, since it sounded like I owed him for helping our team survive. _Then again, he did go behind my back to Weiss, so maybe a little payback is warranted._ "I know some, yes. I don't have any details, but…"

"But?" Weiss looked curious but did a good job keeping herself reserved, which kept me from thinking that she was digging for the sake of digging. Since Jaune had helped us come back together, I would doubt she would spill any secrets I told her out of gratitude to Jaune, but that isn't a reason for _me_ to tell them.

"I know _of_ some things that I suspect his team doesn't. Some darker things…" I answered softly, staring down at my glass rather than looking at Weiss.

"How dark are we talking?" Weiss asked uncertainly.

"I'm…not going to answer that." I wasn't rude or angry, but I was firm enough to let Weiss know that this wasn't something I took lightly, though it seems that she took this as me hinting how bad the things were.

"That bad, huh?" Weiss turned her head, looking over the dance floor for Jaune once again. I followed her eyes and this time there was a break in the crowd that we could catch glimpses of our teammates through, including occasionally Jaune. Our teams were having fun and had somewhat cornered off their own corner of the dance floor to themselves, each taking turns at the moment dancing in the middle of the group. Some could dance well, like Ren, some were okay, and then Jaune…looked as if he was trying to dance badly. _It wouldn't surprise me if he were, too._ To his credit, though, it _was_ funny, as testified by all of our friends barely able to control themselves from laughing too hard. It was an endearing scene and not for the first time did I find myself glad that I had left the White Fang behind for this.

When I looked over to Weiss, though, she looked to be having different thoughts. I couldn't blame her, seeing as where our conversation had just stopped had left her wondering over Jaune. Without me telling her anything, all she was left to do was look at Jaune and wonder what sort of things I was talking about, what sort of things he would hide from his team. From the slight frown as she watched over Jaune, I figured that her imagination wouldn't do Jaune any favors, and that bothered me more than it should have. _You know what, maybe it_ should _bother me after all._ Why shouldn't I stick up for my friend? So far, that's all that he's done for me, and so far, I've gone and made Weiss doubtful of his past. _That's not fair of me._

"After the Forever Fall incident," I started out sharply to catch Weiss attention. It worked, and she turned her attention back to me. "Jaune found out I was a Faunus and I admitted to being White Fang and…he didn't care." I paused, recalling the strange interaction we had that day. "Not just that, but he actively _didn't_ want to know, and I told him anyways. I guess he figured that I would forever mistrust him if he knew that, so he told me something equally as bad from his past, so I would calm down and trust that he wouldn't tell anyone. _Mutually-assured destruction_ , he kept calling it." I paused again, thinking about what to say next. Weiss remained silent, either waiting for me to finish or lost in thought. "I only know what he told me to calm me down, but he was right about both of us needing to be kicked out."

"Having." Weiss corrected pointedly.

"Excuse me?" I asked, confused.

" _Having_ to be kicked out. As in, if one of you goes, the other _has_ to." Weiss' face was serious and she looked me in the eye to make sure I knew that.

"What's the difference?"

"The difference," Weiss repeated back to me, "is that neither of you _needs_ to be kicked out. Not as long as I'm here." Weiss was still serious, but she let a small, warm smile supplant that as I mulled over what she was saying. "Now come on, let's go at least stand near the dance floor. We can't let them hold this against us. They already think we're no fun."

* * *

Yang can make her jokes all she wants about me hating fun or being afraid to relax a little, and as I walked away from the dance floor I'm sure she had some snide comment to make, but for once, I wasn't leaving the dance floor because I was avoiding the crowd. _To be fair, though, that is a nice plus to it._ It wouldn't take much to convince me to go off elsewhere, and I had my distraction: I could feel Jaune's soul.

It was a weird feeling to come over you suddenly as you were watching your partner simultaneously tear up a dance floor and chase off anyone who even came near Ruby, but it was an unmistakable feeling, and not one I was likely to have forgotten. Jaune's semblance was extremely unique and, in this particular instance, very invasive, as when I first felt it I panicked because it felt like someone's presence was overcoming me. As it turned out, that wasn't exactly inaccurate. The moment that my panic subsided and I forced myself to be at ease with Jaune's semblance pervading me, I looked around for the source and caught his eye. He was leaning against Junior's bar and watching out over the dance floor, and when our eyes locked he turned around and said something to Junior. That was all the excuse I needed to leave the dance floor.

"Was there a reason behind doing that?" I asked annoyed as I walked up to join him at the bar. "I'm not exactly the touchy-feely type, you know, nor did I need a boost to my aura."

"Well, luckily for you, I didn't touch you," Jaune answered back with a smirk. "And I didn't boost your aura. I interfaced with it, which is the first step to boosting it, but I never went ahead and did anything with it. I was just trying to get your attention."

"I have a scroll. I know you know how to call that scroll." I drawled back. "You could have sent a smoke signal and I would have left that place."

"I don't think Junior here would appreciate me lighting anything on fire in here, would you?" Jaune asked, turning to face the man who was setting down two sunrises in front of us.

"Your job is to keep your group from breaking any more of my shit. If you need to light a cigar to make it happen…" Junior trailed off for a second, scoffing, and apparently not having heard the full conversation. "Building codes be damned, just keep'em in line."

"Why do I feel like we're holding him hostage?" I asked as Junior walked down to the other end of the bar. Jaune laughed and offered no answer, instead sliding one of the sunrises to me. "Why have I taken more hostages since I left the White Fang?" I mumbled to myself.

"I noticed you and Weiss had a nice chance to talk earlier." Jaune stated leadingly, leaning with his back against the bar to watch the crowd again. "You know, when you both refused to come have any fun."

"Oh, was that what you were doing? It looked a lot like dancing to me." I answered back, taking a sip of my drink and turning around to watch the crowd with Jaune, an activity much more suited to me than being anywhere near a dance floor of a club. "I seriously wonder why you thought this was a good idea."

"Hey now, I would say that everyone is enjoying this, despite…"

"Despite the fact it doesn't fit any of us?" I filled in for him when he trailed off.

"It fits Yang pretty well. And Nora." Jaune defended somewhat sheepishly.

"Nora doesn't count until we find some activity she _isn't_ willing to do."

"That's fair."

"Which leaves you with Yang. Everyone else is not the type to go clubbing on a Wednesday, Jaune." I punctuated my point by giving Jaune a look, which he promptly refused to acknowledge as he continued to stare out at the crowd.

"I mean…"

"Who else is there, Jaune? Do you mean to tell me that Ren and Pyrrha seem the partying type, or even the social outing type?" Jaune's silence continued. "And on my team, there's Ruby, who I'm surprised Yang even let tag along, myself, and the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. Which one of us did you think this would work well for?"

"Okay, so maybe Yang and I didn't think this through…" Jaune answered with a small laugh. "It's worked out, though."

"That's not the point. Ends don't justify means, Jaune." Jaune shrugged off my admonishment, which admittedly didn't have really any passion behind it. "Speaking of, you went behind me back!"

"Yes." Jaune confirmed, rolling his eyes. "Where specifically?"

I wasn't going to be thrown off by any of his jokes, not right now, at least. "With Weiss. I told only you and Sun about needing to get to the bottom of the White Fang rumors, and somehow _Weiss_ knew that I would show up to a Fang heist!"

"Why, now that you mention it, how did she know that?" Jaune answered, way overplaying his surprise and innocence. "Such a scandal. You should stop associating with whoever told her." The gravity of what Jaune was suggesting would be a little shocking, were it not for the sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Someone like that can't be trusted."

"I'm not saying that, Jaune. I definitely wouldn't cut you out of my life for doing what you did." I backtracked a little, not comfortable with letting the undertones of Jaune's joke go unchallenged, even if it was a joke. _Jokes have to be based on something, after all._

"Then why bring it up?" Jaune challenged, still never taking his eyes off the crowd but sliding closer to me to keep his voice lower. "If you're not upset enough to do anything, then why bring it up at all?"

"I'm not upset with you, Jaune. I—"

"Then why bring it up?" Jaune challenged again.

"I just…wanted to thank you, actually." It wasn't an easy thing for me to say, either, so the fact that he was making this harder was aggravating, but I was keeping calm. "This wasn't my first instinct, either. I wanted to lash out the first time I put it together that you broke my trust, but then…" I paused a moment, taking another sip and looking back out over the crowd at our teams. "Then, this perfectly-timed food-fight broke out that kept me from getting a chance at you while my anger was fresh."

"Weird."

"It really was." I looked up at Jaune to find him trying to hide a small smirk. "Since then, I've had a little more time to realize that whoever told Weiss did both of us a favor and really saved our team, so I guess I'm fine with never knowing."

"So the ends do justify the means, huh?" Jaune asked in a way that I could _feel_ him smirking as he spoke.

"Not always, Jaune." I looked back up at him, but turned back to look at the crowd once more when he didn't turn to meet me. "Just…don't make a habit of this, okay?"

"I will." Jaune replied after a pause.

"You…will make a habit?" I asked, confused.

"I won't lie and say that I won't ever do something like this again, Blake. Whatever the future holds, I'll do for you what I would want you to do for me." Jaune moved to look down at his feet as he paused, but never looked over at me. "If it helps, I would usually want people to keep my secrets, so you don't need to worry about this becoming a habit." His words helped smooth out some of my concerns and put me at ease.

"Why was this different?" I asked hesitantly. Finally, Jaune turned his head to look at me, his eyes uncertain but soft, weighing in his mind what he wanted to say.

"I put myself in your position, and… I realized that I _need_ to be at Beacon right now. I need a team to lean on." His words were spoken softly but concrete in a way that it was obvious that he meant them. He shifted his eyes back over the crowd, unable to stand having me watch him. "I have the world against me and I realized how badly I could use someone watching out for me. I figured that if I could do that for you, maybe…"

"Maybe someone out there is watching out for you?" I finished for him.

"I know, it's a silly thing to believe. There's no such thing as karma."

"And yet, here we are. Both of us."

"Yeah." Jaune took a breath, steadying himself. "Here we are. Where do we go from here?"

"We each need a goal. Something to work towards so we don't drift off." I offered tentatively, waiting for his reaction. He made no motion to speak and let me continue. "I think…I think I'm going to stop the White Fang. Whatever they're doing in Vale, it isn't good." Jaune shifted his arms and kept his face unreadable, silently judging my plan. "It isn't as if the authorities are doing anything about it. I may be the only one who can make a difference."

"That's a little vain of you, isn't it?" Jaune asked.

"What, you can't tell me that I can't be an improvement, not after we met the cops working the case." To call them detectives—or even sane—would have been a stretch. I wouldn't be surprised if Torchwick operated out of the Police Station itself with how incompetent they are. "I need to do this, Jaune."

"I called you a little vain, but I don't ever remember saying I don't approve." Jaune gave me a small, affirmative smile as he looked back at me. "Just don't do anything stupid unless Yang is around to take the blame, okay?" I rolled my eyes, and Jaune turned back around to the table, grabbing the other sunrise that he had ordered from Junior. "Speaking of our resident bar-fighter, take this to her, would you? Tell her I snuck it away from Junior for her."

"Why do you want her to know it's from you?" I asked back, a little curious but without any vicious angle like Yang would have. _I pity the day Ruby tells Yang about her first crush at Beacon; she'll never hear the end of it._ Somewhere in the back of my mind, I made a note to get close enough to Ruby to have her trust _me_ instead of Yang with that information. That would certainly be the safest outcome.

"Well, recently I've tried getting her to stop glaring holes in me anytime I'm around, but if you want to take the credit for it, by all means, go ahead." Jaune's normal light, teasing demeanor was back, signaling the end of a very unlikely—and equally productive—serious Jaune moment.

"Okay, fair enough. I'll pass it along." I backed down easily, reaching out to grab the drink and head off to find Yang.

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

As Blake walked off to find Yang, I waved Junior down for another whiskey, or brandy, or whatever it was that I had earlier; something brown and 'smooth,' as they say. Although quite popular among the Tribe, I never took a liking to any sort of drinking, only really doing it because I was surrounded by terrible role models who practically forced the stuff on me. Sure, I had 'acquired a taste' for it, but I've always thought that if I have to drink a lot of it before it stops tasting terrible, then that's a sign I shouldn't be drinking it.

"You know you're putting your head on the line with that, right?" Junior asked as he set a glass down for me, referencing the Sunrise I had just sent to Yang. There wasn't any hostility in his voice, more of a reserved finality to it instead.

"Unless you suck at bartending, that one drink won't affect her at all. If I were you, I'd pacify her instead of just cutting her off." I had never met Taiyang and had only heard stories of what he was like, so I wasn't sure if Yang got any of her fight from him too, but having know Yang's mother for as long as I had, I knew preemptive pacification was one of the most important strategies to employ, in any situation. _Even if I_ didn't _know Yang, I would still bet my life on keeping her from getting angry just based on her mother._ I took a swig of the drink, fighting off my instinct to choke on the liquid. _You would think one of these days, that would go away._ "Really, it's more dangerous to piss her off like that, so I'm doing you a favor here."

"We'll see. If she trashes the place this time, I'll have it on camera that it was _her_ fault and I'll be pressing charges." Junior, ever the bartender, stood there cleaning glasses with his towel, but I had the feeling he was just doing that so he would have something to do with his hands. There wasn't exactly a shortage of glasses around or an excess of customers on this Wednesday night. "That the bitch got away with it last time because security got rough with her still pisses me off."

"You do realize that's my friend you're shit-talking, right?" I countered back with just enough edge to my voice to get the lazy threat across. "Who'd she come looking for, anyways?" I had a suspicion—and a fear, both of which were the same answer—but didn't feel like asking Yang outright. There's no way I could play that off as a random guess, whether or not guessing 'her mother' was correct. It was too risky to just up and ask Yang if she trashed a bar over her absentee-mother; that way lay a conversation I am _never_ having, not at gunpoint. _Fist-point, as it were. Fist-shotgun-gauntlet-point?_ I would have to be a fool to let myself be taken alive by Yang if she ever found out where, or with whom, I grew up.

"Someone she shouldn't be concerned about. Above my paygrade, too." Junior almost spat the words out as he looked down at the glasses he was cleaning. "Telling her the truth was more trouble than her trashing the club could be."

"Damn. It _was_ Raven." I mumbled, taking another sip of my drink to find Junior giving me a strange look.

"Kid, how the hell do _you_ know that?"

"Raven Branwen? She runs a large crew out in Mistral. It's where I grew up." I answered vaguely enough. I didn't foresee any situation where Junior would be forced to give up information to any of my friends (not a second time, at least), but even then, it was best to keep my lies consistent. _They know that I'm from Mistral, so that's all I need to give away here. Mostly._ If this conversation went the way I expected it to, however, that would soon be a moot point, seeing how as soon as I heard 'information dealer' ideas started swirling around my head.

"Runs a large crew, huh? That's one way to undersell it."

"She's also the girl's mother." I let out casually, taking a sip of my drink and waiting for his reaction.

"Aww, _fuck me_." Junior's eyes started to widen in panic a little, and not for bad reason. If _I_ had just been told that it was Raven's kid that I had tried to throw out and then had a major skirmish with, I'd probably have the fear of death put in me, too. _Raven doesn't have a reputation for being very forgiving, after all._

"Calm down there, big guy." I called out with a chuckle, because _yeah_ , that's the correct reaction to finding out you just signed your death warrant. "You did right by her. Raven would appreciate you not giving anything up."

"And what, _you_ speak for her?" Junior scoffed, his posture still tense and despite his massive frame, he was still clearly nervous; the tension in his shoulders gave it away.

"On this, _yes_. I do." I finished my drink and set the glass in front of Junior, upside down, for him to clean. "I told you I'm from Mistral, didn't I?"

Junior's posture was still stiff, and he was eyeing me like I might jump over the bar at any moment and attack him. My words were simple, but now I was alluding to something much more dangerous and Junior was clearly smart enough to understand what was going on. "What do you want?"

"Right now, I want some information on a name. A family name." I kept my voice low but made sure to keep my posture relaxed and, most importantly, listen out for the sounds of feet approaching. It wouldn't do for my team to overhear any of what we were discussing.

"You mean _she_ wants it?" Junior's hand curled into a fist around the cloth he had been cleaning with. "Shit. Why does this crap always find me?"

"No, I mean _I_ want it. _She_ doesn't have a clue in the world who you are. Now, we can keep it that way, or she can find out only the worst details of your encounter with Yang. Personally, I want the former."

"What do you want, kid?" Junior asked, his teeth gritting together. Clearly he wasn't responding well to my threats, but seeing as how that wasn't really my style, I saw no harm in walking them back a little. That isn't something Raven would hardly ever do, backing down from a threat just because it wasn't having the desired outcome, and I'd like to think that was an element of her pride coming to play; in any matter, it was a slight flaw, one of the only nicks in her armor that I had found in nearly a decade and a half.

"I'm not here to threaten you, Junior. In fact, I'll trade you for what I want, if that makes it easier for you." His posture didn't slack, but he made no further move to escalate things, which was a good sign. Using mutually-beneficial arrangements were more my style, because it allows both sides to feel like the other needs them and provides an element of trust that otherwise wouldn't exist. _After all, you can always trust someone to act in their own self-interest._ "I want any information you've got or that you can scrounge up on the name ' _Arc_.'"

"You've got to be shitting me." Junior growled out, reacting strongly to the name. "First Branwen, now that? I don't know exactly what sort of information you think I have, but I run a bar that low-lives like to run their mouths in because they think the music drowns out their secrets. I don't keep up with any sort of…deep espionage crap like that."

"But you can put me in touch with someone who is, I take it." I countered back, taking care to pay attention to every word from his mouth. I didn't like what I was hearing, that just the name 'Arc' was surrounded with a stigma of secrecy. _I wonder if I had asked him about Maidens, or Grimm-monsters, or magic, if he would have given me the same answer as for my name._ It wasn't altogether surprising, either; Raven _had_ been one of Ozpin's top spies before she left, so it isn't as if I have zero connections to that world. It just means that I might be getting in over my head with this. _One side to already being in way over your head is the ability to say 'hey, what's one more thing?'_

"I could, but connecting you to him isn't just something I can do for free. There's a risk to me even reaching out." Junior rubbed the bridge of his nose, thinking for a moment. "Look, the guy's ex-Atlas intelligence, but you wouldn't know it by his cover here. Atlas Intelligence isn't exactly something you can leave, ever. He's top notch, and he won't take kindly to me sharing his identity with you, so I can't just do this for free."

"I said I would trade you, didn't I? Surely you could find some decent use for me." My offer wasn't exactly concrete, and there was a long list of things that I _wasn't_ going to do, but when I had grown up pillaging and raiding, what harm could a small job really be? Sure, I was leaving the Tribe to leave this life, but this would be different, because now it's my choice, right? _I shouldn't think too hard on that, because I'm sure the logic will fail if I do._ "What's been your biggest headache here recently?"

"Outside of blondie?" Junior asked redundantly. "I've got one of my men who's been getting too ballsy. They're my men and I choose when they get loaned out and what jobs they take, but recently he's been going off on his own."

"To do what?"

"Let's call it illegal shit and leave it there. Point is, he's been running a profitable side-hustle and he thinks he's fooling me about it. If you want me to put you in touch with my guy, my man needs to be taught a lesson about flying too close to the sun." Junior casually picked up another glass and started cleaning it, doing his best to act casually, as if his man might see him talk to me and instantly understand exactly what we were talking about. _A little paranoid, maybe, but that's not a bad thing._ "It would be best for me if he never found out I ordered this, either."

"I…might could pull that off. You said his side-jobs are working well for him?" I asked, a plan loosely forming in my head. _Stealing from a thief at least morally ambiguous, right? That would almost make this vigilantism._

"Yeah, too well." Junior's answer only helped to solidify my plan in my head.

"In that case, it's as good as done. Give me whatever info I need, and I'll let you know when it's done." I set my scroll on the table and Junior picked it up, typing the information in a note file before handing it back to me. "Where's the guy right now?"

"He's working the front gate, so he would have been part of the welcoming party for you guys." Junior went back to cleaning glasses, not even realizing that he picked up the same one he had finished cleaning a few moments ago. "He gets of every night a few hours from now. I put a number you can reach me at in there, so text me at it and I'll send you a copy of his schedule. From there, best place to do it would be his place; he lives alone, so you don't have to worry about much."

"That won't be necessary." I cut Junior off before he could get too far into his rant, though I did take note of the information. "I'll get it done tonight." I turned around to walk off, before pausing for just a moment. "Oh, and Junior?"

"Mmm?"

"I'm not some amateur punk you can dupe. Don't you forget that." Junior made eye contact, never wavering, which was a decent sign that the info in my scroll wasn't a set-up. _I have to be sure, though._ "If you think Branwen would be mad about her kid getting in here, just wait till something happens to me and I don't report back in." With that, I turned and walked off to find my team. It was an empty threat on my end, but if he knew enough about Raven to be scared, then I had no problems tying myself to her image.

"You know, I could get used to this whole 'casual threats' thing. It's kinda badass." I mumbled to myself as I approached my team.

"What's kinda badass?" Nora asked, just barely hearing that last part as I approached the table that about half of them had regrouped at.

"Me. _Duh._ "

"Oh. Okay." Nora answered back unimpressed.

"Gee, thanks for the confidence boost, Nora." I drawled.

"Don't worry, you needed your ego checked," Yang offered from the other side of the table as I sat down. "It's way too big for the guy who threw up on me during Initiation."

"My ego, I'll have you know, is just the perfect amount of large, just like your—" I trailed off, catching the warning look Yang shot me. "—hair."

"Nice one." Ren mumbled sarcastically.

"Not really," Nora countered, obliviously. "Woulda made more sense to say her boobs." Blake nearly spit the last sips of her Sunrise over the table as we all looked to Nora. _Note to self, I need to keep Nora around me at all times for situations just like this._ "What, don't act like you all haven't noticed. It's super hard not to."

"Oh my god, Nora, please shut up." Yang mumbled, her face starting to turn red. In all fairness, Blake looked even more embarrassed just to have heard it, as she was trying to hide her face in her hands. _Or maybe she's laughing at Yang, I can't really tell._

"I'm just saying, if it wasn't on purpose, you'd have some actual armor over your heart during combat. Or clothes, _sheesh_." Nora drawled with a roll of her eyes.

" _Nora!_ " Yang objected, her face growing redder by the second.

"It's the same thing Pyrrha does. Look, we get it, you're a ten, you're the hottest one on your team. No one's challenging that, there's no need to flaunt it in our faces."

"You can flaunt it in my face anyti—OW!" I was cut off as Yang kicked me, jostling the table that Blake had now buried her face in.

"Could we _please_ stop examining my boobs?" Yang begged, her face now fully red. Blake was banging her head on the table. Nora? Still oblivious. _Although I'm begging to suspect Nora knows what she's doing 100% of the time._

"Could we please examine them more closel—OW! _The same shin!_ "

* * *

I have to hand it to Yang, the night had been fun, despite her choice of bar, er, club. Then again, things seemed to work themselves out on that account, so I can't really complain. We were even finished early enough to catch a Bullhead back to Beacon, though if I am honest, there was _no way_ that I was going to let us stay out late enough for me to have to make that long walk back a third time. Speaking of how things had worked out, I rounded the corner of the dormitory halls and found the door I had been looking for.

"This is a bad idea, Jaune," I mumbled to myself as I faced down the door. "I mean, this _entire_ thing is a bad idea, but this part is just stupid." The other aspects of this idea made sense, or at the very least, I had some sort of weak justification that I could use to convince myself. Sure, I was going to assault someone, but I was doing it to convince them to stop being as bad. Sure, I was channeling my inner Raven and getting caught up in illegal schemes, but it was to find out about my family. Sure, I was doing all this behind my team's back, but I could never convince them to let it be without going into detail about _why_ I don't know my family.

Why was I doing this part? I needed backup, of course. It was only supposed to be one thug and I could easily take him, but that was a risk, and one that was best spread out among more than just me. Why not my team? Well, they would be my first choice, but if I couldn't easily convince them to let me do it, then it would be even harder to get them to participate. I can't guarantee anything, but it was possible that I could tell them bits and pieces about my past and my family for justification, but that would leave them with questions that I would have to face at _some_ point down the line. That was if I could even get them past the technically illegal nature of the deed, which I had a feeling would be a hang-up for at least one of them. I needed a group that was a little more morally-flexible than my team, and people who weren't particularly interested in my deeper motives. That was why I was at this specific dorm.

None of that meant that this wasn't a stupid idea from start to finish, just that I didn't have any less stupid options.

I prepared my lines in my head as I reached forward to knock three times on the door. Commotion occurred on the other side, with a few voices mumbling about who had to get up to get it. Eventually, the door cracked open.

"What is it?" A voice from CRDL's dorm asked before they could see who was at the door.

"Can I come in? Thanks." I 'asked' as I pushed my way through the doorway.

"Hey, what the hell, Arc?!" Cardin's teammate with the mohawk—Sky? Dove? Some stupid name like that, I don't know—whined as I shoved him back with the door. In my defense, I closed the door softly behind me.

"You've got some fuckin' nerve showing your face here," Cardin growled, popping up from his bed to walk towards me aggressively. He froze when he saw me reach down for the hilt of Crocea Mors. None of the boys were armed, their weapons presumably in their lockers, and there wasn't exactly anything in this room that would serve as a weapon. _They could come at me with a chair, but against a sword, I like my odds._ Making matters more difficult for them was the knowledge that even if they did have their weapons, I had already kicked their collective asses once. "What do you want?"

"Well," I started, looking around the room at the other three to make sure they didn't get any ideas about funny business. "I would say that I was here to apologize and patch things up, but something tells me that wouldn't work."

"After that shit you pulled in the cafeteria?! Fuck any weak apology you got, you're gonna pay!" Cardin's anger wasn't quite hitting 'rage,' but he was simmering, for certain. His teammates weren't as angry but fed off their leader somewhat.

"What a coincidence, actually. I am here to pay. How would you boys like a gig?"

"A gig?" Mohawk asked, confused. The rest of the room was similarly taken aback, and to be fair, the offer was coming out of left-field.

"Yeah, a job. You know, the things people do to get money?" I pressed the job and reward aspects further, trying to get them so surprised by the offer that they forgot enough of their anger towards me. They would remember that anger at some point, but if I was lucky, they would have had enough time to consider the offer for it to supplant their animosity towards me.

"What sort of job?" Another one from my other side asked. It sounded like it was working.

"The bad-guy fighting, money-making sort." I answered back, simply. "The kind where you can take your anger out on someone and make money doing it." I added on, targeting that last part at Cardin, who was cooling off rather quickly as he processed the information.

"Why are you asking us? Are you setting us up?" Cardin asked, his anger cooling off but not gone.

"Nope, I'm going on the job myself and I figured if there was any way for us to put the past behind us, it was a little bonding over beating up some criminals." The words hung in the air as they mulled them over, but a couple were coming around already. _They really were a simple bunch, but that could be useful_. "And the cash won't hurt, either." I spun around, looking at each of them and gauging their interest.

"What exactly are we talking about?" Cardin asked, his intrigue betraying him. _Oh yeah, they're in._

"One night, one bad guy, one big payout, and we all go our merry ways." I added. "Think of us as vigilantes, if you want. The job isn't exactly legal, but it won't make us bad guys or anything." _I think._

"When are we talking?" Cardin asked, clearly leaning into the idea now.

"About an hour from now."

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: I will start this off by saying that perhaps I should be banned from writing Nora, because I am having way too much fun with her throughout this whole story. I really do regret not finding some way to make her a Team Leader, even if naming that team would have been tough. Oh well...**

 **This chapter was weird to write because I'll let you guys in on a secret: I've never been to anything remotely resembling a bar or a club. Hell, I don't even like going to parties that much, either, which is why it was fortunate that the scenes there were heavily character-driven; otherwise, I would have had to make up what it looks like when Team RWBYJNPR hits the dance floor. _Oh, and YES_ , I am aware that Jaune (all of JNPR, really) can dance in Canon. He sucks here for the reason Blake suspects: he's trying to, probably to be funny or mess with everyone. **

**On top of that, the whole perspective on a group of 17yo kids going out for drinks was a weird proposition, so I had to go back and rewatch the Yellow Trailer to get some better context on Remnant's views on that. Junior does call Yang a little young, but more in an off-hand way and not in a "we won't serve you here, kid" sort of way. Yang, for her part, seems to be comfortable with being at a bar and ordering a drink, so for this I'm extrapolating backwards a little from that.**

 **What really, really struck me was how...different Yang feels in that Yellow Trailer. It's not something I can really place, but she certainly doesn't feel like Canon Yang during that trailer, so much so that I felt that if I mimicked her character from that Trailer here, everyone would find Yang _super_ OoC. It isn't really a problem for the show, seeing as how all of us understand that the Yellow Trailer was literally the first screentime Yang ever got and her character likely had tonal shifts from that for V1, but she just seems...unhinged. I'd challenged you to go rewatch it, because honestly, I feel like Yellow Trailer Yang more closely resembles someone raised by _Raven_ instead of Tai and Summer, which is an interesting premise that I 100% will not write a story about... _the same way I said that about this story._ It bothered me enough that I threw in a line about Yang being a little too intoxicated during the Yellow Trailer, which helps me mentally smooth out the fact that she just attacks Junior kinda viciously. If I'm off-base here let me know, but that trailer bothers me now, lol.**

 **Looking back over Yang before and after V3, I get the sense that she's a little more of a loose-cannon than maybe we would admit. There's a little more Branwen blood in her than anyone realizes...**

 **Oh, and like, I don't actually drink, going back to that 'never having been to a bar' thing. I spent a month in Germany once and had a few beers with a meal but that's about it, and since none of RWBYJNPR outside of Yang seem to have that history, I preserved a little of their inexperience and apprehension here. I could see violent groups camped in the woods drinking a lot (the Tribe, White Fang), but that's about it.  
** ** _Oh, and Qrow_.**

 **Oh, and Jaune is recruiting CRDL for something shady? OwO**

 _I apologize profusely for just making you read "OwO". Won't happen again._

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by user _Josh Spicer_ on **Ch. 10**

"It took me a bit to realize that the waitress was being a bitch because it was three in the morning.

Musta been a Dennys."

 **I mean, I ain't gonna name no names here, but I'm told that FEMA measures how bad NATURAL DISASTERS are by the number of Waffle Houses that close. Not by "how many are still open." By how many close, because they just, like, don't. Tornado blew your house over? Well, the Waffle House is still there, so you can go get some breakfast. Oh, the city water was knocked out and there's no power? Well, they'll still fry you an egg and run power off a generator. Did a tree fall on the Waffle House entrance? No problem, just come on in through the back.**

 **What point am I making? I dunno, that I don't have the capacity to work a Waffle House; it is beyond me. Anyone who could do that is clearly an immensely powerful being, and if they wanna snap at me for being stupid during my order, I ain't saying jack about it.**

 _ **That said, I've never been to a late-night Dennys, so that may need to happen now. xD**_


	14. The D'Arc Knight

**[REFINED Oct. 27, 2018] Author's Note: Ain't nothing here, chief.  
**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 12:** _"There are two types of people who rule the world: hypocrites and dictators. Hypocrites don't apply the rules to themselves and dictators exempt themselves from the rules altogether. Point is, you'll never come out on top by playing by the rules." - Raven Branwen_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

Somehow, when I left for Beacon, it never occurred to me that within a month, my skills as a lockpicker would be put to the test. With hands as big as mine, using such delicate tools in such small movements was never exactly something I was great at, but growing up as I did, I certainly had enough practice to be considered passable. Picking a lock was one of those skills that was versatile enough to be worth learning and simple enough to teach group of people, so I always had plenty of time to learn to break into things. Under my current working conditions, however, things were a little difficult.

"Why don't we just break down the door?" One of the voices from behind me groaned. It sounded like Cardin, but I wasn't really paying attention, nor did it matter to me in the slightest who was whining. From the annoyed huffs and impatient circles being walked behind me, it was plainly obvious that I had four very bored accomplices who had no patience whatsoever.

"Because," I grunted out angrily as the stupid pin from the lock slid out of its place, frustrating me further, "we're trying to be nondescript."

"Yeah, we get that." One of the others called out, crouching down next to me so that I could get a somewhat peripheral view of him. That is, if I gave him the satisfaction of looking at him, which considering the lock I was trying to pick, I did not. "But considering we're all the good guys here, why are we hiding?"

"First, vigilantes are technically bad guys," I started off, hoping they didn't press that issue of morality and open a whole big can of worms that I did _not_ need on top of my current Beacon situation. "This guy is a criminal, and we were hired to 'encourage' him to stop being a criminal. Neither sides want the police involved here, got it?" I made sure to hold the tension rod tight as I turned around to make sure that each of the four did get it. After making eye contact with them all, I returned to my craft.

"Right, so…" another one piled on, crouching on my other side. _If I knew their names, that might actually help, but since I don't care to, nor could I recognize their voices, I'll just deal with it._ "We got all that. Get in, toss him around, scare him a little, take his illegal stuff, and make him a better person. _Cool_. We're all on the same page here."

"I'm sensing a 'but,'" I chimed in agitated as I again let the lock slip and reset itself.

" _But_ that doesn't explain why we don't just kick the door down. We could leave him enough of his illegal money to buy a new one."

"You're assuming he deals in cash," I countered, rededicating myself to slowly and carefully picking each pin of the lock. "The real reason is that when he gets home, if his door is kicked in, we lose the element of surprise."

"He's not here?" Cardin asked. "How do you know?"

"I know because the person who wants him to stop doing illegal things is his boss, who told me what time he gets off his shift. He won't be back here until thirty minutes from when we got here, at the very earliest."

"Oh, that's good. Maybe we'll have the door open by then." The one on my right snipped.

"For your information, this is not as easy as the movies make it look." I huffed as the second pin clicked into place. It was only a five-pin tumbler as far as I could tell and so far, I hadn't made it past three, but I was in a hurry each time before now. "It's not as simple as sticking a bobby-pin in and using it as a key. You've got to outsmart the lock, manually adjusting each pin until you find the right position for them all." At least, with the primitive tools I had with me, that was my only option. That I could even take two paperclips and fashion them into a makeshift tension rod and pick was decently impressive, but sadly not super effective. Back at the Tribe we had some actual lockpick sets grinded out from some steel, and with the strength provided there I could have just very easily raked back and forth until the pins fell into place. Right now, I feared that if I raked back and forth, I would break the paperclip. _And that isn't some sort of paranoia; the first set I tested earlier broke when I tried, and I was lucky that I brought extra paperclips._

After a few more moments, the tension rod spun in the lock and just like that, the door was open.

"Finally." Someone whined as I cut them off, motioning for everyone to be quiet. There _shouldn't_ be anyone here, but stupid assumptions like that were begging for disaster, especially considering who my partners were right now. _I've worked with some idiots before, but this is just ridiculous. Why did I think this was a good idea?_

Wishing that I had brought a weapon, I pushed the door open and began fanning out throughout the apartment. It was small, but bigger than one person would need and had a second bedroom. _For someone on Junior's payroll, this place is a little too nice, all the more evidence that Junior was right about this guy._ I motioned for Cardin to go check one bedroom and I checked the other, taking the spare bedroom and finding it mostly empty. Upon convening back in the living room, it was clear that the place was empty, so I shut the front door behind us and locked it.

"Gloves on, guys," I called out to everyone as a reminder. "This punk would be an idiot to call the cops on himself, but I'm not going to jail because someone was too stupid not to call the police." They all complied, pulling out the generic rubber gloves we had bought on the way over. "Everyone turned their scrolls of at Beacon like I told you to, right? Not off, but shut down completely." Four panicked individuals checked their scrolls, but thank dust none of them had forgotten. "Good. Spread out, keep your voices low, and see what you can't find hidden around the place. My contact didn't say _what_ we're looking for, only that this dude is in way over his head."

The three non-leader members of CRDL took their orders and fanned out, one per bedroom and the extra one checking the bathroom. Cardin, however, approached me instead. "I still don't like this. I feel like you're setting us up."

"You must think really highly of yourself if you think I would put this much effort into getting _you_ in trouble." I cut back automatically, fighting a roll of my eyes. "I'm right here, aren't I? What sort of a set-up involves all of you witnessing me breaking and entering?"

"Then why us?"

"Isn't it obvious?" I asked back, finding from his silence that it wasn't. "Because you guys would actually do it. Do you really think that my team, or Team RWBY, would do this?" Nora I could absolutely see, provided that I controlled the information I gave her carefully. If I told her the lines about this guy's boss being worried and just wanting him to give this life up without the police involved, she would be down, I feel. Ren is a little harder to read and may not like it, but he might have been persuaded to come along, if only as damage control. _Pyrrha, though?_ She's the one person out of all our teams that I'm the least-close to-which is bad, seeing as she is my partner-but I can already tell this would be a major hang-up for her. Team RWBY would be even less fruitful, with only maybe Blake and Yang persuadable. If I approached anyone and they flat-out rejected the offer, I was then on the hook for being willing myself to do it.

"Are you saying we're worse people? Is _that_ why you picked us?" Cardin sounded somewhere between insulted and confused, with a dash of accusatory thrown in. _Yes, that is what I'm saying, idiot._

"I'm saying," I replied, echoing him, "that you four seem to have more flexible viewpoints than my team. You match my own out-look well, at least for this." When he didn't have a reply, I felt the need to push on. "For example, you're not bothered by what we're doing, right?"

"I mean, not really." He answered honestly in what was beginning the feel like the most bro moment we might ever have. _I need to wrap this up as soon as possible, then._

"Technically, what we're doing here is illegal, which makes it wrong. We're doing it anyways, either because we think we know what's best or we don't care if its wrong."

"It's the first one." Cardin answered. "Right?"

"I can't answer that for you. I can answer it for myself." Cardin stayed quiet, prompting me to answer it to him. "I value certain things in the world; everyone does, and mine is a unique mixture of things. I'm here because doing this offers more benefit to the things I care about than _not_ doing this would."

"That…is it?" Cardin asked carefully.

"You make it sound like it isn't a significant, calculated decision. The main reason that I don't normally break into apartments is because that's wrong, and normally being a good person is important to me." This was just what I needed, having to explain my moral process to someone when it wasn't exactly clear to myself. _Why can't this dude show up already?_

"Then why is this different?"

"Obviously, it's because this offers me unique advantages that are more important to me than being a good person." Specifically, a way to learn about my family and who I am without Raven being involved, though that isn't something I could explain.

"Oh."

"It if helps, the fact that this guy isn't a good guy does help smooth things over. I wouldn't be doing this to someone innocent." I added on, watching Cardin visibly relax, as that was clearly an important distinction to hear. Deep down, I wasn't 100% sure if I was telling the truth, and that bothered me. _Or it would if I thought on it more._

"You guys might want to come see this." A voice called out from the spare bedroom. "This whole closet was filled with stuff."

We all walked in to find several duffel bags laid out on the bare mattress, zippers open but nothing taken out of them yet. "It doesn't look like he was all that worried about hiding the stuff. It was just sitting there in the closet."

I opened the closest bag to me and started looking through it, and if I'm honest, I was impressed by what I saw: illegal weaponry. Not necessarily dust-powered weaponry or Huntsman-level weaponry; no, this equipment was more specialized for assassin work, though in a looser sense than one would think. These weapons were all illegal because they were designed to cause pain and unnecessary damage, or they were concealable. I pulled out a knife and held it up for the group to see.

"Whoa, that's cool. What is it?" The one with the mohawk asked.

"It's a tri-point blade. It's got three blades that twist so that any stab wounds are nearly impossible for doctors to seal fast enough to save the poor bastard who got stabbed." I handed the knife around, letting anyone look at it. "Last time I checked, they were outlawed pretty much everywhere except Vacuo, because of course they're not outlawed there. I'm not sure what _is_ illegal in Vacuo."

"Does that mean that all of this stuff came from Vacuo?" Cardin asked.

"I doubt it. Vacuo's metalsmithing industry sucks. There's just no good iron out in the sand, so the fact that these are all high-quality makes that unlikely." And truly, these weapons were of surprisingly good quality. There were brass knuckles with protruding spikes, switchblades, hook-blades, you name it. This felt like what a kid would find wrapped in a fancy bow on his birthday, except instead of a kid, a member of the Tribe. _Or Ruby._ "Take this, for example," I said, pulling out a large dagger. "It's made of porcelain. That's highly illegal in Vale."

"Porcelain? Like a toilet?" Someone asked. "That sounds like it would be a crappy dagger."

"Yeah, if you hit it against another sword it might break, but that isn't what it's for. It has _no metal_ , so it can't be detected by a metal detector. This thing is designed to sneak inside a building and murder someone." I took the weapon back, giving it a once over as an idea popped into my head. I mean, I _could_ use a backup weapon, and this certainly would have some merit to it, provided no one found out about it. _I can't foresee any situation where I would need to sneak a dagger through metal detectors, but that's no reason not to be prepared._ I sheathed the dagger and found that it came with a collection of belts, so that it could be worn anywhere from the small of your back to strapped to your leg. The four of CRDL watched me put the belt on and strap the dagger to my back, just under my shirt, but didn't say anything about it.

"What's in the other bag?" I asked, redirecting their attention.

"Look for yourself." Normally, I would have been a little upset at being told off like that, but when I took the advice I found the bag half-filled with lien, likely the illegal, unreported profits made by our apparent arms-dealer.

" _Holy shit._ " Cardin let out loudly, followed by the rest of his team.

"Well, don't just stand there, grab as much as you can fit in your pockets." I announced, the four of them not needing to be told twice. Cardin went first, because of course he did, coming over to me when he was done. "I would say it's better if we use this money than the arms-dealer who made it."

"You're not taking any?" He asked confused as slightly accusatory, likely getting back on his fear of me setting them up.

"No, I already have a payment from my contact. You four can keep it." I answered honestly. It was over double what I had made from the raid on the White Fang, but I wasn't really in a position where I needed to build up lien, and becoming rich was never a motive for me, hence me leaving Raven's Tribe. _Plus, if they_ did _get busted, not taking any money would help give me an alibi._ _'Oh, they all identified me as the leader? Of course they would, they hate me. I wasn't there, I didn't even get any cash from the thing!'_

If Cardin asked, though, I'd still tell him I'm not setting him up; I'm just hedging my bets.

"Suit yourself. What do we do with this stuff now that we've found it?" He asked, gesturing to the bag full of weapons that we couldn't just leave here or take with us.

"I…have an idea." A very bad idea, but an idea nonetheless. "Did anyone find an old cell phone or something in there?"

"Yeah, this dude has a flip-phone in here." One of them called out, tossing it to me while the last of them finished dividing up their payday. _There had to be at least 20,000 lien for each of them there; not a bad day's work._ I caught the phone and turned it on, it giving off an old-timey jingle as it booted up.

"Burner phones. Gotta love them." I mumbled to Cardin as I waited for the phone to finish turning on.

"You sure seem to know a lot about this stuff." Cardin stated warily.

"Yeah, I do, don't I?" I answered back flatly, giving him no resolution. "Alright, everyone to the other room. I gotta call a buddy about getting rid of this stuff, and he won't like it if he hears anyone with me. He spooks really easy." My lie was pretty plain, but after I had just led them to a pile of lien, Team CRDL was pretty pliable. Cardin did give me a look before walking out, but seeing as this was the same guy who bullied faunus, I couldn't care less about whatever he thought of me.

With them out of the room, I shut the door behind me and dialed the number I had in mind. It was one of her many numbers, but as far as I was aware, it was still active. The long wait as the phone dialed left me with enough time to second guess why the hell I was calling Raven right now. _Wasn't the whole point of working with Junior to get information that Raven is trying to_ keep _from me?_ Yeah, it was. _Wouldn't telling Raven I was on a job for someone else tip her off that I wasn't loyal only to her?_ If she didn't already know that, this would confirm it. _Wouldn't this be—_

The phone was picked up, but no voice spoke. This was normal, as Raven would never speak first to a random number calling her. She knew that the number of people who had that number was limited to her own men, and from the process of elimination could probably figure out it was me calling, but she wouldn't ever be tricked into giving herself away by her voice unless someone spoke first. "It's Jaune. I have a gift for you, no questions asked. Portal."

There was a long, uncomfortable silence on the line as she judged the words, before the number hung up. Before I could even react, a portal opened up just a few feet away from me, and Raven walked out. Her mask and armor were on and her hand was on the hilt of her blade, ready for any set-up that I might have drawn her into. I pointed to the duffel bag left on the bed without a word, and she walked over to inspect the items. She looked around the room, clearly taking her time and soaking up as much information as she could about what I was doing, and I was thankful for the blandness of this spare bedroom because it wouldn't tell her much of anything.

"Don't ask. I just needed some way to get rid of this stuff." Raven didn't reply, instead cocking her head to the side, silently judging me, though her curiosity was evident. I could _feel_ her damn smirk through that mask and _really_ didn't need her commenting on anything right now, and for once, she didn't. Raven grabbed the duffel bag and left, her portal closing behind her soon after. I looked down at the flip phone in my hand before taking the battery out and snapping the thing in half for good measure. _Raven would have my head if anyone took that number from that phone._

"What are you doing here, Jaune?" I asked myself despondently. "Wasn't the point of coming to Beacon to _not_ be like Raven? This feels like Raven." Breaking and entering and stealing from other criminals is absolutely something that Raven would do. Maybe it was foolish of me to think that I could just undo fourteen years of her teachings just because I had flown the nest, but the whole reason I was here was to find out what Raven has been hiding from me. I wouldn't _be_ here if Raven would tell me about my family, or how I came to the Tribe, but since she won't tell me, I have to use other methods to find out. _And that's exactly what Raven would do in my position, isn't it?_ "Jeez, I'm a lot more like her than I'd like to admit, aren't I?"

Pushing those thoughts from my mind, I left the room and rejoined my makeshift team in the living room. "It's done," I offered simply as they looked at me expectantly. I had closed the door behind me so as to hide the fact that I had just made those things magically disappear. Cardin's been getting curious and I don't need him asking any more questions than he already is. "Only thing left to do is hide and wait for our target."

* * *

Cardin's POV

* * *

"Alright, do I need to go over the plan _again_?" Jaune asked, pulling on his ski mask like the rest of us. Our target was supposed to show up at any time and Sky was currently watching out the window to see when he arrived out front. "You know what, I think it would be safest for me to go ahead and say it again."

"Just how stupid do you think we are?" Dove asked from his spot in the doorway of the spare bedroom.

"You don't want me to answer that," quipped Jaune. "Alright, the plan is simple, so that it can't _possibly_ be messed up. He walks in the door and finds that his lamp doesn't work. When he walks to the kitchen to turn that light on, Sky pops out from behind the couch, Dove comes out from the spare bedroom, Cardin comes out from the bathroom, and—wait, what's your name again?—you come out from the main bedroom. I'll be behind the kitchen counter. We're _not_ armed and he might be, so disarm him first and then grab a hold of him." Jaune's voice was commanding but without any real aggression behind it, more like he just wanted this to work than he wanted to be in charge. I get the feeling that he doesn't really want to be doing this, but if he's gonna let us take all that lien, I don't really care. "And whatever you do, let me do the talking. We're just here to scare him. How we looking out there, Sky?"

"I see a big-ass dude wearing a suit and a red tie coming in the front door. That him?"

"Probably. Get into your places."

We all hurried back into our spots. It wasn't that dark in the apartment, but we were used to the dark by now and it should be enough to hide us. _Not like we can't take one guy, but we would just rather not be_ seen. That's what the ski-masks were for, too, although wearing them made me feel a little bit like the bad guy here.

The jingle of keys could be heard from the other side of the door and after a few moments, the door slid open. From my spot peaking out of the bathroom doorway down the hall, I saw a somewhat large person—a little smaller than me, but still bigger than average—walk through the door, closing it behind him. He tried to flick on the switch to the lamp as he walked by it and made it nearly two steps before he realized that it had never come on. "Aw, what the hell? I just replaced that bulb," the man complained before turning to carefully walk to the kitchen. He kept his eyes low and walked slowly, trying not to stub his toes on anything.

" _Now._ " Jaune called out as the target got within striking distance of Jaune's spot behind the kitchen counter.

"What the—" the man was cut off as Jaune struck him once, staggering him backwards right into the arms of Dove and Russel who had come out from the bedrooms. Each of them secured a different arm and the man tried to struggle before I came up and delivered a blow to his gut, keeping him from having any air in his lungs to cry out with.

"Dee Rudo. Age, twenty-six. Mr. Rudo, do you mind if I call you Dee?" Jaune's voice was a little different, thought not because he was disguising it; instead, it sounded like he was going for a more theatrical voice and was really showing off.

"W-what is this?" The man bumbled out, confused.

"You're right, that's too informal. Mr. Rudo it is." Jaune finished his thought, completely ignoring his question.

"W-whoever you are, you're making a mistake. This place is under Junior's protection!" Dee whined, doing a really bad job at not looking scared. _At this rate, this idiot might wet himself._

"Really? Are the weapons you've been running _also_ under Junior's protection?" Jaune answered back dangerously, shutting Dee up entirely. "Thought not. You should have stayed a henchman, buddy. We didn't have a care in the world about you before you got into all this mess." To punctuate his point, Jaune pulled out the big knife he had taken from the pile earlier, and brought it up to Dee's face. Dee stared down the weapon in fear, watching nervously as Jaune brought it down to his arm, slicing at his bicep. The knife cut through the suit jacket really easily and even sliced into the man's skin, but only a little, as Jaune didn't seem to put any real force behind the cut. "No aura? That's kinda stupid in your kind of work, but then again, we have established you aren't the sharpest illegal ceramic dagger in the bag of banned weapons…" Jaune said, waving the dagger (now with a hint of red on the blade) in front of Dee's face for good measure.

"What do you want from me?" Dee asked, terror growing in his voice, as apparently this dude is completely spineless.

"I want you to make our jobs easier. Can you do that?"

"W-what does that e-even mean?" _Gods above, this dude is a wimp_. It's one little cut and some mean words, and he's about to wet his pants.

"Go back to being a small-time thug, 'kay? We didn't care what you did back when you were just a lackey." Jaune answered coolly. "Now, you're running all sorts of illegal weapons and that's just a nightmare for me and my boys here. Do you have any idea how much paperwork I have to do to get each confiscated weapon like that taken care of?" Jaune paused to let the man answer. He never did. "It's a lot of paperwork. I _hate_ paperwork. So we had a better idea."

"W-what is that?"

"I'm so glad you ask, Mr. Rudo." Jaune answered back almost playfully at this point. "We _could_ take you down to the station, book you, charge you with all sorts of crimes for possession and distribution, and then each of us could spend two weeks tracking down all the official procedures for disposing of those goods. Or…" Jaune trailed off, looking at Dee expectantly. The gesture didn't translate well with ski-masks on, though, and Dee just sat there looking frightened and confused. " _Or I could just stop running weapons_ ," Jaune threw his voice to the side, pretending to speak for Dee. "Or you could stop running those weapons! That's an excellent idea, Dee!"

"T-that's it? You're not gonna arrest me? O-or...?" He trailed off, clearly imagining worse punishments than a little cut on his arm.

"That depends. Are you going to sell more of these things, or are you gonna go back to being a glorified bouncer?"

"No, I won't. I promise!" Dee offered earnestly, only to receive a deep gut-punch from Jaune that made the rest of us flinch from its suddenness, not to mention its ruthlessness.

"I didn't hear you say it." Jaune offered simply, whispering his words closely to Dee in creepy, unsettling manner. "This is a great deal for both of us. You get a second chance, and I don't have to do any real work. I need to hear you say it."

"I won't, I swear!" Dee answered again, his words choked out as he was trying to regain his breath after the punch; it also sounded like he was starting to cry, which was only magnified when Jaune pulled out the dagger again and held it against Dee's cheek.

" _The words._ I need to hear them." Jaune commanded, er, threatened? I wasn't sure at this point. This was…more than any sort of interrogation that I could come up with, and I would have thought that I would be the leader among our group in that category. _Honestly, I'm beginning to rethink why I ever thought going after Arc was a good idea in the first place; I'm_ so _glad this happened before we actually carried out that plan to get revenge._

"I'll go back to being a thug, I swear! You'll never see me doing this again, I promise!" Dee cried out, tears streaming down from his closed eyes.

"Alright. We'll see. Let him go, boys." We did as told, releasing our target and backing away towards the door, with Jaune following closely behind. "You'll find that we've made it a lot easier to give up selling those weapons. It's hard to sell weapons you don't have." Jaune called out as he walked out the door, shutting it behind him. We all hurried down the stairs and out into the street, dipping through a few alleyways before we felt like we were far enough to not be caught, and once we were, we took off our masks. "Well, wasn't that fun?"

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

I woke up as I felt myself falling, a sensation that turned out to be true as I smacked the ground face first. I quickly rolled over to get my bearings and prepare to react to whatever strike my assailant would throw next. Normally when Raven catches me napping, she'll do something mean to wake me up—like, say, pushing me off of the bench that I had been napping on just now—followed by a strike designed to hurt just for the sake of hurting. I never did quite buy into that I needed to be 'ready at all times, even when asleep;' I still just think that she enjoys attacking me whenever she can. _I wouldn't call her a sadist, but she does like to inflict pain on others just for the fun of it, so...actually, I guess that makes her a sadist._

What I opened my eyes to was not Raven Branwen trying to kick me in the face, rather the very curious eyes of Nora, peering at me from behind the bench I had just been pushed off of.

"He's awake now!" Nora called out as she left me, content with whatever it turns out she had accomplished. Though my instincts were now extremely confused, it was starting to come back to me now: I took a nap on the bench during group spars, which we were doing instead of the normal 1v1 fights that Ms. Goodwitch liked to put on. Someone had mentioned something about those being tomorrow and that today was more focused on learning to fight with (or against) your teammates—and it was possible that Ms. Goodwitch was the one to say that; I wasn't exactly paying attention. It made sense, considering that it would get almost nothing done if we only had four or five matches per day for the entire class, but currently I was a little too out of it to remember what had been said.

I got in way too late last night and so far I had managed to avoid any questions about it, but I can only repeatedly return at like 4am so many times before my team gets worried. Part of that was because I never _actually_ came back to my dorm, instead crashing on the floor of CRDL's dorm. They may not have liked me much, but 80,000 free lien does a lot to build friendships in my experience; that, or I just let them have 80,000 lien to let me sleep on the floor, making that the worst hotel in history. Either way, _if_ my team does come after me for questions, I had a built-in excuse ready to go: after getting a little alcohol in me at the club, I decided to go make nice with CRDL. It had the added benefit of being 100% true, if you discounted the whole 'lie of omission' thing.

"Seriously, how did you fall asleep in the two minutes it took the rest of us to get ready?" Yang called out from a distance. I pushed myself off the ground to find that my team and Team RWBY had taken over our own area of the training grounds and I walked over to where my team was standing around.

"I don't feel like that deserves an answer." I taunted back at Yang, for no other reason than I didn't actually have a good comeback prepared, but couldn't be seen to let her have the last word. "Anyways, what are we doing?"

"Miss Goodwitch suggested that we all try some hand-to-hand combat with our teams to try to build some teamwork." Ren answered, taking my attention away from Yang. _I'm not sure how punching my teammates is supposed to do that, but okay, sure. Why not?_ "I thought we could start off while Nora and Pyrrha help watch our form for us, then we do the same for them."

"Uh, sound good to me," I responded. A quick glance over at RWBY confirmed that they seemed to be breaking up into a similar session, although currently they were arguing over who had to fight Yang, and it looked like Blake was losing.

"Alright, then," I announced, lowering into a boxing stance. "Come at me?"

"Like that?" Pyrrha asked, confused. "You're still wearing your weapons and they're kinda...large. Shouldn't you take them off?"

"They're just dead weight. I'm not going to use them." I answered back, not taking my eyes off Ren, who had tossed his weapons aside.

"Then take them off," Pyrrha suggested again, a little more forcefully.

"But in a real fight I wouldn't be able to take them off just because they're heavy."

"It sounds to me like Jaune's buying time," Yang taunted from across the mat, apparently having been eavesdropping. That, or we were just loud, which was usually true. "Scared of fighting _Ren_?"

"Should I be offended?" Ren mumbled.

"Alright, fine," I huffed, unstrapping my claymore and its holster from my back and tossing them aside with a clang. "If you want me to treat this like a spar and not a fight, I'll treat it like a spar and not a fight." I unstrapped Crocea Mors from my hip, tossing it near the other weapon, before untucking my shirt and pulling up on it.

"Whoa now," Yang called out as I took my shirt off, tossing it over onto the weapons. _It was constrictive and if they don't want me to treat this like a real fight, I'll take any sort of advantage I can get._ Besides, Ren was wearing a vest that wouldn't offer his arms any resistance anyways, so only my shirt offered a disadvantage. If they wanted me to use advantages that I'll never actually have in a fight, then I will. "We didn't want you to strip, just toss the weapons!" I ignored her, rolling my shoulders and neck to make sure they were loose. Fortunately, I hadn't put on the hidden dagger and strap I had looted last night, instead leaving the technically-illegal weapon in my locker.

"Uh, _Ren_ ," Nora called out. "He has an advantage," Nora almost sang, making it obvious she was implying something.

"Does he?"

"Uh, _duh_. Everyone knows that fighting without a shirt is distracting."

"That's not what it's for." Pyrrha corrected Nora. "It's a pretty common thing for melee fighters and boxers. He can move faster without it. I used to train hand-to-hand in just a sports bra for the same reason."

"Are you sure? Because my enemies always complained about me 'distracting' them and that it 'wasn't fair.'"

"Ren, _please_ tell me she's kidding…?" Pyrrha called out, exasperated. Ren made a point of ignoring her, instead taking a battle stance opposite of me.

"Your team is weird." Yang called out, with Blake nodding along in agreement despite 'watching' Ruby and Weiss; she was clearly eavesdropping, though she wasn't as blatant as Yang.

"Shouldn't you be watching Ruby and not imagining Nora topless?" I called back, not taking my eyes off Ren as we started to circle each other.

"I'm not—" Yang cut herself off. "Ah, forget it." _Oh good, after last night, she's finally learning._

Ren and I took steps towards each other, closing the distance until we were within striking distance. I threw a few probing jabs to test him out and Ren rather easily avoided contact, never pressing his attack. I faked a large right hook and Ren took the bait, dodging behind and under the blow in an attempt to deal free damage to my side, but I stopped the attack half-way through and reversed, catching the side of Ren's head with my elbow. With Ren dazed, I threw out a couple of jabs at his stomach to force his hands down, before coming back at his head with a massive punch from my right. Ren brought his hands up but instead of trying to block, he brought both hands open in front of his face. My fist should have flown right between them but stopped when it suddenly impacted a pink barrier. With my attack stopped and me out of position, Ren kicked the side of my knee, forcing me down on that knee as Ren continued to spin from his kick. After a moment, his foot was back around to roundhouse me in the face and I flared my semblance, stopping his kick dead in its tracks just as he stopped my punch.

I had flashbacks of my fight at the docks as I reached up to grab and pin his leg, but since I was underneath him courtesy of his strike to my leg, I lunged forward to completely catch him out of the air. I supported his back with my free hand and lifted him above me as he tried to squirm out of my grip, but never could. I tossed him straight up in the air and as he came back down I did a roundhouse kick of my own (okay, I _tried_ to spin and kick and it was _ugly_ , but functional) and knocked him across the mat.

"See? Just imagine what Renny could do shirtless…" Nora trailed off with a hum that, quite frankly, was making me uncomfortable, given what she had just said. Pyrrha must have picked up on it, too, because she looked extremely awkward.

"What sort of form was that?" Ren asked, popping up off the ground and walking back over, clearly ready for the round to be done. _That was like, what, ten seconds?_ We barely even got started. Ren may not be built for taking damage, but is he so much of a glass cannon that he take withstand a kick? _That might be good to know when we get into a combat scenario; letting a friend die certainly goes against me leaving Raven's ways behind._

"I…don't know if that was an actual form," Pyrrha answered, unsure. "What do you think, Yang?"

"Uh…" Yang mumbled, surprised to be caught watching our fight instead of Ruby and Weiss'. She recovered well, though. "I'd say some sort of bastardization of boxing, wrestling, and absorbing kicks to the head. I don't think that's taught anywhere." It's not, as it really was just more improvisation than anything, but if it makes me look better, I won't say anything. "Especially not that last part. It looked cool, though."

"How did you block my fist?" I asked Ren, ignoring everyone else. In truth, I had locked on to this question ever since it happened during the fight and went for the big hit in the hopes that the fight would end sooner so I could get an answer. _I didn't_ have _to pick him up and kick him; it would have been better practice for us both if I hadn't, anyways._ "Was that...?"

"Aura Manipulation? Yes." Ren answered simply.

"Where did you learn that?"

"Renny invented it. Didn't you, Ren?" Nora answered, confirming one thing above all else: that Ren did not invent it.

"No, Nora. I heard about what it was and spent years trying to figure it out." Ren corrected for Nora. "What about when I kicked you?"

"That?" I asked to buy time, internally panicking a little. I didn't need to be explaining how my semblance worked, because… _actually, I don't really have a reason to hide it from my team, do I?_ "Technically, that's also Aura Manipulation, but I'm not good enough at it to project an aura." I should be, though; with my Semblance, there's no telling what I could project and then amplify. _Could I make a weapon out of my Aura? A gun?_

"How'd you learn yours?" Ren asked, more out of courtesy than real interest.

"Reflexes over the years." I answered back simply, remembering how much of my backstory I had already filled them in on. "Get hit enough and eventually you learn how to alleviate some pain. Plus, my Semblance helps on that front, too."

"Oooh, Semblance?" Nora nearly shouted. "Show us!"

"Nora, I just said that it helps take away pain, so how would—you know what, never mind." I walked over and grabbed Crocea Mors out from its sheath. " _Behold_ ," I announced, waving Crocea Mors in the air for dramatic effect, successfully distracting all of Team RWBY as well as my team. I brought the sword down to my left forearm, before quickly and sharply slicing into my flesh. I had to force my Aura _not_ to protect me, suppressing my natural reflexes to protect myself as the blade bit into my skin. The wound stung but wasn't too deep, with enough amount of blood flowing from it to make a good demonstration. A quick glance around showed a various range of surprised and shocked faces, except for Nora, who was thoroughly entertained, a fact that was beginning to scare me.

"Um…what's going on?" Ruby mumbled, positioning herself from behind Weiss to see me bleeding.

"You…mentioned something about a Semblance?" Pyrrha asked uncertain as blood continued to trickle down my arm.

"Oh yeah, that." I answered back, looking down at my arm for dramatic affect. I focused my Aura on the cut and felt it slowly starting to heal, like Aura should, before I turbo-charged it with my Semblance. I burned more of my Aura by overclocking my Semblance that I did actually healing the wound, as the whole point of this was to show up the healing aspect of my Semblance. Normally, I could patch up something like this in thirty seconds without burning any significant amount Aura on the Semblance, but I spent an extra 3% of my total Aura getting this thing patched up completely in under two seconds.

" _Whoa._ "

"I mean, it's not as cool as running super-fast or…uh…" I trailed off, looking around at the rest of the group for another example of a Semblance, eventually settling on Weiss as I remembered our spar. "Glyphs."

"Wait, do you not know your own team's Semblances?" Weiss asked with a hint of disbelief. "How are you supposed to be a team leader if you don't even know what your team can do?"

"Yeah, even _I_ know my team's Semblances!" Ruby chirped proudly. "Rage, ninja, portals, and me, superspeed."

" _Rage?_ " Yang asked incredulously.

"They're not portals, Ruby, for the last time. They're _glyphs_."

"Ninja…actually isn't that far off."

"Alright, _fine_." I cut them off, trying to bring some sort of order back, as futile as that would be. "Team, what's our superpowers?"

"LIGHTNING!" Nora shouted, barely able to contain herself any longer. She acted as if she had been waiting to be asked ever since the topic came up. _That she waited this long was impressive, actually._

"I…am so scared to ask this, but Nora, what does that mean?"

"I can turn electricity into power and supercharge myself." Nora answered back calmly, eerily so. As she did so, her entire being seemed to be dulled, and it took me a moment to realize that wasn't just due to her sudden shift in demeanor, but that it looked like all of the color on her body—hair, skin, and even clothes—was dimmer. "Ren, please stop that," Nora asked politely and calmly to her lifelong friend. Whatever 'that' was ended, as the color returned to Nora's person and she shook herself as if testing that she was back to normal.

"What did you just do?" I asked to Ren, who looked rather pleased with himself.

"That would be my Semblance. I can hide people from being detected by Grimm." Ren answered simply yet proudly, holding his arms behind his back and straightening up.

"Can the Grimm not see gray or something?" I asked, referring to Nora's sudden desaturation.

"No, that's just one of the side-effects." Ren answered, turning to look at Nora and in turn turning her back gray. "Grimm sense emotion, and my Semblance hides people by suppressing emotion."

"That's… _incredibly_ convenient." I remarked, sharing a quick, knowing glance with Ren. _I wonder how it works, too; does he interface with his targets the same way I do, or would the recipient have no idea who was doing it?_

"More like incredibly _not fun_." Nora countered with a snort. "My Semblance is super cool and lets me smash things and break stuff. _Ren's Semblance_ ," Nora emphasized by throwing her voice to mock, "is only used for boring things, like hiding from the Grimm or calming me down so I don't destroy things." The playfulness and energy of Nora had evaporated and left her giving me a firm stare. "That's right, I know what you were getting at, mister."

"How would you feel about some special training sessions for us two, Ren?" I asked, floating the idea as a desperate attempt to avoid Nora's stare. _Serious Nora is Dangerous Nora, after all._

"For just us?" Ren repeated back.

"Yeah. I'd like to see if you can't teach me how to project my aura, and my Semblance has a couple of fridge abilities that make me think our Semblances work similarly, anyways." I explained. "Besides, I need to work on an actual form of hand-to-hand anyways, and not just sexy wrestling." I gave a wink to Yang for giving me the idea for _that_ line, and she gave me a scowl in return.

"I would be willing." Ren answered, simply. "But channeling Aura, as you should know, requires a lot of focus and a calm environment to learn how to do it." The message behind Ren's sentence was clear, and it was something that I was about to throw in myself to convince Ren if he was still on the fence. We both looked to Nora expectantly.

" _Fiiiine_. I'll leave you two alone on your date." Nora relented, not missing any of what was implied.

"I think she's jealous." Yang jumped in, deciding to take revenge on Nora for last night.

"W-what?" Nora practically choked out of surprised. "I have no idea what _ever_ you are talking about, Yang Xiao Long." Nora's words said one thing, but the venom dripping from every slow, threatening syllable she spoke told another story. Ren simply rolled his eyes. "And if you ever think about implying that again, then I'll have to do the same thing to you." Nora's threat seemed very weak to me, but she locked onto Yang's eyes with her patented Nora Stare-Down mixed with a knowing smirk and for a moment it looked like she had cowed Yang into submission.

"Well, that settles that. What about you, Pyrrha?" I asked, turning to the girl in question to find her caught off-guard, also having watched the strange interaction of Nora and Yang. "What's your Semblance?"

"I—"

"Are you going to clean that up?" Weiss asked in almost a disappointed-mother sort of way—or at the very least, what I _imagine_ a mother disappointed in the mess her kids had made would sound like. _It isn't as if I had a very normal upbringing in that regard._

"Oh. Right." I answered, turning to find Weiss referencing the drips of blood that had dropped off my arm earlier before I demonstrated my Semblance. Now that I thought about it, I brought my arm up for inspection to realize that from half-way down my forearm down, generous streaks of blood still remained, making me look like the victim of some sort of vicious attack. "Miss Goodwitch would kill me if she found me making a mess."

"From what I hear, she might kill you if she found you, _period_." Blake countered back, and she did have a point. _I may have actually patched things up with Cardin well, but Miss Goodwitch doesn't know that, nor does that necessarily mean she would care._ I'm probably going to pay for that at some point, but if she hasn't kicked me out of Beacon yet, then chances are she's not going to. Score one for the undercover-spy-with-the-obnoxious-asshole-cover-persona!

"I'll go clean this up and bring back some paper towels or something," I called out, heading off the sparring mats over towards the rest area. Being as big as it is and seeing how it is first and foremost a combat training school, Beacon has several different types of training areas with all sorts of amenities. The large room where Miss Goodwitch administers 1v1 fights has a lot of seating and it generally is good for holding audiences, but this training facility was focused on the development of the students, including conditioning and strength-building. As such, there was a small kitchen of sorts with a fridge, a couple of blenders for protein shakes, and a sink, the last of which was where I was headed. It was empty, no body really doing dishes in the training area, so I stuck my arm into the sink and turned the water on.

"Okay, so there's no real way to bring this up, so I'm just going to ask you," Ruby's voice called out from behind me, surprising me that I hadn't heard her follow me. "Seeing as weapons are my thing, I feel like this isn't a weird question. Right?"

"Uh…depends on the question? Go ahead."

"What did you name your weapons?" The eagerness in Ruby's voice was plainly evident as she made no attempt to hide it. It made sense, I guess, seeing as the first time we met she fawned over my sword instead of wanting to talk to me, so weapons must just hold a dear place in her heart. _By far not the weirdest thing I've encountered._

"Well, there's my back-up sword," I started off while scrubbing my arm to wash off any dried blood. In hindsight, that demo wasn't really all that necessary, but what can I say, I've inherited Raven's flair for drama. "It's my old weapon and the one I'm actually trained with. That's _Crocea Mors._ " It felt weird calling it my 'back-up' and 'old' weapon, considering it is by far my best weapon and the one I feel like I could hold my own against anyone with. _At least, when using the shield and not just the blade._

"Ooh, that's a cool name. What does it mean?"

"What does it…?" I repeated, slightly confused. "I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know what your own weapon's name is? Didn't you come up with it?" Ruby asked with a little bit of that same disappointment Weiss used earlier.

"No, that weapon was passed down to me. The name was inscribed on it." I answered back truthfully while searching around for dish soap to bust up some of the more stubborn streaks.

"Passed down?" Ruby asked confused and I instantly berated myself for the slip of the tongue. "Aren't you…?" Ruby trailed off, unwilling to actually say the words. "Nevermind."

"An orphan? Yeah, you're right." I answered, realizing the need to control the narrative. _I don't want to lie here, but if I don't all my_ other _lies could start unraveling, and it would be worse for all my lies to be discovered than for me to add one more to it._ "I guess 'passed down' wasn't really accurate. It was a gift."

" _Oh_." Ruby answered softly.

"I actually mean a gift, Ruby." I answered back with a small chuckle. "I didn't kill anyone for it, if that's what you're thinking."

" _W-what_?" Ruby stammered out of surprise. "No, I wasn't thinking _that_. I just thought you stole it." A few moments of silence passed as Ruby walked around to sit on the counter to my right so that we could see each other while talking. "What about your other weapon?"

"Oh, the claymore? It doesn't have some fancy name." I answered, drying off my arm and inspecting it for any more caked blood.

"That's what I was afraid of," Ruby answered in a way that made me feel like not only was she _not_ afraid of it, but that it was what she wanted to hear. "Can I help? Please?"

"Can you help…what?"

"Name your weapon, silly!" Ruby answered back with a large smile. "I'm super good at it. Back at Signal, I used to help all sorts of people name their weapons. It was, like, _my thing._ "

"Uh, I really don't think it needs a—"

" _Every_ weapon needs a name." Ruby cut me off forcefully.

"Are you s—"

" _Yes._ "

"Okay, are you sure that you want to help?"

" _YES._ "

"Alright, what would you suggest?" I asked, trying to hide how amusing the situation was. I also have a feeling that Ruby would not appreciate me letting her win because she was too adorable to say no to.

Actually, that might have been her plan all along. _Damnit._

"Well, first, describe your weapon to me. That way I can figure out how _you_ feel about it." Ruby stated, showing off that she was as experienced with this as she claimed, or at the very least, she had given this a lot of thought.

"Um…it's large." Ruby nodded along, urging me to keep going. "The whole thing is gray. That part is pretty significant. Just kind of a smoky-gray blade, not quite black, but close."

"Okay, that's good. We can work with gray." Ruby encouraged me to go further.

"It's…designed to kill things." I stammered, running out of anything to really describe a weapon. _I mean, it's a sword, not a fighter jet; swish-swish, stab-stab. What else is there?_

"Okay, that's…true." Ruby allowed, clearly aware that I was struggling at this. "Put those two things together and what sort of name can you come up with?"

"Isn't that your job?" I asked back.

" _I said,_ " Ruby cut back forcefully, "put them together and come up with names."

"Okay, okay. Sheesh," I relented. "Gray…killer? Smoky slasher? Gray deathbringer? Gray death?" I mumbled as words came to me, hoping that Ruby would pick one and let me be done with this.

"That's not bad," Ruby cut in after _Gray Death._

"Then it's done. We'll call it Gray Death."

"Not so fast there. You can't just _name it_ that!"

"What?! That was the whole point!" I whined. "We literally just did all that and you're telling me it doesn't count!"

"You can't just give your weapon a normal name! It has to be in some weird language or some special code that _means_ 'gray death.'" Ruby explained as if it was the simplest thing in the world and I was stupid for not knowing it.

"But your weapon isn't!" _I think._

"Crescent Rose doesn't have an older sister whose name is in a weird language." Ruby explained hostilely, very defensive of her own weapon. "You, however, already have a _Crocea Mors_ , so this new name needs to match."

"It needs to match?" I repeated exhaustedly. "I don't even know what language that is!"

"Okay, it doesn't have to be the _same_ language, but it has to be something different. You can't just have one in English and one not. That's weird." Ruby dismissed the notion easily. "Lucky for you, that's where _I_ come in. I'll find some cool-sounding translation for your weapon later and we'll see how you like it."

"I'm sure that you'll pick a good name," I answered back exhausted. _It was a guarantee that whatever she picked would get used, because I can't be bothered to care enough to change it at this point._ "Come on, we've wasted enough time here. I still have to go clean that mat before Miss Goodwitch finds it, or..."

"Or what?"

"Or there'll be a lot more of my blood on the mat soon."

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Hey, it's nice to see that all those YouTube videos I watched on how to pick locks and how to make lock-picks way back in Middle School paid off! Yes, I did actually make a lock pick out of paperclips, and _no_ , it did not work. I didn't have any large paperclips and the medium one was just too thin to resist the pressure needed to push a pin up. That meant I had to try raking and it soon broke when I did that, but hey, it made for a decent segment in a Fanfic like six years later, so not a waste of time!**

 **I know that knives that can't be detected by metal detectors are dangerous and no laughing matter, but I struggle to take the idea of a 'ceramic knife' seriously without thinking of infomercials for things like the Yoshi knife or other Shopping Network-type ceramic kitchen knives. That's unfortunate, because I added one to Jaune's arsenal. _In the spirit of naming weapons, I think I'll name this one 'Chekhov."_ Absolutely no particular reason, none at all.**

 **Aaaaaand it's time to play "Ruin Ike's Surprise!" Here's the rule: try to figure out what Jaune's claymore will be named once Ruby translates it.  
I never said it would be _hard_ , as if you could find it in one good Google search. How do I know that? _Silly, that's how_ I _came up with the name that it's going to receive!_ As a bonus, try to figure out what that one Google search was for.**

 **Till next week.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by FF user _The Exiled Darkness_ on **Ch. 11**

"If you wanted Nora as team leader, the simple fix would've been NAPR (Napier Green). Just saying. Also, Vigilantism!"

 **Oh hey, buddy, long time no Comment of the Week! Hold on a sec...**

 **Bing: "mnapier"**

 **Wait, I spelled something wrong.**

 **Bing: _did you mean "napier"?_**

 **Yes, yes I did.**

 ***click 'napier'***

 **Alright, results for _Napier, New Zealand_ ; that's not it. _Napier Outdoors_? No. Oh, image search, cool...uh, some old printings or a UConn Men's Basketball player? That's not it. Where the heck do I find out what color Napier is?  
**

 **Wait, why am I on Bing? That's gotta be the issue.**

 **Google: Napier**

 **It took me to _Napier, New Zealand_ again. What the-**

 _ **Oh.**_

 **Google: "Napier green"**

 **Oh. Okay. That's a color. Not too bad of a color, either. _Huh._ **

**Yeah, Team NAPR would have worked. It would have been better than Team Jazzberry, at the very least!**

 _Side note, if I'm struck down by lightning when this post goes up, I probably deserved it for mocking the God-King of RWBY Fanfiction..._


	15. A 'Friendly' Spar

**[REFINED Oct 27, 2018] Author's Note: Let me give you guys a sneak peak into my _super-duper thorough_ methods of writing for this chapter:**

* * *

Let me set the mood, first. It's about 1am in the morning. I had sat down at 11:30pm with the intention of picking up where I left off (around 4000 words) and writing until midnight, just thirty minutes away. I was ready for bed, and all I needed to do at that time would be hit save and turn off the lights.

But no, this one scene (this whole chapter is one scene) has kept me going for an extra hour, and I've come to a problem, a very specific problem: Pyrrha's armor, specifically her breastplate. I remember enough about her armor from all the memes after V3 ended ("yeah, you woulda lived if you covered your chest with armor" type stuff), but for the sake of the authenticity of this chapter, I needed...more precise knowledge.

There was one way to get that knowledge, and it was not lost on me how creepy it sounds to say that at 1am in the morning I Google Image searched "Pyrrha Nikos" with the sole intention of _intently_ studying her boobs and boob-related armor.

Oh, the great lengths I go for you guys. As a straight male, forcing myself to do such a unseemly task was just pure torture, torture I tell you. All of it for what, in the greater scheme of things, was a rather tiny detail added to a rather pivotal moment of the scene. In fairness to myself, I feel like attention to armor details in this scene was critical for both sides of the ensuing spar, so I feel like it all worked out.

Doesn't mean I didn't feel awkward as hell peeping on Pyrrha past midnight to produce the perfect placement of a precise power-strike in a pivotal point of a precarious power-struggle.

* * *

 ** _Alliteration is fun._**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 13:** _"In a world without Aura, skill means less. Anyone can land a lucky blow at any time, meaning that no matter how skilled, you could always be stopped. But Aura? Aura is the great unequalizer. When a lucky blow can't bring you down in one shot, suddenly the skill gap expands by miles. Someone just slightly better than you gets a massive advantage because they have more chances to prove that they're better._

 _All of it means that being the underdog in a fight is a death sentence. Except for me; I excel at winning fights that I shouldn't. Normally." – Jaune Arc_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

"Don't worry about it, man," a voice called out from across the locker room as I was looking through my locker at my weapons. Thoroughly confused as what the guy was talking about, I turned around to find out who said it and what it meant. "Everyone knows she's doing it on purpose."

"It's Sun, right?" I asked the guy who had spoken. He looked familiar and I knew I had seen him somewhere before, but chances are I didn't care enough at the time to pay attention to him.

"Yeah, you don't remember me?" Sun asked more surprised and amused than offended. His smile grew slightly despite me not recognizing him, and I instantly got the feeling that he was just a barrel of sunshine, which was reason to make me wary of him. "Transfer student from Mistral? _Stowaway_?"

"Oh, are you that faunus that nearly tore Team RWBY apart?" I asked, recalling how that whole rift began about some stowaway faunus that had sparked a powderkeg of a debate between Weiss and Blake. Sun had the decency to cringe at the accusation, but didn't let it cramp his smile.

"Uh, yeah. I was also at the docks with Blake," he redirected quickly to avoid that subject, and I let it go easily; it didn't bother me, so I didn't care if it was avoided. "Though you took a nap for most of the downtime after the fight, and I…uh…"

" _Oh yeah,_ " I exclaimed, the night coming back to me now. "You're the guy that ditched us to avoid the cops!"

"That's me!" He confirmed enthusiastically, with only the slightest embarrassment.

"Okay, Sun, tell me," I pivoted the conversation, "what exactly does everyone know is being done on purpose, and by who?" I used his exact wordage to make it clear that I wanted a concise answer and not some sort of beat-around-the-bush stuff.

"Um…Miss Goodwitch?" Sun answered back nervously. "You…didn't know?"

"Know what? That she doesn't like me?" I answered back, uncertain. "Is it so obvious that the visiting students notice it?" To be honest, I had forgotten that other students had been arriving or were even supposed to. Now that I think back on it, there had been an increase in faces that I didn't recognize recently, but I never really payed much attention to what was going on outside of our two teams.

"No, not that…well, yeah, actually. It's a little obvious sometimes, like…the food fight?" Sun trailed off as if checking if I remembered.

" _Oh._ You were there for that?"

"Yeah, we've been trickling in for a little while. Visitors, I mean. Only Neptune here—" Sun pointed to a blue-haired guy nearby who had been making a point to keep his eyes to himself and his locker, "—from my team has made it so far, but we were _totally_ at that food fight. I thought we were about to see Miss Goodwitch tear you to pieces, too! I've gotta say, I'm _loving_ it here at Beacon."

"Well…thank you?" I answered, unsure of what the net-gain (or net-loss) was on that statement. "But back to the original point, what did Miss Goodwitch just do to me? I'll admit I wasn't really paying attention when she called out the fights, but I don't remember anything unusual." I thought back to the scene we had just left as Miss Goodwitch called out the fight schedule for this last session of the week, but it's Friday and I really wasn't paying any attention whatsoever. _Not that it being Friday had anything to do with me not paying attention; that usually happens regardless._

"Do you know who you're fighting?" His friend, Neptune as it were, interjected. From the tone of his voice, it was obvious that it was my opponent that he seemed to view as my punishment, but there was an underlying urgency to his voice that piqued my interest.

"Um, yes?" I answered back, not understanding the severity they were ascribing to the situation. "I've got a solo match with my partner."

" _Dude_ , Pyrrha's your partner? _Nice!_ " Neptune shifted gears suddenly, and just as suddenly shifted back. "Wait, have you…even _seen_ her fight?"

"Not…really, now that I think of it." I had seen her go hand-to-hand with Nora yesterday and win handily, but Pyrrha had every advantage in the world over Nora in that sort of fight: height, reach, frame, and agility. There was the first day after my fight with Cardin, but I don't think I actually watched the fight, too busy making sure that my teammates disliked me, for all that seems to have worked. After my spar with Ruby, I was sent to Goodwitch's office, so I missed any fights there. "Isn't she some sort of fighter?"

" _Oh, here we go_ ," Sun mumbled, putting his face in his hand.

"Dude, she isn't just _some_ fighter!" Neptune chastised me. "She's undefeated in the last four years, ever since she won her first Mistral regional tournament. I've seen her take on three professional fighters and make them all cry without dropping into the yellow."

"You had to get him going…"

"…why do you know all this?" I asked, half-kidding. "Sun, should I be worried your teammate is stalking my partner?"

" _I know this_ ," Neptune cut back before Sun could answer, "because I'm from Mistral. She's a big deal back home."

"So am I, but you don't see me fawning over her," I answered back, pretending to be upset. It was obvious to Sun that I was ribbing his teammate, but Neptune didn't seem to pick up on it yet. _To be fair, if you were going to pick someone from this school to fall head-over-heels for, Pyrrha would certainly be on the list, so I wouldn't actually hold that against him._ "Okay, so why is fighting her a punishment then?" I countered, shifting away from ribbing him to actually get some information. "Shouldn't it be some sort of honor?"

"Nah."

"Only if you like getting humiliated." Neptune answered back simply. "She seems nice, but she's just so good that everyone she fights looks silly for trying." I looked to Sun to see if Neptune was exaggerating, but Sun shrugged his shoulders and kinda confirmed it. "How do you not know this if you're from Mistral?"

"Isn't _he_ from Mistral?" I asked, pointing to Sun. "He's not obsessed with her."

"Nope. Vacuo." Sun answered proudly. "I just came to Mistral for school, since...uh..."

"Vacuo sucks?"

"I wasn't going to say that." Sun responded, before trailing off and pointedly _not_ correcting it.

"Don't worry, I'm from the wilds of Mistral. I'd probably be more similar to a Vacuoan than a Mistralian." Considering that right now the Mistralian in the room was going nuts over Pyrrha and the Vacuoan was _not_ , I'd say that statement was instantly proven true. "So, you're telling me," I pivoted back to Neptune, "that Miss Goodwitch is making me fight Pyrrha to embarrass me in front of the school?" _Poetic, actually, seeing as this started with me beating Cardin up and humiliating him, and that's how she plans to get back at me._

"I mean," Neptune started to answer, trailing off and looking to Sun for confirmation. Sun shrugged again. "Pretty much."

"There was this rumor going around that she'd make you fight with your hands tied behind you back!" Sun offered in enthusiastically. "As terrible as that would be, obviously," Sun tried to recover to keep me from noticing his obvious enjoyment of that scenario.

"Huh," was the only answer I gave after that, going back to my locker to finish arming myself as thoughts swirled around in my head. I was broken out of them as I noticed that tied to my claymore was a folded piece of paper with my name written on it in dark red ink. I pulled it out from the rubber band holding it in place and opened it up to find it a letter of sorts:

 _Jaune,  
Because I'm so awesome, I found an awesome name for your sword! __Angau Glas_ _. Doesn't it just sound cool? It means "Grey Death" in a language that Weiss is trying (failing) to learn and had a dictionary laying around for, so it's perfect. Crocea Mors and Angau Glas.  
You're not done YET! You're close though, so don't worry! All swords have to be named after some sort of battle, the bigger the better! I named Crescent Rose after I killed a whole bunch of Grimm. Something tells me that you don't want to go to all that effort, so as long as you have a good spar or something, I guess that works too!_

 _Good luck!  
Beacon's #1 Team Leader, Ruby_

"Angau Glas?" I tested the name out loud. It sounded weird, but then again, so does _Crocea Mors_. The letter was so perfectly Ruby, too, though it did raise the question of how she ever got that note in my locker, but that wasn't really important. _The bigger battle the better, huh?_

A plan started to form in my head and a started arming myself with some purpose now, taking care that the straps to Crocea Mors and Angau Glas were secured firmly. I was going to leave it behind, but I decided to bring the ceramic dagger, too, strapping it to the small of my back, hidden beneath my untucked shirt. My old metal armor that I left back with the Tribe would have blocked my ability to reach behind my back for it, but the leather armor I had now was small and light enough to not interfere with it, meaning that I could bring out a hidden dagger in a flash. _At some point, I might want to look into getting a new set of armor that_ didn't _match the Arc Crest forged._ It wasn't that the armor would give me away, but it would raise questions about why I didn't want to use Crocea Mors more if my armor matched it. I put those thoughts to rest, refocusing myself on my fight ahead.

If Miss Goodwitch wanted me to be embarrassed in front of the class, she had better hope that Pyrrha was _better_ than advertised. _No matter how good she is, she can't be more challenging than Raven_. I was, what, technically 0-2 in spars so far, right?

Now seems like a good time to start trying; besides, I have to officially christen my new sword with an epic battle, otherwise Ruby will make me do it again.

* * *

Sun and Neptune's match ended in a solid victory over Cardin and Sky, though to Cardin's credit, Sky was the weak link of the match. Cardin had been putting a lot of pressure on Neptune, but all Neptune had to do was hold out as Sun dispatched Sky rather easily. From there, Cardin didn't have the awareness or skill to beat _two_ opponents, especially not when one had a reach advantage (Neptune) and the other had the agility advantage (Sun, by far). Theirs was the second-to-last match for today, with Pyrrha and I saved for last.

I had left my seat with the rest of my team right after their match had begun and was waiting by the ramp to the fighting stage when the combatants exited. Sky walked by first and I held out my hand for a half-hearted high-five as he passed by, doing the same for Sun and then Neptune. Cardin was lagging behind slightly and currently glaring daggers into Sun's back.

"I don't know why you're so angry at him," I called out to Cardin, breaking him from his stare at the faunus. "His tail isn't the reason you got double-teamed." Cardin didn't respond but looked confused, before looking back over at Sun and then to Sky, realizing my meaning: _it wasn't the_ faunus' _fault you lost._ "You fought pretty good," I added on, making an effort to challenge that whole 'racism' thing before offering a fist-bump, which Cardin accepted. _And hey, the fact that Miss Goodwitch was staring at me and watching the exchange had_ nothing _to do with me going out of my way to show us getting along._ That she would be confused that we seemed to be on good terms seemingly out of nowhere was just a nice bonus here, totally.

"Whatever," Cardin grumbled, shaking the thoughts free. "You've got Nikos, right?"

"Yeah."

"Have fun with that," Cardin offered with a chuckle as the girl in question finished making her way over from her seat in the crowd.

"What, you don't trust my vigilante powers?" I joked, keeping my voice low enough to not really stand out to anyone nearby. If they did overhear it, it would just sound like a stupid joke, anyways.

"And our last match of the day: Pyrrha Nikos versus Jaune Arc." Miss Goodwitch announced, reading from her tablet-scroll as if she hadn't been looking forward to this fight. "I expect a _clean_ fight," Miss Goodwitch pretended to announce as she spoke directly at me.

"Isn't that an oxymoron? _Clean fight_?" I asked back, receiving no acknowledgement whatsoever.

"Miss Nikos, may I ask you a favor?" Miss Goodwitch asked, pointedly ignoring me but catching my interest all the same. Pyrrha looked surprised and I tensed up a little, sensing that Miss Goodwitch might actually be up to something like tying my hands; Pyrrha nodded in affirmation to Miss Goodwitch's question. "Would you mind if we recorded the fight for instructional use? Normally, we would have a Huntsman help demo for fights, but the Headmaster and I feel that studying your form could help other students."

Pyrrha was caught off-guard and looking rather uncomfortable, having been put into a spotlight all of a sudden, but eventually stammered out an answer. "S-sure. My old fights were televised anyways, so it isn't like no one can find any footage." Pyrrha's answer told me that she didn't see what Miss Goodwitch was really doing: ensuring that Pyrrha took the fight seriously to make this harder on me. The content look Miss Goodwitch gave me told me that she knew exactly what she was doing, and it gave more credence to Neptune's theory that I was here to be embarrassed.

Well, if it's a show that Miss Goodwitch wants, I've got no problem giving her one.

"You know, we never talked about your Semblance, did we?" I asked Pyrrha as I reached back and pulled Angau Glas free from its holder.

"No, I guess we didn't." Pyrrha answered, flipping her spear up to get a proper grip as she reached back and grabbed her shield, sliding it onto her left forearm. "I'll tell you later, if you want to know."

"Oh, I think I'd like to find out for myself."

" _Begin_."

I approached Pyrrha, dragging Angau Glas across the ground to my right, picking up my pace as I neared her. She made to stab forward at my unprotected front and I stopped moving forward and threw that momentum into a long up-diagonal swing with Angau, but Pyrrha had only feinted the stab and leaned back to avoid the blade entirely. She stepped in, making to strike again, and I brought my arms in as I accelerated the spin, bringing the blade back around to trade with her as she stabbed. This didn't get her either, as again she was feinting the jab, turning to deflect the blade with her shield as she spun parallel to the strike. With my blade redirected, she finished her spin by sweeping at my legs and knocking me on my back.

I didn't stay down for hardly any time, instincts kicking in as I rolled sideways to avoid a finishing blow that never came. I shot up to my feet as fast as I could to find Pyrrha standing there, waiting for me to get up and keep fighting. It was a move that told me just how much of a threat she considered me, that she could let me get up and get back into the fight without worry, but her ready stance still spoke of not disrespecting me enough to drop her guard. "Oh, is that how it's gonna be?"

"Sorry," she replied, shrugging her shoulders.

I approached again, dragging the blade out to the side as before, but much more slowly, no longer looking to score a free win. This time, Pyrrha leaped out at me, going for a stab at my head, but I got the cross-guard of my weapon up in time to redirect the blow to pass over my shoulder. Pyrrha swung her shield at my ribs to keep me from capitalizing on the exchange, forcing me to release one hand from my grip to counter her swipe. With one hand and the handle of my weapon above my head and the other one having just protected my stomach, I chose to grab the blade of Angau and rotate the weapon so that the pommel pointed towards Pyrrha's face before pushing in an attempt to bash her face with the pommel. Pyrrha saw what I was doing and tried to resist the push but was too out of position, merely dampening the force of the blow instead of blocking it. With her slightly dazed, I used my half-sword grip to bring the point of the weapon up, slashing at Pyrrha's stomach, which _should_ have worked, but Pyrrha had the idea and ability to bring her spear back to her now that I was no longer holding that block from earlier. In doing so she twirled it in her hand to reverse her grip as the blade twirled between us, catching the tip of my weapon and redirecting it. On its own, it would have been an impressive move to lessen the damage, but even while stunned she had the foresight to turn her hips as she redirected her blade so that her resulting parry would cause my blade to pass by harmlessly.

Undeterred, I sought to apply more pressure and use the new position to stab at her with the half-sword form, but when I looked up I was greeted by a spear. Apparently, Pyrrha had spun her spear a second time after parrying me to return her grip to normal while bringing the weapon to rest along the back of her shoulders, and with her hips turned away from me, those shoulders (and the spear) were pointing right at my face. As the spear jabbed at me, I threw my head to the side to avoid dying, only to find the spear was a distraction for her shield-hand to smack me in the face, and before I could recover from that, my legs were swept out from underneath me a second time. Once again, she waited for me to get back up instead of attacking, so I took my sweet time.

"YEAH PYRRHA!" Nora cheered, only for me to turn my head and give her a 'hey, what gives' sort of look. "KICK HIS BUTT!"

"Man, my team sucks," I mumbled, only loud enough for Pyrrha to hear, causing her to giggle slightly. "Alright, well, I tried to use this thing," I called out to no one in particular, looking down at my claymore. _Clearly, she was watching my last two fights and was prepared for any tricks I had with this thing._ I flexed my aura into my hand slightly, feeling the blade pop as the outer shell unlocked itself and the ends of the cross-guard popped off so that it wouldn't be oversized for the broadsword coming out of the shell. With the shell not attached but still hanging off the end, I swung the blade in Pyrrha's direction and the shell slid off the weapon, flung at her like a projectile.

Of course, this didn't actually do anything to Pyrrha, who turned aside a little to let the shell pass by, but it occupied her enough to stop her from counter-attacking me as I charged forward and locked my blade with her spear and shield. So far, she had proven to be more explosive and faster, but I was still larger than her, not to mention a few inches taller, so when it came down to a shoving match, I had the advantage of strength. _In most other, more important aspects, I suspect she's got advantage, though._ Using my weight and leverage, I forced her back a few steps and I could see in her eyes that she was looking for a way to disengage and gain distance again; after all, she had a reach advantage and couldn't contend with me getting under her guard.

With no safe option to disengage, she chose to limit my damage, allowing my blade to slide off the side of her spear and slice at her arm, and I made sure to make her pay for the opening by throwing power into the slice. It wasn't fruitless on her end, as letting the blades pass meant she got a chance to trade the damage as she sliced down at my calf, and I chose to let the weapon deal damage to my aura like normal instead of wasting extra aura to absorb the blow and block the pain. _Just because I block it doesn't mean that I take any less damage, just that I'm unaffected by the pain or momentum, and right here it would buy me no advantage._

After the trade, Pyrrha sought to build up distance between us by punching me in the side with her shield-arm, and _this_ time I flared my Semblance to kill the force of the shove, meaning she didn't knock me far enough away to regain her reach advantage. The look in her eyes told me she knew that didn't work and I stepped back into her guard as I lunged forward with Angau Glass, forcing her to cross her body with her shield and deflect the blow away from her hip. With her in an awkward position, I drew the sword back in a reverse-slash in an up-diagonal towards her far (shield-side) shoulder, forcing her to match the movement with her shield and bring it up to head-height. With me still inside her guard, her spear was a hindrance and now I had redrawn my hands above my right shoulder after the slash, leaving me able to launch a vertical strike at her face. Her eyes went wide as I started to jab the blade at her face, and with only a few inches of space before the strike landed, she flinched and pulled her shield up from in front of shoulder to in front of her face.

Just like I had hoped. With her line of sight blocked, she didn't see that the strike was a feint and I spun my wrists to bring a hard slash down on the side of her body, where her shield would normally be protecting. She flinched at the damage and brought her shield down but by then I had regathered my sword and launched a slice in a up-diagonal right to where her shield had just vacated: her face. She turned her shoulders and head to avoid taking it on the face, but in doing so pushed her shoulder further into the cut. I kept my momentum going up until I brought my hands back down in a powerful downwards strike, but in doing so gave her enough time to get her spear turned around to brace the blow with.

We were locked in place, my sword held straight in front of me and Pyrrha's spear crossing it, pointed down at our feet. Somewhere in that exchange she had put her shield on her back without me noticing and was gripping the spear with both hands, giving her enough grip to hold her own in the deadlock, although the awkward position with her hands above her shoulders trying to hold the spear pointed downward robbed her of vital strength. "Is this what is feels like to win a spar?" I half-joked, half-taunted loud enough so that Miss Goodwitch and some of the crowd could hear it. "I think I like it." Pyrrha didn't like the comment, if the frown she gave it was any indication, but she struggled to maintain an even expression while straining to keep up the hold.

"It's not over yet," Pyrrha grumbled, followed suddenly by her spear beginning to mecha-shift. Before I could react, she was now holding me off with a rifle, and wouldn't you know that the barrel was pointed at my toe. With a quick pull of the trigger a round pinged off my foot, causing me to flinch and lose the shoving-match as Pyrrha surged, her weapon shifting into a longsword not unlike my own now. She broke through my hold to stab at my stomach and bring the weapon back to her with a reverse-slice at my hands, which might have made me drop my sword if I hadn't been trained to hold onto my weapon despite any attack. Now, I was the one who was panicking on the defense and I tried to through a counter-strike at Pyrrha's head to trade some of the damage and maintain my lead, but she had pulled back and parried the blow, causing it to miss entirely and give her follow-up swing momentum that she used to cut at my exposed arms after the parry, before deciding that was enough and retreating.

I didn't want to let her dictate when the fight ended and I charged forward at her, catching her off-guard as I half-sworded Angau Glas and knocked her weapon above me, looking to charge besides Pyrrha and slash deep at her thigh. The part where I knocked her weapon aside worked flawlessly and against any normal fighter I should have dealt a serious blow to their aura, but Pyrrha, the apparent acrobat that she is, just decided to freaking _do a flip_ off her flat feet, slashing out while midair to cut into my back. My momentum carried me a few feet before I could stop myself, and my charge had just done the opposite of what it was supposed to, which was deal damage and keep her close.

"Alright, you're good at this," I offered, catching my breath and taking a peak at the scoreboard. After that last blow, I had just barely entered the yellow at 73% and Pyrrha was still sitting in the green, though just barely, at 76%. "All that pit fighting pays off, huh?"

"You're not bad yourself," she responded after a pause, never having dropped her guard. She seemed on edge, like she wasn't expecting things to last this long as was beginning to reevaluate me. A quick glance at the audience made me realize how deathly quiet everyone was, no one daring to talk louder than a whisper; that said, there was a _lot_ of whispering going on. My favorite spectator was Miss Goodwitch, though, because her eyes were as wide as could be, and considering what this fight was supposed to be for me, that brought a smile to my face.

With Pyrrha and I still catching our breath, I took a moment to examine my opponent more closely, as I'm sure she was doing with me. _She's certainly more agile, and I've noticed that her reactions and sword-speed are better than mine._ She had also displayed a natural instinct for battle, an ability to react to things as or before they happened that doesn't come naturally to me. Her technical skill with the blade I hadn't seen as much of yet, but I had a feeling it would at least rival mine, if not surpass it. _And to top it off, I've yet to see a Semblance, so that's lurking around, too._

What do _I_ have? So far, my footwork and positioning has been better, as she's let me dictate the flow and feel of the fight; this worked out in my favor some, like when I got under her guard, and against me, like when she just jumped over my charge. Positioning reminds me that I was better at close-range combat, but that was when she had the spear and needed to rely on space. My only other advantage was my ability to negate any pain or stuns she tries with my Semblance, and that did come into play once, but that's a very difficult path to victory; I still take damage that way, and I need to use it to open up opportunities to deal even more damage if I want to stay on pace. _It feels fair to say that I have a larger aura reserve, but that doesn't mean that I can always catch her off-guard when I try to trade._

"Are you going to fight, or are you just going to stand there and look pretty!?" Nora yelled out from the crowd, very displeased that her entertainment had slowed down. Pyrrha and I shared a look.

"I mean, I could always take my shirt off again," I joked, and noted that none of the people who got that reference actually told me no. Pyrrha opened her mouth to say something but shook the thought free from her head as she brought her guard back up and began to approach. I could have sworn I saw Nora shrug her shoulders out of the side of my vision. _Not that I would doubt it; Pyrrha and I could fight to the death or put on a strip-tease, and Nora would probably love it either way_.

Pyrrha and I approached each other once again, both of us wielding some variant of a two-handed broadsword, Pyrrha approaching with the sword held at her hip and pointing out at me, and me with Angau Glas resting against the front of my shoulder. We circled around each other, testing the other's footwork and form, and Pyrrha showed that she was as smooth and familiar with these forms as I had expected, which was bad news for me. I brought my sword forward to tap the edge of my blade against hers, beginning the dance of swordsmen. With both of us out of measure still, we felt each other out as we slowly inched closer, each of us daring the other to make a move.

Pyrrha moved first when she noticed that I wasn't putting any real effort into resisting her blade in the cross-lock we were in, pushing my blade out of the way with a sudden burst of power and sliding her blade along mine, directing it into a stab at my body. This was what I was testing for, as I had let my sword go limp on purpose, sidestepping so that Pyrrha's blade was guided along mine to stab the air underneath my right arm. From this position, she could limply drag the blade back across me, but had to contend with whatever I was about to do; however, I couldn't free my blade up to strike without Pyrrha bringing hers back, so I settled for reaching out with my left hand and grabbing a hold of Pyrrha's top wrist, holding it in place to neutralize her sword. This didn't leave me with enough space to swing my sword, but it gave me enough to untangle it and bring my right hand forward to smack Pyrrha in the face with the pommel, but with the awkward angle, it wasn't anything I could get power behind.

This stunned Pyrrha and I let go of her wrist to try to get a two-handed down-diagonal slash in, but Pyrrha's reflexes and instincts weren't going to let that happen as she stepped to the side and brought her own sword up to parry and deflect my blade away—a beautiful move that was difficult to pull off in a training situation, given the extremely tiny window for catching and fully redirected a sword-blow—leaving my chest exposed. Pyrrha had her chance to swipe upwards across my chest coming from my left, where Crocea Mors was still strapped to my waist. I didn't have time for a full draw, but I released my right hand and used it to draw it just under half-way, but far enough that Pyrrha's slice landed on the flat of Crocea Mors and bounced off.

I thought this was my chance to take much the same swipe at Pyrrha as she had done to me, albeit from my left where she attacked from her right, but in the time I wasted bringing my right hand back to Angau Glas, Pyrrha had spun her sword around her head and transformed it, until I was once again staring down the barrel of a rifle sitting on Pyrrha's shoulder, a perfect mirror of the last time I had this view. Were Pyrrha allowed to use actual dust rounds during training, I would have tanked a dust round to the face, but with the 'training' rounds that carried a lot less dust and moved slower, I was able to jerk my head to the side to avoid being shot, though the whizz of the bullet as it buzzed my ear was unsettling.

I took advantage of Pyrrha being in such an unnatural fighting position and dropped down to one knee as I tried to take out her legs from behind her, similarly to how she took out mine at the beginning of our fights, except I wasn't nice enough to let her get up afterwards, though. I should have known better than to think that this would end well for me, as Pyrrha backflipped over the sweep and landed in a crouch on one knee, grabbing and throwing her shield at me in the process. The damn thing smacked me in the side of the head and I hadn't seen it coming enough to brace with my semblance, so it knocked my head to the side, preventing me from seeing whatever follow-up strike was coming. _She landed in an athletic crouch and has her weapon, and I'm not looking at her; there's no chance she_ isn't _charging me right now._ I'm in a bad spot here, as playing into her hand could see me taking enough damage to call the fight, so I made a decision: be unpredictable. Instead of turning around and trying to react to whatever she was coming at me with or rolling away in the hopes that she was overcommitted, I made a bold move: throw my shoulder _into_ the incoming attack.

And incredibly, it worked. Pyrrha head leaped at me in spear mode, which wouldn't have quite eliminated me (compared to the sword, certainly not) but would have given her the range and flexibility to stick that thing up my ass if I had tried to dodge away for separation. As such, when I surprised her by moving _into_ the attack, she didn't have any sort of close-range counter and collided into me forcefully, enough to knock the wind out of her. I, however, was unfazed, thanks to this nifty little semblance that flared before impact. _I might have just had my entire torso flash white for a brief moment, but hopefully anyone watching will just think that a sign of how awesome the fight is and not a semblance._

Pyrrha was stunned and I was still inside of her guard, so I went with a powerful up-diagonal two-handed strike that cut firmly across her chest, marking my biggest hit so far. Pyrrha grunted but pushed through the pain and brought her spear back to herself, transforming it into a sword once again, and I pulled out another trick from my sleeve: I let Angau Glas drop to the ground to my side as I drew Crocea Mors and stepped further into her guard. Crocea was a one-handed sword, and as such was lighter and—more importantly for this gamble—shorter than what Pyrrha was using, meaning that there was a sweet-spot in this fight where I was in perfect range for Crocea and too close to Pyrrha for her to be effective. She could block, but her swordplay and counters would be clumsy, allowing me to press.

As an added bonus, Crocea was the weapon I was best with, though that usually was with the shield, too.

Pyrrha saw me draw and knew what my play was, if the wide expression in her eyes was any indication, and she fought to keep me from fully drawing Crocea Mors from its sheath by reaching out and trying to grab my right wrist as I pulled the blade out with it. I made her regret this decision by leaning forward and delivering a punch with my left hand to her breastplate, only to recoil from the attack. It had worked, as the sudden blow to the boob had shaken her enough to draw back and I finished pulling out my sword, but I guess I just assumed that punching someone in the boobs would have more give than it did. _And, yes, I expected it to not hurt because I thought her boobs were so big that they'd absorb the blow; that's my fault._ As it turns out, punching a metal breastplate was not as fun as it sounded.

Pyrrha had just taken one hand off her weapon to stop my draw and I had just stunned her slightly with the titty tap, buying me enough time to go for one strike with my freshly-drawn Crocea Mors. Instead of going for a body-blow, I kept the blade going straight at Pyrrha's weapon-hand, crashing into it and breaking her grip, sending her weapon falling behind her. Her eyes went wide and she immediately started backpedaling as I pushed forward, launching into a flurry of slashes and strikes at her body. She did a phenomenal job avoiding damage, displaying that agility that I could not in a million years match to make up for me holding both the weapon and footwork advantage until her heel kicked into where her weapon lay on the ground behind her.

It was here that Pyrrha made her stand.

Pyrrha flicked her heel back, catching her weapon and flinging it upwards behind her back until it started to fall back down towards her, with her reaching up to grab it. In doing so, she had to forgo moving backwards to avoid my strikes, so I wound up for a crushing up-diagonal hack coming from my right and made sure to launch it just before Pyrrha caught her weapon, so that no matter what, she wouldn't have the time to block it. This blow would end the fight.

Except, it didn't, and I don't know how.

My strike was going beautifully and Pyrrha saw it at the last moment, throwing herself backwards in an attempt to let the strike pass overhead, but she had reacted too late the and blow was still going to slice into her mid-ribs, when suddenly, the blade acted as if it had a mind of its own. _I know_ exactly _where Crocea Mors should be when I swing it, and it should have impacted her side, an inch below the bulge of the breastplate._ The blade fought against me enough to just scratch the surface of Pyrrha's armor as it slid from under the breast into the grove between breastplates set back into her cleavage, until the blade had _miraculously_ sliced through the middle of her chest without actually damaging her.

Worse still, now I had to contend with the overhead strike that Pyrrha was bringing down on top of me after my attack whiffed— _no, it didn't whiff; it was altered somehow._ I turned to lessen the blow slightly but it still hurt like hell, and cut deep into my aura. I panicked and tried to back away to rob her of the momentum, so I made sure to swing nondescriptly in Pyrrha's direction before rolling away to safety to reform a plan, confident in the knowledge that she couldn't close the gap before I could turn around since I had swung out at her, making her dodge back. What I forgot about was her rifle, which I was _promptly_ reminded of as three dust rounds pinged off my back before I could get into a defensive position.

"That hurt." I called out, flexing my arm where I had taken most of the blow previously.

"You're not kidding," Pyrrha called back, trying her best not to make it obvious that she had crossed her arm across her chest to massage the boob I had socked, which brought a small smile to my face. Pyrrha caught that smile and we both had the decency to turn a little red, but that wasn't noticeable, as our faces were already red from being winded in the fight. Pyrrha glanced up at the aura gauges and her demeanor suddenly turned a lot stiffer, and I turned to find that we were both in the mid 40's, with myself at 48% and Pyrrha at 44%. _She's feeling the pressure and I'm right where I want to be; the first one to make a mistake loses._ All the hard work had been done getting to this point, and I have to say, I'm feeling pretty great about this right now. I just need to get her to 25% to eliminate her by aura, after all.

 _Except for that whole 'my sword being moved by magic' thing._ What was that, some sort of Semblance? She never did actually get to tell us what her semblance is, and if she doesn't telegraph what it is in fights, that means she's saving it. It _could_ be something not applicable like Nora's lightning fetish—that may be the wrong word, but it feels right, given the person—but my sword was just moved by itself, so _something_ is up. Telekinesis? That would present one large problem: she won't let me get close enough to strike her if she feels like the fight is going badly, which has to be _soon_. _I need to land a knock-out punch with a blow that she either allows to go through or is surprised by._

We started to lazily circle each other again, with Pyrrha warily eyeing me and me dropping my sword to my side, keeping my stance loose and taunting her with my carelessness. We both circled around until Pyrrha could pick up her shield from where it landed after smacking me earlier while I could pick up Angau Glas, with an idea starting to form in my head. _So far, she's only used her semblance to alter a strike that she thought was going to eliminate her; if I can get that again, I can use it against her._ Nevermind I didn't exactly have a great plan for doing that; it was _a_ plan, that was enough.

I switched Crocea over to my left hand and Angau to my right, not liking the imbalance of a two-hand and a one-hand. I flexed a tiny bit of aura into Angau's handle and another shift in the blade occurred, with maybe the top six inches coming lose; Pyrrha instinctively flinched and brought her shield up, ready for me to sling the free piece at her again, but I let it fall to the floor. _I don't need to give a telekinetic a projectile, after all._

"Alright, Jaune," I mumbled to myself, so quiet that no one would hear it, not even Kitty-ears Mc(former)Terrorist in the stands, despite the dead-silence hanging in the air around us. "You've trained against murders and Maidens. What's a little telekinesis to a guy like you?" I gave each sword a little twirl, getting a feel for their balance. Angau Glas was a little heavier than Crocea Mors, but they were almost exactly the same length and the difference was manageable.

Pyrrha and I approached again, her using her spear and shield combo and me dual-wielding one-handed swords. She had a reach advantage and I had more than one offensive weapon, and I had typically been better at controlling the distance between us, forcing her to rely on her ridiculous reflexes and acrobatics.

Pyrrha went for a standard stab from the top to open things off simple, though with much more rigid movements paired with a strain on her face that lent more credence to the fact that this fight was weighing on her. I went up to catch the blow from underneath with my left hand and Crocea Mors, and dipping my head to the side for good measure, while slicing underneath the exchange with Angau Glas at her hip, which Pyrrha's shield blocked. As Pyrrha pulled back on her spear, she took a step backwards to get separation and shifted the spear into a rifle once more, firing it in the vague direction of my head. I tilted my head the other direction this time to avoid the blow and gave chase, stepping forwards and slicing down and around her rifle with Crocea, going for the other hip that the shield couldn't block. Pyrrha was forced to keep the sword at bay by blocking her side with her rifle, preventing her from using it on the offensive once more.

I had her on the defensive, which was making her more nervous as the fight wore on, and I started to see my opening forming.

With Angau Glas having been blocked the first time, I took it in my right hand and did a back-handed up-diagonal cut that Pyrrha normally would have punished me for even trying, but with her rifle/spear occupied, she had to reach across herself to block it with her shield again, leaving my right arm up above me, just like I wanted. Not letting her rest, I pulled Crocea Mors back and put some real force into lunging forward with it across my body to go for her left hip—the one on the _far_ side of her body from my left hand. Pyrrha reacted appropriately to how much I seemed to be banking on this sudden lunge to work and turned to let the blow pass just under her armpit, but for good measure I felt the tip of the blade wander a little off to the side of its own accord. This left me over-exposed with Pyrrha's weapon-hand free and uncontested to attack my side. I dropped Crocea Mors from that hand and tried to pull it back to my side as fast as I could, feigning a sense of frantic panic.

And she went for the elimination, just like I wanted her to.

Once again, I had controlled the reach between us, and after my lunge she didn't have the distance to properly attack me with spear or rifle, only with her sword, which she shifted to. Because it was a sword as long as her spear, she needed to take a longer and more indirect route to build up the momentum needed with one hand to end this fight here and now. She had the time to do it, too, as there was no way I could get Crocea Mors (especially not dropped) or Angau Glas (above my head) over there in time. Her only swing that would do that would be starting high and cutting down low, probably going for my thigh to land the best blow.

Her eyes lit up as she saw the opening and brought her sword down, only for them to go wide in shock when the attack did nothing. There was one detail she hadn't known and couldn't account for: the fact that the holster for Crocea Mors was a fifteen-pound dead weight shield pretending to be a holster, and it had the very nice property of being made out of _solid metal_ , meaning she had effectively bet the fight on cutting through a shield. _The fact that I dropped Crocea Mors so that I could move that holster around to ensure she hit it dead on didn't help her, either._

Just like when she used her semblance to cripple my strike earlier, she looked up to find me already coming down on her with Angau Glas, except here was where my half-developed plan came in: I was holding the grip _super_ loosely. If she was going to save herself here (and if telekinesis was her power), then she would need to do more than alter the angle; she would have to slow down the attack or stop in entirely.

And she did. But the moment that I felt _any_ resistance, I let my hand fly off the handle, leaving the sword floating in mid-air as I stepped into what was now a punch instead of a strike that smacked Pyrrha right across the face. Her neck snapped to the side and I rushed forward, knowing that I had until she regained her wits to punch out 19% of her aura With Pyrrha severely dazed by the first blow, I immediately threw all my weight into a left jab into her diaphragm, doubling her over enough that I could throw all of my weight into my right elbow, which smacked her across the face and sent her sprawling across the floor.

I didn't have any time to waste, either, as I wasn't stopped by Miss Goodwitch, which meant that I hadn't eliminated her yet. I tried to get on her while she was on the ground but throwing that massive elbow blow without it eliminating her turned out to be a mistake, as the distance bought by knocking her across the floor had allowed her enough time to turn her thoughts over to pure instinct. Her eyes struggled to focus but she rolled over and looked up in my direction, anger burning in her eyes that told me I was in trouble now. Her hands started to glow black and I tried to turn around to avoid whatever she was sending at me, but before I could I was viciously smacked in the back of the skull by Pyrrha's shield. By the time I could look up after that, it was too late.

Pyrrha only had five feet of separation but was aiming her rifle at me as her shield spun around her and my own swords floated in the air, pointing at me in a manner that made it clear they were _not_ my weapons anymore. Pyrrha fired a dust round at me and I dodged it, but from there the two swords and the shield began flying at me, with more dust rounds pinging off my chest to keep me off-balance. I would dodge a stab from Crocea Mors and turn to find Angau Glas, only for Crocea to stop on a damn dime and slice heavily at my calf, distracting me for when the hilt of Angau slammed down onto my thigh, which in turn left me open for the shield smacking me between the eyes with its flat edge. _And it fucking hurt, too; she wasn't holding back_ anything.

For the immediate future, my life consisted of trying to survive this hell where I could do nothing but brace myself as these malicious weapons tormented me, finding new ways to inflict pain and torture me from my blind spots. Everything else faded until there was no sound I could hear except the swish of the air as something came behind me, seeking to cause pain.

And then Crocea Mors drew blood, slicing open my right bicep, signalling to myself and my attacker that my aura was gone entirely. Mercifully, my tormentor saw fit _not_ to shoot me, but Angau Glas bit into my left calf, compromising the strength of my legs that was already failing. For a brief, merciful second, the attacks stopped as Pyrrha charged forward and tackled me, pinning me to the ground as she called her shield to her arms. The glimpse I got into her eyes showed me that she was beyond angry; the rage there stirred a deep fear inside of me, that same one that first unlocked my semblance and had emboldened me to kill my first man: _the fear of death._

Pyrrha brought her shield above my head in her hands before bringing it down, trying to bash my skull with the edge, but now it was my turn to turn to over to instincts, bringing both my forearms above me to block the blow, but not without shooting pain down my arms. Something might have cracked, or broken; I couldn't tell and didn't dwell on it. Pyrrha came down on me again and again I called upon my body to fight back, taking the blow at great pain.

When Pyrrha pulled her arms up again, I made my gamble, betting my life on it. With everything left in me, I made my right arm reach around my back, finding my hidden dagger pinned to the floor and grasping it by the handle. I still had my left hand above my head to block _maybe_ one more blow, and Pyrrha had left her neck open; it was her or me, as my fingers grasped the handle yanked on it, fighting to get it out of its sheath.

Before a true victor could be determined, Pyrrha was suddenly lifted off my body and flung backwards in the air, where she was suspended, seemingly against her will. We were both so out of it—or rather, invested _far too deeply_ into the fight—to realize what was going on, until the break in the action forced our adrenaline to wear out, whereupon we found that we were still in Miss Goodwitch's class, sparring in front of all our classmates and friends, and Miss Goodwitch looked _beyond furious_ that we had just tried to kill each other.

" **MISS NIKOS!** " Goodwitch shouted with such fervor, rage, and obvious fear that I realized that this was not the first time she had shouted for the match to end. I was too focused on not dying there for a while, but the whole flying weapons things couldn't have lasted more than a few seconds. _If I thought Miss Goodwitch hated_ me, _I can't wait to see what she does to a student who tried to_ kill _another student, disregarding that that student was me._

It took Pyrrha longer to break out of her stupor, but once she had, the fire and rage in her eyes evaporated in an instant, leaving a mortified and terrified girl in their place. Miss Goodwitch refused to let her out of whatever was making her levitate until she had a chance to see the change with her own eyes, before eventually setting her down and turning her attention to me, the _dying guy on the mat, thank you very much_.

The moment Pyrrha hit the ground and regained movement, her hand nervously went to cover her agape mouth as she stumbled backwards with tears in her eyes, tripping over a sword and using the fall as a convenient excuse to start running out of the room as fast as she could.

Everyone had watched her go, including Miss Goodwitch, who had no words. Her anger was briefly overtaken by concern— _and hey, Pyrrha's not the one who took a beating; I need some pain meds here, please and thanks!_ —as she looked to Nora and Ren, who had materialized at my side. Some unspoken conversation passed by that quite frankly I was too hurt—both literally, and not gonna lie, having your partner snap on you is emotionally confusing, so metaphorically as well—to care.

"You should go after her," Miss Goodwitch instructed Ren and Nora. "I'm sure Team RWBY can get Jaune to the infirmary." There was something being implied about Pyrrha being the one in more dire need of help right now that I fundamentally did _not_ agree with, but I was too distracted by realizing that Team RWBY had also materialized next to me to realize that Ren and Nora ran off after Pyrrha.

"Is she going to have to forfeit that fight?" I asked from the floor to Miss Goodwitch, because if I got DQ'ed for hurting Ruby, they better throw the damn book at Pyrrha. _Maybe that's just the broken arms and bleeding legs talking, though._ I never got an answer, as instead Team RWBY fought over who got to pick me up.

"No, it's fine, I can stand," I waived off Blake trying to pick me up by my arm pits as I rolled onto my knees, taking care not to use or even move my arms in the slightest. I tested putting weight on my right leg and tried to stand up, before wobbling out and falling over, to be caught from underneath by Blake. "I lied, I can't stand."

"Don't make this worse, Jaune," Weiss berated in the most caring way possible while still sounding degrading. Yang hooked herself under my left arm and Blake under my right, trying to support me enough to walk off on my own power, and it did occur to me that the entire class was still watching and hadn't so much as made a sound. That idea was nixed the _instant_ that I put any pressure whatsoever on my arms, causing pain to shoot down from where I had blocked Pyrrha's shield. It wasn't truly broken, as I could move the arms okay, but there had to be cracks or something. My grimace from the pain, not to mention a very passionate curse word that rhymed with ' **DUUUUUUUUUCK!** ', led them to giving up on letting me walk out on my own.

"Sorry about this, Jaune," Yang announced pre-emptively as she reached down to pick me up bridal-style, taking care not to pin my arms as I protectively tucked them into my chest. _This sucks balls; Raven's never fucking broken my arms before. I guess her training isn't as extensive as she brags._ For all the different ways she made me deal with and familiarize myself with pain, this wasn't on the menu. Granted, she never did anything to cause _actual_ damage like breaking a bone, since she needed me ready for a fight, but she still could have done more.

A brief thought passed through my mind that I really must be dying if I'm actively wishing that Raven had trained me _more_ intensely. With each passing second, more and more of my adrenaline wore off and I realized that I ached all over from Pyrrha's weapon-tornado I was put through.

"I'm…going to allow this," I tried to quip back to Yang, before closing my eyes, resting my head against Yang, and trying to focus on anything— _anything_ —except for the pain I was in or what had just happened.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Oh baby, here we go.**

 **Of course, we as the audience have an advantage here, because we already know a lot about Pyrrha, so we know that she's competitive and doesn't like being put in the spotlight, not to mention she has an uncanny ability to crush on Jaune. The fact that Jaune just humiliated her in front of everyone** **by basically beating her in a spar and forcing her to reveal her big secret Semblance just so happens to be a perfect storm to make her lose it. It's not exactly her slamming Jaune into a wall during V3, but that scene does show that she's capable of lashing out when emotionally overwhelmed.**

 **This scene. This _freaking_ scene was supposed to be like, say, 6000 words and I would have one more scene with Ozpin and Qrow after it to tie that angle back into the story. But no, I had to go and really get into this one and make it 9000 by itself. Such is they way this story seems to go. Did you know each chapter was supposed to be only 5000 to 6000 words? You wouldn't be able to tell by the over 10k average I have going on.**

 **Oh well, as a reader, more is better.**

 **Also, this fight scene keeps coming back to bite me in the butt, because from here on in every time that I had even a minor skirmish, I kept getting a bunch of "good fight scene, not quite Jaune v Pyrrha tho" comments. I really set the bar too high here. xD**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by user _CjHoax_ on **Ch. 12**

"Well in LATIN 'Crocea Mors' roughly translates to 'Saffron Death'So 'Griseo Mors' would be 'Gray Death"

Did I do a bad?"

 _ **You're doing amazing, sweetie!**_

 **That was basically one of the two options I had, and I'll explain which one I went with and why.**

 **So, my infamous google search was "Crocea Mors." Yes, I know, so original and thorough. As it turns out, _Crocea Mors_ was supposedly the name of Julius Caesar's sword, which I find very cool as I have recently been on a huge history kick and have been watching all sorts of stuff about Caesar's military career. **

**In the Wikipedia article about Crocea Mors (because truly there is no better source, ever), that name was the name given to Caesar's sword according to legends presented by Geoffrey of Monmouth. In the Middle Welsh versions of the story, it is either called _Angau Coch_ or _Angau Glas_ , meaning Red Death or Gray Death. **

**Upon learning this, I realized that Gray Death was a perfect name for the weapon, since Crocea Mors means either "Saffron Death" or "Yellow Death." Now, Jaune's claymore never had a name when I made it up, so finding a name as perfect as "Gray Death" was an act of God.**

 **Which brings me to a dilemna: do I go with the Latin version, Griseo Mors (as given by** _Cj_ **), or the Middle Welsh Angau Glas?**

 **The Latin version has a better symmetry to it, which is why I did _not_ go with that one. Crocea Mors is an heirloom of Jaune's family, and naming a weapon Griseo Mors would imply that the weapons are sister-weapons or cousin-weapons, which they are not. The claymore was a gift from the Tribe, and its darker color and larger size seem symbolic, wouldn't you say? **

**Tl;dr: I went with the less-symmetrical option because it felt more symbolic.**

 _ **Also, I took Latin in middle school and hated it, which made me dislike the idea of translating "gray death" into Latin, even though it literally takes two seconds on Google Translate...**_

 **Also, there was a Guest account who guessed _Aghau Glas_ as the weapon name, which I'll technically credit as correct. For some odd reason, when you Google "Crocea Mors" the first info that pops up is taken from Wikipedia and lists Aghau Glas as being an alternative name. When you follow the link to that article, it is instead spelled Angau Glas, and I don't know why, but I went with what was actually in that article. 'Tis strange. **


	16. Confrontations

**[REFINED Nov 2nd, 2018] Author's Note: Well, this was...long. This chapter started out as Chapter 13.5, but I kept adding things piecewise until suddenly it** **clocked in at 11k words, which feels long. And is long. This story started with a goal of 5000 per chapter...**

 **Eh.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 _To Avidlag: This is probably a bad precedent to set, but ask, and ye shall receive. :D_

* * *

 **Chapter 14: _"I had no part in the events that have transpired, and it falls to me to meter out punishments. The rules say that I should be fair and lenient, but_ I _wrote those rules lifetimes ago, and I reserve the right to ignore them. Unorthodox, perhaps, but I can sufficiently punish all parties_ _while simultaneously drawing all of them closer to our sides. In the large picture, Qrow, what is wrong about that?" - Headmaster Ozpin_**

 ** _"I'm either too hung-over or too sober to argue ethics with a wizard. Do whatever the hell you want." - Qrow Branwen, in response_**

* * *

Blake's POV

* * *

"Son of a bitch!" Jaune exclaimed, yanking his right arm to his side, which only served to cause more pain to said appendage, shown by the twisting of his face. "What was that for?"

"To make a point," Beacon's Nurse, a blonde woman in her mid-twenties named Ms. Schar, answered in response to having grasped Jaune's forearms and squeezed them, and action that Jaune understandably did not appreciate. "If you would take your meds, that wouldn't have hurt."

"You've got to be kidding me. You're _trying_ to hurt me?" Jaune asked in a mix of exasperation and anger. "Don't you have some sort of 'do no harm' pledge?"

"If you would _like_ a medical reason for it, I've all but confirmed that you have a hairline fracture," Ms. Schar answered back confidently as if she hadn't just grabbed Jaune's forearm and squeezed it.

"Jaune, seriously, just take the painkillers." It was Weiss that cut in, clearly exhausted with the routine that had been going on for a few minutes now. It was getting harder to feel bad for Jaune when he was dragging this out for no apparent reason. "Whatever your problem with taking pain medication is, don't worry about it. Your team won't let you get addicted to them and you _need_ some rest."

"No painkillers, and no rest," Jaune answered back grumpily. "Nothing that makes me high or lose consciousness." Coming from someone else, those words might have sounded as if they were afraid of dying if they weren't awake to make sure they were alive, which was a horrifying prospect. Coming from Jaune, who was far more agitated and stubborn than frightened, it didn't elicit any specific emotion other than exhaustion.

"Jeez, who knew Jaune was against a little fun?" Yang teased with a grin from her spot standing next to Jaune's infirmary bed, not so subtly there to act as an enforcer if—or when—needed. She hadn't moved since carrying Jaune here bridal-style, and oh, did I have pictures of that. _I noticed Weiss and Ruby both found an excuse to have their scrolls out, trying to 'find the infirmary,' so chances are they didn't miss the opportunity either._ It's not as if Ruby didn't know where the infirmary was. "Oh wait, _I_ did. I've been saying it for a while."

"Have it your way, Mr. Arc," the nurse conceded, though still clearly agitated. "Flip over on your stomach; I need to stitch up the gash on your thigh before you bleed all over my floor." Jaune gave the nurse a distrusting look, as if she might attack him with a syringe of morphine once his back was turned, before finally relenting and trying to roll over. I say trying, because without being able to use either arm for support, the best Jaune could do was roll off the side of the bed, with Yang there to stop him, though not without giving him a shit-eating grin.

"You're really enjoying my helplessness, aren't you?"

"A little," Yang answered back with a smile, wrapping an arm under Jaune's shoulders and giving him enough lift to swing his feet onto the ground, before spinning him around and letting him lay sideways across the bed on his stomach, with Jaune taking care not to use his arms for support. From there, Yang lifted his legs and spun them to go parallel to the bed and then drug them down until they were supported by the rolling cart the nurse had brought over, allowing her to get to work cleaning and dressing the cut. For all their animosity or rivalry, Yang was hovering over Jaune like a mother, as was Ruby.

"So, uh, Jaune, did you name your sword?" Ruby asked, nervously trying to avoid the incident that had brought Jaune to the infirmary while also finding the silence uncomfortable. "I left a note in your locker."

"Yeah, I saw that," Jaune answered—grunting part way through as the nurse did something to his leg he didn't like—from his position facing down on the table with his head pointed to the side, spinning it around to find Ruby on the other side of the bed. "I figured that was a good enough fight to christen the sword. How did you even get the note in my locker?"

"I…uh…" Ruby stammered, looking to me in her panic. "That's not important."

"Ruby asked me to teach her how to break into lockers last night," I interjected from my seat behind Ruby on the side wall.

" _BLAKE!_ "

"You taught my sister how to break into a locker?" Yang asked with a slight edge, giving me a funny look—one that reminded me that for all her carefree attitude and free spiritedness, Yang was still _very_ conservative and protective when it came to Ruby.

"She did ask, _and I quote_ ," I cut my eyes to Ruby, who pleaded with her eyes for me to spare her, "—if I would teach her how to break into his locker, since I was obviously the most likely to know how."

"Wow, Ruby, even _I_ wouldn't have said _that_ ," Weiss drawled after a pause where we all gave Ruby a funny look, with Ruby clearly missing the sarcasm in Weiss' voice.

"You guys, I didn't mean it like that!" Ruby protested. "I was talking about the whole ninja thing Blake has going on."

"That's what I would say if I was caught being racist, too," Jaune teased from his spot face down on the table. Ruby looked around with wide eyes, meeting serious looks from everyone until she finally looked to me. I couldn't hold it without cracking a small smile and shook my head to let her know that we were just messing with her.

"You guys suck."

"I'm sorry, are we just going to gloss over the elephant in the room?" Yang shifted the conversation suddenly, drawing our attention first to her and then to Jaune.

"Yes please?" Jaune whimpered.

"Was it on purpose?" Ruby asked quickly, eager to get away from the last topic.

"Was...what on purpose?"

"That trick where she made your sword float and you punched her!" Ruby answered, completely forgetting her aversion of this topic from thirty seconds ago.

"Oh, that," Jaune fumbled his words a bit. "Yeah, that was planned. I realized that I couldn't land any hits with her semblance moving my weapons, so I improvised a bit."

"How'd you figure it out?" I asked, taking a step forwards to better join the conversation. "Yesterday, you didn't know any of your team's semblances, and I don't think she told you what hers was." I paused for a moment, looking to Jaune for confirmation, and received it a moment later. "How did you find out?"

"Well, I still don't know exactly what it is that she can do, but I figured out that she had some sort of telepathy when that cut across her chest didn't hurt her."

"That was enough to give it away?" Weiss asked.

"I know _exactly_ where my sword should be at all times, and it should have cut right across her chest. But it didn't," Jaune paused to wince as the nurse did something to his legs, reminding us that she was still here. "And from there, I just had to hope that she would give me a big enough window to elim her melee-style. Clearly, that didn't work."

"I'm sorry, are we just going to gloss over that?" Yang asked incredulously, a smile starting to overtake her. Jaune noticed it too, and whether or not he knew what she was getting at, he clearly knew enough that this was going to be bad.

"Gloss over what?" Ruby asked, taking the bait.

"That Jaune figured out Pyrrha's semblance because something felt off about Pyrrha boobs." Yang could hardly get the words out before giving a single, _threatening_ chuckle, and the rest of us all stopped and thought about what she had said. "Just exactly why are you so intimately familiar with your partner there, Jaune?"

"I..." Jaune began to answer, trailing off to buy time, "don't believe that is what I said. I'm just good enough with my sword to feel these things." Jaune's choice of wording at the end made me have to cough into my hand off to the side to hide the sharp laugh that threatened to come out; Yang had no desire to hide hers.

"Yeah, it sounds like Pyrrha is pretty good with your sword, too."

"Yang," I drawled quietly.

"...at least, she'd want to be."

" _Yang._ "

"Is she always like this?" Jaune asked Ruby, trying to deflect from the fact that he was a little flustered from the attention, although given the discoloration all over his body and on his face, it wouldn't be noticeable if I weren't looking for it.

"Worse," Weiss answered before Ruby could. "Usually, there are puns."

" _Hey Jaune_ ," Yang called out, clearly having heard Weiss' words as the challenge they were. "You almost knocked out Pyrrha by knocking around her knockers. Could be worse, though; you could have knocked her up."

Nothing but annoyed glances and sighs were exchanged, none of it drowning out or dampening Yang's smug aura, completely pleased with herself.

"That's…odd," the voice of the nurse cut in during the small pause that followed, catching everyone's attention and giving us something better to focus on. "I've got his calf stitched up, but it bled much more than it should have for a combat student. His aura should have done more to help."

"Um, the whole reason we're here is because his aura went to zero." It was Yang who answered while helping Jaune reverse the process that had put him on his belly so that he could sit upright again, now that the nurse was finished stitching up that calf. "Well…that, and Jaune's abilities to drive the ladies _wild_."

" _Yang!_ "

"What, too soon?"

" _Too soon?_ " Weiss repeated back. "It was like ten minutes ago! His team isn't even back yet!"

"Yang, come on," I interjected flatly, catching Yang's eye and convincing her to let it go. I didn't often get involved in chastising Yang's jokes because it would be like trying to reverse the direction of a hurricane with a hair-dryer, but that did mean that the few times I did, Yang recognized that she really _should_ stop.

"Even when our aura is broken," the nurse said a little more loudly than usual to gain everyone's attention back, "it usually isn't _completely_ gone. Most of the time, when you go to protect yourself with aura and it fails, you flinch and recoil, drawing some of that aura back. This means that even when your aura breaks, you still have small reserves of it left over. It takes discipline to apply all of your aura to a breaking blow, but it can be done to lessen that blow." With her words in mind, we all looked back to Jaune, likely all wondering whether he had done that. His fight had shown that he was well disciplined and he was always willing to trade damage, and it sounded like something he would do. _He's also very secretive about the things he knows and how he knows them, so hiding something like that wouldn't be outrageous, at least in the eyes of the team._ Given the knowledge I have about Jaune's semblance, it would make sense that he'd learned how to control aura like that.

When Jaune noticed everyone looking at him, he offered a noncommittal shrug, giving us no info.

"Would it save all of the aura, or just some of it? Each time the aura is broken, that is," Ruby asked, breaking the silence. "Because he, uh, had a lot of breaking blows…"

"I like that explanation," Jaune added onto Ruby's possible solution, taunting us for being too curious.

"No, it would take just as much discipline to withdraw all your aura before taking a blow, if not more. I don't think that saving your aura would be on anyone's mind if they were being assaulted." The Nurse's answer sounded, giving Jaune another good excuse.

"I'm liking this explanation, too." Jaune repeated. "It makes it sound like I'm not doing anything suspicious," Jaune said with a small, though pained, laugh. It was jokes like this that kept you from ever truly trusting Jaune to not be up to something, but it was also jokes like this that put you at ease with whatever he _was_ doing; _it can't be so bad that he isn't afraid that we are suspicious_. The dangerous part was that he clearly knew that, and how far he would be willing to push those mind games. _After Forever Fall—and that thing with his semblance—I typically give him the benefit of the doubt, or at least I'm trying; I can't help it if I'm just naturally distrusting._

"But even when injured, an aura-enabled person should heal faster than someone without it. Your aura regenerates faster than most injuries tax it, though usually not by much. His cut seemed as if it's been healing without _any_ aura assistance. In fact, his aura is at…" she trailed off, leaning over to check the meter on her tablet to check if it was abnormally low. " _Eight percent?_ " Instead of a lower number, like zero, Jaune's aura was shockingly high for someone who less than fifteen minutes ago was nearly killed.

"It's…it's a miracle!" Jaune joked nervously, making a poor attempt to distract us.

"Are you _actively_ trying to keep your aura from helping?" The nurse accused, finding it the first and only explanation for why his aura wasn't healing him despite it regenerating quickly.

"…maybe."

" _JAUNE!_ "

"Hey, I know what I'm doing here, okay?" The flat (or out-right angry) looks that Jaune received told him that no one believed him.

"Doesn't that hurt?" I asked to Jaune but _for_ the nurse, catching her attention.

"It would, a lot. Aura helps mitigate pain, so not using it would force you to deal with all of it. And given his injuries…" the nurse trailed off, looking over Jaune as we all did. Other than a few grumbles, he hadn't let on that he was in pain since Yang picked him off the floor of the training room, but looking at how he looked, there was no way he wasn't hurting all over. He had several severe bruises to go along with the gash on his calf and a long but shallow cut on his thigh that had dried up on its own, and that didn't factor in his arms or the blows to the head he had taken either.

"And his refusal to take painkillers," Weiss added on for even more context as we all continued to look over the state he was in and wonder.

"Hey, eyes up here, unless I'm allowed to look all of _you_ up and down," Jaune tried to joke to distract us, but without any success. "Actually, if that's the trade off, you go ahead and look all you want."

"Are you some sort of masochist?" Weiss asked incredulously, but with just enough uncertainty to make it a legitimate question. "Like, legitimately someone who gets off on pain or something?" The suggestion was ridiculous and made partly in jest, but the way that nurse looked at Jaune after that suggestion made it seem like she was really considering the possibility.

"No, I'm not some sort of masochist. I'll heal faster this way," Jaune answered, rolling his eyes until he realized that all of us were serious. We all gave him flat looks for how stupid _not_ using your aura to heal faster sounded. "I'm serious, you guys. Remember my—OW!" Jaune flinched and whipped his head to his side to Ruby, who had poked a large, ugly bruise on Jaune's shoulder blade. "That hurt. Please stop, Ruby," Jaune said over-calmly.

"Sorry. I just was checking if it really did hurt." Ruby answered sheepishly, shrinking in on herself a little, but not too much, thanks to Jaune's offputtingly calm request instead of blowing up on her.

"Why wouldn't it?" Jaune asked, looking over his body at his assorted wounds and letting out a pained exhale for the first time, not bothering to try to hide the discomfort now. "I look like crap. Feel like it, too."

"Then _use your aura_ , idiot." Yang countered harshly.

"That doesn't sound like a very medical thing to say, Yang. I'm going to need a second opinion. Or a first opinion I care about."

"Actually, I concur with her," the nurse interjected. "Did he by any chance take any blows to the head?"

"At least twice," I offered before Jaune could deny it, for whatever reason. It didn't make any sense that he would be _trying_ to make this worse, and yet the five of us weren't entirely sure that wasn't what he was doing. "After his aura was gone. With a metal shield."

The nurse took the information calmly and rummaged through a nearby cabinet, before coming back out with a syringe and plunging it into Jaune's good thigh before he could even question what was going on.

"What the hell was that?!"

"A sedative," the nurse answered back simply, throwing the needle away in a collection bin.

"What the _hell_?! I didn't consent to that!" Jaune answered angrily, though it soon dissipated as his outburst jostled his body and he recoiled back in pain, only serving as more evidence _for_ the sedative.

"You don't need to. You have a concussion."

"I don't have a…" Jaune trailed off, before realizing that he very well _could_ have a concussion and wouldn't remember the blows to the head because of the concussion. "You haven't done any tests for it! You don't just get to say I have a concussion and then sedate me!"

"As of right now, you're entering Beacon's concussion protocol, which means that until it is proven that you have no concussion, you aren't considered capable of making medical decisions." The nurse stated back with a grin, enjoying the way Jaune was squirming to try to get _out of getting healthy again._

"That's not how concussion protocols work!"

"Maybe not where you're from," Yang cut in. "Here in Vale, that's how they work. I've been in it a few times, you'll be fine. And if you're not, even better." Yang punctuated it by sticking a tongue out at Jaune, who really looked like he was about to drop his interjections just to get back at Yang, but snapped out of it at the last moment.

"In Atlas, it's even stricter, especially for Huntsmen or soldiers." Weiss supplied. "Until you're cleared, you pretty much aren't even consulted."

Jaune looked around at everyone before realizing that there was no point in fighting the sedative that was already given to him, so he allowed himself to lean back into the pillows behind him and rest. " _Fine._ I'll rest for now, but this is gonna cost me half a day of recovery time." Jaune's words were starting to slur as either all his energy and adrenaline were finally wearing out or the sedative was kicking in. The five of us remained shared a strange look, trying to figure out what that line was supposed to mean, but we came up with nothing.

The nurse turned to start talking to the rest of us now that Jaune was under, but as soon as Jaune went to sleep, I slipped out of the room. I was just hanging around to make sure he was okay, and now that I knew he was, I felt better about going ahead with my plans for the night. _And if Jaune just so happened to serve as an excellent distraction for my team, all the better_. He might get a little mad if he found out I used his as such, but then again, he would use me the same way if he could, so he might not even care; even if he did, it wouldn't change anything. This was too important.

As I got to Beacon's airfield, it was still bright out, with at least two more hours of sunlight left. Miss Goodwitch's class was the last class of the day anyways, so it wasn't even like I would be skipping any other classes. The fact that it was a Friday night and Bullheads would be running until midnight because of that just made everything even easier.

When I got off the Bullhead, I pulled out my scroll and took one last look at the directions I needed before turning it off completely. The destination was in a seedy part of town, and I thought about waiting until night to approach, but that wouldn't do me a lot of good anyways; it wasn't as if they couldn't see in the dark.

The destination I was looking for wasn't actually very far from the docks where my last run in with the White Fang took place, only a few blocks away, actually. It was where I was heading that night before Sun and I stumbled across the heist in progress, and in the confusion afterwards I never got a chance to check this building in the first place. The police said that one of the waterfront warehouses next to the heist was occupied by White Fang, but they never did check this place, from what I overhead, which would make sense. This place was one of our—one of Adam's—old hideaways, a small, rundown old warehouse with a loading dock for trucks and a front office converted to house members for short-term stays. _It's not the sort of place Adam would stage attacks from, instead using it to covertly store long-term supplies and hide operatives; at the very most, it would be a temporary storage facility for goods the Fang had stolen, but the Dust heist hadn't gone well for them, so that should be out_. That did mean that it would be guarded and a dangerous location, but I wasn't planning on busting the place tonight.

I was just hear to scout things out, and begin to plan their downfall.

I approached cautiously, going through back alleys until I found a neighboring building that was a story taller than the warehouse I was looking into, and was also abandoned. I could tell it was abandoned because the alleyway door I walked past was falling off its hinges and I could walk into the rundown place unnoticed, allowing me to work my way upstairs to the roof. Once there, I had a good vantage point to watch the warehouse.

It didn't take long for me to confirm that the place was still active. There were a few sentries patrolling the grounds and two standing guard at the locking dock, which every few minutes a truck would back up to and be loaded with something heavy. _What there aren't are sentries on the roof, and there's an old, busted-out skylight that I could see into the warehouse with._ There was about a ten foot gap between the warehouse and the building I was on, with only a short alleyway running between the two, and with me one story higher than the warehouse, it was a jump I could make with a running start.

I looked around to make sure no one was watching the sky before I got a running start and leapt over, landing into a roll on the gravel of the rooftop. I froze for a second, listening out for any noises or voices of people who might have overhead me, but nothing alerted me and I allowed myself to relax, though only slightly. I was still actively pursuing the White Fang, which put me on edge regardless, but now I had an actual plan, rather than just charging in to fight Torchwick. _Now, I'm going to bring them down and stop whatever it is they're planning with Torchwick._ Now, this was war, and like Adam had taught me, the first step of war was learning your enemy.

It felt wrong using Adam's teachings, but poetic to use them against him.

A pang of panic shot through me as I realized that this warehouse was exactly the sort of safehouse that Adam would stay in if he came to Vale, and I found myself unable to will my feet to move until I rationalized that he _couldn't_ be in Vale. _Torchwick is running things around here, and there's no way that Adam would let that happen if he were here, right?_

With that thought for reassurance, I crouched and walked over to the skylight, taking care to peak over slowly so as to not attract attention. Inside were several members of the Fang, recognizable by their jackets because they weren't wearing their masks indoors, which meant that they weren't expecting company or to be seen. There were crates of dust stacked all over the place, but that wasn't what they seemed to be loading into the trucks. Instead, massive crates too tall to go into the truck vertically were being tilted on their side with great difficulty and slid onto the trucks as best they could, with only one fitting per. It wasn't the size or the poor loading that stuck out to me, though; it was the symbols on the giant crates.

It was an Atlas symbol, and if I'm not mistaken, _Atlas Military Research and Development._ Whatever was in those, however they acquired them, it wasn't good.

"Freeze." An angry feminine voice behind me commanded, sending my nerves into overdrive. _How had I been snuck up on? I should be able to hear anyone approaching; the only people to ever sneak up on me where Adam and…_

I stood up and turned around to confirm what I was afraid of.

" _Ilia_."

"What are you doing here, _Blake_?" Ilia asked, keeping her weapon pointed at me, though not keeping it very still. "You left us. You left _all_ of us."

"You should leave too, Ilia." I answered back quietly.

"I'm not a coward!" Ilia hissed, keeping her voice low enough that we wouldn't be overheard, meaning she didn't _want_ this to go badly.

"I didn't leave because I was afraid, I left because—"

"You _always_ run from things, Blake! You always runs when things get hard!"

"I'm not going run anymore. I'm going to make a stand for what's right."

"Then you're making your first stand on the wrong side!" Ilia was angry, but she wasn't directing it at me, or at least, she was trying not to. She didn't _want_ to fight. She wanted to bring me back, which meant she might let me go, if I played this right. _Or I could stop trying to run away and make a stand, here, with her._ "If you really want to make a difference, then come back to us, Blake. We're so close."

"Close to _what_ , Ilia?" I asked dangerously. "I saw the boxes down there. Atlas RD? What's that for?"

"Oh, you like those? Atlas Paladins, fresh from the humans' war machine." Ilia answered back smugly. "We're about to show humanity that they can't oppress us any longer."

"What does that _mean_ , Ilia? Are you going to take it out on innocent people?"

"There…there _are_ no innocent people, Blake! Only complicit ones!" Ilia answered back with an angry, fiery passion. "You know me, Blake. You know what they did to me. How can you be worried that _we_ are the evil ones?!"

"Ilia, I…" I trailed off, a knot forming in my stomach as I realize that I didn't know _how_ to take a stand against Ilia. I _did_ know her. And I _didn't_ know how to convince her she was wrong, because she had just denied the truth that made me leave in the first place: we were the evil ones, or at the very least, we were evil. That didn't mean that there wasn't injustice, but we weren't going to fix it by following Adam. _I don't know how to fix things, but I know that Adam's way is wrong; I also know that won't be enough for her._

"You should come back with us, Blake."

"I can't do that, Ilia."

"But you should." She had long since lowered her weapon and walked over to me, but now she turned her back to me slightly. "We're having a recruitment rally this coming week. We're going to reach out to Vale's faunus and show off the Paladins. Let them know that the White Fang is here to free them." She turned back to face me, eyes hopeful but still sad. "You should come. I'll save you a spot."

"I-Ilia, I… I can't."

"Then promise me one thing, Blake." Ilia looked me in the eyes, and I saw both a sadness and nervousness in hers, reminding me of all the ways she _used_ to look at me, and the knot in my stomach tightened as this just got harder and harder. "Don't let me catch you spying on us again. I don't want to have to—" Her breath hitched and she fought it back down. "—I will, though, if you make me. You can't stand in our way."

"Ilia…"

"Just…get out of here, Blake. Run." Her voice was starting to crack, and I turned around to leave, seeking to hop down the fire escape into the alley, before I heard her mumble under her breath, "just like you always do."

* * *

Qrow's POV

* * *

"I have to say, I never would have envisioned needing to have a disciplinary hearing with you, Glynda," Ozpin started off the meeting in his office with a statement that blurred the lines between a joke and a fact, likely being both at once. "At least, not with myself on this side of the table. I would have seen you taking me to task long before it was the other way around."

"She _has_ taken you to task. A lot," I chimed in from off to the side.

"What is he doing here for this?" Glynda asked in the most reserved, downtrodden voice I had ever heard from her. _Granted, I rarely hear anything but angry out of her, but that's more my fault for aggravating her every chance I get._

"I asked Qrow here because I want his insight into Mr. Arc and I feel it would be a missed opportunity if I let him sit this one out," Ozpin answered casually. "Plus, we'll be interviewing Miss Nikos just after this, and I wanted him here for that."

"Trust me, coming in on a Saturday was _not_ my idea, even if you almost did kill your most hated student."

"Qrow." Ozpin's response was mostly flat, with just enough edge to let me know that I had found the line, or that I needed to let some time pass first. Glynda didn't shirk or shy away from the joke/accusation, but she didn't look totally resolute either, and that was saying something for the woman who singlehandedly kept Ozpin, myself, and Beacon's student body in check. "Ignore him. He's fighting a hangover."

" _Yeah_ , the best way possible," I countered, making a show of taking a swig from my flask. Glynda didn't even have it in her to scowl at my drinking or chastise me for my vice, so she really has to be preoccupied with the whole situation from yesterday.

"Okay, well, Qrow and I have seen the footage from yesterday and had a chance to discuss it," Ozpin cut in to get us back on track. "The fight was clean, at least as far as Mr. Arc's spars can be considered so; no rules were broken. Would you agree with that?"

"I…yes," Glynda admitted reluctantly, acting slightly confused by the topic of the fight at not the actual disciplinary hearing that was pending. "There was nothing about the spar itself that was out of line, but that isn't why we're here."

"On that note," Oz continued, ignoring Glynda's point entirely, "the fight was concluded when Mr. Arc's aura entered the red, per standard rules, marking Pyrrha Nikos the victor."

"I…yes, I suppose that technically that is correct," Glynda allowed, letting go of her attempt to cut through Oz's game with a sigh.

"Seeing as none of the…" Oz trailed off, looking for the best word.

"Attempted murdering?" I offered, seeing the pause.

" _Unauthorized fighting_ ," Ozpin shot back with a funny look that told me that I wasn't helping, "took place during the spar, I see no official reason to alter the outcome of that spar."

"You…don't?" Glynda asked, surprised. "Isn't that hypocritical? I went out of my way to declare Mr. Arc the loser of his spar with Ms. Rose. Shouldn't we award him the victory here, or at the very least vacate Miss Nikos' win?"

"She has a point," I interjected obnoxiously loudly, catching another 'go shut up and drink' look from Ozpin.

"The two situations are different," Ozpin countered while looking at me, before turning back to Glynda. By this point it was beyond obvious by the way Ozpin was pretending to act like a proper headmaster that he was toying with Glynda and had his own interests, but Glynda currently wasn't in a position to call that out. "That's not to say that you were justified in awarding him a loss rather than forfeiting the match entirely. Mr. Arc injured Ms. Rose intentionally _during_ the spar in question, which is not what happened yesterday. Were we to award him a victory for losing his spar, we would be going out of our way to bend rules again. Two wrongs, as the saying does go, does not make a right."

"Yeah, but three rights make a left," I added on, only to get two strange looks from them both. "What? It's a stupid saying. It deserves to be mocked."

"Given that Ms. Nikos intentionally and maliciously injured Mr. Arc on school grounds during classes, I would be interested to hear what sort of actions you would suggest for her," Ozpin stated, doing his best to ignore me.

"Am I to assume that this means you'll be retaining me in a position capable of or responsible for carrying out such decisions?" Glynda asked, taking care with her words to cut through as much of Ozpin's game without herself giving up on her professionalism.

"Do you really think," Oz started to ask as he took a sip from his mug, "that I would fire you over this? Who would file all of my paperwork then?"

"This isn't a joke." Glynda countered back seriously. _That may not have been a joke, either._

"And neither was me asking for suggestions about Ms. Nikos."

"Fine, okay, we'll do this your way," Glynda relented, though not easily. "I believe it was clear by her reaction afterwards that she was emotionally compromised and/or lost control of herself. As such, I don't believe that expelling her would send a good message to the rest of the students."

" _Expelling her_?" I asked incredulously. " _That's_ the first thing you thought of? If we expelled every student who got angry and picked a fight, we would have some pretty shitty Huntsmen and zero Huntresses left." That was something they never warned you about; you expect a whole bunch of teenagers to be emotional and irrational, and fights between girls their age were always vicious, but normally rare. _When all of those girls have combat training, it is_ amazing _the fights that are had, and the things they were over, and I'm not just saying that because I had Summer and Raven on my team._ Guys have a remarkable ability to hit each other in the head until we forget what we were fighting about, using the concussions to our favor; girls are just… _mean_ , and go for softer, more damageable targets that _don't_ cause them to forget their beef.

"I would agree, we can't afford to graduate only Huntsmen of Qrow's quality," Ozpin quipped back, "to say nothing of the sexism we would be accused of, as well."

"Short of expelling her, I would recommend two weeks of detentions and require her to meet with a member of the staff a few times to ensure that this sort of thing hasn't been bubbling up because of problems on the team."

"That all seems very standard. It would make sense that one of these days, I actually stuck to the rules when handling problematic students," Ozpin commented, smiling into his mug at his own joke. "I suppose that you would prefer to be the one to meet with her."

"I…no. I don't think I should." She trailed off, but seeing the expectant look Ozpin gave her, explained herself. "I think it's been made obvious that I have failed to exercise objectivity when it comes to Team Juniper. I would recommend anyone but myself."

"I see," Ozpin mumbled, nodding along as he thought it over. "Do you have any objections to Qrow and me conducting the interviews? On top of the one we already have scheduled with her, of course."

"No, I don't see any issue with that." It wasn't until now that I paid enough attention to realize how reserved Glynda really sounded, as if she was being forced to read the charges brought against her as they tied a noose around her neck. _With that said, this is still Glynda Goodwitch that we're talking about, meaning she was still scary enough not to be messed with by most people._ "In fact, it appears that you have been correct on how to handle Mr. Arc so far, at least compared to how I have. You would be best." The words were difficult for her, as evidenced by how slow and strained they came out, but they did come out.

"Well, as much as I do like hearing that, I believe it's time we addressed the elephant in the room. After reviewing all the footage from the previous day, Qrow and I—so, myself, really—have drafted a staff memo detailing your failures yesterday and the policy that will be implemented about them." Ozpin took out a sheet of paper he had been hiding on his desk and offered it to Glynda. "Would you care to read it?"

"You…want me to read my own…?" She closed her eyes for a moment and steeled herself, before reaching out and taking the paper.

" _Staff,as you are aware, yesterday there was an incident between two students during Ms. Goodwitch's sparring class. One student was sent to the infirmary overnight and is expected to reviewing the incident, it was officially determined that Ms. Goodwitch was slightly hesitant to break the fight up. My investigation believes this to be because of shock or such, staff will be undergoing this year's Crisis Management training a month early, starting two weeks from now. Additionally, Ms. Goodwitch has been ordered to cover the injured student's medical costs, and will have a strike on her student-safety record for the year._

" _Headmaster Ozpin._

"That's it!?" Glynda almost roared at Oz upon completing the memo. "Paying his medical costs?! Beacon's infirmary is covered completely by tuition, there's nothing to pay!"

"That's fortuitous," Oz had the balls to deadpan to a very fiery Glynda as he sipped his mug.

"A strike on my record? What, my first one in over fifteen years?!"

"Ever since you got in trouble for making out with one of your students back in your TA days, I think," I offered, unable to help myself as I shot her a huge grin that was honestly endangering my life. "God bless Taiyang for that, too. I still can't believe I lost that bet."

" _You shut your mouth, Branwen!_ "

"I'm sorry, am I missing something?" Ozpin asked, confused but cracking a smile.

"Oh, did you never get in trouble for that? _Huh_. I thought for sure you got caught when you unlocked Port's office one night just so you two could—" I never got to finish that sentence because my flask flew out of my pocket and tried to lodge itself in my throat, though whether it was supposed to suffocate me or shut me up, I don't know."

"Do I need to order some _other_ kinds of sensitivity training?" Ozpin asked, eyebrow arched at the woman sitting before him.

" _No._ " Glynda answered back, face equal parts furious and flushed, before forcing herself to let it get and switch the subject back. "You can't be serious about the punishment. You're not even punishing me!"

"Yes, that _was_ the point, though if you kill Qrow, I might have to start," Ozpin motioned over to where I was still choking on my flask, which Glynda promptly retrieved. " _Might_." Oz looked back over my as air rushed back into my lungs. "Look, quite frankly, there isn't anything that happened yesterday that I have any grounds to reprimand you for, if I wanted to."

"What about rigging the fight?"

"Oh, _please,_ like _you_ actually rigged a fight," I cut in.

"I set Mr. Arc up against Ms. Nikos despite their polar opposite records," Glynda offered in explanation.

"A move which yielded one of the best spars we've had in years, at least for the parts that were technically considered a spar," Ozpin countered.

"What about when I approached Ms. Nikos about filming the fight so that she wouldn't go easy on him? That was me conspiring against a student under my charge."

"It's unfair to motivate your students? I don't follow that logic," Ozpin answered back quickly. "And choosing to record the fight from multiple angles yielded us great material to teach future students with—as was your given reasoning, I might add—as well as having made this whole process much easier."

"Yeah, if you would film every spar that turned into an all-out brawl, that would make life much easier," I half-taunted.

"Glynda," Ozpin's voice was softer now, catching her attention in earnest. "You are still too close to the situation, and you've been out of line on that up to now, yes, but that doesn't suddenly mean you've turned into a reckless, drunk Signal teacher." They both cut their eyes to me.

"That incident was never proven."

"Trust me, you haven't been so out of line as to warrant anything more than a slap on the wrist. If we're being honest, you're taking this harder than any punishment I would have given you, anyways." Ozpin paused to catch her eye. "Go home, take the weekend off. _Relax_. Let Qrow and I handle this. Okay?"

"…okay." Glynda's answer was honest enough, though she obviously still didn't agree. "May I ask one question?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Why didn't you do something more practical for a punishment, like giving me more of your paperwork?" The question, while a little funny in its nature, was a valid one, as that was _exactly_ what I first suggested to Oz because I thought I would beat him to the punch. Oz very rarely actually applied the rules when he could use things to his advantage, like with his plan for his next meeting with Ms. Nikos.

"Quite honestly, I struggle to find paper that I don't already pass off to you as it is."

* * *

The door to the elevator opened with a ding, and out strode a very timid and easily-recognizable student, slowly approaching until Ozpin bid her to sit in the chair opposite his desk. From my spot leaning against the window off to the side, I could read the faces of both Ozpin and the girl quite easily.

"Thank you for coming to see me on your weekend, Miss Nikos," Ozpin started off cordially, though the slumping of the girl's shoulders emphasized that she hadn't had much of a choice or her mind was too far elsewhere for any greeting to have any effect on her. Ozpin had let me glance at her file, which read more like a novel than a list of accomplishments, but I didn't need to know that she was a great fighter from the file. What she did to her partner told me all I needed. _She showed off incredible reflexes and technical skill, and quite the nasty, competitive mean streak when pushed, as I'm sure her partner could attest to._ "I'm sure you know why I wanted to speak with you." The girl made to answer, but cut herself off, nervously giving me a weary look.

"Go ahead, I don't bite," I called out, rolling my eyes as I did so.

"That's Mr. Branwen, or Qrow, if you'd like." Ozpin answered her silent question. "He's been the one I discuss our more problematic students with, but don't worry. No one likes him enough for him to get the chance to share any of what he'll hear." Ozpin smirked from behind his mug as he glanced over towards me, but if he was hoping to get a reaction, all he got was a shrug of my shoulders. _He wasn't wrong, though that was by my design._

"Am I…?" The girl trailed off as she looked at me, but the words (and her wide eyes) spoke of surprise and fear.

"One of the problem students?" Ozpin filled in with a chuckle. "Far from it, Miss Nikos."

"Until now," I offered, earning a wide-eyed look from the girl and a glare from Ozpin for making his job here more difficult. I didn't like what our— _his_ —plan was anyways, so I wasn't feeling particularly helpful at the moment.

"I want you to relax, Miss Nikos." Ozpin countered my quip as he saw the panic mounting in her features. The girl was clearly on the edge still, and the last time she spilled over, Ozpin's favorite student nearly bit the dust, so a little precaution here couldn't hurt. "We aren't going to take any drastic steps to punish you for what happened, though we do need to talk about it."

"I take it…" The girl trailed off as her eyes fell to her lap, prompting Ozpin to have to coax her into restarting her thought. "I take it that Miss Goodwitch told you what happened?"

"She didn't have to," I called out, drawing her attention away and replacing some of that timidity with surprise. "The fight was videoed."

"Oh" She responded immediately without thinking on it, instead shrinking back in on herself until the realization hit her. " _Oh._ "

"Have you gone to check on your partner since the incident?" Ozpin asked with a little weight, marking the beginning of the questions he was _actually_ interested in. "As I understand it, he stayed in the infirmary overnight."

"I…" The girl couldn't hold eye-contact, looking back down instead at her lap once again. "No, I didn't."

"Why not?" Oz's voice was a mix of stern and soft, making him seem very grandfatherly, not that he would appreciate that analogy.

"I'm not ready," Pyrrha Nikos admitted ashamed, her eyes trailing off to the side now. "It's barely been a day, and I'm the one who put him there, and…" she trailed off, making no attempt to finish her thought. It was obvious that what she was going to say next was the most important thing for her to hear herself say aloud, because it was the root of this whole mess: the kid made her lose control of herself, and she wasn't prepared to see him again.

If I knew that, then Ozpin certainly did, and he could end this all and save everyone a great deal of time by forcing her to that conclusion. _That is, if that was the main purpose of this meeting._

"I see." Ozpin's reply was curt, and killed any chance that he wasn't going through with his angle. "I have a copy of his injuries here, along with our nurse's note. Three hairline fractures on his forearms, a gash on his thigh and his calf, _severe_ bruising across his whole person, and a concussion." Where the girl had looked sad or depressed before, as Ozpin read the list she looked somewhere between terrified and horrified.

" _Oz_." I cut in, letting him know he'd gone far enough, myself not being able to take him letting this poor girl beat herself up.

"Miss Nikos," Ozpin's voice softened considerably, and in response the girl looked up slightly to meet his eyes. "I'm sure that you'll do what is best for your team, and I trust that you have had time to come to grips with how this happened?" The girl nodded shyly, following along with where Oz was going as best she could. "When I watch that tape, do you know what stands out to me?"

Pyrrha waited a few moments for Ozpin to answer, until it became clear that he wanted her to guess. "How I lost…" She trailed off, looking for the words. "…my temper?"

"No," Ozpin answered with a shake of his head and enough of a smile to keep her from retreating in on herself again. "Things only stand out to me when I don't understand why they happen. Make no mistake, Miss Nikos, what happened yesterday was certainly shocking, but it does not stand out to me. I saw a girl struggling with her identity embarrassed in front of a crowd by someone she was emotionally attached to." Ozpin's explanation sure seemed to surprise the girl, whether by how complete his analysis was or by that last bit of information he dropped. "I can certainly understand _how_ it happened. What stands out to me is how your partner fought you."

"What…what does that mean?"

"Qrow?" Ozpin asked, deflecting the attention to me. "What did you see in that fight?"

"The more talented fighter won," I answered back simply, knowing exactly where Ozpin wanted to go with this because we had already discussed what we saw earlier. "But not the more determined one. And not the better one."

"And that did puzzle me, for a bit." Ozpin added on, taking a sip of his coffee. "After all, Miss Goodwitch ensured that you would be determined to fight by asking you about recording it." The lack of a reaction out of the girl made it clear that she had figured this part out, which meant she was capable of looking deeper into things and it was possible that she even knew of the ploy at the time and allowed it. _And since Ozpin will notice that, he may push a little harder for her._

"For a bit?" The girl asked, asking why he used the past tense.

"Indeed. It no longer puzzles me after learning that most the student body was aware there is a…rivalry forming between Miss Goodwitch and your partner. Since you noticed the real meaning behind Miss Goodwitch's offer, he certainly would have."

"And if Jaune noticed it…"

"Then it makes a lot of sense that he'd be motivated to fight, even if only for spite." Ozpin finished for her. It was left unsaid that he was exactly the kind of person to be highly motivated by little else than spite. "No, what stands out to me is that exchange where he used your semblance against you." The girl went stiff in the chair, not daring to move her eyes away from Ozpin, who almost chuckled at the sight. "I take it that you were just as surprised by that as everyone else?"

"I was, yes." The girl admitted quietly.

"That's the part that stands out to me," Ozpin explained, only further confusing the girl. "That you _didn't expect_ him to do that. It makes me think that he didn't know what his own partner's Semblance was." Ozpin paused here, letting the weight of what he said be felt. Guilt seemed to wash back over Pyrrha, making it obvious how she felt about that being acknowledged by her headmaster, but that wasn't the most dangerous part. _The kid had been the first to figure out her Semblance during combat, and then found a way around it, all while going toe-to-toe with a superior swordsman._ It was that observation that guaranteed that Pyrrha wouldn't see any real punishment from Ozpin, because he was too focused on his favorite student, and whenever Oz was interested in someone, the rules went out the window. "But by my own definition, that shouldn't stand out to me, because it isn't surprising."

"It's…not?" The girl ask, perking up.

"Can I trust you to keep this conversation between the three of us?" Ozpin asked suddenly.

"Y-Yes." The girl answered back nervously, but firmly.

"Your partner, Mr. Arc, he…" Oz trailed off, looking over towards me for a moment. "He concerns me."

"He what?" The girl asked, leaning towards Ozpin and losing some of her timidity in place of some defensiveness, which Ozpin was no doubt glad to see.

"That was poorly phrased. I am _concerned for_ Mr. Arc." Oz corrected, putting Pyrrha a little at ease. "Does that make more sense?"

"Not really. Why are you worried about him?" The defensiveness, or maybe just protectiveness, for her partner was still there, but it didn't cover up her own worry.

"He is a rather unique student, and one that I'm worried could fall by the wayside without help." When Pyrrha didn't seem to agree or understand what Oz was getting at, he was forced to go into more detail. _Not the details that_ really _matter, though; she's too young for that, at least for now._ "He has a past that I don't know any details of. He's shown a penchant for fighting dirty, even injuring his friends. He seemed to have some sort of a moral compass when he confronted Mr. Winchester in the locker rooms, but the way he went about that tells me that it was relative at best, or he sees himself as above the rules."

"He's not evil," Pyrrha argued back, clearly upset now.

"That is what I believe, too, Miss Nikos. But I'm not convinced that he is a good person, either." The girl stumbled through her counter, unable to find words that would work, before going silent altogether as she found that she couldn't easily argue against that point. "I think that Mr. Arc has incredible potential for either good or evil, which makes your fight with him even more important."

"Why is that?"

"Because, if I can be frank, I have been counting on his relationships here at Beacon being what saves him, not kills him." Ozpin's words were delivered harshly and the girl reacted accordingly, shrinking back in on herself as she had been for most of the conversation. "I don't mean to sound accusatory, but I worried that you might mishandle this push him away inadvertently, hence I requested this meeting."

"I'm…sorry." The girl was a shell of the one who was defending her partner not a minute ago, and the change was so sudden that I had to fight off the urge to cut Ozpin off right there. _She reminds me of Ruby growing up, when she would confess to stealing a cookie and look like she'd been torturing herself, except this girl isn't simultaneously protecting the older sister who gave her the cookie._ "How do I fix this?"

"I think that answer is pretty obvious," Ozpin responded, taking a sip of his coffee to let the girl stew even further. "Make things up with your partner. Don't push him, but let him know you're there for him, and you're on his side. You might find that harder now that this issue has happened, so it's only more imperative that you put effort into this.

"But if you are concerned about keeping your partner from being evil, we could use your help."

 _And there it is._

"How can I help?" The girl asked, eagerness shining through her timidity. I glared at Ozpin and caught his eye for a moment, letting him know that I still didn't like this plan. _Had we waited a week for this incident to blow over and for her to have a level head, I might have been okay with it, but right now?_ Oz was playing her and her emotions—which is what Oz is best at, I would know. Right now, she could be convinced to do anything if she was told that it was going to help Jaune and alleviate her guilt.

"First and foremost, take any chance you can get to grow closer to your team. You don't realize how strong of a pull the connections teammates form have," Ozpin finished by looking to me, allowing Pyrrha to follow his eyes. I rolled my eyes in return, but after that allowed a small nod. _It only had a 50% success rate on my team, but I still feel like we almost turned Raven._ "But outside of that, anything about your partner that you could tell us would make it easier for us to help him. As it is, we don't really know much about who Jaune Arc was before Beacon."

This was Ozpin's whole point, laid out so intricately in front of the girl that she would never realize that she was being used. _For as bad as I feel about doing this to her, I did choose to go along with it._ It was unlikely that Arc would be able to stay in Beacon without growing close to his team—Raven and I served as examples that it wasn't easy—and if Oz had the implicit trust of one of those team members, he had an invaluable source to watch over Jaune.

"He…struggles to trust us," Pyrrha admitted, surprising no one. "He grew up in Mistral, raiding settlements for supplies. That much he did tell us."

"I don't suppose he gave you any details about that life, did he?" The girl paused to think but still shook her head all the same. "He told me much the same when I first interviewed him for Beacon, but I have a hard time believing anything he said. He seems to be averse to authority." Ozpin gave me another look, this time one that told me that he was reminded of me, which I returned by rolling my eyes once more. "Do you believe what he's told you?"

"I…I do, yes." The girl answered firmly after taking a moment to consider. "I don't think he would lie to us. Anymore, at least."

"Do you feel like he is forming attachments?"

"At first, no. It was obvious that he was avoiding us, or even trying to make us dislike him. I take it that you noticed that, seeing how much you've watched him?" Her question certainly sounded accusatory, but there was no malice or anger behind her voice, meaning that it probably just sounded bad because there wasn't any other way to ask it. Ozpin nodded in response to the question regardless. "Recently, it seems like he wants to hide how close he is to people."

"What do you mean by that?" Ozpin asked, clearly interested but hiding it behind his mug, although it was possible that she wouldn't know that, since I have much more experience dealing with the man.

"I can't really explain it, but he…he shares looks with people, and it always seems to mean something to that person, but when I catch him doing it he acts as if nothing happened. He's done it with Team RWBY more than anyone." Pyrrha was bad at hiding _why_ this had caught her attention, jealously being the obvious answer, but that was only obvious because she had just nearly _killed_ the guy for embarrassing her a little. _Raven was just as volatile back when she was crushing on Tai, although unfortunately she never grew out of that._

"Does this worry you?" Ozpin asked carefully, clearly aware of the minefield he was stepping into.

"It—no, I don't…" her inability to answer only serving to further the case for jealously, though it now felt possible she hadn't come to grips with it herself. Given how she blew up yesterday, that was certainly plausible. "It should be a good thing," she said, making it sound like a bad thing. "You said that forming attachments was a good thing."

"Indeed, it is," Ozpin answered, doing a better job than me at not laughing at the transparency of the girl in front of him. "Miss Nikos, I know that it may feel wrong to ask this, but I would like you keep a watchful eye on your partner and report to me on him. You may use your discretion, of course, as for what stays between the two of you, but I hope that we'd made it clear that we're trying to help. Anything you share with us will only be used to help Mr. Arc, I can assure you."

Pyrrha stopped to think, likely just now realizing what it was that she was agreeing to: spying on her teammate, though Ozpin would never use that word in front of her. He wasn't lying, which was why I approved of the plan, though begrudgingly. "I will. I needed to do a better job at being a partner, anyways." She rose to stand, reading the situation and realizing that the conversation had ended.

"Miss Nikos," Ozpin called before she could get too far. "I have one favor for you, out of appreciation." The girl looked at him attentively. "I understand that your undefeated record is significant to you, is that correct?"

"It…it's more important to my sponsors, really. Being Pyrrha Nikos comes with more problems than perks most days."

"Well, yes, but those are the same sponsors paying your tuition here." The girl nodded. "Technically, the match ended when you broke Mr. Arc's aura into the red, making you the victor. I've asked Miss Goodwitch to treat everything that happened _after_ the conclusion of the match to be handled separately from the match itself, a directive she was not a fan of."

"I…I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything. Miss Goodwitch might make up for it with extra punishments of her own, so don't thank me yet," Ozpin responded, taking a sip from his mug. "I've also collected all of the official recordings of the match. It wouldn't do for Beacon to have footage of our students trying to kill each other leaking, so you don't have to worry about that, either, although I can't stop word-of-mouth of the students or transfers."

"I…"

"Good day, Miss Nikos." Ozpin announced as the elevator opened behind her and he sat back in his chair, looking over his paperwork like nothing had happened. The girl made a poor attempt to hide how eager she was to leave, but she wouldn't have noticed that Ozpin was just as ready for it to be over as well. As the door closed and the elevator hummed as it began to descend, Ozpin turned to me. "Thoughts?"

"I feel even worse about this after seeing the state she's in." I answered back, not moving from where I was leaning against the wall.

"Two things _can_ be true at the same time, Qrow." Ozpin pointed out, as if that was somehow supposed to make things better. "She can have his best interests at heart and she can realize that we do as well. It's not a zero-sum game. I would know; I've played plenty in my lifetimes."

"I don't like using her guilt to make her spy on her teammate for your curiosity," I stated flatly, redrawing my line in the sand for no real reason than for Ozpin to know where he crossed it. He had no intention of backtracking and I had no intention of making this a big deal, so it was more so I felt better than anything.

"I don't recall asking anyone to spy," Ozpin defended cheekily. "I simply shared that I was concerned about a student with someone who is also concerned about that student, and asked them to share any concerning things they find with me. What's wrong with showing concern?" I rolled my eyes and pushed off the wall to approach, but didn't answer otherwise; this was just a rehashed argument, and one I didn't feel like having again. "Aren't you concerned about him? A kid shows up out of quite literally nowhere with a dead name, a strong will, and impressive combat discipline; isn't that cause for concern?"

"You're using your same arguments again." I cut him off.

"And you still haven't found a way around them," Ozpin answered with a smirk. "You should know well by now that when presented with the opportunity to meddle in the fates of those with potential, I'm always going to tip the scales in our favor. You only have to live a few lives to see the value in shaping the future.

"Well, if you're done with this conversation, I have one more we could have that might interest you more."

"I'm listening," I answered, pulling out my flask and taking a swig, just in case. _You can never tell what he means when he says the word 'interest' or 'interesting' and I have learned to pre-emptively drink when I hear it._ Some days I wonder that if Summer hadn't died, would Ozpin still have driven me to being an alcoholic anyways.

"I need you to recall someone."

" _That_ is your big task?" I asked, annoyed. _Anyone with a scroll can be recalled manually, which means he wants to send me to go grab some loser who is off-grind and drag them back._ "Not to sound my own horn here, but what sort of person do you need recalled manually by your left-hand man?"

"Amber." Oz answered simply.

"Oh."

"You know how she is. Contacting—or containing—her has always been difficult. She refuses to stay cooped up or keep any sort of reliable communication device on her." And wasn't that an understatement, too? When a Maiden didn't like being kept inside, there wasn't really anyone who could stop her from going outside, which presents all sorts of logistical nightmares for Oz and me, trying to keep her hidden or, at the very least, protected. I used to have a network of Huntsmen to tail her and keep her safe, but she didn't like that and has gotten really good at losing any followers, to the point where we haven't tried in over a year. "I'm sure you can get intel on her last whereabouts, and with the Vytal Festival coming up, I'm about to start recalling Huntsmen into Vale. With less Huntsmen in the field, that puts Amber at a greater risk of being attacked."

"You don't need to explain the logistics to me. I get it. Get the Maiden and get her safe for the Festival. Anything else?"

"No." Ozpin answered shortly, flicking up his computer monitor and silently dismissing me. "Do hurry. There's no telling how long it will take you to find her."

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: This chapter had two distinct but rather important plotlines going on, neither of which are technically on the up-and-up.**

 **The _Ilia Problem_. I hadn't really noticed it until it was pointed out, but RWBY has an odd continuity issue with the existence of Ilia, or rather, that she _didn't_ seem to exist pre-V4. If she was Blake's best friend (and had her own, extra motivation to tag along with Blake) and one of Adam's more violent supporters, then why wasn't she at the attack on Beacon? It would be a rather easy fix, as just an off-hand comment about her doing other things or just not having been seen would satisfy it.**

 **In this story, I'm going for the _'Ilia was at Beacon and just wasn't ever seen_ angle, which means that _if_ my story has an 'Attack on Beacon' moment, she'll be there. At this point, she _hasn't_ been ordered to murder her friends and fellow Faunus, which is what Blake uses to finally turn her in V5, so I envision that Ilia wouldn't really be wavering in her commitment until a similar scenario arises. Whether or not that will have to wait until V5-esque scenes, I haven't yet decided.**

 **The other big plotline here was sneaky ol' Ozpin, out here bending rules because they're his rules. His handling of Glynda is weak because, well, he isn't really all that upset by it. We've rarely seen Ozpin get bent out of shape about minor things like student safety in the show and only react strongly when forced, and this to him is minor. To Glynda, this had to be a rather rude wake-up call.**

 **The more interesting and morally-ambiguous part was how he handled, or manipulated, Pyrrha. At this point, he hasn't pegged her as his next Maiden (see below), but he certainly recognizes that she'll be powerful and an invaluable asset against Salem down the road. Sneaky and manipulative Ozpin rears his head here, working to kill two birds with one stone. If it works, he'll successfully draw Pyrrha closer into the fold and she'll drag Jaune in with her. Even if in the end his motives and goals are good, you can see the manipulative Wizard persona that Raven has been warned Jaune to steer clear off; _I wonder how Jaune would respond if he found out about it._**

 **That last line about Qrow going to get Amber is just a little continuity work on my end. In the show, we see Cinder's flashback of their attack on Amber, where Qrow miraculously shows up and saves (half of) Amber. We don't know _when_ that was, but since we know via one of those AMAs that Monty didn't even come up with Maidens until after V2, I'm putting that scene firmly at the end of V2 and beginning of V3. Here, since Qrow has already been called back in, I'm just gonna send him back so that scene happens like normal, and the timeline is saved!**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _Ic3pup543_ on **Ch 13**

"Holy sauerkraut that was intense. I've been binging this story now since like noon, and boy can I just say that it's been a wild scrooge mcduckin ride? In the very beginning, I'll admit I was worried that this was going to be just another 'yeah super Jaune Raven trained him bc hes so cool and wow look he's strong and great', but I think somewhere around halfway through the first chapter I'd forgotten all about it. You drew me in man!..."

 **Okay, so like, this comment gives even _my_ long-winded Closing Thoughts a true run for its money, which is an accomplishment, so I'm just gonna link this first part and tell anyone interested to go read the actual review if interested. It's basically a summary of all the important plot-points up so far, with some rather fun commentary. Also, since it's pretty thorough, I've been using it as a baseline for what you guys as a whole want/need more information, clarification, or explanation on, so if there's something that doesn't feel right, let me know. **

**Ic3pup, can I just say that reading my story through your eyes was one of the most surreal experiences I've ever had? I certainly enjoyed that much more than was healthy and now my ego feels like it's about to sprout wings, so I'm sure my friends will appreciate what you've unleashed on them, lol.**

 **Also, Drunkle Qrow monologues and/or interactions. Coming relatively soon, don't worry; back end of V2's timeline!**


	17. Calming Before a Storm

**[REFINED Nov 2, 2018] Author's Note: Not much to put here. I was just never satisfied with this first scene, and probably revisited it on six different occasions to add more and more to it, before deciding that I was trying to set up _way_ too much in one scene. If it feels out of place, doesn't answer something, or leaves something hanging, there is probably a scene coming that will cover it more in-depth anyways. **

**And now...**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 15:** _"Ah, young love. It always starts when they try to kill each other." – Qrow Branwen  
"It most certainly does not, for everyone outside of Team STRQ." – Ozpin_

* * *

Pyrrha's POV

* * *

It took a bit of searching, but I had finally found Jaune sitting alone on the corner of Beacon's roof, still wearing the now torn-up clothes from our spar yesterday, apparently never changing out of them. I had left the headmaster's office determined to find him and make up for what I had done, but now that he was in front of me, my feet wouldn't move any closer. I froze when I saw the tares and cuts in his clothes, my stomach flopping as I was reminded just how close I had come to killing my partner. What made it worse was that I didn't fully remember making the decision to attack him like that; instead, all I remember was panicking and reacting to that panic, letting instinct take over.

It makes me sick to think back of that first moment where I had snapped out of it and could see what I had done. It was the lowest moment of my life, looking down at my own hands and realizing what they had tried to do.

"Are you just going to stand there?" Jaune asked without ever turning around, startling me.

"Sorry," I mumbled back, shuffling my feet to move a little closer, but that was all I could bring myself to do.

"Oh, Pyrrha," Jaune called back in surprise. I made sure to watch him closely, ready for him to react strongly to my presence or even go so far as to tell me to leave. It didn't come, not yet at least. "I was expecting the nurse to have sent Yang after me again."

"Yeah, when I went to the infirmary, she wasn't happy that you had disappeared," I supplied, grateful for a safe subject.

"Yeah, well, I had to get out of there. I needed to heal." I flinched a little at that last part, my eyes trailing to the ground, not that he could see it with his back still to me.

"Yeah, about that…" I started off, trying to muster the courage to do this and failing miserably. "I…I brought you your swords." I had, too, mainly for some excuse to come talk to him, as if I didn't have one of those.

"Oh?" Jaune asked, still not turning around. His voice was anticipatory and it sounded like he knew that I didn't come here to bring him his swords, but I found myself unable to say anything else.

"Yeah," I mumbled lowly, disappointed in myself for chickening out, though not surprised. "You left them in the sparring room." I used my semblance to float the two swords over towards Jaune, setting them down on the edge of the roof next to him.

"That makes sense," Jaune responded. "I did have to be carried out of there. It wasn't like I could use my arms to grab them, either." My stomach tightened at the implication and I couldn't find anything to say, and Jaune turned his head to see what happened when I went silent. "Wow, you're bad at this."

"Yeah, I…I know," I answered guiltily, avoiding his eyes.

"What's the matter, first time almost killing a guy?" Jaune asked with a playfulness that I am incapable of matching at the moment while spinning himself to face me from his seat on the ledge of the roof. Somewhere in my mind I registered that he has used his arms to plant and spin, but at the moment, I'm a little too overwhelmed to dwell on that. "Don't worry, it gets easier each time."

"That's not what I needed to hear right now."

"Aww, you'll live," Jaune taunted back, choosing his words carefully and making me flinch again. "You act like you didn't enjoy the fight."

" _Enjoy_ the fight?" I asked back, my surprise breaking through my nervousness. "Why would I have enjoyed that fight? I nearly killed you!"

"Ah, you weren't as close as you think," Jaune dismissed confidently, surprising me enough to overcome my guilt. "I still have a few tricks you haven't seen for next time. I assume there will _be_ a next time, right? We are still partners?"

"O-of course we're still partners. I just don't know if we should spar like that again, just in case."

"I say we figure out what went wrong, and just not do that part again." Jaune's absolute confidence was puzzling, but infectious, and not just because it was obvious that he didn't hate me for what I did. "So, what happened there?"

"I…uh…" I fumbled my words, not prepared for him to focus in on me so quickly, and I soon found that crippling fear returning. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Then why did you come find me?" Jaune asked, a little confused.

"You're right, that was a stupid thing to say," I muttered the words out quickly. "It's just…I'm…"

"Not very good at this?" Jaune supplied.

"Yeah."

"Alright, fine, let's talk about something else then. Any burning questions you want to ask me?" Jaune's voice made it sound like he was joking, but he held the question and looked serious enough about it.

"Do you hate me for it?" For some reason, _that_ was the clearest sentence I had spoken since reaching the rooftop. Jaune didn't answer immediately, instead looking off to the side for a moment as he thought over his answer.

"Hate? No, I wouldn't use that word." As I was about to ask what word he would use, he continued on. "I would say that I was angry, sure. I was also fighting for my life and had no aura, so I was maybe a bit defensive. I'll hold this above your head for a while, but other than that, I don't see too much reason to make a big deal out of it."

"You…don't think it's a big deal?"

"I mean, I put Ruby in the infirmary. You put me in the infirmary. I'm sure Miss Goodwitch—I mean karma—will come back to get you at some point." I wanted to answer, but shied away when I realized that he thought that I would have to pay for this at some point. "Any other burning questions?"

"Why did you leave the infirmary?" I asked, recalling something he said about healing faster and hoping that it was a topic that would get us away from what I did, though admittedly, the infirmary wasn't a super far topic to choose.

"That isn't obvious? Did _no one_ remember my semblance?" Jaune answered, only marginally annoyed but it didn't feel directed at me, which was comforting. "I can heal myself. I just need the aura to do it."

"But why leave the infirmary?"

"Well, the nurse doesn't seem to like it when I bottle up all of my aura instead of applying it to my wounds, and neither did Team RWBY. I'm up here hiding from them long enough to heal myself, but it's slow work. I've managed seal up the cracks in my forearms but ran out of aura after that."

"Is…that how it works?"

"What, my aura?" Jaune asked, confused.

"No, your semblance," I corrected, recalling that our team never finished discussing semblances the other day. "Does it cost aura to heal you?"

"Well, technically, my semblance isn't healing. That's just an easy way to explain it. My semblance is actually aura amplification."

"Amplification?" I asked, uncertain of what that would imply.

"Yeah, it can drastically amplify my aura, so I can heal rapidly by applying a lot of aura to my semblance, which then amplifies my aura while it heals me. Or, I can manipulate my aura to block a blow and amplify it so that I don't feel any pain or move from the blow."

"That's why you're so good at applying pressure," I accused, recalling how I could never create separation where I wanted it because no blows he took slowed him down.

"Yup. It's also good for interrupting attacks. I still take some damage, but if I stop all the momentum from your strike, I can catch you out of position." Jaune answered back with a proud grin. "I can also use my semblance to amplify others' auras, too."

"How does that work, exactly?" I asked, forgetting the pit in my stomach for a moment due to curiosity.

"It's…complicated. I have to reach out and…connect our auras, so to speak. Once that's done, I use my aura to power the semblance and use the connection to let the semblance amplify their aura."

"Connect your auras?"

"Yeah, it's…weird. It's just as intimate as connecting two souls sounds, too. You can feel the other person, and if you really push into it, you can feel _who_ the other person is." Jaune trailed off, his eyes looking out over the edge of the roof.

"Does it work in reverse?" I asked.

"Yeah, the other person feels the same connection," Jaune answered back quickly.

"No, your semblance. You said that you have to power it to amplify someone else's aura. Can _that_ be reversed?"

"I…" Jaune trailed off, realized what I was getting at as he looked down at and flexed his freshly-healed forearms. "I don't know. I've never tried that before."

"How have you never tried?" I asked. "It seems like using someone else's aura would be a really useful thing to do, especially if you can heal people with it."

"Yeah, that's true," Jaune answered, a little defensive but not hostile in any way. "There's a lot of things that could happen and I would need someone I trusted to try it with. Before Beacon, I can't say that there was anyone I would be willing to experiment on my soul with." Jaune's words were somewhat reserved, and I was reminded of the things I knew about his life before Beacon, namely the company he kept and the nature of their…lifestyle. _Jaune did leave them to come to Beacon, and if he says that he wouldn't want to try this with them, that might make sense._

"We could try," I offered quietly, a little bit of that nervousness creeping back at me.

"I…I couldn't ask you to do that." Jaune answered back with seriousness and nervousness in his voice. "There's no telling what will happen, if anything, but messing around with aura isn't something to do lightly."

"You're not asking; I'm offering," I countered back, confidence starting to come to me for the first time since our spar as I made my mind up. "Besides, it's only fair that I try to help you heal, since I'm the one who put you like that. If you can get this to work, you can use my aura to heal you." My aura was back at full strength, seeing as it never broke the red during our spar and I had no injuries to spend it on in the meantime. _Plus, if I did this, it would go a long way towards making things right._

Jaune gave me a contemplating looking, thinking it over for a few moments. "Are you sure about this? You don't need to do this for me." _Yes, I do._

"I'm sure," I answered back confidently, feeling infinitely better now that I was actually doing something to make this right.

"Okay. I guess we should try it."

"How, uh, how do we do that?"

"First, let's sit on the ground," Jaune started off as he slid off the ledge of the roof to sit with his back against it. "It wouldn't help me heal if we both fell off the roof during this." Jaune waved for me to come over and sit next to him, and I did, without nearly as much of the nervousness or fear that had kept my legs planted in the first place.

"Okay, now what?"

"Take my hand," Jaune answered simply, holding out his hand to me.

"D-does your semblance only work when you're touching the person?" I asked back to cover my hesitance, while simultaneously fighting like hell to suppress the slight blush I could feel coming on. It wasn't until he asked to hold my hand that I realized that we were alone, on the roof, sitting inches apart, and about to experiment with our souls. _I think after how I overreacted yesterday, I can't really deny that I might have a thing for him, but this stupid blush would confirm it_. It didn't help that when I broke things down like that, it sounded dangerously romantic, if not recklessly so.

"At first, it helped, but I quickly learned how to do it from a distance. That whole thing about not having anyone to experiment on doubly applies to not having anyone who would practice holding hands with me," Jaune finished with a laugh. "But since I've never tried this before, it couldn't hurt to have a solid connection to fall back on." He looked up at me and I took a moment to judge the words for what they were, until I realized that I was staring back in his eyes as I was thinking and panicked, looking down and grabbing his hand while hoping he hadn't noticed.

"Okay, I'm ready." I really, really hoped that whatever we were about to do would start soon, because it was hard to sit here and _not_ focus on the fact that we were holding hands and hiding from the world on the roof.

"Okay, I'm going to take it slow," Jaune announced, closing his eyes and squeezing my hand once to reassure me, not that I currently needed it. A moment after that, I nearly flinched as I felt something wash over me. It was warm and vibrant, but it was distant and thin, and I found myself tempted to focus on it, remembering Jaune's words about pushing further into it to see more about who a person is. "That's me," Jaune mumbled somewhere distant from me. "My aura is low, but it's enough to connect. Do you feel it?"

"Yes," I answered back softly. "What do I do?"

"Try to push into the connection. That part I've done before." I didn't need to be told twice, but I did need to be told how to do that, as it was a strange sensation and not exactly something I knew _how_ to push into. Instead, I tried to focus on it and block out everything else, and suddenly the intensity of the sensation grew so intense that I nearly flinched. Somewhere, I registered Jaune saying something, but the words passed over me. Once the intensity no longer surprised me, I realized just how incredible the feeling really was. I could _feel_ Jaune's aura, pulsating and pushing against my own, and I found I could focus in on different aspects of it.

Before I could get any real time exploring it, however, the connection receded back to the feint one it had started at, and I was stirred out of my trance by Jaune squeezing my hand. "Pyrrha?"

"I'm here," I answered back, opening my eyes to find Jaune staring at me worriedly. "I'm here."

"Sorry, I got worried when you didn't respond. Could you feel it?"

"Yes, it was…" _indescribable, incredible, entrancing._ "…strong." After experiencing the stronger connection, the small, basic connection that Jaune still maintained made me feel relaxed and safe, although I can't be certain that the connection was the only factor there.

"That was me. I pushed into the connection to make it stronger. I was trying to check that you could feel it when you stopped responding."

"I could. I was just too focused on the connection to hear anything," I answered honestly.

"Okay, well this time, let's try this semblance idea of yours. I'm going to work on getting the connection as deep as possible, and I want you to try to push your aura into it, as if you were activating your own semblance."

I nodded, and after a few moments the connection blew back up, this time going even deeper. Instead of sitting back and feeling it out, I tried to push myself into the connection, finding that after a few tries I could get the connection to go even deeper, letting me feel various emotions coming from Jaune. I wanted to sort through them but remembered that we were trying to do something here, and instead tried to focus on my aura, though not before scanning through his emotions to see if he held any anger towards me for what happened; while there were darker emotions hidden deeper, I couldn't really tell who they were directed at or if Jaune himself even knew they were there right now.

Aura manipulation was never something I could pick up—not to the degree that Ren can, for sure—but I knew enough about it to know how auras and semblances worked. I tried to imagine that the connection was a semblance and attempted to push aura into that semblance, but it was so unnatural to be applying aura to a second semblance for the first time that I didn't feel successful. Instead, I felt that I just flexed my aura, and with the strength of the connection starting to surround me, I hoped that would be close enough.

Once again, the connection retreated, but this time I made a point to leave myself in the connection somewhat, so it would be stronger than the last time it did this.

"I think that this might work," Jaune stated, and I could feel excitement and hope coming from him over the connection. Feeling his excitement only caused me to match it, which in turn saw his growing to match mine as well, until we were in a positivity feedback loop. "I could feel your aura in the connection. I think that if I try to direct my semblance, I can get it to use your aura."

"That's good. How much do you think it will use?" I asked, more curious than concerned. A pang of uncertainty from Jaune came across our connection but washed away when he noticed that I wasn't really worried. "I don't know, but I can check," he said, pulling out his scroll and pulling up his aura monitor for the team. "I'll just heal a bruise first and see what that leaves you at."

"If it doesn't take much," I said quickly, catching his attention, "then keep going. There's no need to stop if it works."

"You just want more time to dig around in there, don't you?" Jaune accused with a grin. I froze at the (completely correct) accusation and felt my cheeks start to heat up in embarrassment at being caught. "It's okay. Blake was the same way?"

" _Blake?_ "

Jaune pushed back into the connection, ignoring my surprise likely on purpose, and to his credit, it worked well as a distraction. After a few moments, I was too preoccupied with the chance to explore Jaune to care, though I did remember to try to push my aura into the connection again. I had barely started to feel around when I felt the strange sensation of my aura working and powering something, and I panicked before I remembered that this was the whole point, and that it must be working. When I panicked, I flinched and pulled my aura back to myself reflexively, but now that I was calm again, I pushed it back into the connection for Jaune to use. I could feel concern coming from Jaune and vaguely felt my hand being squeezed, and I squeezed back to let him know it was okay.

Slowly, drip by drip, I felt my aura being expended by a foreign source and could feel Jaune's satisfaction and relief as his injuries were being healed. This went on for some amount of time, but I'm not really all that sure how long; I was too focused to take note. All I know is that at some point, the connection ended, and I was stirred by Jaune at my side. I opened my eyes to find that I was leaning against Jaune's shoulder and he was looking down at me with a curious expression.

"Did you…fall asleep?"

"I…don't think so," I answered back, straightening up and praying to anyone listening that he wouldn't notice the red creeping into my cheeks that started the moment I realized what I was leaning against. I never even thought to break off from holding his hand, and if he asked, I was prepared to say that I had forgotten about it entirely. "How could I supply aura while asleep?"

"Fair point. Did you even notice when you fell over?"

"Fell over?"

"Yeah, you started to fall over to the side when we first started, so I leaned you against my shoulder. I hope you didn't mind," he said, giving me just enough of a sly glance to make me believe that he _knew_ I more than didn't mind, which made my stomach flop again, though for the first time, not for a bad reason. "I guess you're just that good at meditating?"

"I…guess. It's not something I've tried before," I answered, grateful that he didn't try to press the other point. "Then again, this whole thing was a new experience."

"Speaking off, it worked, if you couldn't tell by the aura you expended," Jaune said as stretched his free arm and looked down over his torn clothes. "It doesn't quite heal shirts so well, but I'm no longer in agony."

" _Agony?_ " I asked, guilt pooling in me once more.

"Okay, agony was the wrong word, but it did hurt forcing my aura not to heal me," he corrected.

"O-oh. I'm sorry, again."

"Don't be," he answered. "You wouldn't know it from my lack of scars, but this isn't the worse I've dealt with. My semblance doesn't leave scars, actually. The point is," he punctuated, getting back on track, "that I'm back in working order, and we discovered a new way to use my semblance. I'd say not a bad day's work."

"I guess that helps make up for it. I still don't feel so great about what happened, though."

"Are you going to tell me what that was, or do I need to guess why you went all feral on my ass?" Jaune joked, though that part escaped me for a few moments.

"I…" I trailed off, thinking it over and summoning the courage needed to finally do this. "I guess I should tell you, huh?"

"I mean, if you would like me to guess based off the connection—"

"No, I need to tell you mysel—what do you mean based off the connection?"

"It goes both ways, remember?" I gave Jaune a sideways look. "That's right, you were asking about something else when I said that. For as much of me that you could feel, I could feel the same amount of you. Probably more, since I know how to use the connection better." A stream of panic shot through me as I realized what this could have meant, and my mind worked overtime to torture me with all the things he could have figured out about me. _That is, what wasn't obvious already._

"I…I still need to say it, if that's okay." I forced myself to reply.

"By all means, go ahead." Jaune answered, before giving me a prompt to make it easier to start. "Why'd you lose control like that?"

"You…embarrassed me, and nearly destroyed my self-confidence," I answered slowly, though not because I needed to think it over. I knew exactly why, and it wasn't a difficult conclusion to come to; I've always been aware that my social life took a backseat to my professional one. "At the same time."

"That's…rough," Jaune commented, unsure of how to respond. "I'm assuming that I embarrassed you by exposing your telekinesis semblance?"

"Uh, yeah." _Let's go with that for now, sure._ "It's not actually telekinesis, though; it's polarity." Jaune opened his mouth to ask what the difference was, but I beat him to it. "It's telekinesis for metal objects, basically."

"Oh. I thought that you just went for the weapons because you didn't want anyone to figure it out." Jaune commented. "That's why I pulled that stunt. I figured I had to get as much damage in before you just picked me up and tossed me out of the ring."

"Well, I did only go for weapons to hide the semblance, but that all started because I rarely _need_ the semblance. When I started winning tournaments without my semblance being noticed, people started calling me the 'Invincible Girl' and I liked that. If I had it over again, I would go back and beat up whoever came up with that stupid nickname."

"What's wrong with the nickname? It's kinda badass."

"It's a persona now, one that no one gets close to because they think that the Invincible Girl is too good to be treated like a casual person."

"Oh. That kinda sucks."

"It does, and what's worse, that persona is larger than my actual person." _And that's my fault for not being very good at the 'social' thing, or for never breaking my persona._ "So the only people who do come up to me expect me to be that same person in the ring, or just want something from me."

"Like Weiss during initiation," Jaune offered.

"Yeah, _exactly_ like Weiss."

"You're welcome for that save, by the way. Can you imagine being stuck as her partner?" Jaune offered with a small laugh.

"I doubt that I would have tried to kill her during a spar," I joked, finally finding the confidence to address what happened in a casual manner.

"I _guarantee_ you would have tried to kill Weiss by now," Jaune countered with a knowing look that I couldn't refute. "In a spar or in her sleep."

"I mean… if she hasn't strangled Ruby yet, then maybe I misjudged her," I offered.

"Yeah, she's better than she seems," Jaune allowed. "Marginally."

"As silly as it sounds, though, that's why I tried to get you for a partner."

"Because of Weiss?" Jaune asked, confused.

"No, because you didn't recognize me," I corrected, getting an 'oh' from Jaune. "The whole 'pit fighter' thing threw me off more than it annoyed me, because I didn't think it was possible you wouldn't know me."

"Well, someone thinks highly of herself," Jaune mocked.

"You are _literally_ the first student I've met who didn't know," I countered flatly. "Which makes sense, seeing as you were too busy stealing food from starving families to watch tournaments," I half-joked, giving him some side-eye for good measure.

"Okay, first of all, you're still hung up on that?" Jaune said as if it _wasn't_ a big deal that he was a former criminal. "Second of all, I _never_ raided any poor, starving settlements."

"That's…comforting, I guess."

"Think about it. Starving settlers wouldn't have any food to steal! Same with the poor ones, there's no money to be made there." I gave Jaune a worried and surprised look, and he couldn't hold his serious face, breaking down into laughter. "I thought we were grilling you, not me."

"Someday, I'm going to get the truth out of you about who you are," I said only half-threateningly. The other half was a mix of exasperation, acceptance, and a willingness to put it out of my mind.

"Someday, I might just tell you the truth about who I _was_." Jaune answered back, choosing his words carefully. "Carry on, though. Something about your persona, I think?"

"Yeah, that," I picked up. "It was basically all I had…or have. It's not that I want to be wrapped up in my own fame or success, it's just that…" I trailed off, taking a breath to calm my nerves and find the right words. "I don't have much else should that go away. So when you nearly won the spar…"

"I nearly destroyed your identity, in front of the whole class," Jaune filled in, the realization dawning on him.

"And the transfers, and the students who arrived early for the Vytal Festival, and Miss Goodwitch, and…" I trailed off, the point being made obvious. "That prospect scared me enough that I was prepared to do anything to stop it."

"I'm…sorry," Jaune said, looking down at his lap instead of over at me. "I was too determined to show up Miss Goodwitch to think I might have been taking things too seriously."

"You shouldn't have to apologize for anything," I countered him somewhat sternly. "You didn't do anything wrong. If anything, it was…it was probably good that this happened."

"I have a trip to the infirmary that says otherwise," Jaune quipped.

"Not…not _that_ part, obviously. Just…cracking my image, I guess. It's probably for the best that I'm not so invincible. Maybe I can make some real attachments now that everyone saw my persona break." It might have been wishful thinking, but looking back, there could be good to come out of this.

"How is it that the two of us got paired up?" Jaune joked softly. "The only person worse at forming attachments than us might have been _former racial terrorist_ Blake, and even she never tried to kill anybody; well, not here at Beacon, anyways." The joke was relevant, although he earned himself a soft slap to the chest with my freehand for that last bit. "Your persona didn't necessarily break, by the way. I'm pretty sure you're still undefeated, unless they forfeited the match."

"They…didn't." Jaune looked at me, wondering how I knew. "I've already been interviewed about what happened. The headmaster said that technically, our 'fight' happened after the spar was over, so the results will stand."

"That's…" Jaune started off passionately, acting as if he was going to be upset by the decision before catching himself and thinking it over. "Actually, that makes a lot of sense for Ozpin. He _would_ try to get under my skin like that."

"He what?" I asked, surprised.

"It's this…game we play back and forth. He calls me into his office, I lie about everything from the color of the sky to the names of my teammates, he smiles and pretends like he believes me, and we go our merry ways. He's been trying to figure out who I was before Beacon ever since he let me in." Jaune's explanation seemed to match up with what the headmaster had told me the other day, except Jaune seemed a lot more aware of what headmaster Ozpin was trying to do than I would have expected. _It also doesn't sound like Jaune trusts him, which I guess isn't surprising; just because he wants to protect Jaune doesn't mean that Jaune would trust that. He hardly trusted us until we forced him to, and that was before I tried to kill him._ What complicated things was that I just agreed to help the headmaster watch over Jaune, but if Jaune is _aware_ that Ozpin is watching him, what happens if he gets suspicious of me? Is he going to make me choose between them? If he forgives me for nearly killing him, will he be so kind when I spy on him?

"Why don't you tell him?" I asked, wondering what Jaune's suspicions of the headmaster were exactly, if only to play things safe. _I wouldn't have agreed to help the headmaster if he didn't have Jaune's best interests at heart, but I don't know if Jaune recognizes that._

"Because I would like to stay _in_ Beacon and _out_ of…" he trailed off. "Nevermind. I just don't want to risk him overreacting and ruining a good thing."

"So you're glad you're in Beacon?" I asked, still a little worried about him wanting to connect with me—and the rest of the team, obviously, but seeing it as a safe alternative to talking with Jaune about Ozpin.

"Yeah, the days where I don't die aren't so bad," he answered, giving me a teasing look. "Seriously, I think that…I think I need to be here. The longer I think about it, the more I realize that this might be just what I need."

"I'm…glad to hear that, Jaune." I looked off to the side after answering, not wanting to catch his eye just yet. "If it helps, I'm…thinking about forfeiting our spar."

"Why?" Jaune asked, and I could feel his eyes on the side of my head.

"It doesn't feel right that you should have to lose that fight, especially since they disqualified you for your spar with Ruby," I answered. "I think I wouldn't feel so guilty about it, then."

"No, why would that help me?" Jaune asked again.

"Because you…it would…" I fumbled around, realizing that I couldn't formulate a good answer. "You did say you wanted to show up Miss Goodwitch."

"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure that nearly dying because of her sparring session checked that box off."

"Well…yeah. I guess."

"Then it's settled," Jaune announced as he started to push himself off the ground, finally taking his hand out of mine and reminding me that I had been holding onto it the whole time. _I'm pretty sure I wasn't subtle about my displeasure that he was leaving, too, which sucks for me_. "You won the fight. What's one more loss, really? At least this one was legitimate." As Jaune made his way towards the stairwell, one last thought crossed my mind.

"Jaune?" He turned around to meet my eyes. "Why do any of this? Why haven't you been evasive with me, or angry, or leery?" My question seemed like it needed context, but Jaune seemed to get the context immediately. He _should_ have been angry with me for what I did, or at the very least, should be nervous around me. And under any normal circumstance, he would never let me this close to him, and that didn't mention the whole semblance experiment. _Perhaps most surprisingly, he hasn't tried to be evasive about anything, either, almost as if he forgot that he's supposed to lie about everything._ I know that I shouldn't ruin a good thing, but the fact that he changed his behavior for me didn't make any sense.

"It's a mix of things, if I'm honest. I'm not angry because I get it; you lost your head and were fighting for real. I almost killed you, too, did you know that?" I gave him a surprised look to tell him that I wasn't sure what he was talking about. "Didn't think so; Miss Goodwitch broke us up before it came to that. I'm not nervous around you because it's pretty obvious that you aren't someone to be afraid of." I gave him another strange look. "In person, that is. Clearly you are in the ring."

"And the last part?"

"Why haven't I been trying to get out of this?"

"Yes," I confirmed. "It's almost as if you're trying to patch things up more than I am. It's…unexpected."

"Yeah, well, I guess you could say that our spar was a wake-up call for me. It was made obvious to me how stupid it was to be such a bad teammate and leader by having my own partner try to off me, so I guess I've decided that I should take care of that better. Besides," Jaune said as he reached the door to the stairwell and turned back before going down it, "you impressed me. A lot." He paused for a moment, thinking over his answer and apparently deciding that it was sufficent, which made me feel that there was something profound about it. "I'm actually looking forward to our next spar, and I'd prefer it if we were close enough by then that we _didn't_ try to kill one another."

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

The walk to Junior's club was pretty nice, actually. The sun was setting and the air felt cool, and for once I didn't even get motion sick on the Bullhead down from Beacon. All in all, the walk was rather relaxing, which was something I needed. Seeing as it was Saturday, the Bullheads should be running late, too, so I won't have to walk back through the Emerald Forest for once.

Granted, the whole walking thing would have been much more difficult if I hadn't been able to heal myself earlier, and wasn't _that_ interesting. I wasn't lying to Pyrrha when I told her why I had never tried to use others' aura to power my semblance; there just wasn't anyone in the Tribe I would be willing to try that with. Vernal, maybe, but it wouldn't be something I would just ask her out of the blue. There would have to be some outside force causing it to be necessary, like Raven getting injured and me being out of aura, and that wasn't a likely scenario for multiple reasons, the most obvious of which being Raven being injured. It was an oddly specific scenario which required for Raven to be injured, me to be auraless, and Vernal to be unscathed and able to supply aura. _While it sure made sense to_ me _why I hadn't ever tried it, I do see why Pyrrha thought it was stupid of me._

As the building for Junior's club came into view as I rounded a corner, I was reminded of an answer that I couldn't give Pyrrha earlier, it connecting to things I can't share with her much like my trip to Junior's now. She had asked why I wasn't angry with her, and truth be told, if she had found me earlier, I would have been. At the end of that fight when I reached for my dagger, _someone_ was about to die, and I would have been mad as hell if it was me. _I was mad as hell either way, actually._ I'd never tell them, but RWBY's insistence that I take pain meds (and a nurse who is going to get a scathing Yalp review later) gave me enough time to cool off before I would have sought out Pyrrha. It wasn't until I woke up earlier that I really had a chance to think things over again, and once I did, I started to see things differently, though not for unselfish reasons. _Naturally, the answer I gave Pyrrha_ was _true, but it wasn't the whole truth._ I _am_ putting effort into this team now, a marked difference from the start of the semester; that is true. Pyrrha has been the last person in our circle that I've reached out to for that, so it makes sense to me that she'd be confused that I was trying to reconcile things; she probably expected me to hate her for nearly taking my head off. There are a lot of different things contributing, but that last line I gave her was the most important, though not for the reasons she would expect: _she impressed me_.

I don't mean that she has a few good tricks and would make a good fighter, I mean that she was _good_. Her natural instincts, reflexes, and athletic ability were far above my own, and the only reason I kept that fight close was because of how I was trained, and by whom. She may be a champion at sparring, but I knew more about _fighting_ , and I knew that when I had an advantage, push it so hard that my opponent forgets to use their advantages. _When I say she impressed me, I mean that she could be an important ally down the road, when I break from Raven._ Beacon lasts four years, and in that time, I could push her, improve her few flaws and sharpen her strengths, until she was truly invincible, Maidens notwithstanding. Of the many, _many_ things that need to go right for me to break free of both Raven and Ozpin simultaneously, a champion-level fighter with four years of Raven's training (although second-hand) would be very high on that list.

It was _that_ , the potential for helping me get free, that made me realize that I need to salvage this partnership. Four years was a long time, but when squeezed between Ozpin and Raven, it was far, far too short for comfort. That's the real reason behind why I need to draw my team closer: I need them, or I _will_.

"And, if I'm not mistaken, I might already have more influence over Pyrrha than I thought," I mumbled to myself with a chuckle. I had thought that she had been looking at me odd for some time now, but I've never been able to place whether that was because she distrusted my past or just liked looking at me, and after our spar I would have sworn that she hated me. _And yet, my semblance has never been fooled, though with how she made no effort to hide how much she enjoyed exploring the connection, things were a little obvious; it didn't help her that she forgot it went both ways._ I still need to figure out what I plan on doing about this, the first step of which would be asking: what would Raven do?

The second step is remembering that Raven got knocked up by Taiyang. _A blond dude and a supremely deadly girl…_ I really do not need history repeating itself here.

Truth be told, today turned out fantastically, and that was before I even factored in what happened with Pyrrha on the roof. _Figuring out how to use others' aura may not be my favorite part of what happened._ I can't say that I've ever had anyone _try_ to push that deeply into the connection provided by my semblance, but I also can't say that I hated the experience. If I had any doubts or hidden anger towards Pyrrha before that, then getting such a thorough examination of her eliminated them entirely. On top of that, using her aura to heal myself was surreal, to the point where I have to wonder if that is how it feels when I heal others. _It was unnaturally comforting, to have someone else making you heal._ That does open up other questions, like could I use Pyrrha's aura to power my semblance to empower a third person, but right now, those concerns weren't important, even if the possibilities were powerful. _Could aura-_ stealing _be a thing?_

As I walked up to The Club, one of the bouncers noticed me and pointed me out to the other bouncer at the door. They both began running up to me with worried faces, and my instincts screamed at me that something was wrong. _Of course, I left my swords; this was just supposed to be a quick chat with Junior._ I had my dagger hidden behind my back, but that was it, and my hands twitched towards it. As the two goons approached me, I tensed up and waited to see what their play was.

"Oh, thank god!" One of them let out as he got to me. "Come on, we need you inside!"

"What?" I asked confused, forcing myself to relax and push down my paranoia when they didn't attack me.

"Just go find Junior, and hurry!" The other one side as they both practically shoved me inside, before closing the door behind me hastily and taking no heed of the line of people waiting to get inside. I looked around confused and found the dance floor to be in normal working order: people dancing, loud music, all the things you would expect. As I scanned around, though, the one thing out of the ordinary were the staff, be it actual staff or security. They were all nervous, and their eyes repeatedly flicked towards the bar, but before I could even make my way that way, Junior had spotted me and rushed over to me.

"Kid, you've got some good timing," Junior said, stress obvious in his voice.

"Yeah, about that. What did I just walk into?"

"We've got a situation at the bar, and you are the only one I'm willing to let handle it," Junior answered back, trying to puff himself up to look manly enough to make up for asking me for help.

"The hell?" I asked, insulted and surprised. "What makes you think I'm dealing with it? I accepted one job to help you out, not signed up to be your muscle."

" _We have a problem_ ," Junior began to explain while walking me over towards the bar, ignoring my protest entirely, "with a rather volatile patron, and all of my staff are too scared to deal with her."

"You're telling me that all of your suits are too scared of one person to do anyth—" I cut off as the bar came into view. There was a ring of Junior's men formed around one person at the bar, but all of those men were hanging back fifteen feet, giving practically the whole bar to a very yellow girl. " _You let her in alone?_ Didn't she destroy the place last time you did that?"

"She walked in so angry that she didn't even bother attacking our guards, and they didn't dare move when they saw her," Junior explained, pushing me through the ring of terrified bouncers. "Something about those red eyes terrifies them," Junior explained, trying to hide that he was just as scared as the rest of them. _In all fairness, those red eyes terrify me as well, but more for the familial connection than the associated anger._ "I don't care what it takes, just calm her down, _please._ Then we'll talk."

"Fine," I called out before walking forward and taking the seat next to Yang. "So, uh, you come here often?"

"I thought I said I wanted to be left _alone_ ," Yang spat out angrily before turning her head to the side, her red eyes meeting mine. It took her a moment, but she calmed down enough for her eyes to return to normal as she recognized me. "Oh. _Jaune_. What are you doing here?"

"I decided that I wanted something to take the edge off of almost dying," I lied easily. I had already decided that was my cover and I had even left my scroll on, since the cover would hold up well. Besides, it wasn't actually a lie so much as it was a convenient, overlapping reason to come to the bar. "You?"

"I just needed to clear my head, and…calm down," Yang answered, turning her head to stare at her nearly-empty Strawberry Sunrise, which I assumed was not her first of the night.

"Well, judging by that cheerful greeting I just received, I would say that the 'calm down' part hasn't worked. What about the 'clear head' part?" I asked, looking up to the terrified bartender hiding at the end of the bar and motioning to bring me one of what Yang was having. When Yang didn't answer, I took that itself as an answer. "Not well, huh? Can I ask why you're so angry you got drunk?"

"I'm not drunk," Yang answered back grumpily. "Not yet, at least. I'm barely buzzed."

"That's what they all say," I quipped lightly. "The question still stands."

"Why do _you_ care?" Yang asked, the alcohol keeping her from being able to hide her mistrust or maybe just stopping her from filtering out her anger.

"You know, it feels like I get that question a lot lately," I answered, partially deflecting her accusation. "Do I really come across as a guy with ulterior motives?"

" _Yes._ "

"Alright, well, if you _have_ to know, Junior asked me to keep you from hurting anyone," I answered, again not _technically_ lying, since Junior did make me handle this. Yang took to the explanation with surprise, going to so far as to look around to finally realize just how scared everyone was and once she had, she started to retreat in on herself a little. "Look, I don't know why you're here, but I don't think that you want to hurt these guys, right?"

"I don't…" Yang cut herself off as she looked around again, guilt starting to sober her up a little (though not literally). She's a hot-head, sure, but not a malicious person, which means either Taiyang is the nicest person ever or she was adopted. _No kid of Raven would feel bad for threatening people_. "No, I-I don't want to hurt anybody."

It did occur to me that in some twisted way, _I_ could be considered a kid of Raven, and the previous statement still stood.

"Well, if you keep downing Sunrises and threatening anyone who comes and sits by you, it won't take long before that happens," I explained almost as if I was explaining to a toddler; better safe than sorry, considering I just got _out_ of the infirmary. The bartender set down a Sunrise for me as far from Yang as he could get and still get it to me, and I took a sip of it. "Actually, I take it back, if you keep drinking these, there's no way you can stay angry. That's fantastic."

"Okay, okay. I'll tell you. I'm calm, see?" Yang was forcing herself to calm down, but I made a show of ignoring it, half testing her resolve to stay calm and half being a masochistic idiot.

"No, I'm serious, whoever decided that this is a 'girly' drink not for guys needs to be hanged. I can't believe we don't order these more often."

"Jaune, please," Yang cut in without any real energy. It would appear that her anger was, for the moment, under control and in its absence left her feeling drained, which was just about the best thing possible at the moment. "It's Blake."

"Yes, I know," I answered back solemnly.

"You do?"

"Yeah, and believe me, it's hard for me to adjust to, too. A mean, a _faunus_ , living among us?" I continued on in serious voice. "That's hard to forgive. I almost shook her hand once."

"I'm not nearly drunk enough to miss you from this close," Yang answered, cutting her eyes at me and curling a fist to let me know how funny my joke was.

"What about Blake?" I asked, offering up a chance to finally get serious.

"She wants to stop the White Fang."

"Oh, no," I answered, feigning horror to show her that I wasn't really sure what the problem was. "That's…I don't get it. Shouldn't we _all_ want that?" _I mean, ethics and morality aren't exactly my strong suit, but even I know that terrorism is bad._

" _Alone,_ Jaune," Yang elaborated. "She's trying to stop them alone."

"How do you know that?" I asked for clarification as some of the gravity of the situation hit me. She _had_ mentioned something about finding a purpose the last time I was in this club, after all, and it wasn't as if she was against running off and doing things on her own. _Last time, she at least brought that one guy with her, for all the good they did._

"She's been reading articles about them ever since the docks," Yang answered, starting her explanation but not getting far before I cut her off.

"Which, in fairness to her, is only a few days."

"It's all she does, that and read… _books_." The way Yang tried to avoid saying that word makes me very suspicious. "Every time she has been on her scroll or a computer, she's studying up on them." Yang's expression was firm a resolute, enough to make me wonder if she was even buzzed at all.

"How do you know that?"

"The screens are transparent, dumbass," Yang quipped back sharply. "Besides, her search history is full of it."

"You go through your partner's search history? Is that a thing?" Although I was far too careful with my scroll for _other_ reasons, I could see this habit causing problems for, well, 95% of all male-female partners in Beacon, if not more. "Look, Yang, that doesn't mean that she's obsessed or that you need to worry."

"No, but guess where she went last night." Yang locked her eyes on to mine, but even in the corner of my vision I could see her clench her fists. More obvious than that, I could see the anger coming back to her eyes, though thankfully they weren't red.

"…White Fang?" She didn't answer, instead letting her frown and returning anger do the talking. "How bad?"

"She won't tell me. She won't talk to me about it." Yang resumed staring at her glass, or maybe seething would be a better way to describe it. "She's trying to hide it, like she doesn't want or need our help, and it's going to get her in trouble. It already did once."

"How do you know where she went, then?" I asked, partly to be sure that Yang wasn't paranoid. "If she won't talk to you about it, that is."

"I tracked her scroll," Yang answered simply. "Or, tried to. She turned it off, and when she came back late last night, she couldn't give me a good excuse. I _know_ what she was doing, Jaune. She even had the nerve to use your injury to distract the rest of us." _Smart girl._

"You tracked her scroll?" I asked, a small well of panic starting to stir up inside me. _If Yang can track scrolls, then all it would take to get me in trouble would be making her suspicious enough to check mine every now and then._ "How did you do that? _Why_ did you do that?"

"I tracked it," she spat out angrily at the accusation therein, "because I knew what she was doing. Haven't you been listening?" I rolled my eyes, but she didn't notice. _Gods help Yang's future boyfriends if they so much as take a step in the wrong direction._ "As for how, I sent a text to my uncle and he ran it for me. He's good at that kinda stuff." _Even more good information to know, although I would have had to be stupid not to suspect that Ozpin or Qrow couldn't track me, if they wanted to._ That she had to text him and ask did make me wonder if she and Ruby didn't know that their uncle was in town, and if that were the case, he was probably here on business.

"What are you going to do now?" I asked, shifting a little to get a better view of Yang's reaction.

"The more of these I down," she started, waving her empty Sunrise at me, "the more I want to run in there and beat it out of her."

"Okay," I said, cringing a little. "That's not the greatest plan. Blake isn't the kind of person who can be forced to trust you. She makes you work for it." _And damn her for that, too, because that meant that I had to tell her secrets I was really hoping to hold on to in order to calm her down back at Forever Fall._ She is capable of trusting us, since she did eventually reveal her past with the White Fang to the group, but that was only _after_ nearly dying to the White Fang. If she has it in her head to go after them again, Yang might be on to something here.

"Yeah, well, I don't know how to do that and I'm out of patience," Yang answered honestly, but frustrated. "Look, now I'm getting partner-advice from _you_. This must be what rock-bottom feels like."

"Hey, now, what's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"Your partner just put you in the infirmary," Yang answered back in a deadpan.

"I'll have you know that Pyrrha and I have moved past that, thank you very much," I answered back, pretending to be defensive.

" _Great_. Now Blake and I are the worst partners in Beacon," Yang drawled for dramatic effect, following that up with a long, absent stare at her empty glass. "What should I do?"

"You're asking me?" I asked, somewhat surprised. My reputation for interpersonal relationships at Beacon was spotty even if Pyrrha and I had patched things up earlier, and it wasn't any secret that Yang has a lower opinion of me than most, or at least she did. I might have started to turn that around, but that didn't mean that she would be ready to turn to me for help unless she was desperate.

"Yeah, it's a stupid idea, I'll admit," Yang said while shaking her head slightly, as in disbelief that the words were coming from her mouth. "But following my own ideas got me here, so how much worse could I do? Besides," she lowered her voice and glared ahead at her glass once again, "at least one of us can ask for help," she said, obviously not talking about her or myself.

"First of all, I think you should call it a night and come back to Beacon." It didn't take a genius to figure out that she wasn't exactly in a very gracious mood towards Blake, and the longer she stayed here, the better the chance she had of doing something stupid. It would also be for the best if she didn't confront Blake without having a chance to cool off, not unlike how Pyrrha avoided me for a day, although that wasn't why she delayed. "You weren't wrong to try to cool off, you just were stupid enough to think getting drunk would help." I gave her an accusatory look and she just grinned and shrugged her shoulders at me, completely unrepentant. "Tomorrow, _when your first instinct_ isn't _to punch Blake_ , confront her a bit more gently."

"Wow, your advice sucks. _Confront her gently?_ What does that even mean?"

" _It means_ ," I cut back sharply, "that you need to make her comfortable with trusting you. If she's so determined to do something, then let her know that you want to help. We know she's not against having help, right?"

"I guess so," Yang answered. "She had that guy with her."

"Sun, I think," I added. "It might be easier to help stop the entire White Fang than to convince her to let it go. If you can get your whole team to help her, you might actually stand a chance."

"That's…actually not bad advice." The words fumbled out of Yang's mouth as if she was surprised that she even thought them, much less _said_ them. "Who are you and what have you done with Jaune?"

"Yeah, yeah. Jaune's an asshole, he doesn't like anyone, he's evil, you're madly in love with him, yada yada yada. Can we go now?"

"Hold on, one of those isn't—" Yang tried to cut in, but I didn't let her get the chance. "Fine. How'd you even get here? Weren't you like broken yesterday?"

"Me? In any state of distress? I don't have any idea what you're talking about, I've never been wounded in my life," I drawled obnoxiously, drawing back on how Weiss sounded during initiation. "I'm pretty sure I would remember such a thing."

"Really? Because I remember cradling you in my chest after Pyrrha mopped the floor with you…"

"That doesn't ring a bell, unless…" I trailed off, making it obvious that my eyes wondered down from her face. " _Ah._ I do remember something quite soft, warm, and squishy. You're saying that was you?"

"…I hate you, you know that? I _really_ hate you."

"Join the club. Are we ready yet?"

"Hold on, I'll be right back," Yang called out, pushing herself up from the bar and testing out her legs, which did still function. "I've gotta pee."

"Um…good luck?" I called back uncertain as she walked off, not bothering to stop and hear what I said. "I'm not sure why I needed that information."

"Any luck?" Junior asked, sliding back behind the bar as Yang walked away. "Where's she going?"

"The bathroom, I hope," I answered back quickly. I only had till Yang got back to finish what I actually came here to do, but fortunately, it shouldn't take more than a few words. "How'd we do?"

"How'd you do?" Junior repeated back with a grin, catching my meaning. "Worked like a fuckin' charm is how you did. Boy was scared beyond belief. He's been griping to all the others about how some cops came by and busted his chops, and how they said he'd be left alone if he didn't do anything more than working for me."

"That sounds like it worked," I commented, smirking a little but not letting on how good it felt to have my ego stroked. _It didn't need to be said that the target may not exactly be the sharpest tool in the shed._ "What about your end?"

"The Atlas guy? Yeah, I got in touch with him, for what trouble it was worth," Junior replied, his mood souring a little as he mentioned his source. "He's not a fan of someone finding out his cover, but he's agreed to meet you here Tuesday at eight. I've got some rooms upstairs that are pretty secure."

"What'd it cost you to reach out?"

"Ah, I just forgave a debt the guy owed me. Deal of ours went south—his fault, through and through—and I've been angry at him since. Nothing major, though; your little stunt was well worth the debt to me."

"Did you pass along what I'm looking for?" I asked, flicking my head around to make sure Yang hadn't come back. "The Arcs and all that?"

"As a matter of fact, that's the reason he's willing to meet. He's curious who would be stupid enough to go around asking about that name." Junior gave me a wary look, but I didn't bow under it. "You're getting into a dangerous world here, kid."

"I thought I made it clear, Junior," I answered back coolly. "I've been in this life for a while."

"Yeah, well, just keep that attitude and my guy will take to you just fine," Junior shrugged off the comment with a small laugh. "Here comes your girl."

"You think I could pull something like that?" I mumbled to Junior as I turned around to see Yang sauntering up towards us. "About time. I was worried that you fell in."

"You shouldn't have been worried about that. Her ass is too fat to fall through the toilets," Junior cut in from behind the bar, apparently having found either his spine or his balls, at least just enough to antagonize Yang. Yang and I both gave him death glares, but mine was only because he stole the joke I was setting up.

"Let's go, before I get the urge to trash this place again," Yang said at me while never breaking eye contact with Junior, who was starting to wilt under Yang's glare. "How's your crotch, Junior?" Whatever that was referencing—and it was something that I _absolutely_ won't be letting go anytime soon—caused Junior to flinch and reel back, a sight which Yang greeted with a satisfied smirk. With the verbal exchange won (albeit through some sort of threat), Yang turned to walk out the club, and Junior turned to me to give one final reminder.

"Tuesday night. Eight."

"Got it," I replied, slurping down the remainder of my Sunrise and pushing off the bar to follow after Yang and do whatever I can to get her back to Beacon without incident.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Well, this is sure setting up to be a busy few days here within the story, isn't it? The sparring incident on Friday, Ozpin meeting Pyrrha and then Pyrrha finding Jaune on Saturday, Ilia's invitation to Blake for the coming Wednesday and now Jaune meeting this mysterious ex-Atlas source on Tuesday? My, what _ever_ could go wrong...**

 **Originally, this scene was just Jaune going down to meet Junior and stumbling across Yang, who clearly is fed up with Blake's blooming obsession into the White Fang. This meant that the first draft did nothing to explain why Jaune not only was willing to forgive Pyrrha but use the opportunity to draw her in closer, and while that made sense in my original outline, here in practice it was...bad. Just, yeah, it was rough around the edges with the way things have been playing out so far, so Jaune's monologue was added in to help smooth that over.**

 **Also, internal monologues from the main characters are typically, like, healthy for a character-driven story, so there's that.**

 **I'm still actually a little uncomfortable with just sending Yang to the bar, like that's a healthy thing for a 17-year-old loose-cannon Huntress to be doing, and I have to hype myself up to convince myself sometimes, which is comical in retrospect.  
**

 _It's okay, her introduction to RWBY came in that same bar.  
_ _She clearly is used to being in bars, so it isn't weird to her.  
_ _She has an alcoholic uncle and an absentee mother (and a dead mother), and her dad was the party guy and the 'cool dad.'  
It makes sense she'd be at a bar.  
_ _You're overthinking this.  
Just write the damn chapter. _

**Sometimes I forget that my little sister reads this story, which is weird because it was her encouragement that basically forced me to start writing it, but it's times like this where I realize: she's gonna hold this over my head. _Meh, what could be done about it?_**

 **Lastly, I'm curious to see how you guys view the entire 'racism towards faunus' theme of the show, and somewhat specifically the Schnee Dust Corp. I had some comments about it and some people concerned that I'm going to go out of my way to make it a big theme, so I'll go on record: nah, it's not really an important theme to Jaune so much, so it won't be focused on here. To Blake, sure, but it's not her story. This story does evolve to involve a secondary protagonist, but it's not Blake.**

 **It's a really hard subject to portray in the show, because intentionally creating a racist universe will reveal a _lot_ about what you, the creator, think racism really _is._ As such, the show pretty obviously makes some points, like showing that Faunus are moral equivalents to humans and those who hate them aren't good people. That said, we've never really had a _true_ racist character outside of Cardin, who really was more of a generic bully in the show than a card-carrying racist; we see him bully both a Faunus and a non-Faunus equally, if not going harder on the non-Faunus (Jaune). Papa Schnee (** _the Lorax who speaks for the Schnees_ **), I feel, was supposed to come across as racist, but I struggle to buy into that yet because we've only had throw-away lines about the SDC in the show. The main thing I remember about the SDC is it employs Faunus at low cost to mine/refine/(make?) Dust, and Papa Schnee makes the comment that they can't be racist because they employ a lot of Faunus. I mean, showing him as a shrewd or corrupt businessman would work, and you already have the whole "physically abuses his daughter" thing going.**

 **IDK, hopefully V6 will take some time to straighten things out for us, since we will be going to Atlas. There are parts that I really like, like how Blake vs Adam resembles MLK and Malcom X respectively, though exaggerated.**

 **I know that I am going to regret asking the internet this, but what do you guys think about the overall status of racism (speciesism?) in RWBY? Is it set up well, or does is fail to really establish the deep roots of the issue?**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** on that happy note, the CotW comes to us by _Avidlag_ on **Ch 14**

"Aww, boss ya spoil me~ 3. And is that some foreshadowing in the form of a pun that I see? Glorious. Jokes aside you built a wonderful set up chapter here, and that's not even including the previous set up like the former Atlas agent (calling it now, putting money on Tuksan). I'm hesitant to commit to a proper review atm since it feels like next chapter is going to be the meat and potatoes. But that being said, I can't wait to see the fallout of a paranoid former(?) bandit who was forced into sedation have to deal with an increasingly curious partner that has beat the tar out of him all the while trying to sneak away to learn about his family."

 **I do spoil ya, don't I? WELp, I guess it's time to stop that... :P  
** _Avidlag left a review last week requesting that Yang have some fun making puns at Jaune's expense centering around the work 'knock,' and that certainly made its way into the final draft. As to the foreshadowing he's asking about, this is not one of Blake's books, so any and all such activities, should they occur between any characters, will certainly not be as detailed as Avidlag would like..._

 **In a perfect world, this chapter would have had the meat and potatoes, but because I have a miraculous talent of squeezing 10k words out of two scenes, you get some meat here and some potatoes next week, and the steamed veggies the week after, and the dessert the week after...** **Things are gonna be busy here on in, or they should.**

 **I do really like that last sentence, mainly because it lets me smirk and say, "Oh boy, if you guys think Jaune is setting up for some major fallout now, just wait until we finish V2 events..." :D**

* * *

 **Also,** _mexicanimator_ **(great username, by the way) pointed out that Amber was attacked by Cinder before the events of Volume 1, and naturally as soon as I read that, it all came back to me. You know, how she used _fire_ in her debut fight (brief tussle?) with Glynda during Roman's dust heist that Ruby breaks up in V1, or how she used those powers to cull Adam into working for her. **

_**Oops.**_

 **So, uh, with that said...**

 _ **By the power invested in me by myself, author and god-king of this here fanfiction, in accordance with the sacred religion of RWBY fanfiction fathered by the God-King Coeur Al'Aran, may he write forever, and with the blessings of Oum, Luna, and Shawcross, I hereby decree that**_

 ** _none of that shit matters, and we gonna go with the attack is taking place around this time, because I say so and it is inconsequential to this story either way._ **

**Yay.**


	18. Calm Before Storm pt 2

**[REFINED Nov 2, 2018] Author's Note: Nothing worth noting.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 16:** _"The difference between eavesdropping and spying is that eavesdropping is what you try to call it when you get caught doing it." – Qrow Branwen_

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

When I woke up this morning, things felt better than they had the night before, but since I ended up at a bar last night, I don't think that says all that much. I probably just felt good because it was Sunday, which was on the weekend, which means that I slept in to nearly noon because I can. By the time I got up and got my hair, well, decent enough to be seen, none of my team was in the dorm, which means I had to track down my target.

Blake really isn't that hard to track down, which is surprising for an ex-terrorist ninja; you check anywhere quiet first. Pretty simple. That made my first stop the library, where I find myself now, hiding behind a bookcase, eavesdropping on her. _Well, more on the person she's talking to than her._

"This seat taken?" Jaune asked as he walked up and took a seat across from Blake. He arrived only seconds before me but didn't notice me coming around the corner of a bookshelf, so I ducked back behind them to stay out of sight. I am instantly suspicious of whatever this is, and not for those jokes Nora keeps making about Jaune hitting on Blake; I _am_ Blake's partner, and I'm pretty sure that she isn't interested. _Then again, I was also pretty sure that Jaune was an ass who didn't care about any of us, yet he defied that again last night._ That tiny bit of uncertainty is enough to justify spying on them, right? _Right._

"Would it matter if I said yes?" Blake asked back, not shifting her focus from the computer she was sitting at. From my vantage point, I could see most of the back of Jaune's head, but through the screen I could see Blake and, more importantly, the news articles she was combing over at the moment.

"It would matter," Jaune answered back softly, surprising Blake enough to look up at him. "I would drag over a different chair."

"Oh, how thoughtful of you," Blake drawled, rolling her eyes and then bringing them back to her screen. "What do you want?"

"Nothing, nothing," Jaune replied in a manner that made it obvious that there was something. "I just wanted to check on you. How are you doing?"

Blake didn't respond immediately, instead giving Jaune a flat look. "Shouldn't I be asking you that?"

"Why would you—oh, yeah… the spar…" Jaune answered back, genuinely confused at first. "Yeah, I feel fine. My semblance took care of all that, no thanks to you guys."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Blake asked, only paying half her attention to Jaune as she continued to scroll through her articles.

"I seem to recall you guys drugging me." Blake gave Jaune a brief look to acknowledge the point, but no more before going back to reading. "And I know that at least you understand how my semblance works." Again, a brief look, but no reply. "And you all knew that my semblance can _heal me._ " _That would make a lot more sense than just he was a masochist who didn't want to let the nurse heal him, not that I ever for a single second suspected him of such a nothing. Not at all._

"So what, you were going to go through the pain of not using your aura for a while, just to use your semblance and heal instantly?" Blake asked, unimpressed.

"Yes, exactly," Jaune confirmed. "You guys cost me precious time there."

" _Precious time_?" Blake asked, arching one eyebrow.

"Mmhmm."

"Jaune, you're not living out in the wild anymore, and you aren't...raiding anymore," Blake said gently, turning her head away from her screen to look at Jaune seriously. "You can afford to lose a day so that you're not hurting." She chastised him as if he were a child, and he seemed to take it as such, too.

"I…" Jaune trailed off, apparently at a loss for words. "That…is a fair point." From the way Jaune stared off to the side in silence as Blake went back to her screen, it almost looked like Jaune was lost in thought over it. _While it feels good to see Jaune look a little stupid, I can't help but wonder what sort of life he led where a day of pain was safer than taking two days off._ I mean, I know that he considered himself an outlaw, but still, that almost seems paranoid. At least, I hope that he's paranoid, and that he didn't grow up in an environment that dangerous. "I can't help but notice that you're studying the White Fang," Jaune pointed out after a break in the conversation.

"What makes you say that?" Blake answered back absently, eyes still on the screen.

"I dunno. I can't really read backwards very well, but it doesn't take a genius to decode what ' _W'_ means," Jaune answered back, earning Blake's full attention as she gave him a flat look. "Wanna tell me what that's about?"

"Didn't we already have this touching, emotional heart-to-heart already?" Blake asked, shifting her focus back to the screen. "I seem to recall talking about this at the Club." I gave Blake a funny look at this—not that she could see me from my hiding spot—as I was pretty sure that no such things ever came up during that night, outside of me explaining why I trashed the place. _Even then, calling that an emotional moment isn't really right, because I somewhat skirted around the real reason, or at least avoided mentioning_ her _name._ Ruby knew, of course, but would never go behind my back like that.

"Oh, I don't know. Remind me." Blake looked up at him and gave him a funny look, but whatever Jaune did, he made it obvious that he wasn't going to let it go until she did.

"I told you that I need to stop the White Fang." _She what?_

"I remember calling you vain."

"I remember that you encouraged me," Blake countered back. _He wHAT?_

"I remember that too."

 _That son of a bitch._ He had the nerve to console me last night about this while having already gone behind my back to cause this problem in the first place?! I clenched my fists and my blood started to boil, and I could feel my eyes turn red as I lifted my foot off the ground to go give him a piece of my mind when his next words surprised me enough to snap out of it. "I also seem to remember telling you not to do anything without Yang."

"And I haven't," Blake lied, doing her best to get away with it by flicking her eyes back to her screen.

"Don't lie to me, Blake. You're not great at it."

"I'm not—" Blake cut herself off as she turned to look at Jaune, who gave her a look that cut through her lousy attempt to get away with her lie. "Fine, you win. How do you always seem to know these things?"

"It pays to have lots of friends who tell you things," Jaune answered back.

" _You?_ " Blake asked with a scoff. " _Friends?_ "

"Don't deflect either, Blake. You're never going to be as good as me at it," Jaune quipped back. "I ran into Yang last night."

"O-oh?"

"Yeah, at that bar we all went to, actually. She was all worked up because you went off alone." Blake hadn't looked back at the screen in a while and Jaune's unspoken accusation had put guilt on her face. "She's lucky I was there, or there's no telling what sort of trouble she might have caused." _That…is a fair point, yet it still angered me that I've just casually become a destructive liability, and I'm not sure if it was because Jaune said it or Blake let it go unchallenged._

"Okay, okay. We…had a discussion yesterday."

" _Discussion_ ," Jaune scoffed. "How bad did it go?"

"She doesn't get it. She tried to get me to quit, Jaune. She wants me to just stand by while the White Fang hurt people." There was a little bit of fire in her eyes as she spoke, but her words took that same fire out of me. _When she puts it_ that _way, when I can see a little more clearly how she feels about it, it makes it harder to get angry, but that doesn't change the fact that it was stupid of her to run off by herself_ again "I left the White Fang because they were evil, but if they are _that_ evil, why is running away good enough? _I_ haven't done enough to make up for what I was. As long as they want to hurt innocent people, I can't just stand by!"

"I seem to recall agreeing with that argument," Jaune answered, calling back to their earlier discussion. It also had the side-effect of getting me mad again as I was reminded that Jaune was a two-faced piece of crap, although I couldn't quite get as angry now. I still felt a _little_ bad. "And I seem to recall being a in a similar situation myself."

"Then why are we having this conversation?"

"I also seem to recall," Jaune said sharply, cutting Blake off, "that I told you not to do anything without Yang."

"You already said that."

"Yes, but since you lied about breaking that rule once, I feel like I need to say it again." Blake had the decency to wilt under Jaune's condescending glare, but otherwise didn't budge. I may not be exactly pleased with the snake known as Jaune Arc at the moment, but if his message was 'ask Yang for help,' I think I can let things play out a little longer.

"What would you have me do?" Blake challenged.

"Invite Yang into your hunt," Jaune answered back simply as his plan started to reveal itself to me. _He's playing both of us into each other._ Who does he think he is, that we need him to solve our problems? _I mean, it's convenient, but it's_ too _convenient, not to mention makes no sense._ What does he even get out of it? "Hell, invite your whole team. Invite _my_ whole team for what its worth. Don't make this a one-woman crusade, Blake. You can't do this alone."

"And what if they don't want to help?" Blake asked, genuine worry showing. "What do I do when they try to drag me out of it, Jaune? I can't afford not to do this."

"Damnit, Blake, you're not listening," Jaune hissed. " _Go_ to your partner. _Explain_ why you need to do this. _Beg her_ to help you, and I _promise_ good things will happen. _**Trust me.**_ " Blake gave Jaune a distrusting stare for a few moments before a look of surprise, followed by another flat look, came over her as she realized what he was insinuating.

"You did something, didn't you?" When Jaune didn't answer, she pressed further. "This is like what you did with Weiss, isn't it? I'm going to go in there to Yang and find out that you already spoke to her and everything will work itself out magically."

"I have _absolutely_ ," the liar answered back slowly, for dramatic effect, "no idea what you're talking about." Blake rubbed her face and shook her head, either not believing it or finding herself not surprised at all. "But if that ever happened to me, I would want it to keep happening."

"And you said last time you'd only do things that you would want done for you," Blake added, some sort of realization dawning over her, although mixed with a soft roll of her eyes.

"You seem to remember that conversation well," Jaune stated, slightly mockingly. "At least, when it's convenient for you."

"I remember us talking about goals. That's when I decided to stop the White Fang." Is that Jaune's angle here? _Is he just covering his ass because he's the one that pushed her into this in the first place?_ "What I don't remember is _you_ coming up with a goal."

"There was probably a really good reason for that," Jaune answered slowly.

"Yeah, you had no intention of telling me anything personal," Blake half-whined and half-accused, though more in an exasperated way than in an angry one. It wasn't as if Jaune trying to avoid answering personal questions was anything new. "Now that I think about it, you sent me over to give Yang a drink before I asked you anything about your goals." Blake gave Jaune a flat stare and in return Jaune shrugged his shoulders.

"I'll admit," Jaune started, "that I _did_ use that as a convenient way to get out of any questions, but not because I won't trust you with anything."

"Yeah, _sure_ ," Blake drawled. "Really easy to say that _now_."

"If you would shut up for like two seconds, I would tell you the reason _why_ I was trying to avoid that question." Jaune turned his head slightly to the side and I'm assuming gave Blake a flat stare of her own, to which she gave him an overly dramatic expression that read ' _I'm waiting, then._ ' "You have really spent too much time with Yang. That can't be healthy." _Hey, what did_ I _do? Blake has her own sassy side, she didn't need my help._

"Most days I would argue with you." _That traitorous bitc—_

"I avoided that question," Jaune cut in quickly, intentionally shutting Blake up; there were some hints of his annoyance in his voice, too. "…because I didn't _have_ an answer for it. I wasn't even _close_ to knowing what my goals were, really."

"Oh," Blake said softly, in what felt like an attempt to not like the conversation go silent. "I see. Has…anything changed?"

"Eh, I don't really know. Kinda." Jaune's answer was unconvincing to me, but Blake didn't push him like _I_ wanted her too. Instead, she sat back and waited, keeping her eyes and posture soft. "I haven't come up with a goal. I…have too many hooks from my past tearing at me, and if I'm completely honest, my goal is to someday find out what my goal really is."

"What does…what does that _mean_ , Jaune?" Blake asked cautiously, letting on that she knew that it meant something, that Jaune meant something extra by it that he wouldn't share.

"It means…" Jaune trailed off, averting his gaze and taking a deep breath. He looked down to the side, then up and over Blake, then down to the other side, trying his best not to look at Blake but too restless to keep his eyes on one spot. "It means that I don't have that luxury. Yet." Jaune stopped and waited for Blake to ask him what that meant, and I wanted her to because I don't know what it means, but she didn't. Blake sat there patiently, watching Jaune with soft but curious eyes. "I have all sorts of plans and things running around my head all the time, but all of them are just to get me free enough to decide what it is that I want. My goal is to break enough chains that I get a chance to find out who Jaune Arc actually is."

"Why can't you do that now? You're safe, surrounded by friends who would help you, who you _know_ would forgive just about anything if _I_ was welcomed back. You're in a good place. You've said it yourself that you need to be here." Blakes words were spoken gently and softly, with care taken to keep from ruining such a rare glimpse of a serious, honest Jaune, but at the same time trying to prompt and coax him into spilling his guts. "Who still has chains on you here?"

"I won't tell you that, Blake," Jaune answered back firmly, although he sounded a little distant or reserved. "You have enough demons of your own without me piling mine on too."

"That's bullshit." Blake's tone was aggressive, surprisingly so considering how soft she had just been, but Jaune didn't flinch; he didn't even seem surprised or upset, as if he was expecting it, or was so used to reactions like that that he didn't care. "You're letting me share mine with you—you practically _offered_ yourself and your team to help take down terrorists—but you don't think I can handle it the other way around?!"

"You're right, it's a bullshit excuse," Jaune allowed without budging. "I'm just not going to tell you, because I can't, and I'm out of lies at the moment."

"Jaune, I can handle it, whatever it is. Look at me," Blake commanded, with Jaune looking up to meet her eyes. "You know me, Jaune. You know what your semblance told you. Use it right now, if that helps. You _know_ that I can handle it, Jaune, and you _know_ that I can keep it secret." Blake was so serious that I found myself being swayed, and I wasn't even the one this was about. A wave of panic started to flow over me from somewhere, as suddenly I realized just how intrusive I was being, and how intimate this conversation was getting. _Not intimate-intimate, but personal in a—damnit, don't get distracted, Yang._ I swung my head around to check if anyone was around, and finding no one, I began to decide to walk away and trust Blake to handle this. Before I could, Jaune had already begun to answer, and if I heard the beginning of it, I might as well stick around for the whole thing.

"You're right. You _can_ handle it, and you wouldn't betray me, even if I keep going behind your back." Jaune's voice sounded almost…sad, now, or maybe tired. "The thing is, _I_ can't handle you knowing, Blake. I don't want to have to handle telling you things and then having to watch your eyes when you look at me differently. I don't want to have to explain things, to tell you why I've done the dumb things I've done, that I'm...still doing; it's just…"

"… _it's not you, it's me_?" Blake asked uncertainly, though with a little bit of disbelief in her voice. Jaune laughed softly in reply, but it was kind of a reserved or sad chuckle than a real laugh.

"I guess so, yeah. I'm sorry." Jaune shook his head and started to stand up, before being stopped by Blake.

"Jaune, you need to get whatever it is off your chest eventually. It will eat away at you; I would know." It was that juxtaposition that made me worry just how bad Jaune's past might actually be, if he's afraid of how Blake, an ex-terrorist, would judge him. _And the fact that Blake seems to take the fact that Jaune's sins are worse is a bad sign too._

"Blake, I'm trying to balance the whole damn world on the tip of my finger while walking a tight-rope that's on fire, blindfolded," Jaune answered back, exaggerating his analogy (I hope). "I'm a thinker, a planner, even though I'm not particularly good at either of those things. I'm wrapped up in my head at almost all times of the day, working through how the hell I'm going to keep it all together." Jaune paused and looked back down at Blake before massaging his temple with his right hand. "I have secrets. I…I _want_ to share them with somebody, I really do. But to do that, I…I have to know how it's going to play out. I have to have a plan, I need to think this out, and…and it's going to take a lot of thinking, a lot of planning, before I feel like I'm ready. And quite frankly, I don't have the energy, time, or thoughts to spare about it right now.

"But someday—maybe soon, maybe not—I will."

"When that day comes…" Blake prompted, trailing off.

"When that day comes, I'll tell you, I prom—"

"No. Don't tell me." Blake cut Jaune off, throwing him for a loop as he cocked his head to the side. From his position standing, I could see enough of his face to read the confusion and surprise at Blake's command.

"Don't…?"

"Don't tell _me_ ," Blake emphasized. "Not first, at least. You said that you only do these things for me because you wish that's how it worked out for you. Take your own advice, Jaune; it's good advice." Jaune didn't move, didn't seem to respond, but didn't take his eyes off Blake's. "Go to your partner, don't hide it from them, but ask her to help you. To join you."

"You know that she tried to kill me, right?"

"You're deflecting," Blake accused, causing Jaune to shrink back down. "Be honest, it wouldn't be hard to patch things up with her. It wouldn't be hard to act like actual partners, either; you just have to _try_ , for once."

"You're right," Jaune responded, eliciting a little bit of excitement and hope from Blake that was washed away a moment later. "I _was_ deflecting." With a small smile and a shake of his head, Jaune turned to walk off. "Good talk, Blake."

"I'm serious, Jaune," Blake called out after him. "It's good advice." When Jaune didn't stop to acknowledge her, she mumbled something under her breath about him and shook her head.

For the briefest of moments, I wondered if revealing myself and confronting Blake right now was a good idea. She certainly had a lot to think about after that talk, and if she didn't, _I_ sure as hell did. _I don't know how to think about most of what just happened._ In the end, I figured that it would be better to get this over with now and maybe use it to better understand what I just watched.

"I have to agree," I called out when Jaune was out of earshot, knowing a perfect entrance when I see one. Blake's eyes whipped over to me, wide and surprised as she stared dead at me. "It _is_ good advice."

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

"So you can figure out who someone is just by how their aura feels?" Ren asked as my quick rundown of my semblance's functionality concluded. _Really, it feels like I've been explaining it to everyone over and over; I should print a business card with a description or something._

"Well, kind of. People call aura your soul for a reason, so it works better on people who have such large or distinct personality traits that they would show up," I answered, though there was more nuance to it than that.

"Such as?" Ren asked curiously, beginning to show a much more curious and out-going personality now that I had torn him away from Nora for a bit. _I wouldn't say that he hates being around Nora, or that he even dislikes it; I'm just saying that I can see how Nora's personality would drown out Ren's._

"Well, let's see," I responded, taking a second to think about who Ren knew that I _had_ used the semblance on, and more importantly, what I could tell him about them. _Blake is the obvious choice for repeat uses, but the things about Blake that I learned came from how she pushed further into the connection and gave me a deeper look, even if I was a little distracted._ I doubt that Blake would appreciate me telling Ren that I could sense that she has a tendency to flee just from her aura. Pyrrha was another option, but again I was distracted by experimenting with my semblance to take a deep dive into what I was getting from her; as it was, I mainly noticed her emotions because they had a very deep sway over her aura, at least at that time. "I used my semblance on Weiss during initiation."

"You used it on _Weiss_?" Ren asked, finding it a little hard to believe, not that he could be blamed for it. "How did that ever come to pass?"

"Remember when she was falling out of the sky and spinning out of control?" Ren nodded curtly in reply. "Right before she hit the ground I amplified her aura so that she would…"

"Not die?" Ren completed while arching an eyebrow at me. "I'll be honest, hearing that is a little surprising. I was one of the people who suspected that you didn't care for any of us when we first started Beacon." Ren's words weren't accusatory—well, actually they kinda were, but his calm and matter-of-fact manner left no room for malice, so I wasn't really offended by them. _It wasn't like he was wrong, either._ "To hear that you saved Weiss that early on is… well, confusing is one way to put it. It makes how you acted harder to understand."

"Ah, that's easy to explain," I offered, taking care to come across as light-hearted and care-free to show that he hadn't offended me or crossed any line. "I _was_ trying to avoid making any strong ties here at Beacon, but I _wasn't_ willing to let someone die because I was pretty bad at that whole first part."

"As evidenced by the fact that Pyrrha is no longer moping around the dorm," Ren pointed out, referring to how it was obvious that I had cleared the air with Pyrrha after our spar. Nora hadn't noticed it at first, but while we were all in the dorm she suddenly shot up and stared at me because 'Pyrrha wasn't acting like more-emo Blake anymore.' Naturally, Pyrrha didn't know how to respond to that or even how to take that, so it fell to me to explain why things were better.

"Look, are we ever going to work on this aura manipulation thing or what?" I asked, not really deflecting the conversation because it had stalled out on its own, but certainly ready to move on from it.

"Sure. Do you know why I brought you here?" Ren asked, referencing the fact that he had told me to meet him in Dr. Oobleck's classroom, which was empty, seeing as it was a Sunday night.

"You know, I have been wondering that literally since you first mentioned it."

"We are here," Ren explained, a slight edge to his voice giving it a seriousness, "because it is the _last_ place that Nora Valkyrie will ever, _ever_ voluntarily step foot into. Thus gives us rule number one of aura manipulation."

Ren trailed off and looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to supply the rule. "Hide from Nora?"

"Never practice aura manipulation with distractions around," Ren corrected, though I feel like he really just rephrased my answer.

"Didn't you figure this out in the wilds with Nora around you, like, all the time?"

"Yes," he answered simply. "And it took me years to figure it out. Do you have years of patience?" There was no need for me to answer, so I just averted my eyes guiltily. "Then rule one stays."

* * *

"Are you sure this works?" I asked, frustrated beyond belief that I had been trying this for a whole twelve minutes without success. _Yes, I know, years of training, intense focus, blah blah; I have a freaking aura-based semblance for dust's sake, this should be a cakewalk._

"I am somewhat sure," Ren answered, projecting his aura between his hands to either show off or reaffirm that he could do it. "I don't actually have any proper tips to teach you, only tips that I've come across from doing it myself."

"Yeah, yeah, you've said that already," I mumbled, turning my focus back to my hands, where I was holding both of my pointer fingers about an inch apart from each other. The goal was simple: project aura across the gap. Ren had said that once you get a feel for what it takes to manifest your aura physically, things roll downhill quickly from there.

What he couldn't tell me was just exactly what it means to manifest your aura, and how to do it. His description was simple: focus yourself on covering that gap, and while doing that, push your aura into that gap as if you were covering yourself with your aura. By all accounts, it should be easy for me, seeing that I've been using aura manipulation for years now and am very good at selectively applying aura to different places on my body, but for some reason, the skills just didn't translate well.

"Here, I want you to try again, and I'm going to use my semblance on you while you try."

"What for?" I asked, not breaking from the death-glare I was giving my two fingers because they refused to channel my aura across the gap.

"For one, I'm afraid you might pull a muscle in your face if you keep staring like that," Ren half-joked, forcing me to acknowledge that I was taking this a little too seriously.

"Alright, fine. Do what you think is best." I forced myself to take a deep breath and close my eyes, and as I did so a strange calm washed over me. Actually, it felt more like a twenty-pound blanket was thrown over me, gently and comfortably suppressing me into a relaxed state. With my newfound zen a la Ren, I opened my eyes again and looked to my fingers, pushing my aura into them and across the gap.

Nothing happened.

"This isn't working," I offered, still very calm but with just a hint of frustration bleeding through before it was quashed out by the blanket of calm intensifying and almost targeting that specific emotion. Once I was gone, Ren lifted his semblance and I felt like my emotions all rushed back to me, though they weren't as vibrant, either a lingering effect or just because calming down did that to you anyways.

"Not yet, it would appear," Ren added, not appearing deterred in the slightest. "But you are quite familiar with aura manipulation. It shouldn't take long before you can figure out how to project it."

"That's the part that frustrates me. I _am_ good at aura manipulation. Better than most. My entire semblance is based around aura manipulation, and I've had a lot of practice with it." For dramatic effect (or really, to show off), I focused my aura in a ring around my wrist, and then amplified that ring with my semblance, causing it to glow. Then, I moved the ring up my arm and quickly shot it all around my body, until it looked like there was some glowing object flying across my skin wildly. "I can manipulate my aura. I can interact with _others'_ auras. I can even channel my aura into my damn sword." I drew Crocea Mors from my hip to make a point, and let the glowing ring travel down through my arm and down Crocea Mors to make the same effect, before making the whole sword glow as I encased it in my aura.

"Wait, you can do what?" Ren asked, though I never noticed it, instead having an epiphany as I looked down at my glowing Crocea Mors. I sheathed Crocea Mors and then pretended to draw it again, though this time releasing my hand from the grip and drawing a sword made out of air.

Except, for the briefest of moments, I was actually drawing a sword of pure aura. As soon as I noticed this, I got excited and distracted and the sword faded away just as suddenly as it appeared, but I had figured out the first step to projecting my aura: focusing my aura on a specific _form_ , not just a gap to be crossed.

"Jaune, _why_ can you put your aura into your sword?"

"I…don't really know," I answered back honestly, being reminded that it was one of those things that tied me back to my family, and as such, I knew nothing about it. Angau Glas didn't conduct my aura like this—I had already tried, and failed. It _did_ have a synchronizer, so it technically interacted with my aura, but only to let me change the form of the weapon, which I was getting pretty good at. "It's a rather strange perk of this old sword, to be honest."

"Of what use is that?" Ren asked. "Why would someone want to waste their aura protecting their _sword_?"

"It has…other uses," I answered, myself pondering the same thing Ren was asking for some time now. "It can resist extreme heat like that, but that eats up aura quickly."

"Again, that does not seem very helpful."

"No, but semblances don't seem to affect my sword when I'm doing that," I offered, recalling a fight I had had back in the Tribe. I was fighting a security specialist who could control gusts of wind, but Crocea Mors would cut through them unaffected when I covered it in my aura. "So, like, it would work against Pyrrha."

"Until she hits your sword and shatters your aura," Ren supplied quickly.

"Yeah, till that." A small silence lulled over us for a few seconds and I reached down to try the trick again, but didn't have any success this time. "You know what, let's quit while we're ahead."

"I was just thinking that," Ren agree as he pushed himself to rise from the table he had been leaning back against. "Actually, I was thinking about what sort of trouble Nora was getting into right now, but that's close enough."

"Hey, Ruby said that they were going to go play a board game. How much trouble could Nora get into with all of Team RWBY and Pyrrha sitting there with her?"

"Have you ever _seen_ her try to play a benign child's game?" Ren asked, the tone in his voice making it obvious that there was a _lot_ Nora could do in that situation.

"I have not," I admitted slowly.

"Pray that you don't have to," Ren said, hurrying out the door and presumably off to find Nora. _Well, 'hurrying' is the wrong word for Ren, really it was more of a lazy stride with just a hint of urgency._ It's not like I can blame him, though; he doesn't really seem to get any time away from Nora, and semblance or no that has to be tiring at some point. _You know, I've started branching out to Pyrrha and Ren, so I probably need to try to do something with Nora, just to balance things out and certainly_ not _because I fear her overreaction when she finds out that she's been left out._ If I could give Ren some more free time in the process, well, that wouldn't be a bad thing either.

I looked back down at Crocea Mors one time, my hand twitching to try projecting my aura in the shape of the blade again. I shook the thoughts from my head before heading out the door to follow Ren, though I would be lying if I said that the thoughts weren't lingering.

* * *

All eight of us, Teams JNPR and RWBY, plopped down in our normal spots for Port's bright and early Monday morning lecture, and just like usual, the moment that our seats hit the chair, we stopped paying attention to the class. Normally, at least Weiss would hold out until Port started to go off on a tangent before tuning out, but currently she was wrapped in anxiously whispering with her whole team, just like mine was doing. _And yes, to be fair, I was doing it too._ The topics all varied and seemed to shift rapidly, but all centered around one thing: the White Fang. It appears that my little chat with both Blake and Yang was successful, because after training with Ren last night, my scroll started to blow up as I was added to a new group chat labeled "Beacon Undergraduate Terrorist Take-down Squad," but because that was too long to show at the top, it shortened it to the _lovely_ acronym "BUTTS." _I would bet my life that Nora and Yang came up with that._

Most of the buzz was for a simple reason: BUTTS had called a secret meeting tonight to discuss our plans for a raid on Wednesday. Infiltrating terrorist organizations wasn't exactly the type of spying that I came to Beacon to do, but when Blake reached out to not just Yang, not just her team, not just both our teams, but all of us plus Sun and his team, there wasn't any chance that I was going to turn her down. _Not that I would have turned her down if it was just me she came to for help, that is._ Currently, all the buzz at our table was about who all was coming to the meeting tonight (and thus, the raid), as Sun said he was bringing the only teammate of his that was in Vale. We had yet to meet this Neptune guy, and most of the chatter (and texts in the group chat, if the constant buzz of my scroll in my pocket meant anything) was speculation about what he was like, what he brought to the table, or whether he would be bringing any snacks.

"MR. ARC!" Port cried out, not even having started his lecture yet…I think. My head whipped up in surprise and I was prepared to bullshit my way out of whatever was about to happen, but Port beat me to it. "I would see you come down to my desk at once." Seven pairs of eyes at my table and dozens more around the room—those who were still paying enough attention to notice, at least—looked to me in surprise and wonder, with a few looks that clearly said, 'what did that poor soul _do_?'

I pushed myself out of my chair and tried to make a reassuring face to my friends as I marched into unknown territory, stopping at the edge of Port's lecturing desk, where he was writing something on a paper that was blocked from my view. He was taking his sweet time with it too, and eventually, my patience ran out. "What are you writing?"

"Punishment recommendations," Port answered back gruffly, sending my mind into overdrive as to what I could have done to earn the man's ire. Whatever it was, it must have been a grievous slight against the man, because he folded up the paper and sealed it with a freaking wax seal, melting the wax to be used with a pocket lighter before stamping it with a stamp from somewhere in his drawer. "Please deliver this to Miss Goodwitch in her office, unmolested." I hesitated slightly before reaching out and grabbing the letter, partially because it was now essentially a death-warrant and partially because he had used the word 'unmolested.'

"Have I…done something wrong?" I was not answered with words, but instead the professor's neck snapped my direction and he gave me an intense stare, one where I could _actually see his eyes under his eyebrows_ , and that was enough to both freak me out and put the fear of god into me. I turned around and marched myself right out of there, deciding that Death by Goodwitch was a better alternative to looking at Port's actual eyes.

Upon finding Miss Goodwitch's office—not that it was hard, since I've been before—I knocked lightly as I strode through the open door. "Ah," Miss Goodwitch called out upon recognizing me. "Come sit, please. And shut the door behind you, if you would." I did as asked. Shutting the door felt more like sealing my fate and the letter in my hand felt like it was burning me.

"Professor Port asked that I deliver this to you," I stated as evenly as I could while handling her the letter, despite the fact that my nerves were a little frayed. _It isn't easy to rattle me given my upbringing, but by dust I'm a little unsettled right now_. Being a target of Ozpin and his staff was something I was prepared for when I entered Beacon, but normally I expect to be roasted over a spit for things that I've _actually_ done; the fact that I had no clue what this was about was getting to me.

"Mmm," she hummed ambiguously, reading over the letter in a manner that prevented me from reading it. "I see."

"What…does it say?" Rather than answer, she folded the letter back up and offered it out to me, where I cautiously took it from her hand. After slowly unfolding it, my fear was replaced with disappointment, chagrin, and relief. " _Punishment recommendations_?" I asked incredulously, reading aloud the only two words written on the paper.

"Yes, well, it appears that Professor Port has a sense of humor," Miss Goodwitch stated without cracking a smile, but with much more softened features than I'm used to from her. "I only asked him that you be sent to me during his lecture. I trust that your studies will not be impacted by missing his class once?"

"No," I answered back. The way she phrased her question made it obvious that she knew damn well that nothing would be accomplished in Port's class. "I think I'll recover readily."

"That is good. Do you know why I wanted you here?" Miss Goodwitch asked in as neutral of a manner as she normal speaks in, though still without the mistrust or dislike of me that I had grown accustomed to ever since I had injured Ruby in one of her fights.

"To be completely honest, my guess was just ruled out," I answered, slightly joking before I realized that jokes would get me nowhere here. "I'm assuming this is about the spar Friday?"

"In a way," she responded. "Mr. Arc, you are here for an apology."

"Oh. I'm sorry, then."

"Not…not _your_ apology," Miss Goodwitch let out with a huff. "What happened Friday should never have been allowed to occur, and that is _my_ fault, not yours."

"Oh. In that case, go ahead."

"I do not think it was any secret that we…did not get along," Miss Goodwitch started off, struggling to find her words for a moment. _I can't imagine that she has to do this very often, so I guess I should enjoy it while it lasts._ There's a decent chance that I'll do something to piss her off again someday soon, anyways.

"That is certainly one way to understate it," I supplied. "It isn't as if I was making things easy," I allowed, figuring it would be stupid to maintain my whole 'being a jerk' routine, since those plans didn't last long; it wouldn't really hurt me now by revealing that.

"Regardless, I was overly-fixated on you, well past the point of professionalism. Whatever your actions were, they did not justify the level of scrutiny I gave you, nor did they justify me forcing you to spar your partner." Her apology felt a little rigged and rehearsed, but given how I came into this office expecting some sort of deranged punishment dreamt up by Port and carried out by Goodwitch, I found this a rather pleasant experience.

"I don't think that's a completely fair criticism," I interrupted, mostly because I wanted to see what she would do if I challenged her rehearsed lines.

"You don't think what is a fair criticism?" She repeated, giving me a strange look while clearly caught off-guard.

"That my spar with Pyrrha was uncalled for. It seemed to me to be a really good fight, so I don't see why that would be a _bad_ thing." My reasoning was okay, albeit there was a giant hole in that theory that I was curious if she would call out. "If anything, you should get _credit_ for arranging such a good fight," I closed out, trying not to grin or sound sarcastic, despite how hard it was.

"You nearly died," she stated flatly, as if uncertain if I had forgotten that part. I couldn't tell if she knew that I was messing with her, or just suspected it.

"Ah, it wasn't as close as you think," I played off, completely ignoring the fact that at one point I was ready for one last move that would ensure that _someone_ died. "You can't get rid of me that easily." Miss Goodwitch stiffened at my joke—in poor taste, yes, but still something that I am allowed to say as the one who nearly died. If it helped, she could even view giving me the right to make such jokes as her punishment. "Though I would have appreciated the fight being broken up earlier."

"That was my last point," Miss Goodwitch tagged on, getting back on track with her apology and actually looking a little downtrodden. "I…don't know what to tell you about that, I'm afraid. I hope you believe me that no matter what prejudices I held against you, I would never intentionally do anything that would put a student of mine in danger."

"Then why did I almost die?" I cut back a little more seriously, glossing over that part where I just said I wasn't close to dying.

"I have been pondering my actions, or lack thereof, since the incident," Miss Goodwitch answered, more quietly and more reserved that before. "I…do not know why I was so delayed. I think that I may have become distracted or surprised at how close the fight was, and that may have delayed me by a few seconds." A few seconds was all Pyrrha needed to nearly take my head off—an impressive time, actually, if it weren't _my_ head to roll. _I'm not sure how I feel about her answer being 'I didn't expect you to do good and it shocked me,' but she seems genuine enough about it all._ "Or maybe I just did not think you to be in any danger, that I expected Miss Nikos' professional fighting background to rule out even the possibility that she would lose sight things. It is also possible that I hesitated because of my dislike of you, though I…I hope that was not the case." That felt…weird to me, considering that my teacher might have let me die if I was meaner, even if it probably wasn't true. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was glad that I gave up on being a jerk as soon as I did. "With all of that said, I obviously owe you a very large apology."

"I mean, yeah, I guess you do," I responded, a little flat or disinterested, which she caught on to easily. "I'm not a huge fan of talking, though. I always feel like someone is trying to get an angle on me or trap me in my words."

"Yes, I know why you would feel that way. You have a long record of authority figures here doing that to you, myself included," Miss Goodwitch answered with a small bit of shame. "He wouldn't want me to tell you, but you have certainly caught the headmaster's eye, although I think he's more curious to see if he is right about you than he has any intention of holding you to your past." It wasn't news to me that Ozpin played by his own rules, nor that he was watching me, but it _was_ interesting that Miss Goodwitch would go behind his back to warn me about it. _Either she strongly disagrees with Ozpin's games, or she really does feel bad enough about what happened to let me have that information for free._ "You say that you are not a fan of words; do you prefer actions over them?"

"I suppose," I answered back, glad that the hints I had been leaving her were finally received. It isn't that I don't appreciate the gesture of an apology or anything, it's just that I'd rather make things more difficult as revenge on her than just let her speak until she feels better. _Why should she be the one to feel better after the apology, anyways?_ "I'd much rather things be made up and then moved on from." Also, the possibility of leveraging this from an apology to a favor was too good to pass up, especially when it was Ozpin and his staff that were my number one threat here at Beacon.

Actually, whenever Raven found out I'm building myself up to betray her and break all my strings, _she_ will be the number one threat. Until then, being discovered by Ozpin tops the list.

"I am glad to hear that, and not just because I am…not good at apologizing," Miss Goodwitch added, confirming a very poor secret. If I was honest, she really did seem to regret how things have happened, and I would have probably accepted the apology had she not allowed herself to be lead to offering a favor. "I am good at practical solutions, however, and if you'd accept those over the words of an apology, I would be grateful."

"I mean, what did you have in mind?" I asked, much more interested now than when this thing began, although considering _how_ it began, that wasn't saying much.

"First, I'm giving up all of my inquiries about you, your team, or your past," she started off. "I can't promise the same from the headmaster—in fact, I can all but confirm that those will _not_ stop anytime soon—but _I_ have been unfairly fixated on you, so that will come to an end."

"That's fair. What else?"

"Since I did unfairly manage your matches, I'd like to extend you the right to turn down any spars that I assign you, no questions asked." This was an interesting offer, but not really one of any consequence. "This is not something normally afforded to Beacon students, but I feel that it limits some of the power that I hold over you as your instructor, and clearly that has been needed."

"Could I request spars instead?" I asked.

"Any student can request spars," Miss Goodwitch began to explain. "It is a matter of having them accepted by the other student. If you are asking if you could put in requests for the spars that I assign to students, the ones that cannot be turned down…"

"Yeah, that's pretty much it."

"I…am uncomfortable with that idea, but I am willing to entertain it. Do you have any suggestions of the top of your head?"

"Cardin versus Nora," I answered without thinking. A change in the look on Miss Goodwitch's face came over her as she realized that I didn't have interest in rigging my _own_ spars, which is what she must have assumed I meant. _I'm not sure if that makes it better or worse, actually._

"I…" she trailed off. "That would be a bloodbath, Mr. Arc, but I do suppose that they have similar-enough weapons that a spar would be beneficial for them." That wasn't my reasoning at all, because I wanted to see what it looked like when Nora truly zoned in on a target, and Cardin would be a great chance for her to cut loose. "Do you have any other suggestions?"

"Pyrrha versus Port."

"I meant other reparations, Mr. Arc."

"Oh. No, I think that's enough," I answered, mostly because it was starting to get awkward. _I appreciate the gesture and it is reassuring to know that she_ didn't _want me dead, but this is a little ridiculous, not to mention makes it harder to not draw Ozpin's attention when his top aide is paying out bribes to me._ Really, just having her stop gunning for me was all I wanted, because that could actually lead to me getting caught doing something I did _not_ need her knowing about, whether it be for Raven or for myself.

"Are you certain? I do not feel as if I've had a chance to properly make reparations for allowing you to be nearly killed."

"The way I see it," I began to explain, "is that I was an ass, and you were a hard-ass, and that put us at odds. Things happened, both related and unrelated to your sparring class. Now, I am no longer trying to be an ass. You are no longer trying to be a hard-ass, at least not to me. I'd say that the board has been reset."

"That is a rather simple way of explaining things, Mr. Arc, but I suppose it is not altogether inaccurate," Miss Goodwitch responded, using a lot of words to say 'that works.' "Now that I am thinking about it, there was one more thing I wanted to offer to you."

"Alright," I offered, waiting for her to continue. So far, things had gone well, so going further didn't sound like a bad idea.

"After how I unilaterally declared you the loser in your spar to Ruby, it has been brought to my attention that the result of your spar with Miss Nikos is...inconsistent."

"You mean how she wasn't DQ'ed?" I asked, certain of the answer. "Who brought it up to you, Pyrrha?"

"...yes, actually. How did you know?" She asked, a little surprised.

"Lucky guess," I lied, since she had told me that she was thinking about forfeiting the match. _I seem to remember being against that plan, too._

"She came to me requested that you be declared the victor on the same grounds as your other spar, and in doing so impressed me quite a lot. I do believe that if you gave her a chance to redeem herself to you, you would find that your team would easily overcome this."

"I'd believe it, too," I responded a little sarcastically. "Especially since that's already happened."

She didn't respond immediately, instead giving me a surprised and mistrusting look as she judged the validity of what I was saying. "In any matter, I would normally only require the consent of the victor to nullify a match, but the headmaster himself ruled that your match be called in her favor, so I feel I need both of your consent before going behind the back of my boss." As the words sunk in, the part that stuck out to me was likely not the part she expected. I _had_ expected that Ozpin let Pyrrha have the win just to antagonize me, perhaps rattle me in some way, but the fact that Miss Goodwitch felt she would be going behind his back to assign victors in her _own class_ all but confirmed it. "Miss Nikos has consented to reversing the outcome of the match. Do I have your consent?"

"No, not really," I answered, greeted by surprise on Miss Goodwitch's face. "I already told Pyrrha not to forfeit the fight, so I more annoyed by the offer than anything."

"You are... _annoyed_?" Miss Goodwitch repeated as if not believing what she had heard. "If I recalled, you were _annoyed_ that your spar with Miss Rose was called off."

"Yeah, well, things change." Miss Goodwitch was clearly not satisfied with that answer, so I pushed forward with the best rationale I could give. "Not to insult you as the sparring instructor or anything, but I don't really care about my fight record. Even if I did, everyone who watched that fight-the entire class-knows who the winner was." From the look on her face, Miss Goodwitch did not disagree with my boast. "The record is just a formality, just a number. But those numbers are important to Pyrrha from what I understand. It would hurt her to have a 'one' in the loss column, correct?"

"It's not my place to speculate, but it is public knowledge that she has lucrative sponsorships tied to her professional fighting career. While those would not be effected by her Beacon sparring record, I would imagine it would be embarrassing should it ever be found out."

"So it means more to her," I countered back. "Let her keep it. It means nothing to me anyways."

"May I offer a...counter?"

"Sure," I answered, rolling my eyes but seeing no reason to interrupt further.

"A draw," she stated simply. "Neither a win nor a loss. It would be less humiliating for her, although I feel as if..." she trailed off, deciding against continuing that line of thinking. _It didn't matter, as I both knew what she was about to say and agreed with the thought._

"As if she's trying to punish herself, and humiliation is her weapon of choice," I supplied, earning a strange look from Miss Goodwitch, almost as if she didn't believe that I was capable of having paid enough attention to my teammate to know this. _She doesn't know how Pyrrha and I interacted the other day, and that is_ not _something I feel like explaining._ "You know what, if that makes both of you feel better, then I'll agree to it," I added on, mostly just to get this conversation over with, though not without taking a shot at her. "Are we done here?" I asked, not rudely, but impatiently.

"There is…another matter that I wanted to ask you about, if you felt comfortable answering my questions." _Well, with a lead-in like that, how could I turn it down?_

"What is it?"

"Team CRDL," she stated simply. "Have you noticed anything…different about them, recently?" Her posture, tone, and wording all suggested that she didn't suspect me of anything, and yet the question itself sent a chill down my spine. I did an excellent job suppressing any surprise or fear about being discovered, though, and reassured myself that if worse came to worse, I could cut my losses. _The only thing I've done with CRDL was that one job for Junior, and I could play that off as the five of us playing vigilante if needs be._ It might earn a reprimand or a slap on the wrist, but it wouldn't get us in serious trouble, or at least it shouldn't, especially since she was going out of her way to try to unburn bridges. I could probably get away with confessing to it and have her just give me a verbal warning, since she _was_ trying to apologize, and that would be a very nice apology gift.

"Different about Cardin's team?" I repeated, taking care not to sound invested or surprised. "Well, they haven't been bullying people in the cafeteria recently, so there's that." It went unspoken that she _knew_ I was counter-bullying Cardin and was the main reason his bullying ways had stopped.

"While it is a good thing that he was…persuaded to stop that, and I am glad to see that since then you have appeared to patch things up with him, I was referring to their material possessions. Have you noticed them?"

"Have I noticed their whats?" I asked, not confused but very willing to play that card to get her to spell out what she was fishing for.

"Recently, they have all flaunted new and rather expensive equipment, ranging from new or polished armor to weapon upgrades, with one buying a new weapon altogether." _Damnit, I should have known better than to think those four would be subtle with their ill-gotten gains._ "I'm merely wondering if there has been any talk in the student body as to how they acquired the means for such things. Seeing students walking around with fresh armor or weapons is not a strange occurrence here, but typically only happens as the upperclassmen complete missions and spend their reward funds. It is both too early in the semester for those to have built up, and Team CRDL has gone on no missions."

"I can't really say that I'm plugged in to the study body all that well," I answered honestly, though only because it was a convenient excuse. "Up until recently, I haven't even been very engaged with my own team. Really, the four of us only ever interact with Team RWBY, and they only interact with us."

"Meaning that you do not ever have the chance to hear rumors, if there are any," she filled in for me, jumping onto the line I was laying out quick enough that I didn't _think_ that she suspected me or was playing games with me. _After our first meeting in this office, she knows that I am perfectly capable of lying to her and playing her, though, so she might be expecting that and be playing me now. I hate these games._ "Nothing from social media?"

"What part of my background makes you think I use social media?" I asked. Although she didn't know the truth about my past and likely knew as much, she did know that I came from the wilds.

"That is a fair point," she allowed, backing down from her inquiry. "Very well then, Mr. Arc. You're free to go." I rose out of my chair, but before I could get out of the door, she called out one last question. "If I may ask, how did you reconcile with Mr. Winchester?"

"Oh, that's easy," I responded, one foot literally already out the door. "We all went out for beers." _Again, technically true; we did get one at a random bar_ far _from our target afterwards, to celebrate._

"You…why would you tell me that?" Miss Goodwitch asked, a little stunned considering that all of us were one year under Vale's alcohol age requirement, like that ever mattered.

"What are you going to do, kill me?" I asked mockingly. She opened her mouth to respond, but shut it back and gave me a flat look as I took my leave and left her office entirely.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Well, this very hectic five-day period within the story is half-way through, setting up nicely. All we've got left now would be the meeting of the BUTTS (I am so immature, and I do _not_ apologize), Jaune meeting the mysterious and _totally-not-a-major-character_ ex-Atlas spy, and then the classic White Fang rally. Seriously, what could possibly go wrong?**

 **Oh, and Qrow is off fixing my timeline-I mean searching for the Fall Maiden. Glynda has now somewhat apologized and that does mean that she's on her way out of relevance for this story, similar to how the actual show plays out. I assume she's still in Vale after the Fall of Beacon in the show? Anyhow, she's giving up her relentless pursuit of Jaune to switch gears and actually pay attention to the rest of the student body, and Jaune thinks is probably a good thing for him. Poor Glynda doesn't even know that by switching to target Cardin, she's still looking into Jaune incidentally.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _NinjaFang1331_ on **Ch. 15**

"hell of a job"

 **Now, this is the type of review that my ego just absolutely loves to see. My family would appreciate it if you guys would stop inflating it so much, but I say you guys ignore them.**

* * *

 **Comment #2:** by _CjHoax_ on **Ch. 15** because I wouldn't _just_ stroke my ego here. probably.

"Ha ha ha holy shit that ending AN

But honestly I feel that the show doesn't portray racism as well as it could've. Misuse of background characters, the shadow people, *sniff* is that *sniff sniffffffff* a love triangle I smell? Seriously you need to remind everyone about how Little Miss Kitty felt about our hero's semblance doing-the-do with her aura. And while Ms. Blender may have nearly gotten off on it, Blake still remembers that (maybe use it to calm her the fuck down?).

Aura stealing, well you sir definitely own *that* particular idea. Aura theft actually sounds like a really good 1Lvl for Juaney boy's semblance, like Tiny Speeder's split up while super fast trick."

 ***squints*  
*checks notes*  
*checks outline*  
*checks notes again***

 **Love triangle? In _my_ fanfiction?  
It's more likely than you think...**

 **All I am allowed to say, is that if there _is_ a love triangle (or other, weirder shapes), then it will tear your heart out. It's in my contract, not a lot I can do there... :P  
** _(also it would have a surprise you haven't sniffed yet)_

 **I can't decide if that last sentence is sarcastic or not, and it bothers me, because on one hand _yes_ , I _do_ own that idea, thank you.  
** **On the other hand, aura-stealing is literally what Cinder did to Amber, what Ozpin tried to do with Amber to Pyrrha, and what Cinder tried to do to Vernal, so...um...  
** **You guys are smart enough to see a bit of foreshadowing (I mean, I named Jaune's dagger "Chekhov" in an Author's Note), so my goal is to foreshadow so much that you can't actually predict everything. I hope.**

 **Also, (no sarcasm here) I really love how everyone has taken "Jaune's semblance lets aura interact" to mean "every time Jaune uses his semblance his ghost-soul is having weird, kinky ghost-soul sex with someone else's ghost soul; like, whips and leather and all sorts of that stuff."  
** **That's not... _...strictly_ true, because Jaune can use it in a platonic way, obviously. I was gonna have Jaune use it on Ren in this chapter, but I decided that I'm gonna address this first, just in case.**

 ** _Then again, everyone is Rensexual, so it still would make sense. Damnit._**

 **Alright, Imma go catch up on my sleep now, see y'all next week.**


	19. The Plans of a Man

**[REFINED Nov 2, 2018] Author's Note: Hey, I finally trimmed down a chapter to under 10k words, discounting ANs. Good for me.**

 **Welp, that's all I've got for here.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 17:** _"If I could do it all over again, I would have knocked up the_ entire _team." – Taiyang Xiao Long, giving Qrow Branwen a threatening look during an argument  
_ _"If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't have discouraged Raven from killing you in your sleep so many times." – Qrow Branwen, speaking more truthfully than usual_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

"Ah, guys! Just in time!" Nora practically shouted at Pyrrha, Ren, and I as she opened the door to RWBY's dorm to let us in. "We're almost ready to start!"

"Nora, why are you already in their room?" Pyrrha asked confused as she walked in first.

"I invited her!" A small voice called out from somewhere within the massive structure that was taking up all of the room, save for the first feet of beyond the door we just came in. Granted, the whole thing was constructed from pillows, sheets, and prayers, but it wasn't a half-bad fortress. It had makeshift towers on the corners and even had a functional gate made from a sheet that was being raised to let us inside. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I wondered how long it took to 'engineer' such a fort and if that effort and time could have been better spent planning for our trip to the White Fang's rally, but I put those thoughts aside. Once inside, Ruby zipped down to greet us, leaving a trail of petals everywhere. "None of _my_ team was being very helpful with the preparations—" Ruby cut her eyes towards Blake and Yang, the first of whom was reading a book and the second was on her phone, "—so I brought Nora in to help with the fortifications."

"We erected Fort BUTTS in no time!" Nora responded enthusiastically, earning strange looks from everyone, even Ruby, who looked immeasurably awkward.

"I can't help but notice that Weiss isn't around to help," I chimed in, taking the high road and _not_ commenting on what Nora just said.

"Who isn't around to help?" Weiss' indignant voice sounded from the doorway that we had left open and was soon followed by the girl herself appearing through the sheet draw-gate, accompanied by Sun and a guy with blue hair. "I'll have you know that we were actually doing something relevant to our mission, unlike _some_ people," Weiss added on, giving Ruby a glare.

"Forts are important, Weiss."

"So is intelligence," Weiss quipped back.

"How would you know?" I asked, only to be immediately slapped in the face with a rolled-up piece of paper that Weiss had been carrying.

"Intelligence as in _information_ ," Weiss corrected sternly, shaking the roll of paper at me for good measure. "Like military intelligence?" I gave Weiss a weird, half-cocked look as if she had just made something up and she turned away with me with an exasperated gasp.

"Did you get it?" Blake asked, having left her seat and her book to appear next to Weiss, impatiently trying to grab the roll without any success.

"Oh yeah, we got it alright," Sun answered.

"Excuse me," I interjected, pushing myself directly to the center of the group. "Team Juniper wants to know what _it_ is."

" _I_ already know what it is, silly," Nora called out, taking the N out of Team JNPR for the moment. _Team J_PR?_

"Team _Jupiter_ wants to know what it is," I corrected, giving Nora an antagonizing look.

"It's the building blueprints for where the rally is going to be held," the guy with blue hair—by all likelihood, probably this Neptune dude that Sun was bringing—answered.

"How do we know where it's going to be?" Pyrrha asked.

"Eh, I just asked," Sun replied.

"You… _asked_?" Ren responded, somewhere between confused and disbelieving. "How do you just ask where a terrorist rally is going to be?"

"Simple. You just walk into the seedy part of town, find a shop that only has faunus in it, and then have a tail," Sun answered, flicking his tail around for dramatic effect. "That part might be hard for you, but it was so easy for me it almost felt natural." Whether it was flippant attitude, the dripping sarcasm, or just the fact that he was messing with Ren, I found myself liking this Sun guy. _Let's be honest, it's probably the flippant attitude and sarcasm; game recognizes game._

"So you just…walked into a store and asked where the White Fang rally was going to be?" Ren stated uncertainly.

"And they told me," Sun answered. "Wouldn't be a very good recruitment rally if no one could find the place." Ren looked as if about to argue or ask another question, but held his tongue at that point and gave up with a shrug.

"And since Sun had the location, I volunteered to help pull up any blueprints that were on public record," Weiss added, eyes lingering over Sun and then his plus-one longer than necessary. "That's how we got the schematics."

"Excuse me," I repeated from earlier, stepping back into the center of the group and earning a huff from Weiss. "Team Juniper—sorry, Team Jasper now that Nora has officially and irrevocably left us—wants to know who _that_ is." I pointed at the blue haired guy for effect.

"Wasn't it Team Jupiter?" Pyrrha asked Ren quietly off to the side.

"What is a Jupiter? Is that a type of color?"

"Oh, him? That's Neptune. He's my partner," Sun answered easily, ignoring the confused whispers from my teammates altogether.

"That's it?" Neptune asked, feigning offense…I think. "That is all the introduction I get?"

"Oh, him? That's Neptune Vasilias. He's my partner," Sun mocked, earning a huff from Neptune as he repeated his introduction verbatim with a word added. _You know, I'm really starting to like this Sun guy._

"Now that we're all here, could we maybe start this thing?" Yang asked.

"I mean, if we _have_ to," I drawled back, earning a low-effort scowl from Yang. "Blake, what can you tell us about the White Fang in the area?"

"Not a lot, really. When I was with them, we only ever stayed in the wilds and hit transports, or dust shipments."

"Like pirates?!" Nora asked, her head whipping back and forth between Blake and I as she put together a narrative that I did _not_ need to hear out loud and that I would very likely never get Nora to shut up about. _She already has her crazy theory that I'm hitting on Blake. I don't need her to add some sort of star-crossed pirate lovers theme to it…_

" _Terrorists_ ," Blake answered slowly and dramatically, though more to ensure it sunk into Nora's head than for effect.

"Save your breath, matey," I offered to Blake, who cut her eyes at me.

"I know of at least one of Adam—their leader, the one who is turning the White Fang violent—at least one of his close disciples is in Vale; _Ilia_."

"Close disciples, huh?" Sun asked, more intrigued than maybe he should be. "What were you, then? _A close disciple_?" I wasn't sure if there was innuendo behind that or if I was imagining it, but now that the thought was in my head, I was _not_ letting it go.

"Uh…Yes. Technically," Blake answered with difficulty. "Ilia and I grew up as close friends."

"Don't deflect with this Ilia person," I cut in, giving Blake a smirk that she immediately knew was bad news. "How close are we talking? Like 'I admire our leader from afar' or more like 'I admire our leader from across the pillow at night'?"

" _Jaune_ ," Weiss admonished. "That's uncalled for."

"Oh really? Why is she turning red then?" I received the death glare of all death glares from Blake for pointing it out that, yes indeed, she _was_ struggling to keep color out of her cheeks.

" _No freaking way…_ " Yang mumbled, leaning in closer to watch as Blake struggled to hide her embarrassment. "Blake, _no_ … _really_? Is it the authority figure thing, some sort of daddy issues?"

"You all suck."

"C-Could we please get back to stopping the White Fang?" Ruby asked awkwardly.

"No way, I _have_ to get details," I answered, leaning in closer to examine Blake, with Yang mirroring my actions with just as much interest (and a bigger grin), only to be smacked in the face with Weiss' roll of paper again.

"Let's save the gossip over Blake's poor life choices until _after_ we're done," Weiss admonished, though clearly teasing Blake a little. There was probably a fair bit of disbelief that we were the people she had chosen to call friends mixed into the comment as well.

"So, this Ilia person," Ren asked, more than happy to help Blake out. "Anything we need to worry about?"

"She's a spy," Blake answered, color slowly draining from her cheeks as she fought to act normal. "A very good one. Her faunus traits allow her to change the color of her skin, and on top of that she's skilled enough to be on par with the rest of us, though more ruthless." Somehow, I doubt that she could match me on both accounts, but not everyone had Raven as a mother. _Really,_ no one _has had Raven as a mother, but I guess I'm the closest thing to a child 'raised' by her._ "She would spot me out easily if I tried to sneak in."

"What about your ex?" Yang asked seriously, despite the term used. "Any chance that we run into him?"

"I…don't think so," Blake answered, giving Yang a look for the word used but moving on from it. "If Adam were in Vale, the White Fang wouldn't be nearly as sloppy. I mean, Sun _did_ walk into a store and find out where the meeting is being held. Plus, I don't think Adam would ever let Torchwick runs things for him unless he wasn't here. To be honest, I still find it hard to believe he would _ever_ work with a human like Torchwick."

"That brings up another point," Ruby called out. "What about Torchwick?"

"I…can't say for sure, but I think we should plan on him being there," Blake answered. "Ilia mentioned that they're going to show off the stolen Atlas tech for the rally, and I don't think that they could have gotten secret Atlas weapons by themselves."

"Atlas tech?" Weiss asked, perking up. "What _kind_ of Atlas tech?"

"She mentioned 'Paladins' and the size of the boxes they were loading were, well, concerningly large."

"So what are they?" Ruby asked Weiss expectantly.

"What makes you think _I_ know what the Atlas Military has been working on in their Research and Development labs?" Weiss asked back. "Did you think that just because I'm from Atlas I know everything about their military?"

"…so you _don't_ know what they are?"

"Ugh," Weiss drawled back. "They're large mech-suits that can be piloted or remote controlled, and we can assume that Torchwick and the Fang don't have an Atlas airship to control them remotely." Weiss' answer had a bit of an edge to it, that clearly Ruby missed as she grinned innocently at a job well done. "And for the record, I know that because the SDC helped fund the research into some of the fuel components, _not_ because I'm Atlesian."

"Whatever you say, Icicle," I dismissed, earning a glare for the nickname.

The room fell silent for a few moments as no one really knew what to do next, until Nora took the blueprints from Weiss hands and spread them out, before looking at me expectantly. "Well?"

"Well what?" I asked, skimming over the blueprints briefly before turning to face Nora and figure out what she wanted.

"What's our plan, silly?"

"Uh, why are you asking _me_?" A brief glance around the room showed that Nora wasn't alone, as most to all eyes were looking at me with some sort of expectancy.

"It's just that…" Yang started, before trailing off as I met her eyes.

"You're the best one at this stuff," Ruby offered, though she too averted from my gaze when I shifted it to her.

"I'm _what_? When was this decided?"

"Look, we have a lot of different backgrounds here, Jaune," Weiss began to explain. "We have four people who grew up outside of normal civilization: Ren, Nora, Blake, and you."

"Uh, _I_ grew up in Vacuo," Sun chimed in. "That's not _normal_ civilization, trust me."

"Alright, five. Have you ever planned a raid before?" Weiss turned to ask Sun, who withered down a little. "I thought not. Back to you, Jaune: you're the only one here with that sort of experience."

"But Blake was a terrori—" I tried to blurt out quickly in my defense before being cut off.

"We're not judging you or anything, Jaune," Yang interjected, doing her best to seem neutral and unoffending. "We're not asking you to tell us anything about your past or something like that; we all know how far _that_ would get us. It's just…you _were_ a raider, right?"

"…I mean…yeah," I relented, seeing where this was going.

"That means you're the only one here who has ever been on a raid like this, so you're bound to have the best plan." Weiss concluded. _That isn't exactly how the world works, guys._ I mean, _yes_ , I was absolutely the best one here to plan a raid and _yes_ , it was because of my history as a raider, but only because of who my raiding mentors were, not because of the experience.

"Yeah, but I wasn't ever part of the _planning_ part," I lied. Raven always had intentions of training me into a loyal, effective, and deadly right-hand man, which meant at young ages I was at least allowed to shadow her when she was planning things out. Once I found out how much I disliked hurting innocent people during her raids, I accepted her offer to take a more active role in planning. _I couldn't stop her, but I could at least steer her away from excessively violent solutions._ "I can give it a try, though."

* * *

" _This plan sucks_ ," I called out loudly, crossing my arms and frowning for effect.

"Hey, it's _your_ plan, so I don't want to hear it," Weiss countered back sharply. It wasn't her stern reply but the overall smiles and good feelings around the room that really made things worse. _It_ is _a good plan, but they had to go and ruin it all for me_. Looking around, the only other person who wasn't inspired or enjoying the company was Yang, who was pissed off about the plan for the same reason as me.

" _My_ plan is good. It's _Blake's part_ that SUCKS!" I said loudly, hoping to be overheard, not that it would be hard given her four ears.

"Ignore him, Blake," Nora called out as Blake's ears twitched and she looked over at me and Yang. "He's just angry that you got back at him."

" _I'm angry,_ " I corrected with a huff, "because Blake decided that I'm going in as a Duck Faunus." I shot Blake a glare that was intended to drill a hole into her forehead and was disappointed when she was completely fine. _From the grumbles and NSFR—Not Safe For Ruby—words coming under Yang's breath, she was also feeling a little hostile at being labeled a Duck Faunus, though for the literal inverse of why I was._

"Look, you wanted me to come up with a disguise that would get you past any basic faunus-trait checks," Blake called back. "That's not as easy as it sounds, you know. Neither you or Yang exactly have weird traits that I could just pass off as an odd faunus heritage, unlike Nora, who I'm fairly certain is a hummingbird faunus at this point." I took a moment to consider the possibility—hyperactivity, zest for life, attraction to sugar bordering on sexual—before realizing that she was distracting me.

"But why did it have to be… _that_?" I whined.

"It had to be something that they wouldn't bother checking. If it's too embarrassing to admit to or too difficult to check, they'll probably just let you inside anyways. This is a recruitment rally, after all, so it's not like they're going to be doing background checks."

"And if they do make me prove it?" I asked with an edge that made it clear that any possibility was too high for my liking.

"Then I guess you'll be disrobing in front of everyone," Yang chimed in, forgetting a little of her frustration to mock me.

"Hey, you'll have an even _harder_ time proving it," I quipped back, trying to put her in her place and return this to a one-front verbal battle.

"If _anyone_ tries to make me prove it, I'll just destroy the whole damn building." There was a lightness to the way Yang said it that made it sound like a joke, but the look she gave me told me that it absolutely was not. "No one is getting frisky with me."

"Somehow, I doubt that has always been true," I mumbled back as I started to make my way to the door, hoping to escape before Yang got my comment.

"Guilty," Yang shot back with a grin. "But I'd bet it holds true for you."

"Actually, I…" I started to respond before trailing off as I realized that I actually didn't have anything to work with here. _It's not like the tribe was filled with people that I liked or even wanted to hang around with, and I wasn't the type to take overnight trips into the cities._ Yang caught my hesitation and her grin went from teasing to shit-eating in a matter of seconds, which was the perfect cue for me to get the hell out of here before she prints it on a billboard or something. "…am going to go do homework. Alone. Away from you all. Yang specifically."

"Wait, are you leaving?" Ruby asked, only after zipping over towards me and latching onto my arm in a feeble attempt to anchor me to the ground. With some difficulty, I lifted her off the ground to hold her at eye level.

"Uh, yes? That's what I just said, wasn't it?"

"Why are you leaving already? You can't just let us do this all alone!"

"Uh, Ruby? We're already done planning. The only things happening now are Yang and I antagonizing each other," I scanned around the room quickly to see what else was happening, "Sun trying to flirt with Blake, Weiss…trying to flirt with Neptune?" That one was more of a question than an observation, and calling it flirting more than just making eyes wasn't accurate, but it was surprising enough to be said. "And my team watching it all happen. I'm just going to clear my head; being put up with this many people wears me out." That wasn't strictly true, as I had long ago mentally checked out enough that whatever went on didn't bother me, and it also wasn't true that I was leaving just to clear my head, but Ruby took it as a decent enough of an answer to let go of my arm. I'm really going because I need to think, but telling her that would lead to her asking what I needed to think about, and from there I wouldn't be able to lie my way out easily.

I slipped out of the door without any difficulty and made a straight line to the roof. It's my go-to place to clear my head at any time of day, but as the sun starts to go down right about now, it just gets that much better.

I wasn't sat down on the ledge for maybe thirty seconds before I heard the sounds of someone else joining me on the roof, and that timing made it pretty clear that it was someone from the group who had followed me out. _Pyrrha, probably._ Ren or Nora were also a possibility, and Blake was too, but Sun didn't seem likely to let her leave alone anytime soon. For that matter, Nora was enjoying the company too much to want to leave and Ren wasn't likely to leave her, even if she was surrounded by friends. _I still can't tell what it is that's between them, but some days it almost just feels like they've both unconsciously accepted that they belong together and just never separate._

"You know, it's pretty rude to walk out just as soon as I finally get one over on you." _Or Yang, apparently; this day is just full of surprises._ "What's worse is lying to Ruby just to leave. You do that a lot, you know."

"What, lying to Ruby?"

"No, trying to leave," Yang corrected from behind me. "Although I'm not fond of that other trait, either."

"Yeah, yeah. Would you like a generic or specific excuse this time?" I asked tiredly, still trying to figure out what this was about, though not really making any progress or putting any effort into it.

"Let's go with a specific one," Yang answered as she hopped up onto the ledge to my side, leaving a decent chunk of space between us.

"I need to think," I replied, deciding that I could handle any follow-up questions if they only came from one source. _One source is easier to control than nine, and Yang isn't nearly as hard to say no to as Ruby._

"Yeah," Yang mumbled, staring off at the same sunset that I was watching. "I probably should, too." I didn't take the bait and ask her what she needed to think about, so instead we stared off at the sunset for a few moments before Yang saw fit to continue. "Why do we hate each other?"

"Who said I hated you?" I asked, genuinely surprised.

"I…I dunno, it's just a feeling. Ever since that spar with Ruby, and our little 'talk' afterwards, I just always got the feeling that we hated each other." I didn't respond immediately, letting Yang get out whatever she needed to. _This feels like it's coming from nowhere, but there has to be some reason for this to happen now; if I wait long enough, she'll tell me._ Yang isn't known for being patient. "Something about the way you stared at me when I attacked you, and something about the way we always talk to each other, and something about the way you get along with all my teammates except me… I don't know, it just all feels like there's something bad between us."

"There's no hate from my end," I offered truthfully. "Do you think it's possible that you're projecting what you feel onto how you think I feel?"

"Actually, that's kinda what I needed to think about, but now that you put it so plainly…I guess so." There was some solemnity in her voice—and maybe a little shame or chagrin at being called out so plainly—but she still seemed to be approaching things with her normal, care-free way, so I felt that she probably wasn't deeply wounded or anything. _Maybe confused or frustrated, but not something I need to worry about treading lightly about._ "I mean, I _know_ the hating you part is true."

"Oh, jee. _Thanks_."

"I'm serious, my gut instinct anytime you do anything is ' _how is he being evil now?_ ' When you came to apologize to Ruby with cookies? That was clearly you trying to take advantage of her soft spirit, with no chance that you actually wanted to make it up to her." She laughed softly at herself before continuing. "I'm an instinctual person, you know. I fight based off my instincts, I act based off my instincts, and I try not to think too much in between; this is the first time that I think that my instincts have just been…wrong."

"What do they say about me?" I asked, curious to see if they were wrong or if Yang just didn't realize how close she might actually be. _And let's be honest, they probably weren't wrong, though I doubted she was sensing that I was a plant by her mother._ At least, I hope that her instincts weren't that specific.

"That you're always lying, and you have ulterior motives to everything you do." Yang answered, not really giving any specific examples. _I mean, everyone knows that I lie a lot; it's like my thing now._ "So when you do something as nice as give Blake good advice, I'm so confused on what you get out of it." She turned her head over to look at me as a few thoughts started bouncing around my head. _Blake and I had used the term 'good advice' a couple of times yesterday, and it could be a coincidence, but she sure said it as if she knows about it._ Blake wouldn't have just gone behind my back, either; had she listened in on us?

Or maybe Blake _did_ tell Yang about it, and if so, it isn't something I could get mad about, not rationally, anyways. _The advice was to trust Yang, after all._

"Well," I started to reply, buying time to decide whether or not to admit to my role as matchmaker. "Clearly, I had secret motives for helping you reconnect with your partner."

"Yeah, I have to agree," Yang replied, looking back off towards the sunset. "But apparently those motives are just wanting to help your friend." The way the words were said almost made it feel like an accusation, but more matter-of-fact.

"Obviously I'm setting up a threesome," I said at the same time she accused me of just wanting to help.

" _What?_ " she asked, whipping her head towards me and giving me a distrusting look that made me think she might not have heard exactly what I said. _The fact I haven't been punted off the roof suggests that, too._

"I do get something out of it," I admitted softly, mostly to distract her from figuring out what I had said before. "I like seeing Blake doing well here. It makes me feel like things will work out for me in the long run, too." It wasn't actually lie and it was consistent with what I had been telling Blake, which made me feel it was a good answer, but I can't help but feel that the more I use it, the more it actually rings true.

"I think that you're just protective," Yang accused. "And once you've decided that something—or someone—is yours, you won't let anything bad happen to them. You just take a long time to warm up to people."

"Well, when you put it that way, it sounds bad," I joked softly, trying to downplay what she had stumbled on. _It wasn't new to me, since I had already given up on Raven's initial advice in favor of my friends._ I'm very aware just how protective I can be. My semblance is centered around protecting and empowering those around me, even.

"No, it doesn't," Yang contradicted. "It sounds just like me."

"Ah, so _that's_ why you hate me," I joked again, regretting my poor timing a moment later. Yang didn't seem to react to it at all.

"I'm not really sure _why_ I hate you, but everything I know tells me that I shouldn't, and everything that I feel tells me I should." Yang paused, looking down at her lap. "It's really confusing."

"If it helps, I don't hate you, Yang, nor do I have any reason to."

"No _reason_ to…" Yang trailed off before gaining the courage to ask again. "What do you _feel_ towards me, then?"

"For a while, I felt that you hated me for what I did to Ruby," I started to answer.

"Yeah, sorry about that, but that one was true… _Is_ true? I'm not sure."

"I felt like you hated me for what I did to Ruby," I repeated louder, making it clear I didn't appreciate being interrupted, "like you should have. Even when the others either forgave or forgot, you wouldn't. I had wronged someone you cared about and you were going to protect them at all costs, even if they didn't know or want it. I…I admire that, Yang. It's what I hope I would have done in your place."

"You…?"

"More than the others, I think I admired what you stood for, which made it a shame that it was because you hated me. But it's more than that, I think." I don't think, I know, but I can't just tell her _exactly_ why I admire her, why it's so impressive that she is the way she is and not like me. _Not without revealing a very, very complicated personal connection we share._ "I see a lot of myself in you, but…better." _Or maybe it's more accurate to say that I'm a crappier version of her, one that's been dragged through the mud._

"What do you mean 'better'?"

"When I look at us, I feel like we might have been cut from the same cloth, but we took very different paths to our lives to get here. And if I had to choose between us, I would say you're the better result, by far." Not that there was anything I could have done to turn out differently, though.

"That's not completely fair, either," Yang protested softly, and she _was_ right, but just didn't know why. "I grew up in a much safer place than you did. You never got the chance to be something else." That wasn't what I was getting at, though, but she wouldn't understand that. _I was made to be like Raven, but Yang was_ born _that way._ Yet here we are, and to the casual observer, _I_ would be the one you would expect was Raven's offspring. _I_ was the calculating, manipulative, deceitful, lying son of a bitch looking out for his own interests, even if I had shifted those interests into protecting my friends and breaking free of Raven. _Yang_ is the one holding a grudge because someone hurt her little sister, going out of her way to cut herself off from me just out of principle. _We're night and day, and I can't_ express that _to anyone, and it gets under my skin._ "Besides, wouldn't Blake be a better comparison for you?"

"Just because our backgrounds are similar doesn't mean that _we_ are exactly alike."

"Why not?" Yang asked. "What's the difference between you two?"

"Blake is selfless," I answered simply, letting the words sink in. "She joined the White Fang to make a difference. She left the only thing she knew because it was wrong. She's throwing herself into stopping them. We may both be stubborn, but I'm selfish as hell."

"Just like me?" Yang asked, catching on but clearly unconvinced of the comparison.

"You didn't hate me because that was what was best for Ruby, Yang. You're protective, but you're selfish enough that protective means that you want what is best for _you_ when it comes to Ruby. You don't protect things because you want them to be free, you protect them because you want to hold onto them. You want to protect them from the world itself, to create your own walls behind which all that you love is secured, and when something threatens those walls, you're ready to fight like hell."

"H-How do you know all that?" Yang asked quietly, just barely above a whisper.

"Because I'm describing myself. _That_ is what I think about so much: how to build my walls so high that nothing— _nothing—_ can get through them." In that, I was being completely honest, and I think Yang could tell.

"What are you trying to protect?" Yang asked softly, almost uncertain if she wanted to know.

"Right now? Hope." I answered equally as soft. "The hope that I could ever be strong enough to protect what I care about—that I could be strong enough to _afford_ to start caring about things."

"…are you?"

"What, strong enough to start caring?" I asked, receiving a small nod in confirmation. "No. Not even close."

" _O-Oh._ "

"But that didn't stop me from starting anyways," I continued. "Which is what terrifies me. I'm playing for stakes I can't afford to lose and I have no chance of winning."

"That…" Yang trailed off. "That sounds…"

"Horrifying? Terrifying? Petrifying? Overwhelming?" I asked redundantly. _Of course it was._ I wake up every morning staring down the double-barrel shotgun of Raven Branwen and Ozpin, and then look over to see the teammates that I can't keep if I lose. "It's hard to live with a weight like that on your shoulders."

"Jaune, should I be worried?" Yang's voice certainly was—worried, that is. "This all sounds…intense. What's going on?"

"Should you be worried?" I repeated. "Yes. But please don't be."

"How can you ask me not to be worried? If you're in trouble, I want to help. We _all_ will help. Can't you see that?"

"I thought you hated me a few minutes ago," I deflected, regretting the harshness afterwards when I saw her flinch. "Don't worry about me just yet. I have…a few irons in the fire. I wouldn't be walking around so calm if I wasn't doing anything I could to get an advantage." Although right now that includes buddying up with Junior to the point where I could conceivably turn to Vale's gangs to act as muscle when it comes time to break with Raven. I have a few years on that front to get in good enough that they could at least provide a counter to the Tribe's manpower, and if Pyrrha will stick by my side, that would be enough to not have to worry about Vernal. _Raven, on the other hand, is still a handful, even before her Maiden's powers, and she's the biggest piece of the puzzle that I have no plan for yet._ "I…have a meeting tomorrow night with Junior at his bar. He's…putting me in contact with people. People that could help."

"Are you…are you sure about that? That doesn't exactly sound like the type of people you want to get back into business with." Yang's voice was still concerned, still worried, and a glance at her showed that her eyes matched that. It was hard to look at, so I turned my eyes away. "I mean, I know I tried to use Junior to help me, but that didn't exactly go so well. He _is_ a criminal, Jaune. Are you sure you want to…" she trailed off before convincing herself to continue. "…that you want to get back into that sort of thing?" she asked, alluding to my past as a raider.

"Yang, who said I ever left?"

"You did— _oh._ " Yang trailed off as the implication hit her that I wasn't a reliable source of information about myself, and I could _feel_ her eyes on the side of my head now.

"Don't worry, I don't do that anymore. But I had to get into Beacon somehow, and that wasn't easy—or cheap." I pushed myself off the ledge and rose to my feet, with Yang still sitting there. "But I _am_ here because I want out. I wanted to come here to get strong enough that I could leave for good, but I got ahead of myself and got attached to my team, and my friends." Yang looked down instead of meeting my eyes, but she didn't question or object. "That includes you, Yang, if you want it to." She looked up at me and met my eyes for a few moments, before looking back down at her lap.

"I…I do."

"Great, one more person to let down when I fail," I joked darkly, just enough to break the heavy air that had fallen over us. "Good talk, Yang. Next time, let's ignore all this touchy-feely stuff and just go get drunk."

"That…sounds like a plan."

* * *

Raven's POV

* * *

"Remind me again how our whole 'Maiden' secret is supposed to work?" Vernal asked with a rather sassy edge to her tone that made it obvious she was bringing the topic back up again.

"We fool everyone into thinking that you are the Maiden," I answered back before taking a sip of my tea. It was just us two in my tent and it was the middle of the day, so there really wasn't much to do at the moment other than sit around and talk or go spar. _And since it was hot, I'm staying inside this tent._ "So that they are surprised when you don't give them any powers."

"Yes, putting aside the part where I _die_ , the point is to keep it secret, yes?" She asked leadingly, to which I rolled my eyes but played along.

"You only die if you let them kill you, but yes, the point is to keep it secret."

"So doing anything that would risk letting that secret out would be a very bad thing?"

"Mmmm," I mumbled through my tea.

"Such as sending someone who knows that secret straight into the arms of someone who would see the Maidens brought under his wing?" It was a leading question—and not a new or particularly unique one—that I did not see fit to respond to. "Especially someone who doesn't really seem to approve of you and what you do?"

"Spit it out before you choke on it, Vernal."

"This whole thing with Jaune is going to backfire on us."

"It's not," I responded quickly as I set my tea back down on the table. "And I don't appreciate how much you try to bring this up."

"Well I'm sorry, but if _I_ had sent someone with sensitive information to Ozpin's doorstep, you'd be on my ass about it." Whether or not I appreciated how much she brought this up, I did like where her priorities were here, so focused on protecting herself and, by extension, me. _She could use some work on how to play people, though._

"If you don't stop whining about it, I might just be anyways," I threatened idly. "Have a little faith here, Vernal."

" _Faith_?" Vernal repeated, almost choking on the word. "Since when do _you_ recommend having faith in people? Whatever happened to assuming that everyone will act in their own interests?"

"Faith in _me_ , Vernal," I answered back.

"I'm sorry, I thought Jaune was the one we were discussing," she quipped back. "And I wouldn't say that he is particularly motivated to protect us, or help us, or keep our secrets."

"Perhaps not," I answered back, a small smile starting to appear. "But you don't really seem to place much importance on how much time I've had with him. Jaune may never have taken to things the way I wanted him too, but that isn't to say that he didn't get _anything_ out of it. Why don't we play this out: what's the order of events that you're most worried about?"

"Jaune sells you out to Ozpin to take his side, just like Qrow." Her answer was quick, like she was prepared for the question.

"Not going to happen," I answered simply.

"How can you say that with confidence? I know you see the similarities between him and your brother."

"I do. I always have. That's why it _won't_ happen, though: I made sure to raise him out of it."

"Is that so?" Vernal challenged, hand on her hip.

"As much as we have our differences, he isn't a fool. He knows that Ozpin would use him until he's no longer useful. I'm all but certain that he'd pick us over the Wizard, if pressed to the choice."

"Then why not press the choice?" Vernal asked leadingly.

"Because I like how this works out for us, at least as it sits right now," I answered calmly. "He never bought in here, and at some point, his usefulness would be eclipsed by the problems he would cause…"

"Usefulness, huh?" Vernal asked with an arched eyebrow. "You just said he wouldn't join Ozpin because he would get used."

"Oh, he'd get used here; he _is_ getting used here," I countered back, bringing us back to our current arrangement with the boy. "But he knows it, understands it, and accepts that at the end of the day, we do what is best for ourselves. If he buys into our cause, then he would be used to do what is best for us. With Ozpin, he could seek to protect the world and all he would get out of it is an early grave and an unbroken cycle."

"Don't you think it's in our interests to ensure that cycle remains unbroken?" Vernal asked, shifting her gears a little to take a new direction. "If we had pushed Jaune _into_ Ozpin's arms, that would be a strong pawn for Ozpin to play with. I don't know about you, but it is a lot easier to live off of raiding civilization when there _are civilizations left standing_ ; I'd prefer Salem not win."

"It _would_ make life more difficult, yes," I allowed. "But I don't want to see Jaune's talents wasted like that."

"Uh huh," Vernal responded, unconvinced, before giving me a sly smile. "You just don't want the kid to die. You're too attached."

" _Attached_ , huh?" I responded, putting on a small smirk of my own and joining her little game. "Yes, that _does_ sound like me." I gave her a flat look, for all the good it did to wipe that smirk off her face. "I'll admit that my curiosity does play a role in not wanting to see the kid dead, but not enough to really intervene should he be an idiot."

"Oh, curiosity. Is _that_ what you're calling it these days?" Vernal tried to tease, unsuccessfully, though that wasn't to her discredit. _I am not easily defeated, in any aspect of life._ "Curiosity about what, exactly?"

"I want to see how he does," I answered back cryptically—intentionally, of course. Vernal prompted me with a look and a rolling arm motion to continue. "Right now, I've set Jaune on a very rough collision course."

"With Ozpin, right." She affirmed, although missing half the picture. "Spies get caught eventually."

"Oh, not just with Ozpin," I responded coyly. "That's only half the fun. I don't even know if the kid knows it, but he's much more like me than he's willing to admit. He'll try to break free."

"Of us?" Vernal asked, a little seriousness returning to her features that only served to amuse me. "Should we be concerned?"

"From everyone. He won't be content with being anyone's bitch, I guarantee you that. But as time marches on, Ozpin is going to squeeze him harder, either because he suspects Jaune or because he wants Jaune's loyalty. If Jaune wants his freedom, he's going to have to outplay both Ozpin and _me_." Vernal kept my gaze, eyes firm as I watched the gears turn in her head, making it clear that despite her insistence to discuss this topic, she still hadn't grasped the game. "And I know he wants his freedom; I raised him, after all." _Sort of._

"And you're not afraid that he's going to do something stupid?"

"I am absolutely looking forward to it," I answered with a growing smirk. "I can't wait to see what sort of shit he comes up with. He's in an impossible spot, fighting the Wizard on one hand—" I held out my tea cup in my left hand, mimicking Ozpin and his coffee, "—and a Tribe-backed Maiden on the other." I accentuated by summoning a small flame in my right hand, before ending the spectacle and using the flame to warm my tea back up.

"You're… _testing_ him?" Vernal asked, testing the word.

"I suppose a little," I answered. "I'm merely curious to see if he's strong enough to pull it off—or at the very least, how close he can get. What lines will he cross, what sins will he deem necessary, what enemies will he make, what _allies_ will he make…" I trailed off, taking a sip of tea. "When presented with a brick wall, I want to see what he throws at it."

"And what if it sticks?" Vernal asked, parlaying my analogy.

"So what if it does? The trick is climbing over the wall. If he keeps trying to break it down or throw things at it, what the hell does it matter?"

"So you're just going to let him rebel from you?" Vernal asked with an eyebrow arched. "That doesn't sound like you, just letting people disrespect you like that."

"Who said I'm going to _let_ him rebel?" I asked redundantly. "It wouldn't be much of a challenge for him to break free if I let him. I'm going to use him as I normally would, and if— _when_ —he tries to rebel, I'll act accordingly."

With good dramatic timing—something I truly appreciate—my scroll buzzed to alert me to a message. Vernal picked up on it too, her head turning down to look at where it sat on the table before me.

"What are the odds that that's him?" She asked.

"Not good," I responded, all playfulness or relaxation leaving me. Instead of going through dozens of burner scrolls for everyone I wanted to have a one-time way of contacting me, I had burner apps instead. When called, I got a notification that it was called, and when texted, the texts were forwarded, allowing me to give unique numbers for each person to contact. When someone used their one attempt to contact me, I would be notified and could then reach back out, all without having to worry about being tracked.

 _ID_QROW_ACCOUNT_12: SOS_

"What is it?" Vernal asked, pressing further.

"Qrow. SOS." I responded quickly, weighing over the many possibilities in my head, with one line sticking out every time: _he's in deep if he's asking me for help._ I opened the scroll and dialed Qrow, with it being picked up before the first ring finished.

" _Portal. ASAP._ " The stress and anger in his voice was unmistakable. I hung up the line and looked up to find Vernal giving a distrusting look.

"What if it's a set up?"

"Not his style," I answered back, shuffling over to grab my weapons and arm myself. "Get ready."

"What if he's counting on you saying that?" She asked again, hesitantly putting on her weapons as I put my mask on.

"You're overthinking, Vernal." This wasn't right. This wasn't his style, and he certainly wouldn't be caught dead asking for help from me. _Something else is at play here, something bigger, and I don't like it._

"What do we get out of risking it?" she continued.

"He wouldn't reach out to me if it were just _his_ life on the line. Whatever it is, it's something more important than himself," I rationalized to her. "Which means it's a profitable favor to call in."

I drew my sword and opened a portal in one motion, waiting for a few moments as I looked over at Vernal to confirm that she was ready.

And before I could turn back to the portal, I recoiled and nearly lashed out with my weapon as one large form barreled through the portal and crashed onto the floor. Vernal about jumped out of her skin and was preparing to cut down whatever the thing was—and I had reacted similarly—but we both stopped ourselves from dismembering the thing as we recognized the mass to be Qrow and…was that Amber? _Shit._

" _Portal. Close. Amber. Ambushed. Illusions. Behindus_. _FUCK._ " Qrow's words were broken and frantic, but it didn't appear to be because he was out of breath, but rather stress and pressure. "CLOSE THE FUCKING PORTAL, RAVEN!" He yelled as he regained composure. I did as asked, more because I would rather not find out what had put my brother and the Fall Maiden into such a bad shape, although saying that drew my attention to just how bad of a shape the Maiden was in. There was something…wrong about her, about the marks on her skin, not to mention that she was out cold.

" _Brother dearest_ ," I called out in an even tone, feigning fondness and familiarity, " _what the hell?!_ "

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

I had thought about it. I had really, truly considered bringing someone along with me to my meeting with Junior's contact, the supposed ex-Atlas spy. They wouldn't have to come into the room with me, I reasoned. I could tell them that I had one contact worth checking with, letting them believe I was helping out our infiltration of the White Fang tomorrow night. They could wait at the bar and provide a little extra intimidation on Junior should he try something funny, or just a little support if something went south.

I dismissed all of those thoughts, of course. _It would bring up too many questions, ones that I wouldn't have sufficient answers for._ After our last talk, Yang was at the top of my list, seeing as she knew that I was at least trying to arrange things behind the scenes and she was also feared by The Club. She knew enough information—or she thought she did, anyway—that she might not be inclined to ask as many questions as the others. But in the end, I ignored such a silly idea as bringing along one of my friends for me secret meeting with Junior's information.

 _Fuck me, was that ever a bad idea._

Things started off fine, as far as covert meetings at a club go, I suppose. I showed up and Junior's men let me skip the line, sending me to the bar that Junior was tending. From there, he got a replacement and led me up some stairs to private rooms, such as the building's office and some small meeting rooms, the latter of which was our destination. It made sense that Junior, a known information dealer and neutral party in the underworld, would have invested in rentable meeting rooms like this; a neutral site with just enough background noise to make recording devices obsolete. The room had a metal detector at the entrance but Junior didn't even bother having me disarm, letting me keep Crocea Mors on my hip. The room I walked into had a small conference table and no occupants, and Junior told me that I arrived first and that I could wait in here; all fine by me, since I arrived fifteen minutes before my time for that very reason.

I walked around and sat down at the far head of the table, unstrapping Crocea Mors and letting it lay idly on the table before me. _I didn't want to spook this guy or negotiate in bad faith by hiding a weapon; laying it before me let me show that I was a threat, but not to him, not at the moment anyways._

I sat in silence for a few minutes. It was nothing, really, as the pulsing of the music downstairs helped pass the time. I could even feel the bass thumping through the floor, just heavy enough to have a presence but not so much so that I was annoyed or irritated by it.

At some point I perked up as I thought I heard something in the room with me, feint whispers or maybe an air current flowing, but I wasn't going to take any chances. I reached out and put my hand on the hilt of Crocea Mors, tensing up as the seconds slowly ticked by. Nothing happened. I relaxed a little.

"You're sure that's him?" This time, the whisper was unmistakable and coming from within the room. My heart nearly skipped a beat and I whipped my head in the direction of the noise, ready to draw and attack the person, but there was nothing there. Nothing behind me. Nothing around me. The room was empty, save for me, and I was beyond confused and very much so on edge.

That's when someone grabbed my hair from behind and slammed my face down on the table, surprising me and moving too quickly for me to think to apply my semblance. As my face hit wood, the sound of shattering glass filled the room and what felt like a heel crushed down on my hand, pinning it on top of my sword's hilt and preventing me from defending myself.

That is where I find myself now, with my mind reeling at impossible speeds, and most of that effort going into mentally cursing at every conceivable thing with every conceivable cuss I could come up with.

The pressure on my heel removed itself and the hand with a hold of my hair yanked my head back up into a sitting position, and the pain in my hand was replaced with the sensation of a blade being pressed against my neck threateningly. I tensed and prepared my aura and semblance to activate and foil any throat-slice attempts, committing to empowering my semblance at the first twitch of the blade.

Before I even had a chance to glance to see who my attacker—the one with the blade, not the one behind me—was, I felt the knife twitch and start to move down. It made no sense to kill me so quickly, but that didn't calm my nerves and I flooded my aura and semblance, stopping the knife from doing any damage.

That is, if it had actually intended to do so. It did not move other than that first twitch, feigning a slice to get me to commit to my semblance. _The amount of people who have seen my semblance and would want to kill me is…extremely small._ Raven could never be discounted and this did feel like her viciousness, but that felt unlikely. Other than that, there was…

"Well, look at that, Neo," the voice from behind me called out as its owner walked around to the other side of the table. "A semblance that prevents damage, just like you said. I guess you weren't lying when you said you saw Branwen boosting our heist." _The girl I fought during Raven's dust heist._ "Hmm, he doesn't look like much. You sure that he's the one that knocked you around?" There was no answer, but the blade against my neck pressed into my further and shook slightly, causing me to wince and relieve some of the pressure with my semblance.

With that question, I saw an opportunity and took it. It was an obvious opportunity and my captor wouldn't likely be asleep at the wheel, and I was counting on her being ready for me to make a move. I reached out to grab Crocea Mors and as I did so, her free arm slammed down on my forearm, pinning it to the table. Expecting this, I flared the aura in my neck to counter her blade and reached under my right arm with my left to grab a handful of her blouse, keeping her from recoiling back as I delivered a powerful headbutt right between her eyes. And thanks to my semblance, I wasn't stunned or dazed at all, unlike 50% of my attackers. I shoved the girl—Neo, as it were—with the same hand that I had gripped her chest with, forcing her off of me and letting me reach back out for Crocea Mors.

"Ah ah ah," her associate warned me, causing me to look up to the barrel of some sort of gun embedded in his cane. I thought about taking my chances before remembering who I was facing down against, how he had dismantled Blake and Sun, and the fact that he had this Neo girl as backup. _Despite the scoreboard between us, it was obvious that she was the better duelist during our last fight._ "Not bad, kid. Neo, do you ever plan on beating him at anything?" The voice was utterly unconcerned with any threat I posed and instead was needling the girl to my side, who should be recovering and ready to attack me any moment. "Don't think you can get out of this, either," Roman Torchwick said, addressing me again. "Should you somehow escape our clutches, Junior's men are standing by, not to mention he knows you." My fists clenched because he was right in that I have no real options here, unless he lets me get my scroll out and call Raven for help. _If she'd provide it._ "That means that you should just go along with this if you want the possibility of leaving this room alive. You got a name, kid?"

"Jaune."

"A last name?"

"…Jaune Arc," I answered through gritted teeth. As the name hit him, he grinned maliciously.

"Son of a bitch, and here I thought Junior was pulling my leg. He found the kid who beat Neo and worked with Branwen's Tribe to raid _my_ dust heist while it was still in progress, and handed him to me on a silver platter? Well, I have to say that I didn't believe him at all." He pulled out a cigar and lit it up, letting out a big puff after getting the burn going. "And then he said that you were asking around about names that you shouldn't have ever heard of, at which point I knew that I _had_ to meet you. Briefly." His last word was punctuated by Neo's blade finding its way to my neck once more. I glanced over to see her absolutely seething at me. "That is, if I didn't already want to watch whatever twisted revenge Neo could come up with."

"I'm not getting out of this, am I?"

"Probably not," he replied glibly, kicking his feet up onto the table without a care in the world. "Although I am a selfishly reasonable guy. Make me an offer for your life."

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Ah, and here we go. It's about time the plot started moving forward again. Too many character moments and discussions between characters, too little plot and betrayal for my tastes. _No, that isn't at all foreshadowing for the long term of this story, not even a little, nope._**

 **We can add Yang to the list of people who are finally on good terms with Jaune, so that list makes up most of everyone that Jaune would want. That's good, because it's just in time for the plot to actually pick back up and shift things around. _Yay_. Jaune does seem really bad at keeping his secrets, too, because it seems like every time someone gets him talking, he gives a little more information than he means to. Is that because he's bad at keeping secrets or because Raven instilled a deep appreciation for dramatic moments? **

**Speaking of the Spring Maiden, we finally get a little more clarity into why she's letting Jaune have some leash. Sure, she might like the kid, but she's made it clear she doesn't intend to go easy on him if he rebels, and since he's already starting to figure out that he needs to branch out and get stronger to do that, we have the brewings of a showdown on our hands.**

 **Also, I'm still fixing my timeline snaffoo with Amber here, and if it wasn't clear, after Qrow interrupted Cinder's ambush, he needed a way out and fast. After all, Cinder and crew didn't _need_ to flee; Amber went down for the count and if the three of them could take her out, Qrow wasn't going to last long either. Qrow certainly would have recognized that, and the fastest way to GTFO would be a portal.**

 **And the last part. Roman is Junior's source, surprise! _Kinda._ It would appear that Jauney-boy either overestimated how much he intimidated Junior or was just spread too thin to consider the possibility of this backfiring so badly. **

**Roman actually _is_ the 'ex-Atlas' informant that Junior was thinking of, so I'm _fanfictioning_ his backstory a little, since we don't know any of it. I mean, we've seen that just because you're brought up through Atlas' training, that doesn't mean you're going to be stiff like Ironwood or Winter (see: FNKI). Roman wasn't a super-high level spy or anything, but is aware that there are things in the world he does not want to get involved in, (not unlike Raven, actually) and he knows some details that your average Huntsman wouldn't. He does recognize the name 'Arc' and Neo did recognize Raven by her appearance back during the dust heist, but having Junior give up that Jaune works with Raven was even more confirmation of that. **

**Ah, cliff-hangers.**

* * *

 **Play of the Game-wait, that's not right:** by _Avidlag_ on **The whole damn story**

 _Instead of posting the whole comment, I'll just let anyone interested go look at it in the reviews. You can't miss it. Literally. If you miss this review, then there is not anything I can do to help you. It is long. It will stand out. Trust me on this._

 **Alright, so to start things off, I'm gonna come right out and say that I'm morally conflicted that you left a review so long, thorough, and entertaining that _other people are leaving reviews about your review._ Don't believe me?**

"Just want to comment what's below me "HOLY FUCK"" - _True to the it 666  
_ "what he said below O.o. It's a fucking comment." - _Gabriel H. Sapphire  
_ "that's way too fking long for me to read" - _Ikedawg43_

 **Look, it's bad enough that I clearly have an inferiority complex aimed at our God-King Coeur. I really don't need my own damn _readers_ stealing reviews away from me, capiche? xD**

 **Well, to start off, it is a good thing that you're a random person on the internet of your word. The world needs more of those. Like, two more would do, three if you're feeling frisky. But you're right that I've set a bar with that Jaune/Pyrrha spar, and now I've got that hanging over my head every time I ever want to have a physical altercation between characters ever again, ever. In any story for any fandom at any point down the road. _Great_. Since that spar was, like, a whole chapter, I'm thinking I need to invest more heavily in emotional storylines for fights to make them stand out.**

 **That, or I could start killing people off left and right. _Game of THRN, anyone? NO? okay_**

 **On the "Jaune is OP" thing, or really how I have tried to avoid it, I'd say you're pretty spot on, especially on the "(not so) boring character aspect." I've always hated four things in fanfics: self-inserts, song-fics, OC-centric fics, and OP wish fulfillment. That last one I've actually had to struggle with myself, as I once wrote a fic in a different fandom that part-way through I realized was just a 'character becomes super strong' story with no other** **purpose**.  
 _insert The Dark Knight's Harvey Dent quote about becoming the villain_ here  
 **In this story, I've been pretty hesitant to really let Jaune loose or commit to how strong he could be (to the frustration of a few of you guys, sorry!) for that reason. His fight with Neo was a lucky win but he was using a new weapon, so it was obfuscated, for example. Personally, I count Jaune as the winner of his fight with Pyrrha, and it would be obvious to anyone watching that Pyrrha only won because her semblance bailed her out. But, as you say, Jaune still has a _lot_ of conflict ahead of him to keep things interesting, and he doesn't even know how to play things out. And to top it off, when he gets too focused on one aspect, he overlooks another and ends up walking into a trap. _Hmmm_...**

 **Most importantly,** _loss of focus._ **I had actually written this chapter's scene with Raven just before reading your comment, which is conveniently timed. As the writer, I've been letting the focus slip a little in other areas on purpose, because I feel like it has fleshed out some of the story and built Jaune's relationships with his team. In my original outline, I didn't have nearly as much space plotted out for V2 timeline things, but I did have a general understanding that I would sprinkle in moments between Jaune and each of his friends to establish to the reader that Jaune has broken out of being a jerk and to establish to Jaune that his friends are important to him. I've been a little worried that this would slow down the story, and it has a little, but no one has had an issue with it yet so I got away with those. _I mean, I do complain about how much longer all my chapters are getting..._**

 **But on the spy angle specifically? Yeah, I'll give you some points for that. I wouldn't call it a loss of focus on my part so much as a shifting of intentions for the story and the timing, but even with that pointless reclassification, looking back Raven was really just kinda getting rid of Jaune to spare herself the headache. The _purpose_ or _focus_ of the story was for him to be a spy because that would put him at odds with Ozpin and, by extension, all of Beacon. This chapter established that Raven is a little sadistic but also wants to see if Jaune can fly when tossed from the nest, although normally the mother bird doesn't throw her babies directly at a hawk while simultaneously trying to knock said baby out of the sky herself.**

 **Looking back, the spy angle should have been saved until a little later, but I will let you know that it _will_ become a more significant driving force after this current story arc with the White Fang (assuming Jaune doesn't die at Torchwick's hands during my cliffhanger, in case you were concerned that is how the story ends, lol). As a token of good faith, I'll give you this: Qrow using Raven to escape with Amber is an important detail to kick that off.**

 **Damn it, now my response is almost as long as your review and the chapter's runtime has ballooned. I was so proud of trimming down a chapter for once, too. _Well played._**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _LiumD_ on **Ch 16**

"Good stuff all around, though I think you missed an opportunity with Glynda. The hot female teacher offering her male student a favour over and over? Prime material for cougar jokes"

 **Hey, I think I've seen a video like that...**


	20. Operation Selfie

**[REFINED Nov 2, 2018] Author's Note: Upon editing, I made the painstaking decision to remove the past tense of 'Yeet,' which is either 'yeeted' or 'yote,' from Qrow's POV. It was a very difficult decision but I decided against it because Drunkle Qrow would not be nearly hip enough to understand such a colloquialism, despite thinking himself to be so. It was truly a hard editing decision to make and I will not be taking questions at this time, thank you all for understanding.**

 **Actually, I'm always taking questions, that's why I have a reviews section and Comment of the Week, so ignore that part.**

 **Also, for those of you who know things about ducks or have seen "True Facts About Ducks" on YouTube, you know what Jaune and Yang's 'faunus traits' are going to be. For those of you who haven't, I'd recommend going and watching that video after this, because otherwise you will not believe me.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 18:** _"When fighting a war on multiple fronts, don't ever get distracted with only one of them. Don't over-plan for one battle, even if you need to. The moment you do, you'll lose ground on another front. Trust your instincts and move too quickly for any of your opponents to comprehend. Or predict." - Raven Branwen_

* * *

Raven's POV

* * *

"She's stable… _ish_ ," Vernal announced as she returned to my tent after having Amber carried off to our medical tent, or the closest thing we have to one. "We're not sure what happened to her, though. Her skin…"

"I know what happened," Qrow grumbled angrily, tossing Amber's scroll to Vernal. "Her aura is half gone."

"So she took some damage. We already knew that." Vernal quipped back.

"No, not half-depleted. Half _gone_." Qrow emphasized. "When I got there, they were…doing something to her. With some sort of Grimm."

" _Shit_ ," I let out. An ambush on a Maiden is big news—usually bad news, as well—but it necessarily mean Salem. I'm the first Maiden not associated with Ozpin or Salem in a long time, but I'm not the first, and likely not the last. "How did you let Salem get your Maiden all alone like that?"

"Amber refused to be coddled or protected. You try stopping a Maiden from doing what she wants and tell me how easy it is."

"I already have," I answered, glancing towards Vernal. In turn, Vernal looked a little surprised, likely by my decision to let on that I had a Maiden, and judging by how my brother followed my eyes, it didn't go over his head. "Not that hard."

"Yeah. As if." Qrow rolled his eyes, but when neither mine nor Vernal's expressions changed, he caught on that I wasn't kidding. "No way. How did _you_ even get a Maiden?" His eyes flicked back and forth between the two of us distrustingly, and his posture suddenly was a lot less relaxed towards Vernal.

"My unrivaled interpersonal skills," I taunted with a smirk.

"I refuse to believe this. How could you even get a Maiden without anyone knowing about it?"

"How indeed?" I taunted back. "It isn't like Amber wondered Remnant alone, or other Maidens have run away in the past." My point was clear enough that I could see the gears turning in Qrow's head, to the point where I knew what his next question would be. "You'd be amazed how much you can change your appearance to hide," I offered cryptically, flicking my eyes towards Vernal. "Hair, weight, scars, even skin tone can be altered if you happen to have a Maiden who can control how sunny it gets." I watched Qrow's eyes flick over Vernal, thinking through it all. _Qrow knows who Leo's Spring Maiden was, and how distinct her features were; the original Vernal is completely unrecognizable to the one standing in for her._ But it's been over a decade since that Vernal went missing, and all of her most distinguishable features were changeable ones I just listed.

Qrow wasn't completely convinced, but I didn't need him to be. This was little more than bragging, knowing that Qrow could keep his mouth shut for a while, and it felt good.

"Why tell _him_?" Vernal interjected. "What's the point of a secret anymore?" _That last part still sounds like a different argument bleeding through._

"Because, he's not about to tell anyone, is he?" I asked with a smirk, turning to Qrow.

"The hell I'm not."

"He's not going to tell anyone," I repeated for emphasis, "because he owes me too much. As I recall, Ozpin's Maiden is unconscious here in my camp. It'd be a _shame_ if something happened to her."

"A poor bluff, sis," Qrow dismissed. "All you would do is send her powers to the last person she thought of, so…her attackers. Even you wouldn't risk giving Salem a Maiden."

"And why not?" I asked back dangerously. " _I_ have one. Salem would have one. Ozpin would have none. Tell me, who do you think gets attacked first?" Qrow remained silent and gave me a hard stare. "As I see it, saving you from that little ambush was free. Letting you leave with what remains of your Maiden is _not_."

"What do you want, Raven?" Qrow asked after a sigh, catching on to his position here. He sounded too tired to be angry, which was a shame, as that took the fun out of squeezing him.

" _That's_ better," I rubbed it in. "Let's see, I did help you out of good faith—not exactly something I'm known for—and this really is a big favor I'm doing for you. Any chance Oz would give me a Relic?"

" _No._ "

"Too bad. In that case, I want a few things. First, you have no idea where the Spring Maiden is." I set my eyes on Qrow hard.

"Fine. Your secret's safe for now." There was a sideways glance there that told me this would be brought up at a later date when Qrow wasn't swamped with Fall nearly dying and the Vytal Festival providing distractions. Given the delicate nature of the identity of the former Spring Maiden and the connections thereto, those questions would not be avoided forever. _And it wouldn't just be Qrow prying into it._

"Second, I want all official records of myself destroyed."

"And how do you suppose I do that?"

"Don't play with me. We both know how far Ozpin's reach goes. If he wants his Maiden back, he can get it done." I gave Qrow a flat look and he didn't object.

"And third?"

"I want to know who the next Maiden is."

"No." Qrow answered back firmly. "Not going to happen."

"What, do you think I won't be able to find out?"

"Not if I can help it," he responded. "After Amber, I'm not taking any chances." I gave him a hard stare and waited. "I'll get you the other things, but that's it."

"Brother, you really aren't in a position to bargain, here," I threatened with a casual smirk, relaxing myself a little. "But I accept. Vernal, have them bring Amber in here. I think it's time for them to go home." Vernal did as asked, ducking out of the tent and leaving Qrow and I alone for a moment.

"What, you're kicking us out already?" Qrow half-joked.

"Mmhmm…" I responded, drawing my sword and cutting open a portal. It wasn't exactly a portal to Beacon, even though I _could_ do that if I wanted to, but that would jeopardize Jaune. _And I just found a great use for my little spy within Ozpin's halls, too._ "Tai, please tell me you're decent," I called out through the portal.

" _I'll have you know,_ " Taiyang's voice called out through the portal, "that I'm getting really sick of you thinking you can just stop by whenever the hell you feel like it. It's been months since we've spoken. What if I was busy?"

"It's eight at night, Tai. What would you be doing?"

"Apparently you, if this portal means anything," Tai quipped back. I rolled my eyes and did my best to avoid Qrow's.

"Aren't you exes?" Qrow asked, not nearly as shocked as he should have been, but more disappointed.

"And _that's_ another thing!" Tai shouted out. "Wait, was that…?" Tai stuck his head through the portal and looked around. " _Qrow_?" Tai flipped his head towards me and gave me a flat look. "Warn me next time. I'm never going to live this down."

"Tai, call Oz. Tell him we need an airlift from Patch to Beacon. Preferably escorted." Qrow commanded.

"Whoa, whoa, what for?" Tai asked. As if to answer, the flaps of the tent behind me opened and in strode a few of my men carrying Amber on a stretcher, with Vernal following close behind. "Is that…?"

" _Yes._ "

"On it," Tai called out, disappearing back into his side of the portal, followed closely by the men carrying the stretcher, who returned without their burden after a moment.

"Well? Aren't you going to follow him?" I asked Qrow leadingly. He stuck around for a moment, looking around the tent before his eyes settled on Vernal warily.

"We still need to discuss _that_ ," he commented quietly.

"Another time, brother," I dismissed with a smirk. "If you don't hurry, I might just get a second Maiden. I think those flaming eyes would look good on me…"

"Heh, like that would happen. You're too old." Qrow smirked at me before walking off through the portal, which I closed behind him a moment later.

"Too old indeed," I mumbled with my own smirk. "Vernal, get Jaune on the phone. I have a new use for him."

"About that…" She trailed off, making it clear that something was up. "He already is. He called us while I was getting Amber. Sounded urgent, too. I've had him on hold until Qrow left."

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

I have always thought that time moves slower during classes, but holy crap, did today feel like it was taking _forever_. I know I wasn't the only one who was anxious—Ruby was actually not capable of sitting still all day, and even Weiss and Blake struggled to. The only one who _had_ sat still all day so far was Jaune, who wore more of a distant expression than anything, which was impressive. Normally, we all would have looked like that during Port's lecture, but the fact that he could keep it up when none of the rest of us could was no small feat.

"Are we certain that our backup will be coming?" Ren asked, raising his voice so as to not be drowned out by the roar of the Bullhead. We met Sun and Neptune at the Beacon Airfield so that we could all fly down together, even if they could have met us at the landing airfield; no one felt like waiting, including them, so they went ahead and came up here just to make it feel like we were all starting our 'mission' a little sooner.

"I heard back from my uncle this morning," I called out in response. "He said that he just got back into Vale, and he'll make sure he's free enough to swing by if needed."

" _UNCLE QROW'S IN TOWN?!_ " Ruby almost screamed, which went ignored by everyone.

"What about you, Weiss?" Pyrrha asked, building on Ren's question. "Have you heard from your sister?"

"I did, yes," she responded automatically in her 'Heiress' voice, before remembering who she was with and tossing it out the window. "She isn't in Vale, but she passed along a message for us. As long as we can get a visual confirmation that there is stolen Atlas tech, we can get some assistance from the Atlas military. Which reminds me…" Weiss pulled out a small bag she had been carrying with here and began to distribute its contents to us. Upon receiving mine, I found it to be an ear-piece, not unlike what they use in spy movies. "Since it would be stupid to send me undercover inside a White Fang rally, with how recognizable Schnees are, Winter was able to get us these. I can control all of them from my scroll, so until we try to bust down the place, I'll be working the comms."

"These are pretty cool," Ruby let out as she put hers in and posed, despite the fact that it was completely hidden in her ear and couldn't be seen. "How did your sister give you these if she's not in Vale?"

"She didn't. She asked General Ironwood and _he_ gave them to me."

"General Ironwood is in Vale?" Jaune asked from the far edge of the group, finally saying something for what felt like the first time, especially considering how much he likes to quip. In fact, it may be the first time I had heard him say something all day.

"Uh, duh?" Weiss answered back.

"Haven't you seen the demonstrations that Atlas has been putting on in Vale to show off their new technology?" Blake asked, a little bit of hostility in her voice, probably because of Atlas' reputation.

"Or the massive Atlesian airship just hanging around the sky?" Sun added cheekily, more to score a point with Blake than to make a point. His voice certainly didn't share the edge that Blake's had.

"I…uh, guess not?" Jaune defended awkwardly. "Maybe I need to start paying more attention to things…"

"How did you think Atlas was going to be providing backup then?" Weiss asked Jaune while giving him a flat look.

"I…uh, just assumed that you would work it out."

"Isn't he the guy that planned this whole thing?" Neptune asked, half-joking but sounding half-serious. "That does not inspire confidence."

"Trust me, if I had planned the _whole_ thing, our disguises would be much different," Jaune reassured, cutting his eyes at Blake and giving her a well-deserved death glare that I added to. Blake rolled her eyes and returned to the conversation, and after that Jaune shook his head and returned to his spot at the edge of the group, staring out the window so he wouldn't get motion sick.

"You…uh, you okay?" I asked quietly, slipping up beside him without drawing any attention.

"Yeah, I'm actually doing fine. The Bullhead hasn't tossed us much yet."

"That's not what I meant and you know it." I gave him an accusatory look and he did nothing to deny it. "You've been like this all day. Even _Ren_ has been anxious all day, but you've been distant."

"I'm just…thinking."

"How did your…thing go last night?" I asked, lowering my voice even more on the off-chance that someone could still hear—mainly worried about the girl with four ears.

"Not well. One could even say it went pretty badly." Jaune continued to stare out the window and I gave a slight grimace at the bad news. _Knowing how much he was counting on that just makes it that much worse._ "I guess I overestimated how much Junior thought of me."

" _Junior_ was your contact?" I asked incredulously. "Sheesh, you must either be desperate or stupid."

"Why not both?" Jaune joked darkly, shaking the thoughts from his head. "That's not all I've been thinking about, though. I've been worried about our plan."

"Well, you _did_ come up with most of it…"

"Which means I'm on the hook if it doesn't work or if something goes wrong," Jaune finished for me, giving me a small frown. "Also, I just learned that the Atlas Military is going to be showing up in full force, which is another thing I have to worry about."

"Why would you…" I trailed off, his point hitting me mid-way through my sentence. " _No…_ the Atlas Military? You've raided the Atlas Military?!"

"Hey, keep your voice down," Jaune teased, keeping me from building up any real tension. He rolled his eyes, but that didn't do a lot to help his image here. "I have _not_ directly raided the Atlas Military."

" _Directly?_ "

"However, for absolutely no reason whatsoever, it would be in my best interest not to push my luck by meeting them…" he deflected, hiding behind his humor. Jaune's deflection wasn't harsh, but it did establish that he wasn't in the mood to talk about anything specific, so I decided to back off. We would be going into the rally together soon—well, with Sun with us too—and I didn't need either of us distracted. _At least, not more than_ someone _already is._

"Is it going to be a problem?" I asked concerned.

"No. If I got through Beacon's background checks, then that means they don't have my fingerprints or anything." Jaune's eyes trailed over to Blake for a moment. "Although I don't know just exactly how thorough those checks are…" _Yeah, if we had Blake and Jaune, who else might have slipped in?_ "That doesn't mean that I like being surrounded by soldiers that I've fough—that make me nervous." If I needed any more proof that he wasn't in a particularly honest mood, that slip provided it.

"Well, look at it this way: you're helping them out now, so that will make you even."

"I mean…it's a start."

" _No,_ " I countered back with a semi-forceful stare. "I refuse to believe that whatever you've done to the Atlas Military is so bad that recovering stolen experimental battle mechs from radical terrorists can't make up for it. I literally can't imagine what you could have done that wouldn't be forgiven for this."

"That's because you need a bigger imagination," Jaune teased, regaining a little of his usual self, which made me feel better. _I already have a broody partner who likes her secrets; I don't need Jaune trying to out-brood her._ "You're right, though. I'm blowing things out of proportion," Jaune offered honestly after his joke broke him out of his funk.

"That's what I like to hear," I joked with a satisfied grin.

"What, that I'm blowing things?" Jaune asked cheekily. "Are you hitting on me too? I don't know if I can handle sisters…" he said, giving me a look that was somewhere between 'please don't hurt me' and 'I regret nothing.'

"On second thought, I'm handing you over to Atlas in handcuffs," I said flatly, giving him a look that was a cross between a glare and complete unsurprise.

"Kinky."

* * *

" _Alright, I've got our comms working through my scroll, so I can control who hears what. Everyone check in first,"_ Weiss' voice came through our earbuds with surprising clarity. It wasn't loud, either, so her saying something wouldn't make you flinch and give away that you were listening in. In fact, it was soft enough that earlier Blake said she couldn't hear anything from anyone's earpieces, with meant we were less likely to be found out by any other faunus with four ears. Weiss mentioned something about how they didn't produce sound and vibrated your ear, and went on about the wonders of Atlas technology, and at that point I tuned out; point is, they would work. Probably.

" _I'm on the roof. I already took out their standing guard, and when he doesn't check in, I'm sure Ilia will come looking."_ Blake answered first, taking to her role as bait with little complaint. Then again, that was likely because she got her revenge setting Jaune and I up to look like idiots trying to sneak into the rally.

" _Got it, Blake. Once she shows up, I'll mute you from everyone but me and vice versa, so you're not distracted. I'll keep them updated with what happens."_

" _Ruby and I are just sitting here,_ away from the action _, waiting for you to tell us when we can smash our way inside,"_ Nora called out, displeasure obvious in her voice. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I made a note to thank Jaune for putting Ruby as far away from the initial danger as possible, even if that meant letting Nora babysit her. _Or…is Ruby babysitting Nora? Are_ either _of them to be trusted with the other?_ I shook the thoughts from my head, mainly because I was afraid of the conclusion it would inevitably lead to. The point is, Ruby is not going undercover, which is good, because she would be terrible at it. She can more than hold her own with her scythe once the fighting breaks out, but sending her in unarmed would have been stupid. _"Oh, and we have Jaune and Sun's weapons with us, so the sooner you bring us in, the sooner you can arm yourself, Jaune…"_ Jaune and Sun both glanced down at my wrists jealously, where Ember Cilicia were folded up and disguised as ordinary bracelets, meaning that only _they_ were going in unarmed.

" _I'm sneaking around the back. If anyone tries to come out the west side, I'll see them,"_ Ren called out.

" _I've got the same on the east side,"_ added Pyrrha.

"We're approaching the front entrance," Sun called out for him, Jaune, and myself. "It does look like they're checking some faunus traits, but not everyone's. Maybe we'll get lucky."

" _They're probably just doing it enough to scare off anyone trying to sneak in,"_ Weiss commented.

"Yeah, jokes on them," Jaune added. "We're too dumb to be scared off."

"Aren't we missing someone on the check-ins?" I asked.

"Yeah, we are. _Neptune_ , come in. Remnant to Neptune. Come in, little buddy."

" _Alright, I get it, sheesh. I thought since I was helping Weiss work the comms I wouldn't need to check in with her."_

"Hey Weiss, would you mute me from Neptune real quick?" Jaune asked before pausing for a few moments. "I bet Weiss sure wants Neptune to check in on her, if you know what I—OW!" Jaune was cut off as his earbud blared in his ear, loud enough for Sun and me to hear from next to him.

" _Sorry. I still haven't figured out how to self-destruct these things inside someone's ear. Was that close enough?"_ Weiss asked in a tone that could have been bottled and sold as snake venom. _"Alright, I've muted everyone else from your mics, but they can hear through yours. All you have to do is get a photo of a Paladin or any sort of Atlas technology and send it to me, and from there I can call in the cavalry."_

"You know, I don't think that's going to work…" I baited.

" _No, it's fine, just trust—"_

"I mean, wouldn't the horses be on the White Fang's side?"

"…"

"Wow, that was bad," Sun mumbled, although he was fighting a small grin. Jaune was trying to look away and hide the same.

" _Blake wants me to tell you that that was racist."_

"No, I meant horses as in 'cavalry,' not as in horse races…" I doubled down, grinning ear to ear as I did so.

" _Not races, ra-_ cist _."_

"Weiss, please don't encourage her," Jaune pled.

" _Ugh. Just go get the picture, please."_

With a satisfied grin, I picked up the pace walking towards the entrance of the rally, with Sun and Jaune picking theirs up on either side of me to keep up. The line to get in wasn't long, but the wait felt that way, at not just to our group. About half of the people here already had masks, but the ones who didn't and were obviously here for their first time looked like they were about to die of anxiousness, dread, or paranoia while waiting in line. Honestly, it was a good thing, too, because it kept us from standing out in the slightest.

Well, except for our very distinct appearance, that is. _But that was why we three were picked._

"Alright, guys. First time?" The guard asked as we finally made it to the doors.

"Well, I've been before," Sun offered glibly, playing his light and bouncy character naturally. "But my siblings here haven't been before, so I'm kinda like their guardian angel tonight."

"Siblings, huh?" The guard asked. It wasn't really that he even seemed to doubt it—it felt more like he was bored doing security checks and was just looking to pass the time—but my stomach threatened to flop all the same. "I'm not seeing any monkey traits on them. Mixed parents?" It took me a moment to remember that 'mixed parents' meant two different types of faunus and not one faunus, one human, but Jaune didn't miss a beat.

"Not exactly. He's our half-brother," Jaune explained. This was the better part of our plan to get inside, playing the three of us off as siblings. I mean, the bright blonde hair that we all share is a pretty distinct trait and using the half-sibling line was supposed to make our other differences more excusable; you know, things like eye-color, since neither of my eye colors are normal. "Same dad."

"Yeah, he was busy…"

"I can see that," the guard replied, a little stunned at the information being given away so freely. "All three of you have different mothers?"

"No, we have the same mom," I jumped in, pointing to Jaune and myself.

"Yeah, they're the same kind of faunus, too," Sun added on, _immediately_ earning glares from Jaune and I, because it felt like we were about to get in without having to actually say what type of faunus we were. _Somewhere, Blake was laughing over a muted mic, I just know it._

"Oh, so the man rolled twins with the same heritage? What are the odds, huh?" Jaune and I laughed along awkwardly, hoping that he would drop the subject. He didn't. "What kind are ya? I don't see any visible traits."

"Oh, they've got just the _best_ traits ever, don't you guys?" Sun asked mockingly, which the guard seemed to pick up on because he gave a wary look. I gave Sun a look that let him know he was dead to me, and began planning how to cock-block him from flirting with Blake indefinitely. "They're duck faunus, by the way."

"Ducks?" The guard asked, testing the word. "Uh, cool, I guess. So what, do you have like waterproof feathers? Or do you quack really loud?"

" _Blake wants it noted that that was also racist."_

"Go ahead, tell him," Sun egged on with a smile that said he knew exactly what he was doing and what he was opening himself up to later on.

"I have…" Jaune started off slowly, frowning the whole time and fighting the words. "…a barbed, corkscrew penis."

The guard reacted appropriately to such information, scrunching his eyebrows in surprise, confusion, and disgust, and then looking to Sun for confirmation. Sun gave a big, toothy grin to confirm it and nodded his head towards me, officially earning himself a shallow grave.

"I have an inverse corkscrew…" I trailed off, hating everything about my life that lead me to having to finish this conversation. _Stupid Blake and her stupid past and her stupid convictions and her stupid friend Sun and…_ "…vagina."

The guard turned back to Sun and mouthed something that rhymes with _what the duck_ before doing his best to shake free any thoughts going through his head. He clearly did not do a good job if the sideways looks he kept giving us were any indication. "You know what, I'm supposed to check everyone's faunus traits, but…uh…you—you guys go right ahead."

"Thank you," Jaune mumbled, doing his best not to direct his anger for Sun at the guard who was letting us through.

" _Nora wants to say how awkward it is that you are siblings but your traits are design to only work with—NORA! I'm not saying_ that _!"_

"Alright, well that worked," Sun announced gleefully as he grabbed a White Fang mask from the stack of them just inside the door, handing two extras to Jaune and I. "Now we just get into the crowd and prepare for Operation Selfie."

" _We said that we weren't calling it that."_ Neptune's voice came over the comm. _"That's so…lame."_

"But it's what we're going to do! How is it a bad name?"

"Excuse me, guys?" A voice from behind us sounded, almost making me jump. Upon turning around, we found that it was the security guard from the door, who had apparently tracked us down. "Look, I _really_ hate to do this. I mean, I _really, really_ don't want to do this, but my boss said I have to…erm, confirm that everyone is a faunus, and that means…" My eyes went wide before I felt them start to switch over to red as I prepared to knock this fool through the wall. _Screw it, if we knock down enough walls, we'll find out where they're hiding things._ "Whoa, whoa, look, just help me out here. I don't—I just need to do one of you two, okay? I'll tell my boss that I did them both, but just…help me out here, guys."

I glared over at Jaune with every intention of doing anything necessary to keep that one from being me, even if that meant forcibly pantsing him on the spot.

"Well, Yang, he's handsome enough. I'm sure you'd come to enjoy it." He made the mistake of turning to meet my eyes, and whether the shift to red or the murder in them got to him, he changed his tune. " _Fine_ , I'll do it."

"Y-You don't have to do it here. We can go into one of the side rooms." The guard offered. "Again, I'm really sorry about this."

"Let's just get this over with," Jaune mumbled, following the guard as he pushed through the crowd. Relief shot through me and I unclenched the fists I didn't even realize I had clenched, probably in anticipation of punching anything and everything if they had tried to make _me_ go do that.

" _What's going on?"_ Weiss asked frantically, breaking me from my thoughts and making me realize that _oh crap, Jaune is about to be caught with his pants down_. I didn't even have time to appreciate my own pun as my eyes shot over and met Sun's, letting each of us know that we had the same realization.

"They're going to make Jaune prove he's a faunus," Sun whispered over the mic, trying to keep his voice low enough that no one in the crowd would overhear. "Unless he's been hiding something, he's about to be in trouble."

"Not if I can help it," I grumbled, already pushing my way through the crowd in the direction that Jaune and the White Fang member had left.

" _Yang, wait,"_ Weiss called out, causing me to slow my pace but not give it up entirely. _"Jaune can handle himself and it sounds like they're taking him somewhere private. I'm listening in to his mic and I can only hear one person besides Jaune."_

"He's not armed," I replied, unconvinced that it wasn't better to play it safe and burn the place to the ground. _Jaune is_ not _dying on my watch._ My instincts were screaming to move on, but an errant thought about what I had told Jaune over my instincts about him crossed my mind, and was enough to get me to stop pushing through the crowd. _They've always been wrong about him._ I don't like waiting and seeing, but can I trust myself here? Did it apply like this?

" _Uh, guys?"_ Weiss' tone was a little different this time; there was some sort of stress—panic, surprise, uncertainty; I couldn't tell—that made my instincts go even crazier. _"I just lost Jaune's mic. It's dead."_

That was all I needed to start pushing through the crowd once more, and after only a moment I could see the doorway that they had slipped into. I could feel Sun right on my tail and I flexed my wrists in anticipation of a fight, but just before I got past the last edge of the crowd, Weiss' voice shot over the comms once more, stopping my feet in their tracks.

" _Yang, wait! I'm getting a call from Jaune's scroll. Just hold on while I figure out how to add it to this stupid communication array…"_

" _Weiss?"_ Jaune's voice came in very quiet, obviously trying to hush so as not to be heard.

" _Jaune, thank goodness. Are you okay?"_ I let Weiss do the talking rather than draw any more attention to myself in the crowd. Just hearing him speak was enough to settle my nerves, though not completely.

" _Yeah, I had to knock a guy out, but I'm good. Look, I'm about to hang up, but he took me into a side room somewhere in the back, so I'm going to have a look around and see what I can find."_

" _Jaune, don't do anything stupid, like getting yourself caught walking around. We just need enough evidence to bring Atlas in."_

" _Me? Something stupid?"_ Of all things, his sarcasm was what comforted me most that he was okay because it meant that he was absolutely back to normal. It was probably the first time anyone enjoyed his sarcasm. _"I wouldn't think of it,"_ Jaune offered, before immediately hanging up on Weiss.

"Well, that was close," Sun whispered with a small chuckle. "Weiss, how's Blake doing?"

" _She's…having a talk with this Ilia person, so the sooner you guys could finish up, the better."_

"It's not like we can make this go any faster," I mumbled. Much to my chagrin, a few moments later a person walked out from between the large stage curtains to a chorus of boos and hisses. I would say that I joined the boos because I was trying to maintain my cover, but to be honest, booing Roman Torchwick was pretty fun.

"Oh, yes, I know. You're all jealous of the hair," Torchwick taunted the crowd, causing even more boos and earning heckles from the audience. Some guy on the opposite side shouted something about 'filthy human' that Torchwick picked up on. "Well, I won't argue with you there; humans are the _worst._ I mean, look at me: I _am_ one and I don't even care if you destroy them all." The crowd hushed down a little, not exactly buying into the idea of Roman Torchwick leading a rally, but certainly either confused or curious enough to listen. "Quite frankly, when you wipe them off the map, I'll be a pretty happy guy. In fact, wiping out humans is why I'm here tonight. What about you guys?"

There were a few cheers, but mostly the crowd was still distrusting. The mood was shifting, though.

"Oh, that was just pathetic," Torchwick drawled with a roll of his eyes before pointing over towards the side of the stage at something. Upon doing this, the curtains were rolled back, revealing a dozen massive mech suits all lined up in the back of the warehouse, with one being piloted to walk out on stage, making loud thuds with each step.

"Paladins…" I whispered into the mic, grateful for the sound of the mech for drowning me out from the crowd.

" _You see them? How many are there?"_

"Uh…I count twelve," Sun replied. I didn't get a chance to count them, because as soon as the piloted mech was on stage, the curtains closed back behind it, cutting off the view of the others.

" _T-Twelve?!"_ Weiss surprise was overwhelming, causing me to flinch a little, though hopefully it would be assumed to be because of the loud mech by anyone behind me. _"Yang, Sun, we_ need _that picture as soon as possible. There's no way that we can stop this alone when they have more Paladins than we have people."_

"Alright, you ready?" I turned to Sun as I pulled out my scroll.

"Now, _I said_ , I'm here about wiping out humanity. What about you lot?!" Torchwick's routine had easily won over the crowd, who were beginning to get rowdy at the sight of a freaking battle mech sitting there in front of them, which was good for us. The more motion, the easier it would be for us to take a picture. Since it would be too suspicious to just take a photo while standing in the crowd, we had a plan for how to get away with it without seeming like spies. "That's a lot more like it. These puppies are top of the line, top secret Atlas machines of war, so you lot can turn their—I'm sorry," Torchwick's voice took a sudden shift, and with our backs to him, would couldn't tell why. "Did you just…take a _selfie_ in the middle of a terrorist rally?"

Sun and I turned around and froze when we realized that Torchwick—and everyone else—was looking right at us, because _yes, that was exactly what we just did._ Neither of us had any clue how to respond so we just stood there like deer in the headlights.

"I have so many questions about why you dumb animals would think that was a good idea." _Blake would want it noted that that was racist_ was the only think I could think, not that it was helpful right now. I tried to shrink away and hoped that by not responding he would eventually shrug it off and go back to his speech, because with the entire rally staring at me, I couldn't send the photo to Weiss.

" _Guys, what is going on?!"_

"No, no please, by all means, if getting a cool picture for your social media is so important, then come on up!" Torchwick wore a malicious grin, but I couldn't tell if it was because he knew what we were doing or was really enjoying making fun of someone for taking a selfie. "I've always been photogenic! If you're going to get a selfie, come up here and get a better angle!" The crowd was on his side and was starting to turn on us, and before I even knew what was happening, my feet were taking me towards the stage. "That's right, take your time. It's not like we have a rally to get back to or anything."

When we got on stage, it was clearly obvious that we were both nervous as hell, so when Torchwick extended his hand expectantly, I handed him my scroll without even realizing what I was doing. "Ah, that picture is no good. You can't see shit," he called out loud enough for the crowd to hear as he clicked the button to take a new photo. I had at least had the foresight to take the photo within my messages to Weiss, so once it was snapped, it was one button push away from being sent. "Come on, let's get this over with. I want a copy of this to send to the Vale Police as a Christmas Card." As awkwardly as possible, Sun and I huddled in to take a selfie with Roman Torchwick with a several ton death machine as the backdrop. With one click, the photo was taken, leaving it one click away from being sent. Unfortunately, Roman wasn't some old person who didn't know how scrolls worked. "Oh, you were trying to send this to someone? Do tell, who exactly did you want to see this lovely battle mech right here?"

Torchwick grinned at us maliciously and there was no way that he hadn't figured out what we were up to, so I did the most sensible thing I had all night: shifted my right gauntlet into attack mode and tried to punch him. Torchwick's grin grew wider as he redirected the strike past him with his cane, before digging it into my ribs and then bringing it up to smack me across the face, all the while holding the phone out of arms' reach.

But not out of tails' reach, because Sun's tail was able to snake out of Torchwick's vision and hit the send button.

"I got it!" Sun shouted in the mic.

" _I got it!"_ Weiss confirmed as the photo came through. _"I just sent it to Atlas. Help's coming, guys; just hold on!"_

As crowd began to get out of control and the large, still-piloted Paladin next to us rumbled as it looked down at me, I realized that that might be easier said than done.

* * *

Qrow's POV

* * *

"Damnit, Ozpin, I warned you this would happen," Ironwood grumbled angrily, just barely keeping himself from slamming a fist on Ozpin's desk. "Amber was a bad choice from the start. I _told_ you that she couldn't be controlled."

"I'll concede that Amber was a poor choice, but you seem to forget that we had an exceptionally-weak candidate pool when we picked her," Oz answered back calmly, not at all vexed by the large man who was seething from across his desk.

"You had a better option. You had _my_ option."

"Winter Schnee—"

"Has never gone AWOL, has never broken rank or order, and has proven herself beyond loyal." Ironwood cut Ozpin off.

"—was Winter Schnee, eldest child of Jacque Schnee. While I'm more than glad to see that she has broken free of his grasp, the risk that she might not have was far too grave to make her Beacon's Maiden. Especially after what happened with the last Spring Maiden." It was a coincidence that Ozpin brought that up, because I hadn't told him that I had finally found that Maiden after, what, 13 years? 14 years? It's been a while, but it can wait a little while longer. Raven wasn't wrong when she assumed that it wasn't urgent for Oz to get Spring back and that we would be too busy to deal with her, anyways.

Still, there are a _lot_ of things relating to Lionhart's Maiden cropping up recently, with Raven (and the actual Maiden) just being the most recent. _Lots of people who should be dead seem to be showing up, as well._

"Then what are you going to do now?" Jimmy shifted, pushing away his anger over the subject by ignoring the subject.

"With the Vytal Festival nearly upon us, I imagine that I'm going to spread myself thin is what I'm going to do now." Ironwood gave Ozpin a strange look, and Glynda jumped in to translate.

"The timing of this attack was deliberate. Normally, we'd pull back as many extra hands as we could to protect Beacon—and Amber. With the Festival, those hands will be busy protecting the hundreds of thousands of visitors to Vale, and if we brought back even _more_ Huntsmen and Huntresses to cover both, then we would leave the frontier so exposed that a surge of Grimm could cripple the nation and drive up fear." As much as I hate chess, studying it was useful because it let you understand just how bad of a situation this is.

"I could—"

"Which is why Vale already accepted Atlas' offer of assistance in handling the security of the Vytal Festival," Ozpin cut the general off, knowing exactly what was about to be said, not that it was hard. "Anything more would offend Mistral and Vacuo, or would humiliate Vale's council and leave me with political repercussions." Ozpin sipped from his mug and let it go unsaid how much he hated handling political repercussions. _You would think, given how many governments he's created, destroyed, or altered throughout his years as the Wizard would leave him a little more willing to deal with politicians, but I guess you never get used to them._

"Then what _are_ you doing?"

"Our enemy prefers to move within the shadows. We're working to put spotlights wherever we can."

Ironwood looked to me for clarification, very clearly tired of Ozpin's riddles. "It's unlikely that Amber's attacker with be satisfied with only half of her power, so she's going to try to strike again. She'll have to get into Vale and acquire the resources to try, though, so I'm working to get as many spies and informants into Vale's underworld as possible."

"And what about your candidate?"

"What candidate?" Ozpin asked, raising an eyebrow. "Amber is still alive, James, albeit comatose. This isn't as simple as assigning her a team of candidates in the hopes that they're in her last thoughts, or setting up an ambush of our own against a hostile Maiden. We have no control over this."

"But what if you did?" Ironwood offered, making me suspicious but earning Ozpin's intrigue.

"What are you saying, James?" Glynda asked warily.

"Aura transfer," he answered simply and resoundingly. "Atlas has a working prototype right now. We can isolate aura and transfer it to a new host."

"That's…" I started.

"Barbaric. Cruel. Despicable." Glynda filled in.

"…plausible." Ozpin answered, earning stares from both Glynda and I. "How does it work?"

"You…can't be serious about this…?" Glynda half-stated, half-questioned, though it was ignored.

"It's a transfer apparatus. The donor in one side, the recipient in another. We haven't tried it on humans yet, but everything known so far through testing suggests that it is a 100% efficient transfer."

"I'm sensing a 'but,'" I tossed in.

"But we can't guarantee the survival of either participants. We—"

"No," Glynda cut him off. "We cannot just steal someone's aura because we need them to wake up faster, especially not if it might kill them."

"I'm with Goodwitch here. That's a line we shouldn't have to cross."

"Shouldn't have to, yes," Ozpin conceded. "But needs must, on occasion. Would you rather let Salem have her Maiden be unchallenged until she can finish what she started?"

"She can't get to Amber here," Glynda argued.

"She can, and she will. There was never been such a thing as an impregnable fortress, not in all my years." He turned to Ironwood. "How severe are the risks?"

"Nothing suggests that either host will die, but this is the bleeding edge of aura research. We've never transferred the aura from a living host and had them survive."

"I thought you said this had never been done." I countered harshly.

"I said that we've never transferred aura from one human to another," James defended, taking care with his words. "The technology has been used to separate the aura from a human one time, but it was a dying—and fully consenting—patient who had her aura taken. She died shortly after, but we have no way of knowing if it was from having no aura, or just the fact that she was so sickly that without her aura healing her she died naturally."

"What would it take to get the device here?" Ozpin asked, ignoring the looks Glynda and I were giving him. "I haven't committed to anything, but it would increase our options to have it at the ready."

"I can get the whole thing here and operational within seven days, or I can wait a little longer and have Specialist Schnee guard each transport personally."

"Do it." Glynda and I opened our mouths to object, but Oz beat us to the punch. "I'm not saying that we will use it, but we need to be prepared if Amber does not recover. By the time it's installed, Amber will either have woken up, or established that she will _not_ be waking up on her own. It would be foolish of us to have no other plans."

"This discussion isn't over," Glynda warned sharply, though exactly who she was angrier at—Jimmy or Oz—I wasn't sure.

"Actually," Ironwood interjected after checking his scroll. "There is another matter: a team of Beacon students has just uncovered the location of what they say are twelve Atlas Paladins which were stolen from Atlas R&D recently."

"Wow, you lost twelve massive battle robots? How the hell did you do that?" I taunted, taking a much-needed swig from my flask after the 48 hours that I've had. My arms are still tired from flying all the way out to Amber, and that doesn't factor in literally anything else that happened after that that could wear me down.

"I do not know, but your students have found them all at a rally for the White Fang in Vale." He paused for a second, letting the severity of the words sink it. "The group includes the sister of Specialist Schnee, and I promised them backup if they could get me any evidence. They sent me this." He handed his scroll around, revealing a picture of some monkey faunus, Roman Torchwick, and girl who looked _a lot_ like Yang in a White Fang mask, and a giant Paladin in the backdrop.

"Aww, come on, Yang…"

"If you'll excuse me, I have a rally to crash."

"Not so fast, James," Ozpin called out. "You're in Vale. You can't just take a warship into the city."

"I was going to take a detachment of Specialists, actually."

"Even still, doing so within Vale would cause a whole different kind of political mess that I can't just mop up."

"Ozpin, you're not stopping me from getting those Paladins back."

"No, I'm not. I'm just saying that you need to let Beacon lead the attack," Ozpin countered, taking a sip of coffee and flicking his eyes towards me. The memo was immediately understood and hated by Jimmy.

"No. No way."

"If you want those Paladins back…"

"I am not letting Qrow lead Atlas forces. Why not Glynda?"

"And just when I thought this week couldn't possibly get any more exciting," I taunted, pushing myself off my spot on the wall and sauntering over to Ironwood. "If I can capture one, can I keep it?"

* * *

After all that has happened to me this week—flying half-way across Remnant, saving Amber from an ambush, turning to Raven for help, escorting Amber from Patch to Beacon, and dealing with Ironwood—I have to say that the grumpy looks that Glynda and Jimmy were shooting me from across the Bullhead made up for all of it. _They're just jealous that Ozpin made me in charge of attacking this White Fang rally._

Or they could be upset that I stole the hat from one of the Atlas soldiers in the cargo hold.

Or they could just be jealous that I was hanging half of my body out of the combat doors of the Bullhead. It's not like they could turn into birds, so they can't really risk falling out.

Or it could be the fact that they're just not very fun people.

"Do we have a heading?" I overhead Glynda ask Ironwood, yelling to keep from being drowned out by the wind.

"Yes," he replied just as loud. "The information came in from a Beacon scroll, so we can track it easily."

"You won't need to," I called out, pushing forward from my spot and preparing myself for a fight. "We can just assume it's the smoking warehouse—" No sooner had I said that, a small explosion rocked the warehouse in question and a bright yellow object came crashing through a wall out into the front of the building, before picking itself— _oh, hey, there's Yang—_ before picking herself up and launching back into the fray. "—I mean, we can assume it's the exploding warehouse."

"We drop in fifteen seconds!" Ironwood called out over his radio to the four other Bullheads we had brought with us. Everyone here was either Huntsman level, Specialist level, or was trained in anti-tank warfare and would be useful in containing Paladins. _Twelve of them is a_ lot _of firepower to worry about._

"Bye," I called out antagonistically as I dropped out of the open door backwards, giving Glynda a mocking salute as I went.

"QROW—" Whatever Glynda was going to say was drowned out by the whipping of the wind as I left the Bullhead, but I was pretty sure it was something about being the one in charge of the soldiers or something. Glynda was so cute like that, thinking that Jimmy and I were going to play by the rules, or that I would intentionally be a responsible commander, or that Jimmy would _let_ me command his men. If anything happens, I go down on paper as the commander, but other than that, nah.

As I streaked through the air—which didn't take long, as we weren't at a very high altitude anyways—I took note of what fighting was happening. It had since moved to the streets in the few seconds since I saw Yang get launched right through the front wall, which was very convenient for me, because I could drop right down on top of it.

Not that they really needed any help. There were, by my count, nine students surrounding this one Paladin, giving it much more than it could handle. Ruby was peppering its joints with sniper fire and creating quite the racket while doing so and Yang was enjoying being slung by her teammate at the thing, with her other teammate the Schnee catching her on glyphs and sending her back each time. There were others adding onto that, like what looked like the Nikos girl dancing between its legs and someone with a grenade launcher, but I didn't have time to take note of all of them before I reached the ground.

With an easy flip, I spun my momentum from my fall into a downwards chop with my sword that served the purpose of severing the right arm of the robot and looking incredibly badass.

"UNCLE QROW!"Ruby's voice shouted from the distance with an unbridled excitement that never got old to me.

"Uncle Qrow?" Yang asked, a little confused. "I never got the chance to call him."

" _Ugh, what good are Atlas death machines if their arms come off so easily?_ " An irritated, static voice sounded out of a speaker on the Paladin. " _Does this thing have a self-destruct button?_ "

"Get back!" I shouted, diving out of the way myself. After a few moments where nothing happened, I picked myself off the ground and turned back to the robot, which hadn't moved at all. We all started to group up in front of the robot, giving wary and cautious looks to the possible bomb in front of us.

"This is taking too long," Ruby whined, drawing Crescent Rose and leveling it at the front of the robot.

"Ruby, don't—"

I was too late, as the child who inherited Summer's legendary impatience had already fired, with the bullet impacting the robot and shattering it like glass. In fact, it was more than just the robot that shattered; the entire world around us shattered and fell to the floor, revealing an identical world in its place, including the Paladin, still standing there motionless.

"… _huh_?" A girl to my side asked, letting her large hammer fall down to her thighs as she looked around in confusion.

"Did Ruby just…?" The Schnee mumbled uncertainly.

" _Break_ the world?" Yang filled in.

"Uh… heh, heh. My bad?" Ruby coughed guiltily, before drawing Crescent Rose and firing it at the Paladin again. The round pinged off the metal like a bullet should, and no weird mountains of disappearing glass shards came toppling down. "Look, it wasn't me!"

" _This_ time," a boy with long, dark hair added, earning a childish frown from Ruby. "Why hasn't it done anything?" It was a question I was wondering myself, and after cautiously approaching the mech, the answered revealed itself.

"Because there's no one inside it. Damnit." To prove it, I jabbed the tip of my sword into the cockpit and twisting it, creating a hole to view inside and sure enough, it was empty.

"Qrow, that's Atlas property," Ironwood called out as approached from farther down in the street where his Bullhead had landed. "I'm going to ask you to stop stabbing it."

"Up until a few seconds ago, it was White Fang property," I called back, giving Ruby a quick glance, because it was her first shot that cause all this broken glass confusion. She shrugged and gave an honest expression of bewilderment for herself.

"Roman Torchwick's, to be exact," Yang's partner—the broody one with the same name as the former White Fang leaders, the Belladonnas—corrected for us. "He was the one piloting it, too."

"Torchwick?" I asked, directed more towards Ironwood and Glynda than the kids. "What gives? The guy goes from a nobody to a master thief in practically no time, and then decides to hijack the White Fang and try to jack up Dust prices. Now he's collecting weapons of war?" The looks on the faces of Ironwood and Glynda appeared stern or solemn, but having spent enough time around them (against my will, of course), it was clear to me that they didn't have any answers. _It didn't make sense how quickly his goals, abilities, and methods have shifted, considering that not too long ago no one knew who he was._

"Oh, he's not collecting them," the monkey faunus from the picture with Yang interjected. "The whole point of that rally was to show them off before they use them. Like, on people. _Innocent_ people." That point was bad, but I couldn't take it seriously as I distracted trying to figure out why Yang and this kid were taking selfies at a White Fang rally in the first place. If this was Yang's idea of a date or something, I'm going to need to have to have a talk with her; taking someone on a stupidly dangerous mission and bringing along seven other people? _Damn it all, she really is just like her dad._

"Where are the other Paladins?" Glynda asked gravely, coming off as stern to the kids because she's Glynda Goodwitch.

"They never fired them up," Yang offered, stepping forward from the group a little. "They just piloted one onto the stage and kept the rest behind it."

Jimmy put a hand to his ear and activated his radio for a moment. "Check in. How many Paladins have we located in the warehouse?" He waited for a moment, staring at the ground as he listened in to his earpiece. "What do you mean you haven't found any? Secure a perimeter and check the surrounding areas. If they tried to move them, I don't want them getting far!"

" _None?_ " Yang mumbled, confused. She turned to the monkey faunus with a befuddled look on her face. "You saw them too, right?"

"Yeah, of course I saw them. There were at least ten back behind the stage, maybe twelve." His words were confident but the doubt creeping into his voice betrayed that. "You guys were watching the exits, right?" There were nods from the Nikos girl and the dude with the dark hair. "They couldn't have snuck giant metal robots out of here. They _have_ to be here somewhere."

A loud, painful creak of the metal of the warehouse drew our attention to just how much damage had been done to it during the fight. Most of the front wall was gone, and what wasn't was peppered with holes ranging to bullet-sized to Yang-sized, and the roof was tilted lopsided towards that weak wall. At least, what hadn't already caved in was. Piles of rubble and debris with small patches of dying flames cover the floor of what once was a rally. There weren't any bodies visible, meaning the rally-goers probably fled at the first sign of trouble.

"If they're not in there, and they didn't fight us with them, where are they?" Ruby asked no one in particular.

"Firecracker, are you _sure_ you saw other Paladins? You weren't…?" I trailed off, making a _glug-glug_ hand gesture that reminded me that I needed a drink.

"You're never going to let me live that down, are you?" Yang grumbled. "Yes, I'm sure, and _no,_ I wasn't drunk. Sun saw them too!" It was obvious that Ironwood and Glynda held their doubts, and wore them on their faces. Even if they were wrong about the extra Paladins, one Atlas Paladin in the hands of terrorists in the middle of Vale was a nightmare scenario, and by taking it out, they also had given us a lead to track down, so it wasn't the end of the world.

"Yeah, I di—"

"Don't care," I cut him off, giving him a sharp look just in case this _was_ Yang's idea of a date. _Tai would appreciate me giving the boy a cold shoulder in his place, and I'm not convinced that Raven needs a grandkid anytime soon._

Hell, I'm not convinced she needs one ever, but I'm sure I'll lose that battle eventually.

"Um…guys?" the Nikos girl asked nervously. "Where's Jaune?"

A hush fell over the kids for a moment as their eyes all convened on the two blondes. "Don't look at us. Last time we saw him was when they took him to another room to check him," the monkey faunus defended for himself and Yang. Their eyes all shifted to the Schnee.

"The last thing he sent me was that he was going to look around back-stage…" The Schnees words slowed as the realization dawned on them, making them all turn their heads back towards the structural nightmare that was the ruins of the warehouse.

It was Yang that broke the silence, just before they rushed off towards the building.

"Oh _shit…_ "

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: I'm not lying. That's an actual thing about ducks, and it is both as horrifying and strange as it sounds. Ducks are also noted Necrophiliacs, and have been observed raping female ducks to death, and sometimes not stopping there. _Ducks are horrifying, y'all._**

 **Anyways, let's see what happened here that I should talk about...**

 **While writing that first scene, it really stuck out to me how odd Vernal's situation must be for her. Like, her name isn't actually Vernal, right? The whole reason Raven has her is because she is supposed to be a stand-in or a decoy of the Spring Maiden, and there are people out there who know who the Spring Maiden was. The fact that her name in the show is Vernal means that the original Spring must have been named Vernal, because at the very least Leo would know her name and general appearance. Looks can be changed, though. She also just...doesn't have a last name in the show, because she never really needed one. That said, RWBY is known for off-the-wall theories (and the shipping chart of all possible ships), like how Emerald might be a Branwen or how Taiyang might be Ruby's biological father.  
**

 _That last one was a joke, by the way._

This paragraph has been written when this chapter was refined to trim down old and redundant Author's Note material. If you're a loyal reader and are re-reading the story, then I'll give you the key for the long-con of this story: who is/was Vernal really?

 **Also, there is a growing sect of reviewers really buying into Raven's view of "Ozpin is so manipulative that he's his own form of evil" that's been built up pretty well. Oz's scene earlier wasn't meant to show the manipulative side of Ozpin or make you dislike him, at least not by me. The fact that the plan in the show was to steal Amber's aura and give it to Pyrrha was in and of itself a pretty damn manipulative and shady thing to do, so that fact that it coincided with the fact that we haven't seen the 'good side' of Ozpin in this story works pretty well.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _The Qrow_ on **Ch. 17**

"Welp, Junior is dead. I mean if Jaune dies Raven WILL come looking for him and if he doesn't? Well I don't see Jaune looking kindly upon fuckers who betrayed him to die. Pyrrha was one thing but this is straight up attempted assassination."

 ***insert Kermit_thats_none_of_my_ here***

* * *

"If I don't get another chapter within the week I will riot" - _Turquoise Leaf_

 **Technically, we're good. But I have a feeling you might riot anyways, since you gotta wait another week to see what actually happened between Jaune and Roman...** **¯\\_(ツ)_/¯**


	21. Operation Anti-Selfie

**[REFINED Jan 3, 2019] Author's Note: This chapter was originally over 12,000 words, with no intro quote, ANs, or Comment of the Week. You'll note that this chapter is not _that_ long, because I went ahead and cut the last scene; it's part of the next chapter, now. **

**Have fun.**

* * *

 **Chapter 19:** _"The problem with morals is knowing if you're really right, or if you're just wearing rose-tinted glasses. And when you're morally colorblind, it gets that much harder and...where was I going with this again?" – Qrow Branwen_

* * *

Ilia's POV

* * *

I sent runners to double-check that all side and rear doors were locked and all windows were both bolted shut and covered up, just like Torchwick had instructed, not that I would ever take orders from someone like him if I could help it. Adam didn't even seem to like using the man, but he had shown up bearing Atlas Paladins and as much as I hate to say it, he was good at leading the Fang on raids to stockpile dust, and Adam insisted that those raids were a crucial step in the plan.

Why we were boxing ourselves in by locking all those doors—he had said to keep the place airtight so that no one could get, or see, inside—I'm not really sure, and I don't really know how he knew that our sentry on the roof would go silent during radio checks. I don't know how he knew to send _me_ to go check on them with no more instruction than "stall her," but sure enough, it was Blake.

"You're armed," I called out disappointedly from behind her, as any hope that she might have realized her mistakes and come back to us died out.

"So are you," she called back, turning around to face me. Neither of us had drawn on the other, and I don't want to, and I know that _she_ doesn't want to. _Why does she have to make this difficult?_

"I'm _supposed_ to be. Securing our future, whether you like it or not."

"Ilia, you can't do that through violence."

"And why not?" I challenged. "Do you think things got the way they are without it? Was the war between humans and faunus a peaceful one?"

"We don't need a war, Ilia. All you're going to do is make things worse." It was cute that she thought she could talk me out of this, but it was sad that she _had_ talked herself out of it. She used to stand for something. She used to inspire others—used to inspire _me_. She was one of our loudest and clearest voices, and she had turned her back on us all.

"Things can't get much worse for us, Blake. That's the whole reason we're doing this." The words hung in the air as Blake didn't respond immediately, instead trying to soften me with her eyes. _That might have worked in the past, but this is too important to distract me that easily._ "Humans everywhere hate us. They make us live in the slums and work for nothing, and then try to tell us that _we_ are the ones responsible for it."

Below us, the rumble of the Paladin coming on to stage and the cheers of the crowd made themselves known.

"That's not true, Ilia." Blake tried to counter— _to lie_ —forcefully, but I won't be shut up.

"We're going to make them pay, Blake, just like we always talked about. At least, _I_ am going to. I don't know what's gotten into you…"

"You can't take it out on the world, Ilia, you—"

"Why not?" I interrupted her, challenging her to actually give me the reason that she lost her nerve.

"Because there are innocent people, Ilia! You can't just decide that you're the one who gets to kill them because you're a victim!" Blake was frustrated, for some reason. It never seemed to bother her before.

" _Innocent_ people? Who are you and what have you done with the Blake I knew and loved?" That shut her up right quick. "Where is the girl who taught me that you're either for us, or against us? That there's nothing that will be done unless we do it?" I held my gaze firm, but Blake looked away guiltily, and it bothers me that I can't tell whether she's ashamed of giving up on those goals, or if she's ashamed of ever being a part of our revolution in the first place. "What happened to the girl I used to play 'Hunt the Schnee' with, huh? You're the one who came up with it. Don't you remember what it's like to be _faunus_?"

Down below us, the sound of a shotgun firing echoed, along with the sounds of a crowd that was either about to flee, or fight.

"I remember that we were kids, Ilia!" Blake shouted defensively. "We were children who thought that hunting down one family would magically fix the world."

"It still can."

"It—it _can't_ , Ilia. The world doesn't work like that! You can't just kill people to fix your problems." She was defensive before, but now she was acting on it and had even drawn her weapon reflexively. It was the last thing I needed to see.

"I never thought I would see the day when you would try to defend the _Schnees_ ," I spat out angrily, drawing my own weapon and gripping the handle so hard I was afraid something would break. I'm sure my skin was starting to turn red, too.

"I'm not defending all of them," Blake answered, bringing her weapons into a defensive stance. "But I don't need to, to make my point. Just one of them."

"That's one too many," I hissed, whipping my arm to send the tip of my weapon at her. I wasn't sure what I was aiming for; I just knew that I was attacking as hard as I could and would let whatever happens happen. _Putting her out of her misery would be a final kindness that the old Blake would have appreciated._

The point passed through Blake, before she disintegrated, revealing herself as a shadow clone. I caught sight of the real Blake out of my periphery as she jumped through the old, busted-out skylights down to where the rally was getting out of hand.

"Running away again?" I asked the air around me, disappointed but unsurprised. "Fine, but you won't run forever, Blake. We'll catch you." If not me, then Adam would for sure, and he wouldn't let deny the truth any longer. He was strong enough to make her see the truth or…or to silence her lies.

For now, I had more important things, like making sure all my brothers and sisters escaped this rally. I still don't know how, but Torchwick knew that Blake would be crashing the rally from the roof, and that is enough to make me believe it when he said that Atlas won't be far behind. I still think we should use the Paladins right now and show Atlas who we really are, but our plans are big enough that I can be satisfied for fleeing now so that we can strike at the heart.

I peaked over the edge of the skylight to see that Blake had joined two blondes in taking out what little security force we decided to bring once Roman changed our plans, and while they were doing that, Torchwick was climbing into the Paladin on stage and getting ready to hold them off. _I can't say I've ever had any objections to Torchwick being the one left behind._ As the rallygoers fled, a few people charged in to join Blake, but it was the one with the white hair that stood out.

" _Schnee_."

I wasn't part of the plan—I'm supposed to keep things flowing on the back ends and ensure that we don't leave anything that could be used to track us—but there was no way I was leaving without destroying the one who had turned Blake against me. I hopped through the skylight and aimed for the Schnee, diving with the point of my weapon in front of me and driving it completely through the back of the Schnee.

…before she faded away, revealing it to be a shadow clone once again. I looked up to find Blake looking down at me, having just moved the real Schnee out of the way. I locked eyes with Blake, and that…that was the last thing I needed to see confirmed. Her eyes were defensive, sad, determined, conflicted…but they weren't sorry. They weren't sorry for the side she picked, and they weren't sorry for choosing a _Schnee_ over her people.

"That explains it," I spat out at Blake before giving the Schnee that broke Blake a death glare. Raw hate and jealously fueled me as I stared down the embodiment of all that was wrong with the world; the fact that she had stolen Blake from us just made it personal.

"Ilia, you can't do this," Blake warned, emotion threatening to clamp up her throat as if she had any right to be worried about me now. "You're outnumbered and surrounded, and Atlas is on its way. It's not too late to stop."

I looked around at the situation for a brief moment. We _were_ surrounded, but that was our plan anyways. _Roman would hold them off during our escape._ Other than him and his Paladin, our Lieutenant was holding off two people with his chainsaw and I had Blake and _it_ here with me, leaving five to fight the Paladin, including a blonde girl trying to get behind the Paladin and walking far too close to me to do so.

"It's too _early_ to stop," I spat back at Blake before whipping the blonde girl with my weapon and shocking her with my lightning Dust, effectively tazing her. Torchwick saw the opening for what it was and picked the girl up, before flinging her through the front wall of the warehouse.

"YANG!" Both girls in front of me yelled in unison.

With them distracted, the Lieutenant and I saw our opportunity to escape and backed out of our respective fights. Torchwick saw it too, as he lit up the ground between us and our opponents with gunfire and then a rocket for good measure, kicking up so much dust from the concrete floor that we could have walked out of the warehouse. As a last measure, Torchwick charged out into the street with the Paladin and threatened to start destroying random buildings, forcing all of Blake's friends to choose between following us or stopping the giant mech from going on a rampage.

They all chose going after the Paladin, of course, leaving the Lieutenant and I to navigate the backstreets in silence. I sat there, waging a war within myself over wanting to go back and do everything I could to kill that Schnee. _I'm needed for our plans, and they're bigger than the Schnees._

Besides, I'm sure that Adam would help take care of that.

"It might help us hide if you weren't red and yellow," the Lieutenant mumbled.

"There," I grumbled after taking a few seconds to force myself to take a few breaths and calm down enough to regain control of my traits. It didn't actually do anything to help the anger I felt, but I at least looked like I was in control now. "Better?"

"What's got you so bothered?" He asked dismissively, just like pretty much every other thing he ever said. He was an aggravating person to be around.

"Nothing," I spat through my teeth. "I just need to get back to a hideout."

"And what's at the hideouts?"

"A scroll," I answered, noting his confusion. "I need to talk to Adam, as soon as possible."

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

The ride from the White Fang rally to Roman's next warehouse was not very long, but it was tense as hell. At least, it felt that way for me, what with Neo's umbrella blade pressed against my neck the whole time.

"Is this really necessary?" I asked our driver, Torchwick himself. Neo's presence had been invaluable in our plan to perfectly foil the plan I had made with my friends to foil the rally—a sort of twisted, meta thing in its own right—because of her semblance. The ability to hide ourselves from view was useful, and when amplified with my semblance, she created an entire mirror-world engulfing my friends and Qrow as the three of us slipped away. It was timed well, too, because waiting any longer would have meant that a stray Atlas soldier might have seen us slip away. "It's not like I'm going anywhere." The black-out window tint back here I could understand, as it was designed to keep me from realizing where we were going, but Neo's constant threat felt forced.

"The hell you're not," Torchwick called back. "You're our only link to getting the Paladins back. Even if that didn't mean it was necessary, you try telling Neo to _stop_ being violent." I looked down at the girl in question, as sharp eyes glared at me behind a large frown. _I don't think she likes me all that much._ "Besides, she just doesn't like you because you've made her look silly twice." The anger in her glare doubled, though she cut her eyes at Roman this time, whether angry for the insult or for not being wrong, I wasn't sure.

"That doesn't mean as much as you think it does," I admitted, partially because it was true but partially because I was hoping it would get me in better graces with the one trying to sever my head. "She knocked me around during our fight. I just got one good hit in because of my semblance." The pressure on my neck didn't change, but the glare shifted more into a suspicious side-eye than a melt-your-face-off stare. _She responds well to blatant pandering. That's good._

It was technically true, even if I was using a weapon I had never trained with before. Little details like that wouldn't help my cause at the moment, though.

"And the second time?"

"You distracted her," I answered, feeling relieved when she nodded pointedly at Torchwick, as if they had had this same conversation already. _If she actually has 'conversations,' that is._

"How did things go inside?" Torchwick asked, changing the topic and switching to a more serious tone.

"It worked as planned. Your guard recognized me and pulled me away from the others. From there, we got the Paladins moved." My answer was a little distant, mostly because I was still furious that I had put myself in this damn position in the first place, literally undercutting all the good that my friends are trying to do. _And all I get out of it is whatever method Raven works out her anger at me through, which is a horrible deal for me._ Sell out my friends and undercut their plan to do good for the world, all for the reward of severe punishment. _Great_.

"And Atlas?" he asked leadingly, and for good reason. He had more reason than most to be wary of the Atlas Military, being a deserter and all. _I would imagine they don't take kindly to ex-spies in Atlas_. It was, I suspect, the main reason that he was willing to agree to the terms. Losing a Paladin was bad, but losing _two_ is significantly worse, though I would imagine not worse than whatever General Ironwood would do if he got his hands on a defector.

"None the wiser, at least not from _my_ end," I replied. Torchwick was in charge of the White Fang and they were easily the loose-end here, meaning he has had his hands full trying to contain their ineptitudes. There were supposed to be marginally-more competent members of the Fang working to cover everyone's escape and ensure no damning evidence was left, but I do not put faith in the supremacist organization that looks to _Roman Torchwick_ for direction.

"Well, we aren't being chased down by a flying dreadnaught at the moment, so I'd take it that the animals didn't screw things up on my end." Again, the fact that he needed the reassurance that a battleship was not on our tail was not a great sign.

We rode the rest of the way in silence, which was perfect for letting me stew in my own anger. There were several things that pissed me off and I couldn't focus on one of them, but I kept coming back to the conclusion that the world hated me. There was no way around that. The odds of Junior's source being the same man that I had just designed a plan to catch (or, at the very least, defeat) was too high for there to be no divine entity that hated me. _Raven had always maintained that the gods had left Remnant a long time ago, but clearly, they've returned just to ruin my life._

And that was the other thing, though not one that made _me_ angry, rather, one that filled me with dread. As we pulled into another empty warehouse, one on the far end of town, and hopped out, I sent Raven a text as Roman and Neo looked to me expectantly, afterwards shutting off my scroll entirely. I was already getting texts from the team, asking where I was and telling me that they were searching the rubble for me. They had called, too, but I had silenced them. _My scroll has been on long enough for them to confirm that I still had aura, so I wasn't dead…yet._

"What assurance do we have on her showing up with all of my Paladins again?" Roman asked me pointedly, with Neo catching onto his edge and adding two of her own—cutting her eyes and me and pointing her blade at me.

"You have me."

"And you're worth several metal death machines to her?" He asked incredulously.

"Uh, no. Probably not." As soon as the words left my mouth, Neo's blade poked into me dangerously. "If I know her as well as I should, she would absolutely let me die and keep the Paladins. She'd probably through a party celebrating how dumb I was." _She'd probably use my body for a piñata at that party._ Roman and Neo shared a look that wasn't good news for me.

A few moments later, a red portal appeared in front of us and Raven walked through, clad for battle and wearing her mask. This wasn't her usual saunter, though; she walked in with a purpose, likely just as angry as I was. _At me, though, which was bad. Very, very bad._

"Ah, there she is, the star of the hour," Torchwick called out from behind his freshly-lit cigar that he seemingly always had ready. "I have to say, I'm a huge fan of how you used to dismember people for Beacon."

"I thought you were Atlas intelligence," Raven cut back flatly, recalling the brief information exchanged last night.

"And you didn't think that Atlas was keeping tabs on Vale? That's cute." Roman had the audacity to smirk at and toy with Raven. In fact, he had the audacity to be the only one in the room who didn't look like they were on the edge of attacking someone. Neo was glaring at me. Raven was pissed. I'm mixed between pissed and petrified. "In fact, it's those sorts of records that got this one tangled up in the first place," Roman deflected Raven's anger by pointing to me with his cane and smirking at the ensuing fireworks like the bastard he is.

"Is that so?" Raven asked, her voice razor thin and the anger towards me thinly veiled. "Come now, _Jaune_ , we have a job to do."

I took a few steps forward, eyes locked on Raven's mask and trying for everything I was worth not to wilt. I can't ever recall being in a position where I didn't know what Raven was going to do with me, but I had been caught with my hand in the cookie jar, and Raven was just the kind of person to chop off your hand for that. This whole thing started because I was looking for information on my family, the very same information that Raven has refused to let me have for years. _There has to be a reason she doesn't want me to know, which makes it all the worse that I had been caught trying to get that information._ The fact that Torchwick just threw me under the bus didn't help either; if I survive this, he's high on my list for revenge.

Raven sat there, waiting for me to do my part of the job, feigning patience in a way that meant that for each second she waited, she was thinking of new ways to torture me. After mustering up courage, I reached out with my semblance and amplified her, giving her the ability to summon giant portals—large enough to transport the mechs. Twelve of them minus one, to be precise, one for each Paladin that we smuggled out of the White Fang rally under everyone's noses. Smuggled might be the wrong term, since we really just teleported them all away, but the sentiment stood.

What was terrifying to me was that both times I had to interface with her enough to get a firm read on her emotions, and her anger had somehow flattened out when compared to just a few minutes ago when we teleported the Paladins away, but was replaced with a determination that scared me. There was no point in hiding how nervous I am now that our auras are linked, and the fact that she wasn't blindly angry but seemed to have focused that anger did not bode well for me.

"Isn't that just a thing of beauty?" Torchwick called out over his eleven death machines, still in pristine condition. Instead of stable portals, she had moved the portals to keep from having to walk each Paladin through, a feat not easily possible for her without my amplification. "Imagine it, Neo. Dropping a bomb just anywhere at any time!" Neo gave him a sideways look, as if curious that _that_ is what he would use teleportation to do. I had the feeling Neo would use it to throw kittens off mountains or stab people in their sleep, though.

"Done," Raven called out sharply, letting her eyes linger on me in a firm glare—setting me squarely in my place—before turning to Torchwick. "You've got your eleven. I've got my one. Are we done here?" She sounded impatient, and it was pretty obvious that she had an ass to chew out to get to. _I'd probably be lucky if that's all she did._

"Oh, I don't know. You sure I can't talk you into doing heists? That sort of semblance is valuable." The balls on this man, knowing full well Raven's reputation (or knowing even more than just that, given his former occupation), to ask him to do a job with her, it was just incredible. And he did it all with a crooked grin and a cigar. Raven's glare at him spoke volumes. "I should have learned last night you're not really the talkative type, but I'm glad we worked this out. I've still got most my Paladins, no one dropped the flagship of the Atlas Military on me—" he said, staring straight at me, "—and I've made such…interesting new friends."

"If you'll excuse us," Raven cut in, growing more impatient by the second. "We need to have a word. _Don't we, Jaune?_ "

"No, I think I'm go—" The words died in my throat as a small flame erupted in my throat, no doubt the result of Spring's power. I coughed violently and the flame went out, but it left a horrible feeling behind, not to mention the threat of what else she could do. With her mask covering her eyes and the flame hidden within my throat, Roman and Neo were none the wiser that she was a Maiden; they clearly knew she had just done something to me, but were smart enough not to ask. "Yeah," I wheezed out, feeling her eyes on me through the mask. "We should talk."

Raven cut a small portal open and walked through without ever needing to look at me. I knew what I was supposed to do. I'm supposed to walk through that portal like a lamb to slaughter so she can dish out whatever punishments she's thought of so far. For a brief moment, I thought about booking it, fantasizing about getting lost, but that wouldn't work. _She can create a portal to me whenever she wants, she can fly, she has a small army at her back, and she has magic._ I am unarmed, surrounded by enemy weaponry, and my best ability is the ability to get hit better than everyone else.

I looked over at Torchwick and Neo. The weight of the situation must have shown on my face, as Torchwick just shrugged and pointed his cane at the portal, letting me know that he was glad it was me and not him; Neo looked torn between ecstatic that I was about to get laid into, and conflicted that it wasn't her to be doing it. When they didn't offer me anything helpful—not that I really thought that they _could_ —I braced myself and walked through the portal.

I walked through into the familiar setting of Raven's large tent, the seat of the Tribe.

" _Kneel._ " Raven's voice was icy and her back was to me, leaving me unable to read anything but her voice. Off to the side, Vernal was armed and ready, though leaning against a pole to the tent in a relaxed position, ready to watch whatever was to unfold.

I did not kneel. I was already in bad enough that the last thing I needed was for Raven to see undeniable weakness; there are few things she hates more. If she wanted me to bow, she would need to make me. _And she can._ It was a risk, hoping that standing strong would impress her more than standing against her would anger her, but I'm just as stubborn as she is, so there really is no other option. Whether or not this was a test, I wasn't going to kneel voluntarily.

Raven's head flicked to Vernal, who shook her head to confirm that I was not on my knees. "I said, _kneel_." The words weren't just a command, but a warning as well this time. When Vernal shook her head once more, Raven's hand fell down to her hilt, and a knot in my stomach tightened. I'm still unarmed—Nora had both of my swords, and I left my dagger in my locker—meaning that all I have to face down the Spring Maiden was my anger and my semblance, the first of which was at least matched by my opponent.

Without warning, Raven's left-foot dropped back as she spun around, drawing her blade and swiping it at my chest in one smooth, rapid motion. Had I not been waiting for her first move, I might have been cleaved entirely in half, but instead I brought up my left arm to block the blow outright on my forearm. Even with my semblance, the blow was powerful and would take a chunk out of my aura, as it wasn't the sort of attack that _should_ be blocked; it was a dodge or die sort of attack, and Raven knew it, which is why choosing to block it caught her the slightest bit off-guard. Even with knowledge of my semblance and how I fight, she hadn't expected me to so recklessly allow myself to take damage like this.

All of this bought me enough time to bring my free arm up and chop down at the middle of her blade. Raven's blades were razor thin and extremely deadly because of it, but the lack of a thick spine let them snap off easily, hence her sheathe being designed to put new blades on the hilt at breakneck speed. It also meant that my chop snapped her blade in half, and I made sure to grab the loose end as it fell. It was a poor weapon, as it was sharper than a broadsword and as such would slice into me while gripping it, but it was better than trying to punch Raven Branwen. _Marginally._

I had a tiny bit of momentum now and sought to capitalize on it. Upon seeing the shattered blade, Raven's sword was instinctually sheathed so that a new one could be drawn, and anticipating this gave me a small window. I stepped forward and swiped my makeshift knife in a reverse-grip, adrenaline spiking as Raven's aura sparked while the blade drew against her side. As soon as the blade had finished its pass, I tossed it up and caught it in a forward-grip, bringing it back to slice across her again. They were small slices and wouldn't make up for the one large blow I took to gain my weapon—especially not when factoring the bite of the blade against my palm—but they established that wasn't here to be tossed around.

The problem with committing to this attack was that by allowing it, Raven had pulled me in close and I had removed my ability to block, so the blade Raven was drawing had a direct path to my face. My only option was to throw myself backwards and hope that I could avoid the blade entirely, but given the absurd length of Raven's typical nodachi, even that was a slim chance. I tried it though, using all my core strength to throw my torso backwards in the hopes of avoiding or minimizing the damage.

And I all I did was slam the back of my head into a solid wall of ice summoned by the Maiden's powers, causing me to nearly black out. It was only reflexes that allowed me to flair my aura up so that as I bounced off the wall and into Raven's blade, I wasn't killed on the spot. That doesn't mean it didn't hurt, or take maybe half of my aura, as well as knock me sideways onto the ground.

I started to regain my bearings as I was trying to push myself off the ground, and it was only when I tried to push myself up off my knees that I realized that I was stuck, with my right calf and foot frozen to the ground under a mound of ice. As soon as I noticed that, I looked down to find my left foot being incased in ice as well, freezing me in a kneeling position. _I had to go and make her force me to kneel, didn't I?_

I looked up to find the point of her blade directly in front of my eyes, following up its spine to find Raven's exposed eyes piercing into me, flames hovering around them briefly, before extinguishing as she drew her sword away and sheathed it. "Was that so difficult?"

 _Yes_ , I wanted to say, but had the wisdom not too—or maybe I lacked the courage to say anything at the moment.

"Let's hear it," Raven shifted her tone quickly, suppressing (but not eliminating) her hostility to more of an expectant, disbelieving tone.

"Hear what?" I spat back, reeling both from the situation and the headache caused by slamming into an ice wall.

"You've had since last night to come up with an excuse." Raven stated flatly, never breaking her stare off me. "You tried to drag me into your mess to save you. I'm waiting to hear whatever bullshit lie you've thought up to convince me that you had a legitimate reason to be meeting with the head of Vale's underworld alone."

"What does it matter to you?"

"Wrong answer." The flames around Raven's eyes appeared and my throat turned to ice—literally, as in the skin there started to freeze and an ice blockage stopped air from getting to my lungs, causing me to choke. Choking didn't help, as no air came forth and all that happened were the muscles around my throat contorting and painfully biting into sharp pieces of ice as they did so, making things worse. After a few moments of choking without air, the air began to melt as it was burned away with fire, providing the briefest moment of relief before I had to deal with fire all up and down my throat, singing what wasn't frozen by the ice.

The torment finally stopped, and I flooded my aura in to soothe what pain I could.

"I am not a dog. I do not respond to the beck and call of anyone, least of all someone who works for me." The severity in her voice made me look back up to meet a stern glare. "Next time, it would be better if you let your captors kill you."

"Why do you care about having to bail me out?" I challenged, will and body still not fully broken. "You got a fucking Paladin out of the deal. I would say that's a pretty good haul." I met her eyes once more, showing my resolve—or defiance, if she wasn't impressed by it—as much as I could. " _Your welcome._ "

"You're right," Raven responded with a few chuckles that made my stomach turn. An angry Raven I could predict, but when she wasn't letting her fury guide her actions, I had no clue what to expect. This was when her sadistic side came out to play, aided by her flair for the dramatic. She was putting on a show just to torment me, she knew it, and she enjoyed it. "A Paladin for a _one-time_ save is a pretty good trade. What you should be asking is what I'm furious about, and what I'm interested in."

She sat there, waiting expectantly for me to ask, and I let myself be led along. "What are you furious about?" I asked, getting the worst of it out of the way, so that if she wanted me to hear the second part, she couldn't kill me in her fury.

"I'm furious that you betrayed me."

"I didn't—" The words died in my mouth the moment I saw her eyes flame up again, to the point where she didn't even need to use the powers on me. The angry, knowing glare would also have been enough to shut me up. "Ah, _Torchwick._ Right…"

"You didn't just sell out the Tribe when you told him who it was that hijacked his raid. You named me _specifically._ " The disappointment and anger there terrified me, but she pivoted with shocking ease which, honestly, was scarier than the fury she had flashed. Unpredictability was a bad, bad thing for me.

"What I'm really interested in," she said as she walked forward and crouched down in front of me, putting our faces inches apart, "is what the hell it is you were trying to achieve in the first place." I didn't answer, knowing better than to, and instead tried to steel myself and hide my worry. I don't feel I did a great job, and even if I did, there was no guarantee that I could fool Raven anyways. _She had a homecourt advantage and is one of the best at playing people that there is._ "Because I see it this way. I have _very generously_ given you a long leash. I've sent you to Beacon with only loose objectives to report back occasionally, and only every now and then have I used you directly. Is that not generous?"

She looked to me expectantly, with a dangerous edge to her eyes telling me that it was required that I answer. "Yes."

"What do you think, Vernal?" Raven asked, acknowledging our fly on the wall who up to this point hadn't reacted to anything going on other than to shake her head.

"It's _very_ generous," Vernal answered, exaggerating her voice for the sake of Raven's theatrics, though some of that edge might have been real. _After all, she never got to leave Raven's side; was she jealous, or does she hate me for it?_ Do I have the time or capacity to think on this right now? No.

"That's what I thought. And yet," Raven turned sharply to face me once again. "Jaune took that leash and tried to slip it around my neck like a noose." She looked down at me harshly, and I grit my teeth, waiting for whatever comes next. "Meeting up with Vale's underworld without wanting me to know about it? Just what exactly did you hope to accomplish?"

"It wasn't what you think," I let out, my mind racing for any sort of good excuse or lie I could use here and coming up blank. Torchwick's little comment narrowed my options and could even have been taken out of context by Raven. _He had been playing at that I wanted him for information, but if Raven suspected I was plotting against her, then she could have read it as me trying to get information on_ her _, which would be treasonous._ She may not value loyalty in herself, but she'd be damned if she let those pledged to her break theirs. "It had nothing to do with you, I swear."

"Oh?" Raven asked with a mocking edge to her voice. "Then what?" I averted my eyes and stared off at the floor, trying for everything I was worth to come up with any cover or deflection. I came up with nothing. " _I said,_ " Raven's voice cut through my thoughts as she drew her sword and pushed it against my neck, forcing me to look up at her, "what were you doing with Roman Torchwick that required me to save you?"

I settled on the best answer I could give being no answer, or at least making her force the answer out of me; a bad decision, by all measures, but one I was picking nonetheless. She could tell immediately by the way my mouth set as I grit my teeth what I had decided, and without breaking our eye contact the flames around her eyes resumed, warning me that her powers were about to kick in somewhere. Each second I had to wait to find out what and where made the dread grow, and it wasn't for maybe five seconds that I realized she was using them to heat her blade. I could already feel the pressure of the razor-sharp edge slowly being pushed further against my neck, but now that edge was searing hot and I had to fight myself not to try to lean away from the growing pressure and burning; if I did, I was liable to piss her off and inspire her to actually cut my head off. _It's a sign of weakness, after all._ With only maybe half of my aura left (if that) and her already-sharp blade heating up, I doubted that I could stop the blow if she decided to decapitate me on the spot. _Maybe I could resist it, but taking the full blow without any sort of measures to reduce it would slice through my remaining reserves like butter._

Without warning, Raven pulled the blade away and backed up, sheathing the sword with a smirk. "Stubborn as ever, I see. It's good to see that Beacon hasn't dulled _that_ , at least." She walked behind and past me, towards the portal to Torchwick's warehouse that had been left open this whole time. Even though her portals cannot be seen through, they can be _heard_ through, and chances are Torchwick was standing with his ear right next to it. "If I really want to know, I'm sure Torchwick would be more than happy to sell you out."

It sounded like a quip or a playful jab, but it was much more than that; it was a threat. _Leaving my life in the hands of the man I was just rescued from last night?_

"My family, dammit!" I shouted at Raven, who walked around to reappear in front of me with a satisfied smirk. "I wanted Torchwick to get me information on the Arcs. Are you happy?"

"No, but I'm not sour enough to kill you over it," Raven replied distantly as she sheathed her sword, cocking her head to the side and inspecting me. "Not when I have other uses for you, at least. I've told you all you need to know about your family."

"You never told me shit," I spat back angrily.

"They're dead. They didn't used to be," Raven countered. "They were weak enough to be wiped out. They didn't used to be. They were pawns used by Ozpin. They didn't—well, they always were, actually." Raven's eyes settled firmly on mine, daring me to challenge her or ask for more information. "That's all that's relevant."

"He's going to find out someday," Vernal called out from the corner after rolling her eyes, only visible to me, of course. "Hell, if he wasn't stupid enough to hand himself over to a crime lord, he might already know." Raven shot Vernal a 'shut the hell up' look, but the damage had been done. With an agitated huff, Raven turned back to me. I was certainly emboldened by having Vernal step in on my side for once, but couldn't do much other than glare at her with my feet frozen to the floor still.

"My last mission for Ozpin was to track down and protect whatever was left of the Arcs with Qrow," Raven began after an agitated huff, speeding through the info as if already bored with it. "They had been in hiding for years with help from Lionhart at Mistral, for political and practical reasons I will _not_ get into. We had a list of nine remaining Arcs—your birth parents and seven older sisters—but it was an old list." Raven's glare softened, though if it was because she wasn't as angry or she was concentrating on bringing up memories, I wasn't sure. "Qrow and I split up, and I found you all first. I found nine dead Arcs, five of Salem's dead lieutenants, a lot of evaporating, high-level Grimm, and a four-year-old."

" _Nine_?" I asked, doing the math in my head, though it wasn't necessary, since I was alive.

"They had you while in hiding. I suspect that not even Leo knew," she explained. "I had already made all the arrangements to leave Ozpin, so I made a split-second decision."

"To take me?"

She nodded solemnly.

"Why?" I asked, confused and angry. "Why take me and abandon your own four-year-old daughter? Why not leave me for Qrow?"

"I did not take Yang because there would be no chance of Qrow or Tai letting me leave peacefully if I did," Raven answered cautiously. "As for why I took you, I was a more sentimental person at the time, if you'd believe such a thing. It is entirely possible that I pitied you and the life that would inevitably lead you to dying for Ozpin's war that Qrow rescuing you would provide. If you would like, you may still go join Ozpin's crusade." The words were left hanging in the air. It was obvious that that wasn't really an option I wanted to entertain. _And if—_ _ **if**_ _—she's telling the truth, it wouldn't do for me to ensure that my name dies out for Ozpin's war, as if I needed any more reason not to pledge my life to someone else's cause._ "Rest assured you broke me of that sentimentality in short order."

"Oh, yes, _I_ am the reason you're a bitch." Raven's head whipped towards me and her eyes tried to cut into me, but Vernal raising a hand and coughing into it to hide her smile ruined the threat. Raven did draw her sword and swing it at me, but it was only to destroy the ice that still had me pinned in a kneeling position. " _That_ is what it took to let me up? I should have lead with that."

"Don't push it," Vernal called out in warning. "You're getting off because she needs you." I raised an arched eyebrow to Raven, who did not deny it. _Whatever it was, it was large enough to override all the anger she felt towards me over this whole situation, meaning it was the first stroke of good luck I've had since…_

 _Is it the first stroke of good luck I've ever had?_

"I have a use for you within Beacon, and you have a desire not to die. We will help each other."

"When you put it that way, it almost doesn't sound like blackmail." The flat look on Raven's face told me that I really was pushing it with the jokes, so I resolved to only try a few more before quitting. "What's up?"

"Ozpin's Maiden," Raven said in a hushed tone, walking away from the portal and beckoning me to walk with her, to avoid Torchwick overhearing anything, "was attacked, and is in bad shape."

"That's nice, but I can't become a Maiden, even if I could get to her."

"Nothing so direct. Not…yet," Raven answered in a slow, calculating manner. "Qrow will refuse to let the identity of any candidates they come up with be known to me, or anyone, if he can help it."

"And you want me to find out who it is?" I filled in.

"I want you to narrow down the field and keep eyes on the ones you believe to be possibilities," Raven corrected. "But if you do find it out, _yes_. There's no guarantee that Ozpin will even need a candidate yet, but if you do find it out, it would go a long way in loosening the noose you've tied around your neck."

For a brief moment, the idea of having Raven put this… _confrontation_ behind us went a long way to taking the sour out of my mood, before another thought made things even worse than before: _Beacon has a weak class of upperclassmen._ That means that the strongest candidates that Ozpin could pick would be from my class, and the three most obvious choices I could think of were all my friends. Two of the strongest fighters in our class—Pyrrha, then Yang—and then Ruby, who already has her eyes. The thought of one of them being chosen by Ozpin was already bad enough, but the thought that they would be in Ozpin _and_ Raven's sights—and that _I_ would be the one to put them there—made me sick to my stomach.

"Oh, and Jaune?" Raven asked, not missing the mixed emotions on my face as she walked me to the portal that was still open. "I'll be watching. Don't do anything stupid like this again." With that, she shoved me through the portal and back into the warehouse, and before the portal was closed my old metal armor set was tossed through the portal unceremoniously, likely just so they didn't have to keep storing it, or maybe in some sort of symbolic show of me being out of second chances with the Tribe. _Raven was the dramatic type, after all._

"Sorry, Neo," Torchwick called out with a grin, "looks like he survived." Although Torchwick clearly meant it as a jest, the disappointed frown on Neo's face suggested she didn't see things the same way.

With the portal finally closed, I had a real chance to let out all of the anger I've been building up since last night when these two assholes decided to ruin things. Seeing them in front of me reminded me of the fact that all of my current problems were their fault.

"Whoa now, let's not do anything hasty," Torchwick called out cheekily upon either seeing the veins in my arms as I clenched my fist or the anger in my eyes that I stared at him with. "I'm pretty sure you don't have the aura to be threatening either of us right now."

"No," I answered, not enraged enough to lose rationality, but certainly not far from that point, either. _I need_ someone _to hit, hit hard, and hit repeatedly, and I would prefer it be someone responsible for all of this._ And I could use a drink, or eleven. "But I'll settle for Junior's head instead."

"And what makes you think I'll let you do that?" Torchwick asked, mixing in curiosity with just enough of an edge to his voice to give me a warning. "Last time I checked, Junior just did me a big favor. Wouldn't look good for my image to just let my new friends die, now would it?"

"Are you going to stop me?" I asked lowly, cutting my eyes at the man to let him know that I was tired of all his bullshit—that I was tired of _everyone's_ bullshit, and that someone was going to pay soon. He gave me an amused but calculating look, thinking over something and clearly liking whatever it was.

"Tell you what, I'll make you a deal," he offered with a grin, calling back to the night before when he forced me to make him a deal for my life. I threw all my cards down at the table and came out alive, but having to summon Raven to that meeting to bargain for my life was not an experience you walk away from 99 times out of 100.

"I'm tired of making deals," I grumbled back, alluding to the one I made last night that got me in this exact position in the first place. _And the one where Raven sends me to Beacon in the first place, or the one Raven just made me agree to._

"You're tired of making _bad_ deals," Roman corrected. "You're still looking for information on the Arcs, I take it?" I raised my eyebrows slightly as the name broke me out of my rage, just a bit. I nodded once. "Only fool would trust what _she_ just told you, after all. Last night sure as hell didn't go the way you wanted, but that doesn't mean it still can't."

"I'm listening," I grumbled, displeased to have the previous night brought back up in any way, shape, or form.

"Among the _many_ things that our mutual bartending, information-dealing friend told me about you," he started off, taking pleasure in stoking up my anger to be directed at Junior, "was your little scheme to keep his men in line. How does it work, again?" From his tone, it was obvious he knew how it worked, but wanted me to play along.

"Junior brought me a target who needed to be put in line, and I attacked them with a team of…flexible Beacon students, then blamed it on the police," I summarized simply.

"And it worked brilliantly. Junior walks away with his men too scared of the authorities to snitch on him or run side-projects. The methodology might could use some tweaks, but it's a service I'd pay handsomely to acquire." He took a puff of his cigar and pointedly did not look at me for dramatic effect, making me realize that I might be working with another version of Raven—although with more eyeliner, which was weird. "If you're willing to run a faux-vigilante organization once more, I've recently come into the employ of someone who could use such services, although more along the lines of weeding out spies and snitches than errant thugs."

" _You_ work for someone?" I scoffed.

"Not my idea, kid, trust me on that. In fact, you could say that we aren't in dissimilar positions." _What, both under the thumb of manipulative bitches with magical powers and no morals? Yeah right._ "But she's got the funds to pay any lackeys from Beacon who want a piece of action, and _I_ can drum up information for you as a sort of finder's fee. You wouldn't even need to stick your neck out, provided that your men aren't incompetent without you."

I didn't answer immediately, but that didn't mean it was a bad offer. After tonight, it was actually a really good one, too good, even. It was suspiciously good. _They always say that if it sounds too good to be true, it has to be, but that has never seemed to apply the opposite way; when things are so improbably bad that it can't be happening._

"What's the catch?"

"Well, there _is_ one catch," Torchwick allowed, shrugging his shoulders. "I only work with the best, and I have one snitch who I need silenced _tonight_. There's this loudmouth information dealer who is known to turn on his clients without any warning, and he just so happens to be the only guy in Vale who knows about my previous occupation, present company excluded. As sort of a test-run, I need him taken care of."

"You want me to take out Junior?" I asked, unimpressed but enthused nonetheless.

"Bingo."

"Done." I waited for a moment as an errant thought struck me. "One condition."

"Hmm?" Torchwick hummed, surprised that I would have any conditions to go attack Junior given the mood I was in.

"I'm bringing her with me," I answered, nodding towards Neo. The girl in question was surprised at first, but quickly warmed up to the idea of a fight if sideways grin that grew on her was any indication.

"Fine by me."

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Ah, poor Jaune; at least he finally caught the beginnings of a break there at the end...probably.**

 **So, the cut scene: originally, this chapter ended with Jaune 'confronting' Junior, told from the information-dealer's POV. The plan _was_ for it to have a semi-fleshed out fight scene-not Pyrrha v. Jaune by any means, but badass Jaune nonetheless - to balance out Ilia not involving herself in the fighting much. Really, I might have pushed it all out at once, had it not been for the very specific thing that happens at the _end_ of Junior's scene that holds...ramifications that I want another week to hammer out my plans for. For anyone who is rereading this story, this was the point where I realized that Yang needed to be much more heavily in the story than I had planned, and I used that extra week to change a _lot_ of the plans for the story.**

 **I originally entertained the idea of writing out a fight scene for the White Fang raid, but on paper, it just doesn't work. In the show, Team RWBY takes out Torchwick and his Paladin after a long chase that just so happens to remove everyone from the rally, with Sun and Neptune not doing much. That's four of them to take out the Paladin. With all nine (would have been ten if Jaune wasn't so tricksy)? They would have blown that thing out of the water, even with Ilia and CHAINSAW BRO there to help out. It all fit better that Torchwick was trying to be the distraction (with Neo amplified by Jaune) while the Fang escaped, but Ilia jumping down to join the fight could have some ramifications of its own.**

 **We also get to see that Jaune is good at planning, technically. Or, maybe not. He is good at making a plan to perfectly undermine another one of his own plans, so...yay? Poor guy finally did catch a break that he offered Raven a big, shiny robot to appease her and she just so happened to have her sights set on the up-for-grabs Maidenhood. It's a good thing that Jaune isn't associated with any potential Maiden candidates, nor is he going into business with people working with Salem's Maiden candidate. Things would surely go poorly for him if that were the case, huh?**

 **Oh, some exposition from Raven on The Arcs! Assuming you can trust Raven, that is; she did as good as tell Jaune that she was only going to tell him the absolute minimum he needed to know. I would say that it is safe to assume that Raven did not technically _lie_ to Jaune, as Vernal would have called it out, but playing the truth is fair play. **

**The biggest problem I have with cutting the last scene for next week is it leaves this major plot event without much of a real fight, save for some minor skirmishes here and there, and it still eats away at the "Badass Jaune Raised by Raven Freaking Branwen" thing. The Junior scene would help that because, lets be honest, Jaune is pissed and he sees no way that destroying Junior's Club could backfire on him.**

* * *

 **Also, I have discovered that the hardest thing about writing a weekly series like this is slipping in off-the-wall, super obscure foreshadowing or peppering in a throwaway line here and there that make _me_ giddy but won't pay off till, like, the end of the story? Ugh, it's so hard not to overdo it. **

**There weren't any of the super-meta lines in this chapter, so don't take this as me saying "READ THIS CHAPTER CLOSELY." I've waited a couple of weeks (longer in some spots) to bring it up. I'll just say that my goal is for anyone who rereads the story after the conclusion to want to throw something when they come across them.**

 **Or, at the very least, for them to appreciate just how long I've had to wait for them to pay off.**

 **Till next week.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _youngsavage_ on **Ch 18**

"I'm scarred for life, Jaune's corkscrew penis will be the death of me"

 **I swear on everything I hold dear that I have ZERO, absolutely NO intention for Jaune's 'corkscrew penis' disguise to be foreshadowing in any WAY** **, in any SHAPE, or in any FO-**

 _hold on, what's that in my notes?_

 **Well, what do you know... Never say never, amiright? xD**

* * *

"You hold another week of life..."  
 _-Turquoise Leaf_

 **I seriously thought about using this as the opening quote for the chapter. Like, you have no idea how hard it was to resist that.  
** **Also, I'm going to start pushing my luck with you by cutting scenes and making weird remarks about duck genitalia. I never know when to let sleeping dogs lie.**


	22. Jaune Needs a Drink

**[REFINED Jan 3, 2019] Author's Note:** **I forgot to mention that last chapter we broke 200k words, so...yay? We haven't even broken into V3's events and I've already doubled the length of my other RWBY fic; actually, we pretty much doubled the length in the same number of chapters.**

 ** _I just want to get to my planned conclusion before V6 drops, guys, I swear this isn't on purpose..._**

 **Narrator: He did not finish before Volume 6 dropped.**

 **Enjoy!**

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 **Chapter 20:** _"Alcohol and hard times don't mix well." - Summer Rose"The hell they don't!" - Qrow Branwen_

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Roman's POV

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"You know, Roman," Cinder's voice called out from behind me, alerting me that they had finally arrived, "I heard just the craziest rumor about our Paladins earlier." Her voice was as coy and seductive as usual, but it clearly hid hints of sadism that would make normal men wither. In fact, most everything about her seemed to be designed to make men wither, from her voice to her outfit to her bloodlust.

"You must be listening to Mercury too much," I quipped back without ever taking my cigar from my lips. The boy in question shot me a glare and the green one next to him took pleasure in his anger, but Cinder was nonplussed.

"I can't help but agree on that point. Perhaps you could explain to me why my count is coming up short by two?" She looked around the warehouse where I had just earlier had the Paladins teleported to, making a show of taking her time and counting them out. "After all, my proximity to Mercury may have crippled my ability to count." Mercury certainly didn't appreciate being dragged into the middle of this, but the way Cinder cut her eyes at me while looking over the Paladins told me that she wasn't playing along with my joke because she thought it was funny. _Not that I needed the confirmation to know that she's a psychotic one, that is._

"Atlas," I answered back far more casually than would be expected, banking on my attitude to convey that there was no threat.

" _Atlas_?" She repeated curiously, though betraying rare surprise in her voice that made me grin; it wasn't every day I could surprise her.

"Mmhmm…" I mumbled back before taking a puff from my cigar. The three of them looked to me expectantly and I made a show of taking my time before I spoke again, having taken firm control over the conversation and the direction it would go. "An ex-Fang-member-turned-Huntress-student and nine of her brave fellow students decided to crash the rally, hoping to foil terrorists and save the day…" I threw my voice, over-emphasizing the deeds of the students as if heaping magnanimous praise onto them, and to a casual observer, it might have been mistaken for genuine praise; to my audience of three, it was clearly mockery. "Idealistic but well-connected little brats. They had a former high-ranking Fang member _and_ a Schnee. Really, we're lucky that those two haven't decided to firebomb every White Fang camp on Remnant."

"Blaming the White Fang?" Cinder asked redundantly. "Next thing I know you'll start praising yourself for fixing the situation." She rolled her eyes and I grinned at her. She knew me so well.

"All I heard is that you had faith I would fix it," I mocked, taking pleasure in how she flatted her glare at me. "As it turns out, _yes_ , I did overcome the failings of Vale's radical faunus organization. Go on, ask me how I did it…"

Cinder refused to play along, as expected, and I refused to speak until prompted, bringing us to a stalemate. With each second she had to wait, Cinder's ire visibly grew, and with the knowledge that Cinder still needed me for her plans known to the group, it was obvious that an irate Cinder's first targets would be her two lackeys.

"How did you do it?" The green-haired one asked quickly, trying her best to keep her boss happy. _She always does that, too, bending over backwards to make Cinder happy; I'm sure if Cinder swung that way, the green one would bend over any way Cinder desired…_

"I flipped one of the Huntsman students," I answered back smugly, catching Cinder's minions by surprise. "And solved multiple of our problems at the same time."

" _Our_ problems?" Cinder zoned in on the word, letting it be known that she considered any problem not her problem. Normally, I'd take the slight reproach in her voice on the chin, but right now I'm holding more cards than she knows and can afford to contradict her a little.

"Yes, _our_ problems," I doubled down, then quickly began talking again as her eyes narrowed on me. "The kid has been useful. You'll no doubt notice that I escaped with all but two Paladins, despite the best efforts of General James Ironwood." _At least, I'm pretty sure that was him I saw in that Bullhead; if not, he's in town and Cinder can't prove that he_ didn't _show up._ Cinder's posture stiffened at the mention of someone who posed an actual threat to her plans, and I knew it was in my best interest to continue to explain how I ensure that he was _not_ a threat to us. "The Paladins that they 'recovered' have had their onboard computers tampered with, so when Atlas goes to track where they've been, they'll be sent on a wild goose chase all the way from Mistral to Vacuo. Beacon will be a pile of rubble long before they track us down, if they ever do."

"So you did lose two Paladins," Cinder summarized, displaying her remarkable ability to only focus on the part that was bad for me. _It is probably in my best interest not to explain what happened to the_ second _Paladin and let her think that Atlas has it._

"If you want to be technical about it, yes. If you want to look at the big picture, our plans are unchanged." She gave me a challenging stare, either thinking over how to turn the words against me or how she was going to roast me over a fire. I returned it unflinchingly, safe in the knowledge that despite losing two Paladins, I had come out better than I started. "In fact, as a direct result of tonight's events, the plan is actually in a better shape than before."

"Explain," she commanded with an eyebrow arched, which was mirrored by the surprise and mistrust of her lackeys behind her.

"The kid used to work with an information dealer in Vale to take care of insubordinate gang members. He'd round up a group of Beacon's more-flexible students and jump whoever he was sent after. The poor sod would blame Huntsmen in general and all the others would be too scared of the authorities to step out of line, completely oblivious that such was the goal of the raid all along."

"So you hired him away from his old partner?" Mercury asked smarmily, unimpressed that my big move was to hire someone new.

"He had a falling out with his information dealer, and I gave him a little push in the right direction," I answered, skipping over the part about Junior betraying the kid to hand him over to _me_.

"Is that all?" Cinder asked, unimpressed. "You've got a new pawn to keep the White Fang better in check?"

"Oh no. Keeping thugs from running side-hustles was what he did for the other guy. I'm making some changes." I took a puff of my cigar and the side of a door being opened and shut all grabbed our attention. Cinder's eyes cut dangerously to the source and her two lackeys dropped into defensive positions, but everyone relaxed (somewhat) when Neo walked forwards, smiling innocently. "You've said yourself that you'll tolerate no leaks and no information about yourself getting out, yes?"

"Yes," she allowed. "Ozpin and Ironwood will no doubt be looking out for anything they can find. It is imperative that they find nothing."

"And having everyone in the criminal underworld—those working for us and even those not—too scared of the authorities to ever trust them with information would be useful, yes?" She nodded slowly, picking up on where this was going; I even think a small smile was starting to form. "Then this will be invaluable to us. Imagine wielding a club where every time you hit someone with it, they blamed your greatest enemies for doing it, and then they sided further with you because of this. With a little bit of usage, you could create a sense of gratefulness among your ranks. And with a very liberal application…"

"You could create a wall of fear preventing anyone from leaking information," she finished for me with a small, crooked smile. "If it works, it _would_ be invaluable." There she was again, hiding any sort of praise or satisfaction by singling out the one drawback that she could find and smiling coyly, pretending as if it wasn't on purpose. I grinned back at her, though, safe in the knowledge that I was going to win this round of her little game.

"Well, Neo took it out for a little test-run just now," I offered, shifting to include her in the conversation. "I sent the kid over to silence his old employer. How'd it go, Neo?"

Neo looked up at the ceiling contemplatively for a moment, before shrugging her shoulder and squinting in a manner that more or less seemed like a good thing. It was not the immediate and firm confirmation I was looking for.

"Things went badly?" I asked in surprise leadingly, hoping to high heaven that she indicated no.

Neo shook her head no firmly for a few moments, but at the very end her head tilted to the side as if recalling some detail that might have gone astray.

"Did the kid handle things?"

Neo frowned at the mention of the Arc kid— _jealously or just Neo being petty, but either way, hilarious from my view_ —but her frown wasn't as large as I would have expected and she quickly parlayed that into a firm head nod yes.

"Is Junior going to be a problem?" I was conscious of the three other sets of eyes in the room, but they had enough experience with Neo to know that this was certainly in line with her personality.

Neo flashed a crooked grin while slowly and solemnly shaking her head. The hidden blade of her umbrella popped out of its hiding place and Neo made a show of bringing it up to her face and slowly, intentionally, and seductively (as much as _Neo_ could be seductive, anyways) licking her tongue up the length of the blade.

"That's…disgusting," Mercury mumbled from the side. Both he and Emerald— _ah,_ that _was the green one's name!—_ gave Neo wary looks. Cinder arched an eyebrow at Neo, but was not thrown off by the girl's antics in the slightest. If anything, she may have realized that Neo was parodying Cinder's smug, seductive persona.

"Hey, at least she wiped the blade off this time," I offered, with Mercury giving me a strange look as he tried to decide if I was kidding. _I wish._ "Neo, is the kid legit?" I asked, turning back to Neo and trying to get this show back on the road. Whatever it was that got Neo to hesitate when first asked how things went didn't need to be expounded upon if the job was done.

Neo frowned, frustrated, and refused to answer.

" _Neo…_ " I coaxed, only needing a little pressure.

She averted her eyes and looked to the ground, but gave very small nods in answer.

"Well, there you have it," I announced, turning back to Cinder and her flying monkeys. "With a little bit of guidance, we'll dry up any leaks in no time."

"It would appear that Roman here has finally bought into our plans," she announced more at Mercury than anyone else. "Going above and beyond, and not acting like an idiot. A wise move, making himself essential to me." The words were spoken to go at Mercury, but to pass me along the way.

 _Yeah right, bitch; I know how this ends_. You came to me because you needed someone to wrestle control of the street gangs and White Fang, and because you needed a public face so you could hide; what are the odds that you picked the one guy in Vale who knows what's really going on, huh? You think yourself clever, and you clearly have powerful backing, but you're biting off more than anyone can chew. Attacking Vale to invite Atlas' strength, and then attacking the Vytal Festival anyways? _And all of it just to get a chance at Vale's Maiden?_

She's strong, and she's ambitious; I'll give her that. Given that she just showed up with Paladins, she clearly has the support of a powerful network, and given her goal is a Maidenhood, it's not hard to guess who it is she works for—or _what_ she works for. She thinks she's clever, that her goals are a mystery and that I assume her to want to destroy Vale, but she's either not clever enough or just unlucky enough to have roped me into this without knowing who I am…or was. _Damnit all, I went to great lengths to leave all this shit behind when I left Atlas; now I'm caught up helping a Maiden candidate destroy a city._

And I have to stand here and let this bitch talk down to me with her smug, _irritating_ voice.

"Roman, see to it that the Paladins are moved to Mountain Glenn discretely. If you have to supplement with independent help, do it; don't let the White Fang ruin things _again._ " She gave me a slightly mistrusting look, as if to warn me that she wasn't willing to blame the White Fang for every problem, even if the animals truly were useless. "You do remember the plan, correct?"

"Mmhmm." I confirmed, hiding my displeasure in the role that I was supposed to play. "Old train tracks, attack the city with Paladins and let Grimm through that way, wreak havoc."

"And get captured _alive_ , preferably by Atlas if you can manage." _Ah, yes, my_ least _favorite part._ Atlas was not known for using humane methods to interrogate suspects, and having run a couple interrogations myself, I can say that what Atlas lacks in artistic imagination, it more than makes up for in sadistic imagination. What is worse is that I'm not entirely sure just how concerned I should be about being captured by Atlas; Roman Torchwick would get tortured, sure, but I have no way of knowing if they can find out about my old identity. _I was thorough, leaving a fake body and even altering records to ensure that said body matched 'my' DNA, but that doesn't mean getting handed over to Atlas was a good idea._ "That is the key part, even if you have to scale back your assault to ensure it. _I want that airship._ "

 _Oh, and you aren't the only one, bitch._ "Get captured, take the airship. Got it. Would you like fries with that?" Cinder cut her eyes at me and I gave her a grin.

"Don't push it," she warned. "Come. We're done here," she ordered to her lackeys, walking away and towards the exit without so much as a goodbye, the rude bitch. I leaned against my cane with one arm and took a long drag of my cigar with the other, and Neo waved excitedly at their backs as they left.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Neo's five-finger wave turned into a one-finger wave.

"Gods above, I hate that woman," I let out after exhaling the smoke from my cigar. "Her voice. is. so slow. and irritating," I said, mimicking Cinder's slow, seductive, and grating speech pattern. "It's. almost like. she. doesn't understand. inflexion. GAH!" I cut myself off, irritating myself just by mimicking Cinder. From beside me, Neo nodded in agreement. As if flipping them off wasn't enough, Neo topped things off by giving a nice 'up yours' gesture, only with her umbrella blade doing the 'up' part instead of a fist. Despite myself, it did bring a smile to my face, if only for her pure enthusiasm.

"So…the Arc kid. Something was up, I take it?" She nodded after a moment to contemplate. "Is it going to be a problem?" Neo looked uncertain, thinking it over before eventually nodding yes, but not with any severity or weight behind it.

"Is it going to be a problem for _us_?" Neo shook her head no.

"A problem for the kid, then." Neo nodded, though without any of the pleasure I expected from bad news for her apparent arch nemesis, which either meant it wasn't serious enough to really excite Neo or she was starting to warm up to the kid. "Good. We've got plenty of our own problems." Neo nodded her head solemnly, though more for a mocking effect than to actually be solemn.

As I looked over the Paladins, a thought struck me. "Neo, do you know anywhere that we could hide two large death machines, just in case of a rainy day?" Neo looked out over the arsenal in the warehouse, catching on to my meaning. We were supposed to take Atlas' airship during Cinder's masterplan, but plans rarely survive first contact. _It would be a crying shame if we let the White Fang use_ all _of the Paladins during the breach._ And since Cinder was not ever going to be free enough to inspect Mountain Glenn herself, she'd never know if we 'lost' two more Paladins. "Tell you what, Neo: you find a place where we can store them, and I'll figure out how the hell to transport them without the police, Atlas, or Cinder finding out."

* * *

Junior's POV

* * *

Most people would assume that The Club was just a money-laundering scheme for me and my boys. They wouldn't be wrong to assume I was laundering money _somehow_ , but The Club was 100% legitimate…mostly. I don't _launder_ money out of it because it is successful enough to stand alone, but I'll upgrade the place with some of the dirty cash I get. For example, when that blonde picked a fight and destroyed the dancefloor, I couldn't collect insurance without a police report and I couldn't call the cops without them finding out that I regularly let underage kids inside, so I had to fix the place up with my cash.

The only downside to this being a legitimate business was that I have to deal with problems associated with being a legitimate business. Things like stupid customers, stupid employees, keeping drinks stocked, security, advertising, accounting (much harder when you aren't cooking the books)…they all add up to give me a headache. _Oh, and that doesn't even factor in all the headaches of running my_ other _enterprises, too._

Right now, my most recent headache is some moron on the staff who tripped the breakers, probably by charging his phone on the same outlet that's running stereo equipment, or lights, or maybe someone just spilt their drink onto an outlet somewhere. Whatever the case, it was a headache for me, because without lights the crowd would find their way out and I would lose a chunk of revenue waiting for the crowds to show back up, plus my staff here were certified idiots who didn't actually know how to flip a breaker, which is why I am the one stumbling around in the dark with only a scroll flashlight to find my way to the breaker box. It wasn't hard to find, though, and I got the faulty breakers flipped without any trouble; there were about three or four that went down, and wouldn't you know those idiots tripped the most important breakers around here. They didn't cut the lights to a bathroom or an office, oh no, they tripped the breaker that runs all the lights for the dance floor, the security room and security cameras, the break/staging room, and the front entrance.

"Honestly, I would be impressed by how bad they are if it didn't mean more work for me," I grumbled, realizing that I had to go and reset all of our staff equipment. With the security room down, I would have to go back up there and manually reset everything from the recorders on the cameras to the radio system we used for our earpieces. Both were cheap models bought because we only needed to _look_ like an expensive club to impress crowds; the radios were actually just short-range earpieces all communicating with a central hub instead of having each one linked to a scroll, and the security footage had to be manually turned on after the power fails or it would not record footage.

On my way from the breakers in the basement to the security room upstairs, I heard the sound of broken glass being kicked around on the main floor, and I took a detour to go chew someone out for breaking shit. _Seriously, it was dark for like a minute and you all have scrolls with lights, and you_ still _broke something?_

When I got to the floor, my sour mood flipped on its head as I saw the source of the broken glass was one of my boys getting thrown into the rack of bottles behind the bar by an assailant that the rest of the boys were going after. He wore a simple ski-mask and didn't seem to have a weapon of his own, but was currently wielding a club that was taken from one of my boys. And he was making them look silly, what with several of them already lying on the floor unresponsive.

I kept my eyes up on the fight as I hurried over to the compartment behind the bar where my rocket launcher was, and in that time, shit hit the fan on the floor. One of my boys rushed the guy from his left and tried to charge him with a club, and the attacker ducked under the swing and delivered his right elbow into my boy's lower ribs, before standing up behind him and beating him in the back of the head with a club until he slumped over unconscious. The blows were vicious and brutal and didn't stop when the target was down, but continued beating until a new target came within range, like some sort of madman or 'roid-raged maniac. _There was something about the way he continued to attack his enemies when he didn't need to, as well as a viciousness to his attacks themselves, that spoke of someone who was really pissed off._

The next two rushed in together, figuring that he couldn't avoid both clubs at once, and he didn't. Switching his club to his left hand, he reached up and blocked the attack from the left and caught the one from the right in his bare hand, not even flinching at the force of the blow. Both of my boys looked stunned and he used this to drop the club from his left hand and grab the collar of my henchman, then yanked that collar and the club he caught together, causing the two men's heads to collide with a sickening crack, all the while looking up at me and glaring. His eyes locked on to me and something in them flickered, telling me that he had recognized me and that I was what he was here for.

"Where the hell are the Malachites?" I yelled at no one in particular as the last of my men went down without so much as inconveniencing the asshole. If his eyes hadn't locked on to me already, the yell definitely got the attention of the man and he started to walk towards me. I aimed my rocket launcher at him but stopped when two streaks of color finally appeared to his sides in the forms of Melanie and Miltia, who had finally decided to show up from whatever they were doing. I decided to hang back and let the girls do their thing, shifting my weapon into its club mode and waiting for a chance to hop in if they needed it. _This dude is clearly trained enough to take out a group of thugs, but hopefully not well enough to take out both Malachites, but it isn't like their record recently is that great._ To be honest, I was hanging back because the way that he was taking out his anger on anyone that he got a hold of made me feel like he'd let the girls pound away at him if he even got the chance to lay a finger on me, and given the way his eyes had burned through me moments ago, that wasn't a chance I was going to take.

The girls tried to pinch their target between them by coming in from opposite sides, but he was having none of that, instead kicking a club off the ground into his hand and throwing it at Melanie to his right. The girl was distracted by the club and stopped pressing forward to kick it away from her, giving the man enough time to slip out from being pinched between the two of them. Miltia tried to swipe at him with her claws anyways, but he swatted it away without difficulty.

Now reunited, the girls pushed him from the front, with Melanie throwing long, swiping kicks with her bladed heels and Miltia dashing in to perform quick swipes to force the man to commit to one of their strikes or to back away several steps, with the goal of forcing him into a corner. He decided to take the swipe from Miltia and duck under the kick from Melanie, forcing her to pull back and land awkwardly to avoid slashing Miltia across the face. Despite the wild look in his eye when he went to dish out punishment, he appeared quite calculative when fighting and the girls hadn't expected him to take the hit from Miltia in order to undermine their plans. He pushed Melanie, since Miltia wasn't able to assist, and got a good punch in under her ribs before she could hop back and get her sister to cover her. The man disengaged at the same time, not falling for such an easy bait. Nothing but small slashes and punches had been exchanged, not big enough to really have mattered when weighed against aura.

They locked eyes for a moment and began to circle around before Melanie charged in against, tapping her feet and feigning two or three kicks for every one she sent, looking more like a dancer than a fighter, but keeping him mentally occupied; Miltia used it to go for his sides, and though he didn't take much damage, it was clear that he was struggling to balance both of them at the same time when Melanie distracted him with her foot-feints. This was the girls' bread and butter routine when ganking an opponent who tried to outsmart both of them, forcing all their attention on Melanie's mindgames while Miltia struck underneath.

The girls sought to press this new advantage and mixed things up. Melanie charged in first, same as before, but this time Miltia rushed in to join her earlier that she previously had. In addition to this, Melanie did not feint at all, instead letting her first kick fly; he hadn't been anticipating this, and while he sidestepped it easily, it put him in a bad position of having to block Miltia's claws with his forearm, letting the weapons scrape against his aura. Miltia took a step back and Melanie filled right in, going right back to her routine and feigning kicks. Their opponent was clearly frustrated by the cycled he was locked into and it was clear that he was buying in to focusing on their mind-games, which was exactly the bind that the girls wanted him in. I grinned and relaxed my grip a little, confident that the Malachites had taken control of the fight and were backing our attacker into a corner, both mentally and physically. _He has a serious problem with those two on his hands._

So…he found a simple solution. He forced Miltia back with a blind swipe, and then when the girls charged in again, Melanie began to feint the start-up to her kicks. Instead of waiting them out patiently, he jumped forwards into a leaping cross-hook right across Melanie's face, who was so distracted by her own routine that she barely noticed his strike until it smacked her right across the face. She flinched hard and reflexively kicked out her leg, hitting nothing but the air to his side. He ducked under that leg then stood up, holding the back of her thigh against his shoulder and neck, picking her off the ground at an awkward angle for Melanie, and then viciously slinging her to the ground, face first. In the process, his other hand yanked off her heel and when she went face-down into the ground, he came down a buried the point of her heel in her lower back—a brutal blow and enough to put her down for the fight in an instant. With the rapid change from a winning fight to face-down on the ground, Melanie never had a chance to get her aura up until it was too late, and the fight had gone from the girls slowly winding out an easy victory to Melanie having her own heel stabbed through her kidney.

Her sister screamed at the sight of blood staining Melanie's blue and white dress, and lunged forward in a rage to avenge her sister with a wide swipe at his face, widely overstepping in the process. Completely unfazed by the blood or the bone-splitting shriek or the claws, he stepped forward and cut off her attack before she could get the claws out in front, catching the base of her arm in the crook of his elbow and stepping past her side in the process. With another step and a yank upwards, her shoulder made a noise between a pop and a snap and she let out another scream, this time pained for herself instead of for her sister. With her arm still firmly in his grip, he flipped her over and slammed her back into the ground, and when that didn't knock her out, his follow-up kick to her face did. Or one of the next two such kicks did, if that one didn't.

Whether he knew it or not, he had eliminated my option of firing rockets, since both of the girls were down for the count at his feet and I couldn't risk hitting them, so I decided to charge him, though not telegraphing it by screaming at him like Miltia did. He turned around to find me barreling down on him in a double-handed smash and was able to sidestep the blow, but just narrowly. The force of the impact to the dance floor through him off enough to keep him from counter-attacking as he shot his arms out to the side to regain balance. I recovered and swung sideways for his head, which he leaned out of the way of, and then swiped in a down-vertical for his chest. He showed off a boxer's discipline and core strength as he ducked under the blow and let it brush off the corner of his jacket as he stepped in and delivered a punch to my side, it didn't hurt much; he had used all his core strength to move his torso to avoid my blows, and that left him without the ability to plant and throw a truly nasty punch, and what did hit me was more of a check than anything.

With him overcommitted, I went to swing another sideways blow, this time aimed stomach-high so he couldn't duck under it, and since he was inside my guard, he couldn't step out of the way.

Well, I _thought_ that he couldn't duck under it, but he pulled some sort of movie-stunt move where he threw his torso backwards and ducked under the blow. Except instead of keeping his feet on the ground and popping back up like in the movies, he kicked them up and let his back fall to the ground to avoid getting hit; one of the feet he kicked up went directly into my crotch, causing my vision to briefly go dark and making me drop my weapon as my soul wanted to leave my body. _I'm not even sure if my soul_ didn't _leave me body._ The only real thought I could form was something about being unlucky and the point of his toes being driven directly between my thighs.

While crouched over trying to alleviate any of the gut-wrenching pain I was in, he got up and walked over to me, picking up my own oversized club and batting me into what was left of the bottle rack behind the bar. Glass shattered as I bounced off the rack and then more crunched as I fell to the ground, on top of the rest of the glass.

I slowly pushed myself off the ground, trying to orient myself and, somewhere in the back of my mind, I was vaguely aware that I should be getting up faster if I wanted to live. I wasn't bleeding yet, my aura having covered me so far, but there couldn't have been much of it left after a hit like that. I'm no Huntsman with aura training or anything, just a guy with the right contacts to get it unlocked, and the stubbornness to refuse to die easily. _The girls had more training in fighting than I did, but they hadn't grown up in the streets like me, where getting knocked around wasn't anything rare; that was the main reason I was better at keeping my aura up than them._

All those street instincts told me that I should have been attacked by now, but I made it all the way up to my feet with no blows coming. Confused, I looked around to find my attacker rummaging through the wreck that he had made to find a working stool, before dragging it over to the best section of bar left standing and taking a seat, waving me over as he did. I walked over there cautiously, seeing no other option than that or resuming the fight that I was losing, and the complete and utter disregard he held for any threat I posed was more intimidating than I care to admit.

"Come one, pour me something, barkeep," he called out gruffly through the ski mask. "Doesn't matter what it is. I just need a drink."

Uncertain of what was going on or what I should do, I shifted my eyes off of him for a moment to scan over the rack, finding very few bottles intact after at least two people had been through into it. I made sure to flick my vision back over to him almost every half second, if not sooner, and he made no move to take advantage of me turning my back; he even leaned back in the chair as if to make things easier for me. _As bad as it sounds, it doesn't really feel like he needs me to turn my back to beat me, and we both know it._ I grabbed something—bottom shelf, because it sustained the least damage as people were thrown into the rack—and set it on the bar nervously.

"Vodka? Of course, as if things couldn't have gotten worse," he grumbled softly. "Two glasses."

"Two?" I asked warily.

"It's depressing to drink alone, you know. I've got plenty negativity without adding to it. Besides," he looked up, cutting his eyes at mine. "You're not going to poison the bottle this way." He looked to me expectantly and I caught on, pouring two shots and downing one of them. It was awful stuff that tasted as cheap as it was, but upon seeing me down mine, he brought his up to his lips.

Or he brought it up to his mask before realizing it didn't have a hole for his mouth, so he pulled the mask off and downed the drink, revealing himself to be the Arc kid I had just handed over to Roman. My stomach flopped when I realized that this meant any chance of talking him out of his bloodlust was gone, since this was the kid I had blindsided by turning him over to Roman. _It was just business, but looking around my club right now, it doesn't look like he's going to let that stand._

"Surprise," he wheezed out, nearly choking on the drink.

"Look, kid, it wasn't personal," I started, this whole attack making a lot more sense. What was worse was that the fact that the kid had not only escaped Roman but also had returned for revenge meant that either he was strong enough to escape from Roman and Neo, or he really did have connections that would make _Torchwick_ pause. _Either way, it means that I'm fucked right now_. "Torchwick isn't going to take you attacking me lightly, not after all I've done for him." Just because I was likely to die doesn't mean I have to show it, though.

"Is that so?" he answered with a chuckle that iced my blood, pouring himself another shot before deciding to just take a huge swig from the bottle itself. The nonchalance worried me, because it either meant that Roman couldn't stop him or it wouldn't matter if he tried. _Or it meant that Roman had given me up to protect himself; doesn't matter, as any way, it all adds up to me being a dead man._

"What... what is your plan?"

"To drink," he answered simple, downing the shot he had previously poured and then refilling it.

"And then?"

He downed that shot, forcing himself to take as many shots as he could. "Drink more." He refilled and downed two more, to the point where I was getting sick just watching. _I'm not going to stop him from getting so drunk that he can't fight back, though._ "And when I'm done, one of us is gonna die." The words were spoken so casually that I almost missed their severity.

"…which one?" I had the bravery—or stupidity, not sure yet—to ask.

He cut his eyes flatly at me. "You think I'm going to kill _myself_?" He took another shot. "Hell, after the 48 hours I've had, maybe that'd be a nice way to escape from it all. It would really take the edge of off things. Then again, so does this," he said, holding up the vodka bottle before pouring himself another shot. "Look, this isn't personal…"

"It's…not?"

"Okay, it's personal, but not entirely," he corrected, confusingly. "I've just had a shitty couple of days, okay?" He held up the vodka bottle, as if to show that how bad things were could be explained by the need to get drunk as soon as possible, even if it meant interrupting our fight. "I went from meeting your informant to sold out to the man who I've robbed before and who I had just spent a day planning to arrest, and I had to call in Raven Branwen to save me. That would normally piss her off, but to top it off, I had been meeting your informant behind her back, so you sold me out _twice_ , you bastard." He gave me a half-serious glare at that and then took a shot to calm himself down, before resuming.

"And then we all made plans to completely undermine the plans I _had_ made about catching Torchwick. I went from things looking great to literally every good thing I had turning against me, and _then_ I had to get chewed out for trying it all in the first place. Hell..." He took yet another shot. "And what frustrates me the most right now is that I can't do a damn thing to either of the two people causing me the most grief. I have to settle for coming after you, and getting drunk, and even that's a lame consolation for how bad I've been fucked over." He turned to look me in the eye angrily. "So no, it's not personal. If it were, there'd be dead bodies instead of unconscious ones."

"Except for me," I grumbled, meeting his eyes warily and starting to build up enough courage (or anger; whatever would work) to make a move.

"I never said that _I_ would kill you."

"You kinda did." When he didn't react to my blatant contradiction with anger, my courage started to well up faster.

He shrugged his shoulders and said nothing else, other than forcing me to take a shot or two every now and then, so that he wouldn't be 'drinking alone.' He was at least _13_ shots in when he stopped, and it was obvious that it was starting to kick in, though the fact that he was that many shots in before he started to feel it was a testament to how fast he was trying to drink. _It was more like he was_ trying _to self-destruct or, at the very least, wanted to forget everything from his name to the month it was._

I had a plan for what my takedown move would be, and when he reached for the bottle I made my move, planting my hand on the bar for leverage as I reached out and—

Before I got anywhere, his non-bottle hand slammed a red shard down through the middle of my hand on the table, shattering what was left of my aura and piercing my hand, pinning me to the table. I let out a yell mixed with surprise and pain, and looked up to find him glaring at me.

"I-I'm not… _that_ drunk. Yet." He punctuated it by leaning back and taking another swig of the vodka bottle, only avoiding falling out of the chair because his legs were pinned against the bar itself. "You just w-wasted your best shot at killing me, Junior. She's not going to be happy..."

"Who's not going to be happy?" I asked, desperate for an answer. If the alcohol was starting to kick in, I could still take my chances and book it, hoping that my connections on the streets could keep me off the grid for a while. If _she_ meant Raven Branwen, then that would change things. By her reputation, anyone that she _really_ wanted to find would not be able to hide for more than a few days; working in the information industry meant that you knew who had a reputation for mistreating information dealers, and Branwen was certainly not to be trusted if it could be helped. _That didn't mean that anyone would deny her requests for_ my _sake, though._ "...is it her?" I asked, looking up at the figure who had just walked in the doorway.

"Her who?" He asked, surprised. "You can see her?"

" _JAUNE!_ " a female voice yelled angrily from the entrance of the club. I looked up from trying to pry the red shard out of my hand long enough for my stomach to drop again, as it was the same blonde girl who trashed my club a few weeks back—the same one who hangs around with the blond who just trashed my club. The same one that was Branwen's daughter, if the kid's intel was to be trusted. _If this day could get any worse…_

"I take it back Junior, p-please kill me. Preferably before she gets...she gets o-over here," the kid mumbled, not even turning around before his friend had stormed over to where he was sitting. It probably didn't help that however much alcohol it was that he downed was clearing kicking in hard. "Hi. Can I h-help you?"

"We have been looking _everywhere_ for you, and you're here…attacking Junior!?" She was furious, evidenced by the anger in her red eyes and the way she was picking the boy up by the collar like a ragdoll; the way her hair was on the brink of bursting into flames was also a good way to tell that she was pissed. "We thought you were trapped in the rubble! Do you know how sick everyone felt when we never found you?!"

"Let me go!" He yelled, bringing his arm down to try to chop at her grip, with absolutely no success, not even so much as a budge.

"I knew you'd do something stupid," she growled at him. "You were acting off all day, but I can't believe you would abandon us to come do _this_!"

"I said, let me go!" He grumbled drunkenly, rage starting to build in his voice that it was clear his blonde friend ignored, likely unaware of how much anger had already been built up; it had already spilled over once, and nearly wiped out my club, and I'm not proud to admit to ducking a little behind what was left of my bar in anticipation of whatever was about to happen.

"How could you do this, asshole?! Look at them!" She shouted at him and pointed towards the Malachites, ignoring that his temper was rising to meet hers. "At least when I destroyed this place, I didn't hurt anyone! What were you _trying_ to do!?" She screamed in his face, forcing his anger to boil over and match hers.

"I SAID LET ME GO, RAVEN!" The boy yelled furiously, staring down into the eyes of the blonde holding him up while bringing his knee up into her ribs, catching her by surprise and forcing out a choked gasp.

The girl dropped him like a bag of rocks and he hit the stool on his way to the ground. She recoiled a step, giving him a look that I wasn't even sure how to read; surprise, outrage, confusion, hurt? They all mixed into something I'd never dealt with before in my own dealings, not that I've ever been that wrapped up in feelings. _Or psychotic women, for that matter._

"W-What did you just call me?" Her voice was dangerously low, though, and I could recognize it as someone on the edge of an emotional cliff. It was a dangerous thing, especially given who this was and what she could do, and the rage she had walked in with anyways.

"Big mistake, kid," I taunted at the guy picking himself off the ground as finally got the shard out of my hand and began to wrap it in a rag soaked in the cheap vodka. It stung like a bitch, but I pushed through it and tried to stop the bleeding.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME!?" The girl demanded, her hair simmering in some places and beginning to burn in others as she marched her way over to him. She was on him so quickly that he flinched and thought she was attacking him, the alcohol in his system playing hooky with his instincts—or maybe it mixed with his own rage and he meant to attack her. Whatever the case, it was a mistake on his part. He was able to get a headbutt in but came out worse than the girl, and tried to throw a right hook afterwards. Unfazed by the headbutt, the girl caught his fist in her right hand, squeezing and twisting it to force him to go down on one knee or snap his shoulder.

"HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT NAME!?" She roared at him, using her anger and the pain she was causing to pressure him, not to mention the fact that her hair was on fire as intimidation. He winced heavily and shut his eyes, trying to drown out the pain, and when he didn't answer her, she took her other hand and bashed his head into the paneling of the bar, shattering his aura in the process.

 _Was his aura really that low? We barely touched him at all._ One rocket would have left him aura-less had I ever gotten the chance to fire at him.

She gripped him by the hair on the back of his head and forced him onto his feet, shoving him into the bar and forcing him to look her in the eyes despite his now-full intoxication and the pain she had forced on him. She looked to him expectantly—not patiently, that much would be clear to him through his stupor—and waited for him to answer; his only defense was to weakly look over to me, as if for help or ideas, and I made a _big_ show of showing him that he was on his fucking own here.

"Sorry kid, you're the one that brought her mother into it," I quipped, making a show of wrapping up the stab wound in my hand as a hell of a reason not to help him, as if I needed any more reasons.

He tried to headbutt her one last time, almost missing as all that vodka wreaked its revenge on his faculties, and she returned the headbutt with enough force to knock him out, all while letting out a frustrated and infuriated yell. I was almost concerned that without his aura and with the awkward angle she had him shoved against the bar at, the headbutt might strain or even break his neck; I say 'almost concerned' because I remembered that someone else taking him out would be a blessing at this point. I began to count my lucky stars and tried to slip away when she turned her attention to me.

"What did _you_ say?" Her words came through gritted teeth as she slowly came to a realization, and I came to one as well, realizing my mistake immediately.

"I told him that he was on his own." I paraphrased, making sure to avoid mentioning her mother just in case there was a chance she hadn't heard that part, all the while cursing myself for the slip. _It was the Arc boy who mentioned Branwen was her mother, not her. Dammit._

"I never said her name," she grumbled, the gears turning in her head and her eyes returning to their red shade. Her head started to cock slightly to the side as the fire picked up in her eyes (metaphorically) and in her hair (literally). "I never even _mentioned_ that it was my mother I was looking for, or say her name."

"You did, I swear! You said you were looking for your mom, Raven Branwen, and I told you that I wouldn't take you to her!" I lied, hoping she either didn't remember or I could reshape the narrative in a desperate attempt to calm her down.

"You _liar_!" She screamed, hoping over the bar and making her way down it to me. "You even admit that you knew where she was!"

I didn't know that, but my attempt to get out of it had blown up even more in my face. "Look, Blondie, I—"

I didn't get a chance to finish, as I barely got my hands up to block the fist that she threw at my face. The blow had enough power to slam me into the wall again in a flurry of shattered glass and exploding wood from the shelf itself, and without my aura, I blacked out from the impact.

* * *

When I woke up—and I did wake up, which was the first good news I've had since the breaker went out earlier—it was to the sounds of soft footsteps crunching on the broken glass. I pulled myself up to the bar with my good hand and peered over, nervous that the two blondes would still be here. They weren't, which was a small relief, and instead it was Roman's psychotic little attack dog that was walking around and examining the chaos with a smirk.

"How the hell," I coughed out, grimacing as my back rippled as I spoke and aggravated glass shards taken from slamming into the wall without any aura, "did you two let that punk Arc kid get away from you?"

Neo didn't respond but she did flick her head my direction, her eyes looking over me curiously.

"You two better have a plan to get back at him for this."

The girl nodded enthusiastically and tossed to me something that she had been keeping behind her back. Even in the shape I was in, I caught it with my good hand and examined it. "One of Torchwick's cigars? Is this some sort of apology for letting this all happen?" She shrugged. "Figures. You got a light?"

She shook her head to say no.

"Well, maybe this guy does…or did," I called out at no one in particular, looking over one of my thugs nearby. _Smoking isn't exactly my thing, but anything to take the edge off right now is welcome._

I turned to rummage through the pockets of the guy that had been slung into the bottle rack earlier. His first pocket came up empty, and before I could even search through the second one, a searing pain shot through me as a blade was stabbed completely through my back, just above my hip, forcing me to drop to the ground. I tried to roll over to face my attacker.

"What the—" my words were cut off as Neo's blade stabbed straight through my throat, the girl standing over me with a small grin that widened as she slowly pulled the blade out, taking pleasure when the blade left my throat and I choked on the blood filling my lungs. As I gasped for air, I tried with all I could to attack Neo once in retaliation, but all I could muster was crushing the cigar and throwing the remains at Neo, peppering her with its contents.

Neo did not appreciate that, if the glare she gave me and the sound of her blade popping back out of her umbrella were any indication.

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

I woke up to the sensation of a freight train having sex—rough, BDSM, whips-and-leather, sadistic sex—with a wrecking ball during a hurricane in my head, and only after enduring that for what felt like eternity did I realize that it was a hangover from the night before. Short after that, I realized that it was also pounding because there was a lot of noise and _by the gods, I am going to kill whatever is making all that noise._ I cracked one eye open to discover the source, only to learn that the light itself was a dagger and hated my brain, stabbing through my eyes and clawing at the brain matter behind them. Through all of this, I hardly noticed the fact that I was being shaken and jumped on by very, _very_ rude people who did not appreciate how much I wanted to die.

I say I hardly noticed, but that's a lie; I noticed it all, but I was physically incapable of complaining about that pain when my head wanted to explode.

"Ruby, I don't think that's a very good way to treat a hangover."

"Don't be silly," Ruby's voice called back to…someone who I couldn't tell at the moment. "The point of a hangover is to stop them from drinking again, so we need to make it as _bad_ as possible. That's what we do to Uncle Qrow."

"…I can get behind that," Nora's voice called out. The threat therein—Nora having free reign to torture me in the state I was in—was far scarier than any fear of Raven I've ever experienced and my eyes shot open. The pain from doing so was excruciating, and yet nothing compared to what I feared from Miss Valkyrie. "Aww, he's awake now."

"Would you please be quieter before I have to kill someone?" I asked, my voice scratching as it came out.

"Silly billy, murder won't make you feel better," Nora dismissed so casually that I briefly wondered if she knew that from experience, before shaking that thought because _just the act of thinking hurts right now._

"No, but suicide sure as hell would."

"He's kidding," Pyrrha's voice came from my side, though not with 100% confidence in what it was saying.

"Uh huh," Weiss mumbled in response. "I'm sure if we asked, Yang would kill him for us."

"Yeah, she's not in a great mood," Blake added on. "I'm going to go find her. We'll meet you there," she called out as she walked out of the room, apparently satisfied that I was at least technically alive.

"Yeah Jaune, what did you do to tick her off?" Ruby asked with a huff, sounding as if she was frustrated that Yang was back to hating me, apparently.

"I…have no idea," I groaned, my head only pounding all the more as I tried to recall the previous night. The rally I remember clearly, as well as helping Torchwick move Paladins. I remember Raven's torture and new directive for me, and then trashing to Junior's Club…and that's about it. Judging from the hangover and how sore I am, I'd say things went well and I drank into oblivion to celebrate at least _one_ thing going my way, but that doesn't explain anything about Yang. "I don't remember last night at all."

"Do you remember us stopping the White Fang?" Ren asked, stepping in to lend an aura of seriousness to the conversation and, I suspect, to use his semblance on Nora and Ruby.

"Uh…yes, I think."

"Do you remember where you disappeared to?" Weiss asked with a slight edge.

"Oh, yeah. We looked for you for, like, half an hour!" _That's it? They thought I was dead and spent half an hour searching for me?_ "Then your scroll pinged on for a few minutes and we saw your aura was fine, so we gave up and figured you'd find your way back. Where'd you go?"

That I certainly remembered, as I turned my scroll on for just a few seconds to intentionally refresh my aura meter to let them know I was okay. I almost immediately turned it back off, as Neo saw it and nearly took my head off, and I wouldn't want them tracking me down anyways. _From what it sounds like, that didn't stop Yang, though she was the only one who knew I met Junior the other night, so maybe that's connected?_ Just connecting those dots had my head pounding like a drum once again.

"I don't remember," I lied, deciding that alcohol-induced amnesia was a fantastic cover until I came up with a good story that wouldn't be ruined by however Yang comes into the equation, even if it is as simple as her checking Junior's and getting lucky. Instead, I gave them just enough details to construct their own narratives. "I think I remember a bar, though."

"Why were you at a bar?" Pyrrha asked confused.

"I don't know," I lied, but with a genuine groan, rubbing my forehead in my hands as my headache pulsed. "Something about White Fang members and blending in, I think?"

They took the bait, thank the heavens.

"…would the White Fang go drinking after a rally like that?" Weiss asked, forgetting Blake had already left. "It seems like a bad idea, but…they aren't exactly run well in the first place, so…"

"YOU WENT DRINKING WITH TERRORISTS!?" Nora shouted, excitement rather than outrage fueling her. "YOU REALLY ARE A PIRATE, AREN'T YOU!? THAT'S SO interesting." Nora's sudden shift was brought on as the color left her body, and if the ear-shattered yells hadn't already brought me to death's door, I would have thanked Ren for intervening.

"Could we _please_ just let me get back to sleep? It's like four in the morning," I begged.

"It's four in the afternoon," Weiss drawled back.

"Is that what that says?" I asked, squinting at the little alarm clock beside my bed and only just now realizing how weird it was to have six people crowded around my bed. "How did I get here, anyways?"

"Yang had to carry you all the way back to Beacon, and you guys missed the Bullheads, so you went the long way." Pyrrha supplied, trying to hide a mix of uncertainty and jealousy, and failing pretty badly. "She was furious when she got back, too. At least, she was much, much angrier than having to carry you should have made her. She hasn't spoken to us since, and she skipped classes today."

"You did too, technically," Nora added.

"And you couldn't let me stay asleep?" I whined.

"Nope." Ruby chirped. "We all have a meeting with the Headmaster about last night in fifteen minutes. Uncle Qrow is gonna be there, so we are _not_ going to be late, you hear me?!"

"I hear you," I whined, her escalating voice doing my headache no favors.

"Come on, let him get changed," Ren called out, starting to usher people out of the room before turning around and giving me a small head nod out of bro-respect, though not without a lingering look of doubt that told me that I would have to answer questions at some point.

Hopefully, those questions would not be very difficult, and I would have answered my own questions about last night before I have to make up lies for them.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Oh Jaune, poor, poor Jaune, you done messed up now. Alcohol and angry women are a bad mix, buddy. Or...alcohol and then getting knocked out via headbutt is. It makes for one heck of a hangover headache...**

 **Jaune certainly has a _lot_ of things to balance at the moment, so what's one more potentially-catastrophic thing to add to it? He has _clearly_ shown that his interpersonal skills are his strong suit, so there is no doubt that he'll be able to smooth-talk his way out of this one...**

 **Also, Yang, you shouldn't have knocked him out. Drunk Jaune is so much easier to pry information out of than defensive and sober Jaune ever is.**

 **Elsewhere, we have both the teams less Jaune and Yang, who are going to be looking for a decent answer from Jaune, so he's got that to add on to his plate, too. We also have Roman acknowledging the situation he and Neo are in and saying 'yeah, no, this is not good.' Desperation makes people do stupid and/or risky things, and that seems to be a theme for this chapter, _if not this story._ The good news is that it is pretty entertaining, so there's that!**

 **Going back and watching the Yellow Trailer to get a feel for the Malachites (and to figure out which one is which, lol) I noticed that sequence where Melanie keeps Yang in a proverbial chess-match by faking out so many kicks that it looks like she's tap-dancing, and my immediate thought was "just punch her in her face." _I'm so good at this whole fight choreography thing, guys; A+ for that move right there._ Jaune may have been unarmed and at half-aura, but that just meant that he couldn't trade blows like he usually does. Breaking through and injuring someone by keeping them from using their aura is a good way around that, I'd say, and certainly something he would pick up from Raven. **

**Oh, and the whole 'taking out his anger on everyone' thing does contribute to that fact that he normally has some qualms about straight-up murder but is fine with stabbing a girl in the back (admittedly, non-lethally). He was aware what Neo was going to do to Junior, though, so sometimes rules can be bent as long as you are the one bending them.**

 **That is a horrible, Ozpin-esque rule if I've ever heard one. Wonder if that's ever going to dawn on Jaune before things get out of hand...**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _hughfj08_ on **Ch. 19**

"just finishing up yet another enjoyable chapter and as I was reading your AN about the maiden candidates and a thought struck me. Nora would be the most OP of them all. I'm not too sure on the maiden powers specifics but I'm sure I recall Amber using thunder at one point. Nora could just infinite loop herself with her semblance XD"

 **...that...that wouldn't work. Surely that would not...I mean-it...**

 **Okay, so Maidens are confirmed to be able to all use all elements; MK just mentioned that Cinder prefers fire (makes sense) and Raven prefers ice (matches her soul, so makes sense). We saw Amber, the Fall Maiden, also use ice, so the Fall Maiden has used more than one element. So it is plausible within the show and the writers confirmed it too: all Maidens use all elements.**

 **And we saw Raven (posing through Vernal) zap Weiss' white knight (** hehehehe **) with _lightning_ , confirming that such a power falls under their Maidenhood. **

**...I see no reason why Maiden Nora couldn't zap herself with lightning. We've seen dust-lightning activate her semblance 2-3 times in the show, including from a bullet and through Hazel's arms.  
 _Side Note: buy Nora lightning dust to go all 'roid-rage like Hazel._**

 **Unbelievable. Nora is the key to everything. An infinite feedback loop, or if there _is_ a limit on how much power a Maiden can use before needing to rest, surely that point would come after zapping herself so much that she couldn't be stopped. **

_**Huh.**_ **If you'll excuse me, I have to go get blocked by Miles Luna on twitter ASAP...**

* * *

"That's it. Your living privileges have been revoked."- _Turquoise Leaf_

 **I mean, I would _like_ to say that this is horrible news to me, but as a college student, this is just sweet music to my ears. **

_**Cheers bro, I'll drink to that!**_

 **Also, if you kill me, you'll never get the opportunity to hate how the plot plays out or what decisions I would make, so checkmate there! HA!**


	23. Hands to yourself, Jaune

**[REFINED** **Jan 3, 2019] Author's Note: This chapter was one of those "I have plenty of time to write, so let's put it off," sort of chapters. It also ended up being over 12,000 words. That is a recipe for a long Saturday night, but sometimes we must suffer for art.**

 **And fanfiction.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 21:** _"I do not appreciate you going behind my back to put my students in harm's way. They're children, James." – Ozpin  
"Is there some new line in the sand you've drawn about not utilizing students since the last time we did?" __– James Ironwood_

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

"Yang," a voice called out, which I promptly ignored to focus on the punching bag in front of me. If anything, my effort and power increased to drown out whoever it was that was trying to talk to me this time. My body ached and my muscles screamed at me, but I ignored them; that was what muscles did when you had been doing this all day, but I didn't want to stop yet. I couldn't stop yet. Beating the crap out of this punching bag was the only thing keeping me anchored at the moment, the only thing distracting me from thinking about— _no, focus on the bag._ Right hook, left jab, left jab, kick from the right, left jab—"YANG!"—right hook infused with my semblance, both knocking the bag off the chains holding it up and blowing a hole in the bag where my fist landed.

"WHAT?!" I yelled, turning around to find Blake giving me a worried look.

"We have a meeting in fifteen minutes with the Headmaster. Are you…?"

"I'm fine," I lied, betrayed by the fires in my hair that slowly started to die down.

"Is it normal for punching bags to do that?" She asked cautiously as she approached me, eyes on what looked like an explosion of sand.

"The hole in it is new," I called out, walking over to the supply closet and pulling out another punching bag. Off in the corner sat the pile of ten other punching bags that I had knocked off their hooks throughout the day, though none of them had torn like this one; I hadn't been distracted enough to let my semblance out on any of the other ones. Blake's eyes roamed over them for a second, too.

"Yang, what's wrong? What happened?" Blake asked, clear from her voice that she wanted to cut through any externalities and get to the source. _Normally, I'd appreciate that, but only when she was aimed at others, like Jau—_

"There's nothing wrong."

"I see eleven sandbags that say otherwise," Blake shot back flatly. "What did Jaune do?"

My fists clenched at the name and I had to fight down the swirl of emotion that it brought out because, right now, I don't know what to think or feel about that name. "Why do you think he's involved?"

"You mean besides the fact that your eyes flicked to red when I said his name?" She asked redundantly. "Or the fact that you slung him at JNPR's door when you got back last night and we've barely seen you since?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yang, quit that. It's me, okay?" Blake wasn't having any of it, and her condescending tone started to get under my skin. My fist clenched for a moment and I met her eyes, which stared me down unflinchingly. The anger quickly fizzled out of me as I realized that she didn't deserve my anger, leaving me feeling bad enough to at least talk to her, or too tired to try to avoid her. "I'm your partner. I'm just here to help you."

"Fine," I answered back, still uncertain but willing enough to be talked into it. It had been all night and most of the day and I still hadn't made any progress or sorted anything out—granted, most of that time was spent doing anything I could to _avoid_ the problem, but that wasn't always effective. "But this stays between us."

"Of course it does," she answered back plainly, but not convincingly. _At least, not enough for me._

"No, I'm serious, Blake. I know how you and Jaune like to run around behind everyone's backs and exchange secrets. This is _not_ one of those times. Got it?" I gave her a firm glare to emphasize that I meant this, and when she didn't even object or try to argue my accusation, I knew that I had her attention.

"I promise, Yang. What happened?"

"Jaune…" I trailed off, uncertain of how to explain what Jaune knew or, really, what it was that Jaune _did_ know. "Jaune knows my mother."

"O…kay?"

"My mother, the outlaw who abandoned me as a child and runs a gang," I added on.

" _Oh_. I didn't know… _that_ ," she defended, and I let it be. It wasn't a topic that I was unable to speak about, at least, not when _I_ was the one to bring her up. _When others do it, like, say, Jaune…_

"You shouldn't have known that," I answered back, taking a small dig at Jaune, even if Blake wouldn't have known that. "You've never met her and I never told you about her. There's no rational reason that you would have known that, or that her name is Raven."

"Yang, you're being suspiciously specific," Blake called out nervously, giving me a side-glance.

"Look, my family is a little messed up, okay? She and my dad split up when I was one, and my dad and Summer—my _mother_ , just not biologically—had Ruby a year later. A few years after that, Raven left me; hell, she left being a Huntress altogether to go lead a tribe of outlaws. That's…that's all I know about her, really. Dad doesn't like to talk about her and Uncle Qrow—my mom's twin—hates her for it all."

"Do you?" She asked pointedly, interrupting.

"I…kinda, yeah. At least, I think I do…" I trailed off, thinking about it for a second before shaking the thoughts from my head. _The last thing I need is even more things that make me angry to think about._ "I…never really got over her leaving. I even…" I trailed off, shaking my head in embarrassment as I recalled the memory, "I even drug Ruby through the woods looking for her, once. We would have died if our uncle wasn't following us."

"That's…"

"Let's just say that my mom is a touchy subject for me, and that I never really let it go. Okay?" I didn't even wait for a response before continuing. "That time I destroyed Junior's Club? It was because I was looking for Raven. It's not…a subject that I really have good control over."

"I never would have thought you'd have _mommy_ issues…" Blake joked, before instantly looking regretful when she saw the glare I gave her. "I'm…sorry. You've rubbed off on me too much. How does Jaune factor in to this?" She asked, quickly diverting the topic.

"I found Jaune at Junior's Club last night, completely wasted."

"Jaune was wasted, or the Club was?" Blake asked.

"Both. I'm pretty sure Jaune was responsible for it, too."

"What makes you say that?"

"Yesterday he mentioned that he had a meeting with Junior that went really badly, which is why I checked Junior's for Jaune in the first place." I answered, before realizing that I was getting off-topic. "I marched over there and was ready to beat answers out of Jaune for abandoning us and letting us think he had died in the rubble. When he looked into my eyes, he…called me Raven."

Blake didn't answer immediately, but her reaction was enough to convey that she understood the severity of the implications that Jaune's slip held. "I take it she has red eyes?"

I nodded. "My dad always tells me that I look just like her when I'm angry, and when I smirk."

"What happened next?"

"What do you _think_ happened next?" I asked back in an agitated tone. "I told you that the subject of my mother gets under my skin and I was already angry at him. I kicked the crap out of him and knocked him out. _What happened next?_ " I finished, mocking Blake's original question with a stupid tone of voice. "After that, Junior accidentally admitted to actually knowing who my mom was the first time I came to his Club, so I knocked him out too."

"…so you knocked out both men who knew your mom before asking them about her?" She asked condescendingly.

"I _said_ that I don't handle the subject well, Blake. _Sheesh._ "

"What do you…what do you suspect?" She asked, taking care with her words and not really hiding the fact that she was doing so.

 _That was the can of worms that I've been trying to avoid…_

"I don't….know, okay?" I answered frustrated, turning to stare at the floor. "Every time I start to think about it, my head starts spinning and my gut tightens up. And it doesn't help that it's _Jaune_ of all people…"

"What does _that_ mean?" Blake asked, surprised and homing in on that last part. She was a little bit suspicious of me, too, which was weirder. It felt like she was reading too far into that.

"You remember having to force me to stop hating him. My gut instincts about Jaune have always been wrong," I answered back quietly. "I've been…I've tried to ignore why my basic reaction to Jaune is to distrust him ever since you guys confronted me about it. It hasn't been easy, but…up until now, it has seemed like the right thing to do. I thought I had gotten past it all, too. Now, though…"

"It's harder to ignore?"

My fists clenched as I focused on the uneasy feeling in my stomach that we were talking about; it had never gone away and was always there, lurking in the background like a shadow hanging over me. "It makes me wonder if I ever should have ignored it in the first place."

"Yang, you need to talk to him. I'm sure that there's an…explanation," she said, pointedly avoiding saying a 'good explanation.' Neither of us were completely convinced.

"I think I'd rather avoid it…forever," I replied, forcing myself to relax my arms and unclench my fists, which wasn't easy with the pool in my stomach that I was struggling to ignore now that I had focused on it for a moment. It was like trying to stamp out a small campfire after throwing dust crystals in it.

"That's ridiculous, Yang," Blake called out antagonistically, getting a rise out of me until I realize by the smug look on her face that it was supposed to do that. " _I'm_ the one who runs from her problems, not you."

"You don't run from your problems, Blake," I reassured, completely missing the joke. "We've been fighting the White Fang together."

Blake rolled her eyes and pressed on. "What is the absolute worst-case scenario that you can think of?"

"You… _want_ me to think about that? What sort of counseling is this?"

"Just do it," she cut back agitated, giving me a small glare.

I gave in to her pressure and tried to think about what the worst-case scenario would be for Jaune knowing who my mother is, but it wasn't easy. It was already a hard subject for me to focus on, emotionally speaking, and that meant that I had to fight my instinct to mentally recoil from the subject the whole time. On top of that, my mind bounced around on what would be the worst thing, and I'm not exactly known as a great thinker.

 _Would it be worse if he knew who she was and hid it from me, or if she knew who_ he _was and forced him to be quiet about it? Would it be worse if he admitted hiding my mother from me or if he lied to my face about the whole thing?_

 _Would it be worse to find out the answers, or to intentionally never push the topic and hope this all went away with time?_

"It's not easy, is it?" Blake asked knowingly, watching my thoughts play out on my face.

I frowned and shook my head no, trying not to lose focus on the few trains of thought that I could keep going. Every time I thought of some new thing, I either over-examined it too quickly or I found that I wasn't sure how it compared to any of the other bad things. In the end, I was coming up with a lot of unpleasant or frustrating scenarios, but I couldn't reasonably imagine anything that would be a 'worst-case scenario.' _I could think of a couple of horrible things that didn't make any sense, like Jaune being my secret half-brother, but that one was so out there that it didn't really scare me all that much; I mean, he doesn't look anything like any pictures of Raven I've seen._

 _He does kinda look like dad, though…_ I shook the thought from my head as soon as it came, for the sheer ridiculousness of it. Say what you want about him, but my dad was the guy that _married_ both of his teammates, not the one going around and having illegitimate kids. _If anything, that would be uncle Qrow._

Could Jaune be…? _Surely not, right?_ He doesn't even look like the guy…

"No, it's not," I mumbled back, fighting to break free of my thoughts and focus on the conversation instead. Just because I wasn't coming up with _horrible_ scenarios didn't mean that the ones I had were pleasant, or that my mood had improved all that much. "I still don't think that focusing on what's upsetting me is a very good idea."

"Who's the expert on running away from their problems, again?" Blake asked rhetorically. "This is something that I've learned here recently, from you guys, actually. The worst part about your fears—or at least, the worst part about mine—is the uncertainty. If you don't know exactly what it is that you're afraid of, it makes it even worse. Once you start thinking about it—or _confronting_ it, even if only in your mind—it starts to make things easier to deal with."

I thought about her words for a few moments, and I guess they made enough sense. They say that you aren't afraid of the dark, you're afraid of what's _in_ the dark, and I guess that translates well to your thoughts, too.

"I still don't think that imagining all the different ways Jaune is a lying snake who knows my mom is helping," I countered, giving Blake a slightly mistrusting look.

"Okay, now try to rationalize the most reasonable explanation for what you _know_ , not what you fear." This was where Blake had been leading me, if the smug tone to her voice or her slight smirk were any indication.

"Blake, I'm really not in the mood…" Blake gave me one of her flattest looks to date, with even her ears pinning down to match her frown, and I dropped my resistance pretty quickly. _I'm really not in the mood to_ find _a reasonable explanation, but…_

Summoning the energy to resist is getting harder and harder now that my adrenaline is wearing off and working out since last night is starting to weigh down on me. "Okay, fine. I'll try it."

 _The most…rational explanation, huh?_ I don't really have a whole lot to go on, here, but what I do know just doesn't help things look better. Jaune's mentioned that he's not completely out of his old life— _and suddenly, it's a lot harder for me to trust any words from Jaune's lips, making this more difficult than it already was—_ and he mentioned that his meeting with Junior didn't go well, which is why I had a hunch he might be at Junior's last night. _Hey, that counts as the first time my instincts on Jaune were right...unless they've been right since the beginning._

Junior's place was trashed, pretty much just like when I wrecked the place, so we have the same temper, at least; one point to the half-brother theory that I am _not_ taking seriously. Those two girls Junior had were badly hurt, which is _not_ something I did during my turn to destroy the place, and Jaune had stabbed Junior in the hand, so that's…not looking good. _But he was drunk when I got there, and I guess I can't say that Drunk Yang wouldn't stab anyone._

Buzzed Yang was the one to destroy Junior's Club the first time, and that's not the same thing.

When I got there, it looked like Jaune was having a chat with Junior that wasn't going well, and— _holy shit, is that it?_

" _Junior_ ," I grumbled out, almost forgetting that Blake was standing in front of me.

"What about Junior?"

"That's how Jaune found out who my mom is! Junior had to tell him." It made enough sense that I was finally able to relax a little, even if Blake still looked confused beyond belief, and even though it didn't explain everything. "Junior lied about knowing who she was the first time we…met…"

"When you destroyed his club?" Blake asked, one eyebrow arched.

"Yeah, then," I answered back, not letting myself be riled up by Blake bringing that incident back up. _At least I'm not the only one to do that now._ "Last night, he accidentally admitted to knowing who she was and that he was hiding that from me."

Blake perked up a little, leaning in for more details. "What all did you get out of him?"

"Not much," I answered back. "I knocked him out on the spot, remember?"

Blake gave me a long, flat look before taking a deep breath in and letting it all out in a huff. "I don't know why I even ask." She shook her head before looking back up at me, suspicious that I might have attacked even more people. "Can I ask you why Junior telling Jaune about this makes sense, or are you going to knock me out too?"

"Har. Har." I tried my best to give her an agitated look, but with my anger and fears starting to sap away and no more adrenaline left over from my workout, I'm realizing how hard it is to summon the energy to do anything. My agitated look came across limply more than anything. "Who's the one that Junior trusted to keep me in check?" I asked, not even really having the energy to be as offended by what I just asked as I should.

"Jaune…"

"Right. The other night, Jaune had a meeting with…?"

"…you said it was with Junior, right?" Blake asked, a little uncertain.

"He didn't tell you about that?" I asked, a little surprised myself. "Huh. I thought you two had this whole secret-sharing thing going. You know, the two mysterious students with dark backgrounds sharing their worlds with each other…"

"…have you been reading the back covers of my books?" Blake asked, looking at me distrustingly.

"No," I lied. "If I had, I would have also mentioned his 'katana.'"

The blood drained from Blake's face as she froze for just a moment, uncertain of how to get out of that one. _It's obvious to her that I would have had to actually_ read _some of her favorite book to know that reference._

"C-Could we get back to discussing Junior?"

"No, I think I like this more. It's really improving my mood," I joked, switching gears anyways. "But yeah, he met Junior on Tuesday night, and then before our mission he was really distracted. He said that the meeting went…badly."

"And then he ditched the rally to go beat up Junior for it?" She inferred with a little agitation at the thought of it, and I nodded.

"Yeah, exactly what I felt when I found him there," I said, referencing the sour expression that washed over Blake's face as she realized how messed up that was.

"So, you think that Junior told Jaune about your mother?"

"I…I guess so. Junior wanted to hide it from me for some reason, and he wanted Jaune to keep me from attacking him, so he might have told Jaune and made him keep it a secret." I wasn't sure how I felt about that, and it probably wasn't great, but it wasn't nearly as bad as my gut had let me think it would be. _It didn't settle my gut, though; something was still off._

"Do you think that's why Jaune said his meeting went badly?" Blake asked, bringing up an idea that I hadn't considered at all. "I mean, Jaune likes _his_ secrets, but he's always gone out of his way to help us with ours, too." It was left unspoken that Blake mostly meant that he had gone out of his way to help _her_ out, but that didn't mean anything negative about Jaune; it just meant that Blake was the only one with secrets. _At least, up until now, if what Blake is saying is true; could he really have been keeping this one to protect me?_

"Do you think that he was upset because he _wanted_ you to know?"

"…I don't know. There's one good way to find out, though," I said, making it obvious that I was beyond ready for this discussion to end. I wasn't as determined to go track Jaune down as I let Blake believe, but…it was enough for me to stand being around him until I _was_ ready to confront him.

 _I think._

"Please don't knock him out again."

"I'm not going to—" I cut myself off, realizing I was too tired to get into that again. "Nevermind. I'm going to go shower and take a nap. Thanks for the talk, partner."

"Actually, I was just coming down here to tell you we have a meeting with the headmaster," Blake called out before I could get more than a step away.

"What? When?"

"In about…" she trailed off, pulling out her scroll to check the time. "Four minutes."

" _WHAT?!_ " I yelped. "You can't just tell me that! I need more than four minutes to get ready!"

"I'm pretty sure that General Ironwood is going to be there too."

"Look at me, Blake, I've been working out for like a day now! I can't roll into a meeting with the headmaster and a freaking general in worn-out workout clothes! I need to change!"

"…can you do it in two minutes?"

"TWO MINUTES!? _TWO MINUTES!?_ " I nearly blew a gasket and with how tired I was, I was not in any shape to control my emotions. I barely even noticed my hair lighting on fire. "Even _if_ I could get completely changed and washed up in two minutes, what about my _hair!?_ Do you know how sweaty and gross my hair is after all this?!"

"If you keep your semblance going like that, you might just burn out all the sweat and grease…"

"I can't believe this. First, Jaune tries to ruin my day, and now you…" I grumbled, grabbing a towel from the locker area and returning, trying not to think about what I was going to look like rolling into the headmaster's office like this. "Come on, let's get this over with."

The worst part of the complete sense of dread about how I was about to been seen was that it didn't completely distract me from our previous conversation and, more importantly, the nagging doubts that were left. _If Jaune was upset with Junior about keeping my mom a secret, why did he stab Junior's security girl? Why did Jaune seem to talk about his meeting with Junior like it was going to help him get away from his past?_

 _If Junior was the one who told Jaune about Raven, why did only call me that after looking into my eyes?_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

"Okay, so…exactly _how_ mad did I make Yang?" I asked, very obviously fishing the group for information as we walked to the headmaster's office—or, well, as we walked to the elevator that would take us to the headmaster's private penthouse office. _Because that doesn't scream 'arrogance' or anything._

There was no immediate answer, which worried me.

"Guys?"

"She was…uh…" Ruby trailed off as she couldn't quite come up with words, which did nothing to put me at ease. "…pretty mad."

"Oh. Well, that doesn't sound _too_ bad, I guess," I responded. I mean, Yang got pretty mad if the wind blew her hair the wrong direction or if her pen stopped working; it was a pretty common occurrence. Normally, she was the 'short-fuse' sort of temper, where she got riled up easily and cooled off just as quickly, which meant that if I had ticked her off last night, I could pretty easily wait it out. _A quick spar or even just some sort of exercise would probably be enough for her to get over it._

"Her eyes flashed red whenever we asked her what happened, before she literally dumped you on the ground and went to train," Weiss added.

"She trained the whole night, too," Nora added with a scary mix of either enthusiasm or cheer, neither of which made me feel better.

 _Okay, scratch that part about her working out her frustration on her own_ ; _what could Drunk Jaune have done that could possibly piss Yang off like this?_

Considering it wasn't just the fact that I had gone behind their backs, since I'm pretty sure everyone here already suspects me of doing that and they're not very mad at me, there has to be something else that Yang found out that would do this. I can think of a couple of things that she wouldn't be happy to hear about, but none that I would think that I would just tell her, even if drunk. _The say alcohol removes inhibitions, not makes you tell the darkest secrets that you desire to never see the light of day._ If anything, with how angry I was going into Junior's club, Drunk Jaune should have been the type to get angry if someone tried to get information out of him.

"You guys really don't have any idea what I did wrong?" I asked, scanning around the group for responses or reactions that would mean that someone was hiding something. There were some wary looks and some that were equally as puzzled as me, but none that made me suspect anything. That wasn't too surprising, as Blake had gone off to get Yang and she would have been my first choice to know what was up (and also would be the most persuadable, given our relationship).

"Well, you _were_ drunk…" Ren started off.

"And you're kind of an asshole, even when you're sober," Nora added on, earning a shocked look from Ruby and Pyrrha but otherwise not missing a beat.

"And you and Yang always antagonize each other," Weiss jumped in.

"Why do I feel like you guys have been preparing for this?"

"You do always try to one-up Yang in everything..." Pyrrha added in, sounding more like she was having a realization than the others, who were more dragging out their analysis to make a point.

"…and Yang is always embarrassingly flirty…" Ruby added, with the same sense of dawning realization that Pyrrha had had. "Oh my god. _Jaune._ "

The group went silent after Ruby and even stopped walking, forcing me to stop and turn around to see what was up. Apparently, they had come to some sort of shared epiphany on the subject, which I took as good news. _Maybe we're actually getting somewhere with this._

"Did you _grope_ Yang?!"

 _What the—?_

"No, I did _not_ grope Yang," I answered back, agitated and annoyed that they would even consider such a thing, much less all come to the same conclusion. They didn't even seem to acknowledge that I was still here, instead turning towards each other to discuss the idea further.

"I'm not sure…I don't think…" Pyrrha fumbled, looking up quickly at me with a curious look. "I don't think Jaune would do something like that."

"Normally? No," Ren came to my defense. It was good to see _someone_ sticking by my side. "But…" _Traitor._ "He _was_ drunk."

"Guys, I'm standing right here," I called out, completely ignored by the group, who had almost huddled together by this point. "I promise that I didn't grope Yang."

"Oh, you don't even remember what happened," Nora dismissed me quickly, before turning back to the group. "Don't forget, he _was_ a lawless scallywag, so nothing is out of bounds."

"This is unbelievable," I mumbled to myself as I watched my friends tear my own reputation apart.

"J-Jaune wouldn't do something like that, though. Would he?" Ruby asked, wavering between belief and unbelief. It was clear from her voice that she desperately didn't _want_ to believe, which made it all the worse that she was about to.

"To anyone else, probably not," Weiss answered, reassuring Ruby. _I'm not sure how that is supposed to be reassuring._

"To _anyone_ , probably not," I corrected Weiss, unsuccessfully.

"But to Yang?" Weiss finished her begged question, and to my horror, it was swaying Ruby.

"I mean, it's not hard to imagine how it happened," Nora stated, taking this whole thing in stride so easily that I was beginning to suspect that either nothing would ever faze Nora, or she had anticipated this exact situation. _I'm not sure which I find the worse option at the moment._

" _Yarr, hey Yang, I'm a mysterious drunk pirate bad boy, do you know what we hunt? Booty._ " Nora punctuated her imitation by reaching her hand out and squeezing an imaginary butt, and aside from acting like a pirate the whole time, it was now a visual (and a joke) that I was going to be forced to remember literally every time I saw the back half of Yang. There was actually a decent chance that I would start the joke, just to see if she already knew where it was going to go, and— _ho. ly. shit. I might have actually groped Yang._

" _Arrr, it looks like my hand has been…"_ Nora reached out and grabbed the air again, this time higher than before, " _…boobytrapped."_

Nora seemed pleased as punch with herself for her acting job, and clearly the others were stunned by her performing skills, because they all exchanged meaningful (and worried) glances, and I refuse to believe that was because they all thought that Nora's depiction might not have been inaccurate. _That's ignoring that fact that it very much so might have been accurate, minus the pirate routine._

"Seriously, guys, this is ridiculous," I shouted out, drawing on everything I had ever learned from Raven about lying. "There is absolutely no way that I would have groped Yang under any circumstance," _except the one Nora just presented._ "You guys need to have a little faith in me, jeez." _Yes, faith, because I've obviously been trustworthy with you so far; that's why Nora thinks I'm a pirate, because I'm so trustworthy._ "Honestly, I'm a little hurt that you all could even imagine a scenario where I did that." _I'm a little hurt that_ I _believe it so easily, too._

From the looks on their faces, it was clear that no one really bought into my act, but they all seemed willing enough to give me the benefit of the doubt, or to at least _pretend_ like they were. At this point, I decided to just cut my losses and let them believe that, since it would mean that I would not have to explain to them the real reason Yang was mad at me, once I found that out. _And since chances are it's a little worse than just unauthorized touching, that might not be a bad trade off._ Besides, if I _had_ done something like that to Yang (especially while drunk), she would have beat the crap out of me.

Wait, is that why my hangover was so bad? _Did Yang beat the crap out of me and knock me out?_

"Ugh. I am never drinking again."

" _Good,_ " Ruby grumbled next to me as the group began walking again. Given how Yang trashed Junior's place while drunk(ish), Qrow was a functional alcoholic, and now I've _allegedly_ groped Yang while drunk, I wouldn't be surprised if Ruby's first instinct when offered a drink would be to throw it out the window.

We silently and awkwardly finished the trek to the elevator at the base of Beacon Tower, and as we waited for it to come down and collect us, the doors behind us pushed open as Yang and Blake hurried their way inside. Blake seemed normal enough, but Yang was…well, she was giving me all sorts of looks whenever she thought I wasn't looking, but given the conversation I had just had, I was not taking my eyes off of her. At the most, I would keep her in my periphery, but if I _did_ —and I'm not admitting to anything, but still, if I _did_ do something to Yang last night, I don't exactly trust that the group would step between us should she come after me.

"You look like crap," I joked after seeing that the rest of the group was content to go silent and nervously watch whatever might happen with Yang in close proximity to me. In my defense, she _did_ look rough, too; they said that she went out to train last night and never came back, and that would make sense with the way she appeared right now. She was still in the combat clothes from the previous day, which meant she really had been at it all night, but had shed any unnecessary jackets or armor in the interest of cooling down at some point. She also had one of the towels from the training area hanging around her neck, drawing attention to how worn out she looked. Funnily enough, her hair was pulled back into a pony tail and was messier than she had ever allowed to be seen before, but it was remarkably clean and grease-free, unlike the rest of her. What looked worse, though, was the sunkenness to her eyes and the general slouch she had that spoke of exhaustion, which again, made sense with what I knew.

Whatever I did took all night and all day for her to work out her frustrations over, which further narrowed it to one of a few things, none of which were good for me.

As to my comment—admittedly, a very poor choice of words and even worse timing on my part—Yang didn't really react to it, though now that one of us had acknowledged the other's presence, she stopped stealing glances at me and gave me an apprehensive, wary, and tired look. Chances are, she didn't have the energy to get mad at me, as her eyes didn't even flash red at me, as I suspected they would have.

Yang wasn't the only one to give me a look, either. Ruby, Pyrrha, Ren, and Blake all gave me surprised 'what are you doing' looks, whereas Weiss gave me a furious 'how stupid are you, stupid' look. Nora was looking back and forth between Yang and I excitedly, slowing becoming disappointed when nothing happened.

"How's your head?" Yang quipped back, a little defensive and aggressive but not so much so as to worry me.

"Throbbing. Thanks for the reminder."

A gift from the gods above, the elevator dinging to announce its arrival, sounded just in time to save me from further putting my foot in my mouth. That didn't mean that the eight of us cramping into a small space was much of an improvement, especially since everyone seemed to magically shift away from both Yang and me, 'allowing' us to have to be in close proximity for the ride.

 _I swear, it's as if they're_ trying _to get me killed._ I did my best to stare directly at the wall in front of me and avoid eye contact with Yang at all costs. That whole 'short temper' might benefit me in the long run, but that doesn't mean that I want to be trapped with her during that temper.

Mercifully, the elevator rode fast and made no extra stops, silently opening to reveal Ozpin at his desk. As we began to walk forward, a chill ran through my veins as the general of Atlas—James Ironwood, a partial-cyborg in the literal sense if Raven's intel was to be believed—came into view, along with Qrow flanking Ozpin's other side. The headmaster's two companions could not have presented more opposite images, what with the upstanding and postured Atlesian general and…Qrow. Despite his lazy posture and relaxed tone, I was much warier of Raven's twin brother than I was of the arguably most powerful mortal alive, Maidens notwithstanding.

"See, there they are. Right on time," Ozpin called out, as if just speaking about us to Qrow and Ironwood.

"…ish…" Qrow added on, earning nothing more than an eyeroll from the headmaster.

"Students, thank you for coming. I trust you all remember these two gentlemen?" Ozpin asked the group.

"General Ironwood," Weiss called out courteously, only narrowly beating out Ruby nearly squealing at the sight of her uncle.

"Uncle Qrow!"

"Um…who are they?" I played dumb, since there wasn't any reason that I _should_ know either of them.

"Uh, we met them yesterday. During the miss—" Nora cut herself off suddenly, remembering that I wasn't _at_ that part of the mission. " _Riiiiight._ "

"James Ironwood," Ozpin called out, taking things in stride. "Head of the Atlas military that backed your raid on the White Fang." There was the slightest hint of a dig at Ironwood there; maybe a little bit of tension caused by Ironwood overstepping his bounds, or some other argument they'd been having. _They might have been discussing Maiden candidates, which I can imagine could get heated._ "And Qrow Branwen. He's—"

"Our uncle," Yang filled in when the headmaster trailed off in search of an appropriate word. Yang's tone wasn't exactly warm towards me, but didn't bother me nearly as much as the emphasis she put on the follow-up did. "My mom's brother, actually."

I knew that Yang was putting the information out there to make things easier for the whole group to connect the dots, and the words weren't even spoken in my direction, but damnit if there wasn't a waver to her voice that sent chills down my spine. _Would I have given up my connections to her family?_ Surely not, right? Telling Yang that I was a spy working for her mother would be the _last_ thing I would ever tell her, drunk or not. I had to be imagining it, or putting emphasis where she didn't actually mean any.

Telling myself that did not make my stomach settle, though.

"It is good to finally meet the man I've been told was responsible for the shape the raid took. I will admit that I am impressed by the foresight and practicality of your plan, Mr…?" Ironwood trailed off, begging an introduction to me; not something to be taken lightly on my part, either, but I didn't let it show.

"Jaune," I answered back, trying my best to seem friendly or glib and not like I was pointedly leaving out my last name.

"Jaune Arr, if the newspapers are anything to go by," Ozpin added smugly, recognizing my game. "It appears that modern journalists cannot spell 'Arc.' How strange." The smug bastard hid behind his mug once more, content in his handiwork.

"Jaune Arc," Ironwood stated, testing out the name.

"Wait, we were in the news?" I asked, conveying legitimate surprise. It wasn't really anything of consequence, at least not to my plan or cover, but it was new information nonetheless.

"While I would have preferred things to stay confidential, a joint operation between Atlas and Beacon speared by Beacon's own students to foil terrorism makes for great press coverage. Even I will admit that such a thing is useful," the general explained. "Although we did have to cover up the fact that not _all_ of the students were accounted for afterwards. May I ask where you were during the battle?"

The question wasn't posed threateningly, nor did it even feel like he was playing games with me, but it did earn more churning from my stomach as I realized that I hadn't thought through my alibi yet, and telling them that I was helping Roman Torchwick move the rest of the Paladins was a no-no.

"Yeah, we found him all loopy in one of the nearby buildings after a while," Nora answered so genuinely and nonchalantly that I almost found myself believing it, for a moment. Ironwood gave Nora an odd look, but she continued on nonetheless. "Yeah, we're pretty sure he has a concussion from, ya know, the roof falling in."

"Should he…be on his feet right now?" Ironwood asked uncertainly, more to Ozpin than anyone. It didn't help that I was more or less stunned by Nora covering for me, which was only exacerbated a moment later.

"That won't be necessary," Weiss added on. "His semblance negates any issues."

"That's not how it—" I was cut off by a quick, but fierce, glance from Weiss before I could explain that my semblance could only amplify aura, meaning it would be useless against injuries or illnesses that aura cannot fix. "Nevermind, I must be too concussed to know how my semblance works." Weiss fixed me another glare, but Ozpin and company didn't seem motivated to push things, at least not for now.

"If there are no other matters, I'm sure you're all wondering why you've been called in here…"

"Actually, I have something," Nora announced, seeking Ozpin's approval to continue. He looked to her expectantly. "Are we just going to glance over the fact that his name is now Jaune _Arrrrrrrrr_?!"

"Nora, please don't…" Ren cut her off. Immediately, I was reminded of Nora's pirate impersonation of me, which meant that I needed to work extra hard not to look at Yang, or else I might get the urge to try that joke here and now. _If I didn't grope Yang—and I didn't, so I don't know why I'm even considering such a silly idea—then doing it right here in front of her uncle and sister and teammates would certainly do the trick._

"I meant any other… _non-pirate?_ activity…" Ozpin stated, certainly a little confused but moving past it. "While you certainly are here to be thanked for your efforts in stopping the White Fang, you'll notice that the last two members of your party are not here." True enough, it was just the eight of us, not ten. "There is a reason for that, which we'll get to shortly."

"The White Fang in Vale don't exactly run a tight ship, nor have they really been a threat until their leadership was apparently handed to Roman Torchwick," Qrow took over for Ozpin, beginning to fill in details for us. "He's very quickly turned them into a working terrorist cell and somehow even acquired ole Jimmy's Paladins, but that doesn't mean that they aren't still sloppy." Other than the glare received from Ironwood for the nickname, no one interrupted.

"What Qrow means is that after scouring what was left of the building and interviewing the witnesses that we could round up, Atlas has come up with possibly actionable intel." I almost got worked up over this, because Roman was supposed to take care of that and make sure they didn't get anything that would force me into the position of having to help him again, but I did remember that the Paladin was supposed to be filled with false information. _Atlas is_ supposed _to think that they have good intel._ That didn't settle my nerves completely, but it did help tremendously.

"Why are you telling us this?" Ruby asked, interjecting. It was a fair enough question that no one chastised her for interrupting, not even giving her a funny look; after all, the information was all stuff that we could have assumed or just taken for granted. There didn't seem to be any particular need to call us in to tell it to us.

"Because, Miss Rose," Ozpin started, "under normal circumstances I would not allow first-year students to become so entangled with a situation so precarious that I would need Atlas to lend a hand." There was a brief exchange of glances between Ozpin and Ironwood that made me feel that Atlas pushed Ozpin to accept the help against his better judgement. "In fact, my normal reaction to your actions would be a slap on the wrist and some detention to discourage this sort of activity again."

The room was tensely silent, at least over where the eight of us stood. Well, the others may have been put on edge or made slightly awkward by Ozpin's words, but detention didn't sound so bad right now. _Being forced to sit and be quiet for a few hours would do wonders for my headache._

"Uh… _normal_ circumstances?" Ruby squeaked after a pause. "Is this a normal circumstance?"

"Nope," Qrow answered glibly.

" _Whew_."

"Why not?" I asked, feigning enough ignorance or playing up my antagonism to fool my friends, but not so much that Ozpin wouldn't recognize the challenge presented. Ironwood might have missed it too if Ozpin hasn't shared his suspicions about me with him yet, or he might have his own if he recognized my last name, but it wasn't something I regarded as a real risk.

"The purpose of such a punishment would be to discourage this sort of unauthorized behavior from happening again. Tell me, would that have worked in even the slightest sense?" Ozpin asked rhetorically with a small, bemused smile. The three men before us looked over each one of us, and our collective silence spoke volumes. He did have a point. "If anything, I suspect you would use the detention time to further your research or lay down more plans. You've shown yourselves to be dedicated to your goal and too resourceful to put a stop to." There was another glance at Ironwood, this time with a slight eyebrow twitch and a lot less subtly, letting everyone know who Ozpin blamed for our 'resources.' _It's not really fair to hold Ironwood up to the fire for that, though; if Atlas hadn't been coming, we probably could have changed the plan to hijack the Paladins instead._

That is, of course, assuming that I wasn't forced to play both sides.

"What Ozpin is saying is that you little shits are more trouble than you're worth, so instead of stopping you, we're going to use you." _Such a convenient reason for Ozpin to employ children in his war, isn't it?_

"Thank you, Qrow, for such an eloquent summary," Ozpin half-quipped, half-chastised, as if that affected Qrow in the slightest. "He is not incorrect, though. I'm sure that you've at least been made aware of the first-year missions at the end of the semester, yes?" There were a few nods to prompt him along. "By that point, we anticipate having actionable intelligence on the White Fang, or at the very least, a lead to be tracked down. Should you accept it, we would send you on that mission."

"We'll do it," Blake shot out quickly, before realizing where she was a shrinking back in on herself.

"Uh, speak for yourself," I teased, earning five funny looks from my friends, a flat agitated look from Blake, and a glare from Yang that sent a chill down my spine, mostly because of the way her eyes flashed red for a split second. She forced them back down and even tore away from her glare, shaking her head to calm herself down, telling me that she was at least willing to fight to calm herself down. It was the fact that she _needed_ to try so hard to do so that was not good for me.

Qrow and Ozpin noticed Yang's small outburst, too, but didn't broach the subject. Qrow did give a long stare at me, though.

"Sorry. Bad joke," I retreated quickly. "Of course we'll all accept." The looks all went away, except for Qrow glaring at me and Yang trying _not_ to glare at me.

"Of course, you won't be going on any sort of mission alone," Ironwood interjected, received by Ozpin with a nod.

"No indeed. You'll be working under the command of one of Beacon's own Huntsmen."

"Who?" Blake asked.

Ironwood gave a small frown and Ozpin smirked before hiding it behind his coffee mug and looking to his left at Qrow, who gave a signature Branwen smirk.

 _Oh, great. I'm sure that can't backfire on me at all._

"wh _AT!?_ " Ruby half-spoke and half-squealed. " _YES!_ "

"Isn't that a lot of students for one Huntsman?" Ren asked, diverting attention from how Ruby suddenly calmed down a lot and lost coloration. _I seriously need to do something nice for Ren here soon; this man is singlehandedly making this hangover less miserable._

Ozpin nodded while still taking a sip from his mug, and it was Ironwood that responded. "Even if Beacon is taking the lead, this is still a joint-operation with Atlas. I will be supplying a trusted specialist for your mission."

Weiss perked up slightly at the general's words, and he noticed her doing so. She gave him a curious, albeit cautious look, asking some silent question that I didn't understand. The general gave her one small nod in confirmation, and Weiss' mouth went slightly agape in surprise before she recovered and straightened her posture once more. Qrow, however, scowled slightly. I wasn't sure what to make of any of that.

"So why couldn't Sun and Neptune be here for this?" Yang asked, certainly in a better mood now than she was before. Although she wasn't just fawning over her uncle, she was fighting a small grin now, which put me infinitely more at ease than I had been all day. _It meant that whatever I did wasn't so distracting to her that she couldn't put it aside._

That didn't mean that groping was ruled out, but it did rule out other— _wait, what the fuck? When did_ I _start falling for that groping thing?!_

"Mr. Wukong and Mr. Vasilias are both students of Mistral, and authorizing inter-academy missions has always been…difficult," Ozpin tried to explain. "There are several logistical and legal issues that need to be worked out ahead of time, such as supervision, insurance, transportation, compensation… The reason you eight have been chosen is that all of you attend the same academy."

"And we're stubborn," I added on.

"And that."

"But Atlas is sending a specialist," Weiss pointed out.

"That's different. For starters, specialists are members of the Atlas military, not the Atlas academy. It is much less rare for militaries to run joint-operations than it is for academies. In addition to that, the head of the Atlas military is standing right here."

"I'm guessing that's significant?" Pyrrha asked, not trying to be rude but certainly coming off that way.

"Very. I have already tried to get in contact with Headmaster Lionhart at Mistral to include his two students on the mission, since they've already been involved once and are already in Vale, but I've been unable to get a hold of him. I shall continue to reach out, but until he gets in touch, the mission will consist of only the eight of you."

"Is there anything we can do in the meantime?"

"There is one thing, yes," Ozpin answered cryptically. "Miss Xiao Long, Miss Schnee?"

"Hmm?" the girls hummed in unison, making their attention clear.

"I believe you two already have a large task ahead of you, is that correct?"

"We don't—" Yang started, before Weiss 'subtly' kicked her in the foot. "Oh…yeah. The dance."

"The dance?" I whispered, leaning over to Ren to see what they were talking about. He didn't turn to answer, but shrugged to let me know he was equally as clueless. I turned and asked Nora the same thing, but with similarly disappointing results.

"Sounds boring," Nora whispered back—er, as close to 'whispering' as Nora got, at least.

I reached around Nora's back to where Pyrrha was standing at the end of the group and tapped the back of her arm to get her attention, before mouthing 'dance?' to her. She seemed taken back by the question, apparently even more caught off-guard about it than the three of us had been, but she soon parlayed that into nodding enthusiastically.

Which…didn't make sense. _Why would she be surprised that there was a dance, and then confirm it so thoroughly?_ Out of our whole team, she's the only one who went to any sort of typical combat school before this, making her the most grounded when it came to matters like these, but that wouldn't explain her sudden shift in response unless—

 _Oh._

Unless I had just asked her _to_ the dance.

"That should keep you busy enough for now. We're not far from it, after all; you can expect to hear more from me or Qrow after the dance." It was clear from the tone in Ozpin's voice—not to mention the fact that general Ironwood was doing a poor job of acting patient—that he was dismissing us, and most of us mumbled thank yous or other polite things as we walked back out into the elevator that had at some point been called for us. _Ozpin probably has full control of it on that computer._

"So, are dances like a normal thing at combat schools or something?" I asked as soon as the doors had shut and we were on our way down. Yang and Weiss' jaws dropped in indignation, as if shocked that I would dare question such a sacred thing.

"Uh, _duh_ ," Ruby called back, though with less passion than Yang or Weiss would have. "What do you do, live under a rock?"

"Sorry, it just seems like a weird thing to focus on instead of, like, things to stop you from dying."

"Forgive him, Ruby," Weiss spat in a very unforgiving tone. "Heathens like him wouldn't know about the finer points of life."

"Okay, that's fair, but it's still a little low. _Heathen_?" I half-mocked back at her. "Who else here didn't know that was a normal thing."

Other than me, three other hands nervously raised high enough to be counted: Ren, Nora, and Blake.

" _What?!_ Are you kidding me?"

"How's that for heathens?" I needled back at Weiss, who looked a little less proud of her insult now that it affected three genuinely nice people. _I'm fair game, though; not even really mad about that._

"Wait, I thought Jaune was a pirate…?" Nora asked, utterly lost with what was going on. "I'm confused. Does this make me a pirate too? Are we forming a Pirate Team?"

"Oh, yeah, I _am_ a pirate," I responded. " _Yarr._ Hey Yang, do you know what pirates hunt?"

The elevator went dead quiet as five of its occupants looked around each other in a frantic panic, before all five of them scrambled to grab a hold of me and prevent me from starting the apocalypse.

I got close, too, but was too restrained to be able to try anything, instead locking eyes with Yang. From the flat look she gave me, it was pretty clear that she had figured out where the pun was going to come in and wasn't thrilled, but she was also fighting a small smile at the antics of the group. After a few moments, she caught herself and her small smile and flat look was replaced with a wary, distrusting look in her eyes that reminded me that we still had some unfinished business, and that I should probably let things lie between us until then.

"Alr—" I started to speak, only to be forcefully cut off by Weiss' hand over my mouth, apparently terrified that I was going to try to say 'booty' anyways, and that somehow saying it would give me the strength to carry out the rest of the joke, despite at least 500 pounds of force holding me back. I shook my head until she let go. "Alright, alright. I give up."

"Don't let him go!" Ruby called out, for some reason climbing up my back to sit on my shoulders.

"Can I ask what is going on?" I looked around to Ren and Weiss, who had my right arm, and to Nora and Pyrrha, who had my left, and no one gave me answers. A glance up to Blake revealed that she was just as surprised by what was going on as anyone.

We reached the bottom and the elevator doors opened with a ding, and I was dragged out through them whether I liked it or not. I nearly choked and fell over backwards as Ruby tightened her grip on my neck so that she could lean underneath the door to the elevator.

"ONWARD!" Nora called out. "We'll get answers out of him yet!"

"Guys, seriously, this is a little overkill." I tried to sound reassuring, but the whole thing was too funny and a few giggles undercut my serious tone. "I'll just tell you if you ask nicely."

"Uh huh, _sure,_ " Weiss drawled back sarcastically. "Where did you go last night, then?"

"I trashed Junior's Club. It's something of a tradition to do so after he ticks you off," I answered back, catching everyone off-guard with my honesty. So much so, in fact, that I worried that they might assume the truth to be me lying, but I had already decided that trying to hide _everything_ from last night wouldn't work well. I mean, I probably could get away with giving them a plain lie and they would be nice enough not to press it, but I wanted them to know that I actually do trust them with things.

Not everything, like my involvement with Torchwick or the fact that Neo was supposed to go 'clean up' after me, but with some things. As an added bonus, it might placate Yang somewhat if she saw that I was opening up and trusting the group with one of the secrets I told her; she's seemed on the fence about me so far, and hopefully this would be enough for her to decide not to tell everyone what it is she knows.

In short, telling some truth is the best chance I have at hiding the rest of the truth. _And it might get them to let go of my arms._

"You…uh… _what?_ " Weiss babbled out, so stunned at me not lying that she let go of my arm. The others were similarly dumbfounded, but not enough to let go. Ruby did start leaning over to the side to try to look at my face, which made me have to shift my balance to stay upright.

"Yeah, I had to ditch you guys to do it—sorry about that, by the way, but I did turn my scroll on so you could see I was alive—and I went over there to give him a piece of my mind."

"S-Sorry about that?! _That_ is all you have to say for yourself?!"

"Look, it's not like I killed anyone or anything. Yang, you were there. Tell them!"

That was a risk, asking Yang to come to my defense, but the only way she could turn it against me would be to lie or to tell them anything more. It wasn't even the greatest risk I've taken in the last 48 hours, honestly.

"Uh…yeah. He didn't _kill_ anyone." Yang's expression was extremely conflicted and confused, but coming to my defense was a very good sign for me. _Even if it wasn't the most…reassuring reassurance in the world._

"What were you even doing at Junior's?" Pyrrha asked, letting go of my arm to walk around and get a better look at my face.

"Uh…pirate business."

" _Jaune…_ " more than one person groaned, disappointed.

"Look, it's not anything super serious," I lied. "I was just…" I trailed off, thinking of what to tell them, before deciding screw it, I'll tell them more truth. _What can it hurt for them to know now?_ "He's an information dealer. I was just…looking for information on my family. Same as Yang, I swear!"

"…Yang?" Ruby asked, still hanging off the side of my shoulders. She might have known the reason that Yang trashed Junior's club, but the others wouldn't, and Ruby wouldn't assume that _I_ knew why Yang had done it.

"I was looking for my mom the time I destroyed The Club," Yang confirmed to the group.

"How did Jaune know that?" Ren asked, ever too focused to let a difficult (for me to answer) question lie unsaid.

"Jaune and I knew." It was Blake of all people, stepping in to rescue me from having to answer, though I'm not sure why. _Maybe all that talk of me doing for her what I would want done for me is paying dividends._ "That's why you went to Junior, isn't it? Because Yang had tried it too?"

"Yeah…" I answered, feigning a little bit of shame to sell it. Leave it to Blake to come up with a _fantastic_ out for me. _Come to think of it, the whole group covered for me up there with Ozpin; there really must be something to this whole 'friends' thing._

Raven should try it someti—actually, no. A _more_ powerful Raven only spells worse news for me.

"But aren't you… you know…?" Ruby asked.

"No, I really don't know where you're going with this. Aren't I a what?"

"Aren't you an orphan?" Ruby asked, cringing and regretting having to ask it at all, but pushing through it anyways. "…what did you think Junior was going to do?"

"Oh my god, Ruby, you can't just say stuff like that," Weiss chastised.

"No, she's fine," I cut in on Ruby's behalf. "I didn't think that Junior would help me _find_ my family or anything. I was just…hoping Junior could help me with closure."

"Did he?" Ruby asked quietly. The rest of the group was eerily silent and waited for an answer, save for Yang, who was still judging me with her eyes and giving me an overall uneasy sense of mistrust.

"I had to stab someone to get out of there, so…no, Ruby. He was not particularly helpful."

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Ah, what's that? It looks like Yang is talking herself out of overreacting to Jaune's little secret? Well, we're going to have to fix that. We have a confrontation to get to, after all.**

 **Yang doesn't know what she knows she doesn't know.**  
That phrase was as confusing to write as it is to read.  
 **She did suspect Blake of just running to Jaune and giving him a heads up, because that's how she sees their relationship after eavesdropping that one time. We know that it's more of Jaune working to help fix Blake's problems behind the scenes, and Yang doesn't even realize that Blake might be doing the same thing here. Of course, Blake has much more noble intentions than Jaune usually might.**

 **I do like Blake being a mediator between Jaune and Yang. It makes the planned sex scene so much more intimate.**

 _ **That's a joke, guys. I swear. Seriously. It's not foreshadowing. No sex scenes. Ever. Probably. Not between those three.  
Also now I need to consult the shipping chart to see what that three-way is called. For curiosity's sake, and certainly not to put in the story description. Nope. **_

**We also had Team RWBYJNPR casually coming to Jaune's defense, either because they'd do that for him anyways or they still wanted to corner him and grill him first. Such loving friends, amiright?**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by... _***sighs***_ _Avidlag_ on **Ch. 20**

 _Why is it always you? Could you_ not _bring up an important question every week? kthanksbye :P_

"Jaune Arc is incredible awesome - Red heads everywhere

So I don't know if it's coincidence or if Jaune just has a natural instinct for sticking it to Raven any chance he can get, but I find it amusing that last week I said that Raven would probably say the only difference between Qrow and Jaune was that Jaune didn't go out to get drunk. Sunday rolls around and low and behold he's taking in liquor like water. At this point I'm under the impression that Jaune is Qrow's bastard. Especially given his luck. If bad luck is hereditary it would explain so much."

 **Okay, like, let me get this out there that since I already had the whole scene with Junior mostly finished the week before, it was written _before_ your comment about Jaune not getting drunk like Qrow. First Couer and the groping thing, now you having incredibly terrible foresight; can _I_ catch a break? Jaune is supposed to be the one who never gets things his way. **

**Oh god, am I projecting onto Jaune? Is that why his life sucks?**

"Speaking of last week! I noticed that Raven said she picked up Jaune around when he was 4 years of age. She by this logic was still working for Ozpin by the time Yang was four since Yang and Jaune are presumably the same age, and Ruby would be two around this time. So I was wondering when exactly Raven left Tai?"

 **Okay, so this was a good point that I myself had to do some mental jumping-jacks to make sense of. You are correct that Jaune was picked up by Raven at the age of 4, as was my intention. When planning things out, I wanted Jaune to be just old enough to maybe-sorta remember things hazily, if at all. I also didn't want him so young as to be seen as a baby, because Raven taking a baby into the Tribe to be raised doesn't sound practical for her at all. A four year old requires significantly less supervision than a two year old, so it fit well. Plus, it would feel really cheap if Raven left two-year-old Yang and immediately took in a two-year-old boy.**

 **As it is, I'm flexing my FanFic Author Powers, just a tiny bit. It hasn't exactly been expounded upon in the show (to my current knowledge, that is, but I do need to sit down and watch the whole show front to back again soon) _exactly_ how Raven left and Tai hooked up with Summer. It's assumed that Raven left when Yang was one or two (hell, maybe I'm just drawing a blank) and Ruby was born shortly after, because this makes Raven seem like the only bad guy. **

**Well, for the remainder of this story, Raven and Tai split up when Yang was about one or two, because they don't really share values all that much. Tai and Summer settled down quickly after that and Raven was pushed further into Ozpin's service to distract herself, which only served to hasten her departure altogether. This would mean that Yang might have those same hazy/fuzzy memories of Raven, and more importantly, would remember the sting of her mother abandoning them for good.**

 **Which, is kinda important for Yang's character, so it all works out. If you squint at it.**

 **Good question, though; I'm glad you had me clear that up!**

"A request for one Turquoise Leaf. Please hold all murder attempts until after the story has reached it's conclusion. Some of us would like to see where Ike is taking us. I would ask to for you to hold indefinitely, but you ARE the one with the knife here, so I'll keep it simple."

 **Okay, my reviews are officially getting out of hand here. First the reviews on other reviews, now subscriber-fights. You guys sure know how to keep things interesting.**

 **To be fair, he didn't review this week, so...you might have actually done it? I'm not sure how I feel about you running of my reviewers, buddy. Murderous, blackmailing reviewers, sure, but in, like, a fun sort of way! I'm not making this sound better, am I? Oh well,** _Turquoise **,**_ **we hope you're still around. I miss writing fanfiction with my life on the line; it's so exhilarating!**

 **Also, I really appreciate that** _Avid_ **came to my defense NOT because of the sanctity of human life or a sense of duty to protect the innocent-and me-but instead because you want to make sure I stick the landing to the story. _Really feeling the love_** **. :P**

 **I like to think that if I pull a stunt like the end of V3 or V3's Gingercide (Ginger Genocide, if you will), that you'll retract your protection of me and leave me to the wolves. That said, if I get the inspiration to break your hearts, I'll do so at the drop of a damn hat; anyone who read my other RWBY fic knows I'm not above going for the heartstrings. Be very happy that I already have an outline I'm trying to stick to, bucko!**

 _ **Did you guys like that subtle advertisement that I have a completely finished, Jaune-centric RWBY fic set between volumes 4 and 5? I bet you would never in a million years figure that out...**_

 **See ya next week.**

* * *

"Personally I always like to soak my surroundings and body with copious amounts of alcohol before I piss of a girl with hair made of fire."  
 _\- Kingofclubs8129_

 **Tally one more for "Jaune Has Even More Shit Luck and This Time It Wasn't The Writer's Intention." Personally, I've lost count.**


	24. Pyrrha's Meeting

**[REFINED Jan 3, 2019] Author's Note: There was a gap of one week between this chapter's release and the next chapters. I was a groomsman for a friend's wedding over the summer, and that combined with my work schedule left me stretched too thin to write anything decent.**

 **Nothing came of it, except for some fun times with** _Turquoise_ , **of course.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 22:** _"Sometimes I'm not so sure it's not me who has the bad-luck semblance..." – Jaune Arc_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

"Any idea where Pyrrha is?" I asked Ren, more out of curiosity than for a specific reason.

"She said she was going to Vale after class," Ren answered back with a shrug. It was Friday, after all, which meant that this nightmare of a week was finally coming to a close, and it couldn't get here any faster. That doesn't mean that there aren't still things I need to get done, nor does it mean that there aren't repercussions from this week I'll have to deal with from this point on, but from last Friday to today has to be the most stressful week I've ever experienced. _I can't even really think of a close second._

Ren and I had just wrapped up some aura training, with more progress made by him than by me. That wasn't too surprising, I guess, since he was just practicing defensive aura manipulations, and he had two advantages over me to boot. For one, I have experience doing exactly what it is he is trying to learn and can guide him down the path easily; the other is that what he is trying to learn is a common, well-established practice. What _I_ am working on is not as much so. Not only am I trying to make the leap from aura manipulation to projection—which, by itself, is already a difficult task—I am also trying to experiment with aura projection in ways no one has ever tried. Trying to shape my aura into that of a weapon, even a small one, and then enhance that with my semblance to see if I can't create something out of nothing, sounds extremely promising.

It's also extremely frustrating, because I haven't even gotten the projection part down yet. I've gotten close, but normally only when my mind starts to wander or when I lose focus due to frustration. Ren has suggested that I might have more success using it reflexively and should try to focus less on the task and more on emotions. _The fact that either of us would recommend focusing on emotions is laughable, but if nothing else is working…_

If nothing else, after this past week I have had plenty of errant and uncontrollable emotion to draw from, though I didn't exactly feel comfortable with encouraging my rage with Ren sitting next to me.

"What about Yang?" I asked, staving off the silence as we grabbed our things and headed back inside. We had trained on the roof, letting the warm sun and cool breeze do what it could to make things peaceful. "I still need to…uh…"

"Apologize?" Ren asked knowingly.

"I. did not. grope. Yang." I grumbled angrily, knowing that nothing I said would quell that rumor. Most of me believed that my friends didn't actually believe it, but ran with it because it was, in a way, funny; only a tiny sliver of my mind suspected that they both believed and accepted that I would do that. _I just need to pray that it never gets out of our circle, because the moment that the student body thinks Yang just let me do that to her is the moment she hunts me down for good._

"I completely believe you," Ren lied, badly, doing his best imitation of me.

"I still need to find out what it is I did that set her off—and _no_ , it wasn't gr—oh, never mind. I don't know why I bother."

We made our way down the stairs in silence. As we approached our dorm, the sound of speakers blaring tween pop music at full volume was unmistakably coming from inside, mixed with someone who really can't sing's voice doing its best not to be drowned out. Ren and I exchanged a strange, hesitant look that made it clear to me that he was just as confused as I was. The look held for more than a second or two as we silently asked each other if it was worth the risk to open the door to our room.

I held my scroll up to the door and it unlocked with its normal, quiet click, and I opened it a moment later. As soon as I did, an explosion of red rocked through the room and a microphone dropped out of the air at the source of the explosion, hitting the ground with a thud. I only had a few second to question why in the hell a floating microphone had exploded into— _are those rose petals?_ _The hell?_ —before my attention was drawn to what was making the blaring music.

At the opposite wall from the door, the window was blacked out with a curtain and a tv was propped up with a karaoke machine plugged in to it, and despite one of the microphones now laying on the floor, the other one was still being used by an oblivious Nora. Ren and I exchanged another look, as Nora was extremely into the experience and was dancing rather wildly and mildly seductively, which was something I didn't need to see in my lifetime. To top things off, Nora was wearing a cape made from one of the white bedsheets in the dorm, and the material was thin enough to make it obvious that on the other side of that cape, Nora was in nothing but her underwear.

Ren and I exchanged another worried look, though his eyes certainly lacked the surprise mine held, more resigned than anything. I had a quick, fleeting thought about what must have gone through in his life to make Nora singing karaoke in her underwear in the middle of the afternoon elicit nothing but a quiet, defeated sigh from the man.

"Nora!" I yelled, getting drowned out by the music, and even if I wasn't, Nora was singing loudly enough not to have heard me anyways. "NORA!" Still nothing.

Nora didn't stop until she hit a solo in the song and diverted all her focus to dancing to the beat—a weird enough thing for what sounded like boy band music instead of dance music—which found her bouncing and swaying her hips side to side (though more in a crazy, flailing dance than a suggestive one, thank dust), and then spinning around while doing so. She didn't even notice us standing in the door way until she looked up from her dancing, freezing as she locked eyes with us. Frozen in place with her arms above her head, her hips thrown out to one side, and wearing nothing but her normal undergarments plus a dramatic, flowing cape, she reacted in the only reasonable way possible.

She shrieked and chunked her microphone at my forehead with enough force to knock me off my feet and flat on my back.

" _Owwww…_ "

"What is wrong with you?! Don't you _knock!?_ "

"Nora, you couldn't even hear us yelling at you," Ren tried to reason with her, coming to my defense as gently as possible.

" _Owwww…_ "

"Oh, hi Renny. Is this _pervert_ with you?"

"Why am _I_ the pervert?" I groaned, rubbing my forehead and trying to flood my aura in to take the edge of the pain. _This is going to give me another headache, isn't it?_

"First, you go after Yang—"

"I DIDN'T GROPE YANG!" I yelled from the floor.

"—now you break into my room to be a peeping tom!"

"THIS IS MY ROOM TOO!" I yelled again, pushing myself back up to my feet. Nora had wrapped herself up in her cape, seemingly oblivious or indifferent to how little it actually did, being a cheap, translucent sheet.

"Look, I'm just here to grab my armor, then I'll get out of your hair," I bargained, walking past Nora to reach under my bed and hoping that she didn't take my movement as some sort of declaration of war or something. I had worn the armor to Junior's since Raven dumped it on me, and presumably someone had taken it off me before throwing me on my bed that night, because I woke up in my same clothes less the armor. I had found it on the floor yesterday and kicked it under the bed for the time being.

"My eyes are up here, Jaune."

"My eyes are under my _bed_ , Nora! That doesn't even make any sense!"

"Whatever, just hurry up and get out." Nora's tone seemed a little desperate, like she was trying to herd me out more quickly than was necessary, which got me suspicious—more suspicious than walking in to find her singing to boy bands in a rather peculiar outfit. It also reminded me of the floating microphone that exploded in a flash of red and then crashed to the floor. In hindsight, I wouldn't even need to know that the floor was littered with rose petals to figure out what happened, but it did help that there was a trail of them leading to the closet. "No, don't—!"

I opened the closet door before I could be stopped, revealing a very red-in-the-face Ruby who was very obviously pulling her cloak around her to hide herself.

"Ruby, _please_ tell me you're wearing more clothes than Nora…"

Ruby didn't answer immediately, and my mind began to imagine all of the ways that Yang was going to kill me, and whether she'd wait long enough to let Qrow and Taiyang have a piece of me too.

To my horror, Ruby very ashamedly began to open up her cape.

"Ruby, don't—" But Ruby did, revealing herself to be wearing a proper shirt. "Oh thank dust."

"…you are never going to tell Yang about thing, okay?"

" _Way_ ahead of you, Ruby. I'm going to forget this ever happened as soon as I can."

She was wearing a t-shirt for the same boy band that they had been doing karaoke for—achievement something? Achieve-Men something?—and it was oversized enough to make it half-way to her knees, hiding her shorts from view…if she was wearing them.

I made an executive decision not to try to find that out, instead turning around and heading out the door. Things were already weird enough, and my life is marginally more important than answering that question. The last thing I needed was Weiss or Blake being the next one to appear in questionable clothing choices, or Yang to find out that any of this had taken place. If Ruby and Nora wanted to keep their weird karaoke sessions away from Yang, that was 100% okay by me.

"If you need me, I'm going to go talk to Yang," I announced as I exemplified the phrase 'GTFO,' shooting out the door like a banshee. Ren, to his credit, really hadn't shown any emotion or even moved since we walked in, but his eyes gave away hints of shock.

"Why do you need your armor to talk to Yang?" Ren asked before I could get away.

"N-No reason."

 _Certainly not on the off-chance that I did grope Yang._

Although that reminds me that I need to stop by my locker and grab my weapons…for the same not-a-reason.

Ozpin's POV

"It's been days, Ozpin. Amber isn't improving, and she's only barely stable." James' frustration was somewhat matched and countered by Glynda and Qrow's, but for the first time since the topic has come up, neither of them could vocalize any objections to James' idea. I'd learned long ago that when critics no longer felt confident enough to criticize, that meant it was past time to get started. "We need to start vetting candidates."

"And what leads you to believe that I haven't begun that already?" _Of course, I also learned long ago that when you prepare for the worst-case scenario, you'll be surprised how often it pays off._

"You have a list?" He asked, letting his surprise slip a little.

"Nothing so concrete nor specific to the Maidens," I replied. "But I have always kept tabs on my students, both those showing promise and those showing…problems." That last part wasn't directed at someone who could be a Maiden candidate, but nonetheless was just as peculiar. _I spied James eyeing down Mr. Arc during their introduction, too, not that such a thing was surprising in the least._ "It should help us narrow down our approach."

"And what is that?" Glynda cut in. "Our approach, that is."

"We can't afford a weak candidate," James answered almost immediately, telegraphing his biggest concern. Indeed, Amber was the weakest of the few that we approved last time, but we weren't fortunate enough for the previous Maiden to have been thinking about any of the others. Peaceful Maiden-transfers are a tricky and somber business, one that no one takes much pleasure in. The Maidens know that the four girls we assign to be their 'bodyguards' or 'supplementary team' are there to inherit their powers. It can be a difficult thing, trying to trust and work with someone who is there because you are expected to die soon. Typically, when a Maiden takes things in stride or with acceptance, they become the last check on the transfer process: whichever of the candidates they like the most typically is the one that ends up with the powers…

In peaceful transfers, anyways. There have been Maidens who were attacked and happened to glance at one of their apprentices as they expired, and there was even a case of one of the candidates assassinating the Maiden during the middle of an ambush to ensure that their attackers were not the ones to gain the power. _Amber, however, was the recipient of a peaceful transfer, and she was the one out of the four candidates I expected the previous Maiden to take a liking to._ She had a strong sense of charity and morality, and an indominable spirit that stoked a fiery personality. On paper, she was a flight risk and uncontrollable, but in person, those flaws too easily seemed like boons.

"Amber only has half her aura, which means half her powers, if I understand this thing right," Qrow added on. I gave him a nod to confirm it. In the beginning, I had tied my powers to their souls, thinking that doing so would prevent them from dying; after all, to an old wizard like me, an eternal soul sounded like a powerful thing to gift. How shocked I was when the first of the Maidens to die had her soul gifted to another…

 _If I had it all to do again, with what I know now, I do wonder how much better I could have done._ After all, with lifetimes more experience with aura and research on it, I could do better than just 'tying the power to their souls.' Perhaps I would have designated that the power's first task was to prevent the Maidens from aging, or maybe I should have tied _them_ to the power, so that upon death the power would re-manifest itself as another version of the same woman. _Or maybe I just keep my power, preventing Salem from ever taking any of it._

"Which means that strength is even more critical than usual. Our Maiden will have to defend everything with only half the power as usual, and she'll have the other half gunning for her."

"Strength is not the only factor," I warned. It was the first concern, obviously, but a marginally weaker candidate would be preferable over another Amber. "We must to be able to control her as well."

"That sounded pretty harsh, but I agree," Qrow cut in, though not particularly enthused. "It won't do to hand some girl the keys to your car only have her drive it into the ocean." Ironwood and Glynda raised an eyebrow at Qrow's specific analogy, and I hid a small smirk behind my mug. "Yes, that happened. I'm not sure if Tai will ever let Yang forget that. _Lousy brat._ "

"Speaking of Yang, what do you think of her?" I asked, fully expecting Qrow to react negatively to the question.

"What do I think of her? I think she's my niece is what I think of her." His tone made it clear that he understood the nature of the question, and wanted to play hardball. "I'm not going to paint a bullseye on my niece's back. _Either of them,_ " he finished with a glare.

"Humor me, then. How would Yang stack up as a candidate?"

"I'm not doing this, Oz. There are better choices."

"Perhaps," I allowed, hiding my frustrations for a moment to allow Qrow to let his guard slip. "Or perhaps not. Beacon's two oldest classes were weaker than average and didn't produce nearly as many strong female candidates as I had hoped. The strongest team is arguably CFVY, and neither Ms. Adel nor Ms. Scarlatina have displayed exceptional technical skill or potential for said skill; not against anything other than Grimm, at least.

"We will have to look to the younger classes and we cannot afford to mark off _any_ names for personal attachments, Qrow." He had since stiffened at the rebuke, not something he had ever grown accustomed to withstanding. _He is so very like his sister in that regard._ "You may rest assured that your youngest niece is not on my radar at the moment—too young to be of use in our current crisis—but we cannot afford to be picky. We need a mix of loyalty, strength, potential, and morality, and I'm merely asking you to expound upon whether or not your niece holds these qualities."

Glynda and James had gone dead silent. Qrow was unaccustomed to earning legitimate beratement from me, and being my left-hand man, he has been the one to see it most often, at least in this life. James and Glynda rarely, if at all, had seen me truly irate.

Not that they saw me truly irate at this moment, merely annoyed. It only takes a couple of lifetimes to get a handle on the difference between being angry, being furious, and seeing nothing but red, and after a handful more lifetimes you learn to control how to let them out on command.

" _Fine_. What do you want to know?" Qrow gave in, still obviously upset.

"I'm only asking we start a discussion. Pros and cons; why would we pick Yang Xiao Long, and why shouldn't we?"

"Her biggest draw is strength," he said after a sigh and a chance to think. "She's been trained by Tai and me since she was little, and she's a natural at fighting. Big aura pool, too, and her semblance is technically defensive in nature."

"Technically?" James asked.

"Miss Xiao Long's semblance amplifies all of her aspects, but is only triggered after sustained damage over a period of time," Glynda filled in. "But she has been known to lessen the damage required for activation—or forgo it entirely—if enraged. The semblance is tied to her personality and her emotion."

"Which would be a downside. She's a hothead, really. She got the worst of both ends there; she got her father's short fuse and the depths of her mother's rage," Qrow added on, flowing right back into his analysis. "Which also leads to her largest drawback: loyalty. She's not the submissive type that you could control easily, which she _definitely_ gets from Raven. She's a good kid and protective to a fault, but the only way to get loyalty is by earning her trust."

"But her trust can be earned," I added. She's taken a fast hold to her team despite its unorthodox and nearly polar-opposite composition, what with a Schnee and a faunus (and an ex-Fang one at that), which reflects favorably on her. From what I understand, she is fiercely loyal, so loyalty per say is not a drawback, only obtaining it.

"Not if her mother has anything to say about it, it can't. There are a lot of things that aren't easy to explain, but would be infinitely harder if Raven got in her ear."

"Would she trust her mother?" Glynda asked. "We're not exactly talking about a close relative, per say. We're talking about the woman who abandoned her kid and her team."

"Another problem," Qrow answered more softly, almost in a sigh. "She's struggled to get past being left behind like that. If Raven approached her, there's no telling if she'd be enraged or if she'd bend over backwards to get her— _a_ —mom back. It's been, what, fourteen years now, so she probably hates Raven, but I can't guarantee that. I'd bet she'd still go looking for her mom if she could."

"She did, if I recall," I added on.

"Mmhmm. The little brat started a bar fight over it."

"…how old is she, again?" Ironwood asked Qrow pointedly, and dismissively. "She's certainly _your_ niece."

"What about her teammate?" Glynda asked, cutting off Qrow and James' squabbling before it could begin.

"You'll have to be more specific," I answered, bemused with myself. "Team RWBY is one of the first teams in a while with a chance to outshine STRQ."

"Hey now, let's not get crazy."

"As long as they don't impregnate each other or leave this life altogether, I'd give them the advantage," I quipped back at Qrow. Qrow raised his hand to object but I beat him to the punch. "Or become alcoholics."

"…I was just going to say that's unfair because they _can't_ get each other pregnant…"

" _Miss Schnee,_ " Glynda cut in with an agitated voice and an expression to match, clearly not as amused by the exchange.

"Oh, so _now_ we're going to consider a Schnee for the Maidenhood?" James stated grumpily, still sore that Winter was excluded from being a candidate the last time. In all likelihood, even if she had been included, the powers still would have gone to Amber, but that wasn't a point that would lay the argument to rest.

"Not likely, but I'll entertain it. What strengths would she bring?"

"Restraint, unlike miss Xiao Long. She is self-disciplined and self-motivated, with an impressive foundation of technical combat skill."

"I remember much the same arguments being made for her sister," I brought up, pointedly avoiding looking at James until I finished my follow-up comment. "And I assume the same counter-arguments still hold true. She _is_ the SDC heiress."

"Winter renounced that title willingly when she joined my service, but that was a mere formality. Jacque Schnee would not let his empire go to someone who did not share his priorities; I fear that her status as heiress will not be a hinderance forever."

"You think ole _Jacque Frost_ is gonna cut off another daughter? Yeesh," Qrow grumbled. "At least Raven left her kid with something—or someone."

"I do not believe the other concerns about Winter would hold over for Weiss," Glynda added. "We could not guarantee that Winter's upbringing would not affect her view of the world."

"An unfair objection, even at the time," James cut in with a glare.

"I believe how close her entire team has grown, given their differences, suggests she would not disappoint," Glynda continued without acknowledging James' grumbles.

"Very well. Miss Xiao Long is a risk because she is a loose-cannon, and miss Schnee is a risk because she has less strength, physically speaking."

"I do believe I vouched for her combat skill," Glynda cut back, a little offended.

"You did, but having a solid foundation of technical skill and being strong enough to become an effective Maiden is a wide gap," I answered back, as gracious as I could manage. "Besides, I have security footage of the training rooms that would indicate her technical skill to be lacking in comparison to one of her peers."

"I hardly think it's fair to hold one loss against her. Such occurrences are required for young students to improve."

"She didn't just lose. She got her ass kicked," Qrow chimed in, earning an eye-cut from Glynda.

"I also think it's hardly fair to blame her for losing to Mr. Arc, given that he is evenly matched to Ms. Nikos."

James, who had been watching the exchange curiously since he has not seen the security footage in question, definitely hung on to the inclusion of Jaune Arc's name. _Also, since when did Glynda seem to adopt a more favorable view of Mr. Arc? Given her previous issues, I would have expected she would hold a loss to him_ against _Ms. Schnee._

"Evenly matched to Pyrrha Nikos?" James asked, not bothering to hide his interest. "He certainly has the name for it."

"Indeed," I answered, taking a sip of coffee and not rising to James' bait.

"Is he one of _those_ Arcs?"

"Not sure. Haven't been able to get a straight answer out of him yet," Qrow answered first.

"Either he has a talent for choosing his words carefully, or he was taught how to. Both options would make sense," I added on.

"How is that possible?" James asked in muted disbelief. "I've seen the reports myself. We recovered all of their bodies. None survived."

"Perhaps." In truth, I had given a decent bit of thought to the subject since the semester's commencement, a fun little puzzle of no real consequence to distract me from more grave matters. "The Arcs acted much more as spies than knights in the last few hundred years, focusing on staying hidden rather than drawing attention. It is not unreasonable to suspect that one of them could have survived and gone into hiding."

"The bodies don't lie, Oz. And you had people there to confirm it while those bodies were still warm." His eyes shifted to Qrow, as if his meaning wasn't clear anyways. "Two of them. Are you trying to tell me that they were _both_ fooled?"

"Hey."

"No," I answered. "Only one of them."

" _Hey._ "

"That mission was the last one Raven completed before she abandoned her post. With that in mind and the possibility of a surviving Arc, we can't trust anything in her report to be accurate. She would have had to make arrangements _before_ leaving, and that leaves it possible that she never completed her part of the mission, or even participated."

"The bitch could have just made up her reports based on what mine looked like. We were split up for most of the mission anyways, so I can't even confirm that she ever made it to the sight. We didn't rendezvous until the next day."

"As for the 'warm bodies,' several of the bodies were a little more than warm." Charred was a better word, trapped underneath the rubble of a burnt cabin. "Given the nature and number of their attackers, it may be possible that the body of one of Salem's assailants was mistaken for the body of an Arc."

"This boy here now—Jaune Arc, is it?—we had no intel that he ever even existed."

"We had no intel about a _lot_ of things about the Arcs…right there before the end, anyways." It went unspoken what _that_ meant, as the room fell into an unease silence filled with frowns and thin lips. "Lionhart never was good at communicating things ahead of time. We didn't even know that he was working to hide the Arcs from Salem until _after_ they were all killed."

"Still," James pressed on, unwilling to let his concerns be dropped. It was an attribute that had forged such a successful military career and had earned the respect of many of those under his care; after all, when your boss left no stone unturned before sending you on a mission, you felt as if he was truly on your side. Inspiring soldiers and the public came naturally for James and was something I would put up with, even if it meant explaining things over and over. "The boy is, what, seventeen? Eighteen? He would have been a defenseless child on that night."

"Your point?" Qrow asked agitated, likely tired with this discussion because it did somewhat reflect poorly on his intelligence-gathering if an Arc slipped past him, even if he could blame it on his sister. _Qrow likes having excuses, but doesn't enjoy_ needing _them._

"A child, alone in the remote forests of Mistral, with all the forces of the Grimm and their master hunting for him? And he just… _magically_ shows up at Beacon fourteen years later, unscathed and extensively trained?"

"What are you getting at?" I asked, not nearly as harshly as Qrow had. There were two ways this could go—either he had help, or he is a plant in Beacon—and I was more curious what the general's instincts were telling him.

"It's all too convenient." _A plant in Beacon, then; predictable, I suppose, considering James' caution._ "Someone _wants_ us to believe that he's an Arc."

"You think he's a spy?" Glynda asked, he expression unreadable even to me. She never was the most expressive of people, unless you counted glares as diverse means of expression, but the mix of uncertainty on her face was rare. She looked as if torn between leaping to the defense of her student and leaping at the chance to pile on against his reputation, but all of that was being thoroughly restrained by her considerable self-discipline. It made for an unusual sight, though.

"He'd be a pretty crappy spy," Qrow joked darkly. "He has the four of us openly discussing the possibility and it's only been half a semester."

" _That's my point!_ " James cried out. "I'm not saying that _he_ is a spy; he may not even know he's involved. I'm saying that he is the matador's red flag and we are the bull!"

"You think he's a distraction?" I asked, disappointed and a little surprised in myself for not having considered the possibility myself. It would make a great deal of sense, if not a greater deal of luck to find someone named Arc to use as a decoy. _Of course, he could be in on it and just have changed his name, but he seems to understand the significance of his name, if the way he carries himself is any indication._ That would implicate that he was a willing participant of any sort of plot, though to what degree remains to be seen, if there _is_ such a plot. It would not be the first time that James' paranoia betrayed him.

"If he is, he's been a damn good one," Qrow answered, mulling it over. "I don't know if I believe that the kid is on Salem's side, though. He's taken a liking to his little friend group, and vice-versa. Say what you want about them, but there are some sharp ones in that bunch; if they trust him, he's not _evil_." James did not look convinced, and not for a bad reason; it was strange to hear Qrow trust something so significant to a bunch of first year students, but then again, it would not have been strange for me to do so.

"I would concur with that," Glynda added on, which surprised James more than anything. I nodded along absently, which ultimately was enough to lay the conversation to rest, or at least allow it to shift. _Between Ms. Belladonna's own dark past, Ms. Schnee's experience in dealer with fake people, and Ms. Rose's judge of character, I too would be surprised if Jaune Arc had nefarious intentions._

That did not mean I wasn't going to find out for certain.

"You do bring up a valid point that had not been considered, James. If Mr. Arc is being used as a distraction, then it would benefit us to increase our scrutiny."

"What are you suggesting?"

"If he is a distraction, he has been placed in Beacon for a specific purpose, the most obvious of which I believe would be to hide _others_ posing as students." I paused, waiting for anyone to add anything. They did not. "I would say we should begin _discretely_ scrutinizing Beacon's roster, beginning with all students who enrolled simultaneously as Mr. Arc."

"That's still a _lot_ of students to go through," Qrow commented warily.

"And the Vytal Festival quadruples that number. There's no way that Qrow could get through all of them," Glynda added on. "Not on top of his current tasks."

"Agreed. Qrow will focus on gathering intel throughout Vale and hunting Amber's assailants, as discussed previously. James?" The man in question perked up, waiting for my question. "Would it be any bother to have specialist Schnee come to Beacon a few weeks early?"

" _Ugh._ "

"Not at all. I can have her here by the morning," the man responded, catching on to my meaning easily. "Still, there are too many names there for her to give any real scrutiny to them."

"I am aware. I'll contact Shade and Haven, and have each academy vet the students that their sending. It's not ideal, but it will cut down Winter's workload to Atlas and Beacon, with Beacon being the most likely to hold any surprises." Getting a hold of those academies, particularly Haven, would be no easy task, but if worse came to worse I could always contact members of the staff and have them track down Leo for me. "While Qrow and Winter are busy with their tasks, it falls to the three of us to begin vetting candidates. I'll see to it that you have full access to Beacon's infrastructure, James."

The man nodded and a small notification on my computer screen took my attention away from the discussion at hand. It was a notification that the elevator was on its way up and was asking for permission to come to my floor. Since there was no waiting area, the elevator worked as my office door, locking if I wanted it locked. I brought up the feed on the elevator to check who wanted to interrupt this meeting.

"Something wrong?" Glynda asked, noticing my distraction.

"Not at all. In fact, an opportunity has arisen," I answered back cryptically. "Are there any other matters to discuss?" James made to answer, but I amended my statement before he could. "Not pertaining to Maidens, of course. We're only just beginning to research our candidates and _nothing_ has been decided," I reassured, which caused James to back off of his question.

I waited for any remarks, and in that time the elevator arrived, its doors opening to reveal Pyrrha Nikos, wearing a long face.

"Ah, Miss Nikos. Is there some way I can help you?" She nervously stepped out of the elevator, eyeing the crowd assembled around the room, specifically Glynda and James.

"I just…I needed to speak with you about…"

"Your partner?" I guessed, earning a shy nod in confirmation, before she nervously looked back to James, making the cause of her apprehension clear. Glynda and James shared a look, no doubt suspicious of the timing of miss Nikos' appearance and the topic of our previous conversation. James looked to me as if I had planned it out that way, and I made sure to hide my pleased grin behind my mug. _It never hurt to let people think you're some sort of Wizard…_

"I-I can come back. It's not…it can wait," she fumbled nervously.

"Nonsense," James called out. "The four of us had just concluded our business. You have remarkable timing in that regard." He gave me a look after that comment before he moved towards the elevator, with Glynda trailing behind him, both giving Miss Nikos a curt nod as they passed.

While she was distracted with that, I made sure to turn the recording to my office security feeds back on. I turn them off out of habit when discussing anything significant, which this still counted as, but this conversation held promise of being on that I might want on hand later.

"I'm sorry to have interrupted, but—" she began once the elevator had closed and started to descend.

"No, I should be thanking you. There wasn't so much work being discussed as merely catching up with an old friend, and unfortunately, 'catching up' with the general is…a genuine bore. The man is as wooden as they come." Qrow had to turn his head and muffle a small laugh, which did seem to help Ms. Nikos relax.

"That's…" she trailed off, uncomfortable with talking about the man behind his back. "You were right that I'm here about Jaune."

"Ah, yes. Excuse me for a second," I said, turning to Qrow. "Don't you have somewhere to be?"

Qrow grumbled something under his breath but understood the message loud and clear, not that I had made any attempt to be subtle. He understood that I was making it obvious that I wanted Ms. Nikos to feel safe while talking to me, but that didn't mean he appreciated being send out so callously.

"I take it you're concerned about your partner's health. Concussion, was it?" I asked, bringing back up the poor lie his team supplied from the day before after Qrow had exited via elevator. _As I understand it, it's Mr. Arc who is supposed to be the one to intentionally promulgate bad lies in his defense; that his team stepped up to cover for him is interesting._ It likely signaled that his team felt close enough to him that they wanted him protected, which also meant that they were willing to overlook whatever _needed_ to be covered up. That poked holes in the theory that Mr. Arc was complicit in sneaking foes into Beacon.

Assuming that they knew what it was he was covering, that is.

"Um… I don't know how to say this but…"

"The concussion was a lie," I filled in for her.

"You knew…?"

"I find it difficult to believe most defenses of Mr. Arc given by Mr. Arc." I responded, taking a little care not to sound aggressive or bitter. "That it was his friends lying for him was a nice change of pace, but that didn't make me any less generally suspicious. Yes, Ms. Nikos. We knew." _And let it go,_ I didn't say.

"What…what else do you know?" She asked, suddenly a lot more apprehensive.

"Sadly, not much. I generally do not trust Mr. Arc, if I can avoid it, meaning there is very little I feel confident in saying I know definitively."

"O-Oh."

"But, he does trust his friends, and I happen to trust them to watch over him. That is why you're here, after all, isn't it?"

She nodded shyly, but otherwise made no moves to continue talking.

"I…" she trailed off, eyes down at the floor out of nervousness, or guilt. It was clear from her face that she was not convinced she could, or should, trust me. "I think this might have been a mistake. I-I'm sorry to have wasted your time."

Pyrrha's POV

"I-I'm sorry to have wasted your time."

This was definitely a mistake. I just…I wasn't thinking clearly, that's what it was. My thoughts were just running a little errant after I went to check the damage at Junior's Club.

I shuffled quickly for the elevator, not making it more than a few feet before the headmaster called out after me.

"It's no trouble. Are you sure that everything is okay? You seem…troubled." I normally wouldn't have stopped, already regretting coming here too much to risk staying long, but the way he said that last part concerned me. He had already figured out that I was here because of Jaune, and not for his health, either; if he thought Jaune did something troubling, then whether or not I left now, I had already betrayed Jaune's trust and caused him more problems.

 _If I stayed…maybe I could help Jaune._ At the very least, I could keep the headmaster from getting the wrong idea…or the right one.

"I…it's just…I'm not sure what to do," I answered, ashamed of myself for responding at all and for staying.

"I take it you are here because your partner has done something…unwise."

I nodded shyly after a brief pause, not looking into the man's eyes. He had as good as confirmed to me that he already figured out enough without me needing to tell him, which only cemented to me that leaving would be worse than staying.

"Do you mind if I ask what it was?" He asked gently, though he seemed to back off it when he noticed me panic at the question.

"He…Jaune is…" I fumbled, uncertain of what I should, or could, tell the headmaster, but squirming too much under his gaze to remain silent. I felt as if the right thing to do would be to tell the headmaster; after all, Junior was… well, what Jaune had to have done was… "I don't think it's my place to say," I said, backtracking completely and feeling like an idiot for even trying this.

"I take it that it's difficult for you to feel like you're going behind your partner's back?"

I didn't look at him, but nodded. It would be pointless to deny _that_.

"That's nothing to be ashamed of, Ms. Nikos." His words caught me by surprise, whether for how genuine they felt or how unexpected they were. I fully expected him to do anything he could to find out more information, not because he was bad or mean, but because that would be his role as headmaster. "I believe team cohesion to be the most important thing to be built at Beacon. Loyalty, even to a fault, is more important to me than whatever transgressions you must hide in the name of loyalty."

"I… thank you," I mumbled weakly, not sure what was going on, but significantly more relaxed after that reassurance.

"I am curious, though. What does loyalty encompass?" He gave a small, curious smile and leaned in a little as he waited for me to answer. It wasn't an easy question to be asked on the spot, though, and I struggled to come up with what I felt was a satisfactory response.

"Loyalty is…always choosing someone over anything else," I answered in a half-question of my own, painfully aware that it was a weak answer. I was grateful when he didn't challenge my answer immediately and instead seemed to accept it.

"Well, that certainly seems true enough. Of course, loyalty doesn't have to be to a person; it can be to an ideal, or a group of people, or a place… There exists a plethora of externalities to loyalty that are quite difficult to balance, are there not?" I nodded uncertainly, more because I was trying to keep up with what he was saying and what he was trying to get at than because I didn't agree. "If you don't mind humoring me, based on your definition of loyalty, how do you resolve conflicts of interest?"

"Like what?"

"Well, let's start by saying this: you are loyal to your teammates. I believe from what I've known of you so far that this is actually an understatement, but for the purposes of my little game, would you agree?" I nodded easily, though a little wary of where the analogy was going to go. "Let's say that Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie had a fight over—tell me, what's something they would fight over?"

"Breakfast," I answered without thought, the scenario already unfolding: _Ren deciding that he was tired of making breakfast for Nora, and war being declared in retaliation._

" _Breakfast_?" Ozpin asked, testing the word before quickly moving past it. "Let's say that they had a fight over breakfast—a nonsensical fight that could be resolved with adequate effort from both parties, as most fights are—and they demanded that their teammates chose one of them over the other. _Who would you choose?_ "

"I…huh?" My words died in my mouth as I expected him to ask an easy question, like how I would fix it or how could it be avoided. "I wouldn't…just pick one of them. That's silly."

"Is it?" He asked, challengingly. "By your definition of loyalty, you would be required to choose the one to whom you are most loyal. It might be difficult to determine which one that is, but once you do, you have no other option."

"But…but that...I would just make them solve the problem. Neither of them would deserve to split the team like that!" I knew it was a fictional scenario, but I was getting a little worked up by the situation, mostly because of the implication that I would be required to pick one, or that I _would_ do such a thing.

"A most disloyal thing to do, is it not? To refuse to choose _either_ of the people you are loyal to?" He asked, a small smirk on his face as he watched me mentally squirm.

"That's…it isn't disloyal to help them!" I almost shouted, which made me realize how worked up I was getting. It was probably because of the stress I was already under for just coming here in the first place, but recognizing it gave me a chance to calm myself down. "Those aren't the only options."

"I agree with you that helping them would not be disloyal; I, in fact, believe it would be the _most_ loyal thing to do," he reassured, taking a drink from his mug and setting it back on the table. "With that in mind, do you think that you can reformulate what loyalty is?" I wasn't offended or off-put by the smirk he wore, as I was now seeing the point of this exercise.

"Loyalty is…" I trailed off for just a second, thinking over why my last definition didn't work. _Picking someone's side doesn't always mean doing the best thing._ "Loyalty is doing what is best for someone."

His smile told me that I had gotten it correct. It was one of those old-man smiles, like when your grandfather was teaching you a trick or giving you advice that he knew you'd always remember.

"That is the definition that I've come up with in my years of service here at Beacon. It certainly does a better job at resolving conflicts of interest, such as in our imagined scenario. It is, however, the most difficult definition to live up to."

"Huh?"

"So often, loyalties vie against one another for our allegiance. I've seen it many times as headmaster. A female student has to choose between her team and a boy; a well-intentioned young man has to pick between his controlling family and his own future as a Huntsman; several students who have had to chose between their troubled pasts and their bright futures, actually. Do you know what situation I've found to be the hardest on students?" I didn't respond, but it was clear by how I met his eyes that I wanted to know. "When what is best for someone is not what they would want you to do."

" _Oh_." I understood now the point of our talk about loyalty because it was painfully clear that I fell under that last category. _What Jaune did…what he is_ doing _…it isn't good, but that doesn't mean that the best thing to do would be to give him away like this, would it?_ If the whole point of Ozpin's talk about loyalty was to get me to tell on Jaune, then maybe staying this long has been a mistake after all.

He must have seen my thoughts in my eyes—or plastered across my face—because he took care to walk back that fear immediately.

"What is it that you feel is best for Mr. Arc?" He asked, pointedly _not_ asking what it is that Jaune had done.

"I…I don't know. I want to say that…I need help to…" I cut myself off, more out of embarrassment that I couldn't string more than five words together. "What he's doing isn't good, but I…"

"You don't want to see him in trouble for it?" He asked knowingly, but softly, as my eyes trailed off to the floor. My silence was answer enough. "I believe that I can help, then."

"How?" I asked. I remembered his offer from before—in fact, it was the only reason I ever thought coming here was a good idea, hoping to get leniency for Jaune while also getting him help—but it was foolish to think that the headmaster of Beacon Academy would overlook the fact the Junior was _dead_ , and police had taped off The Club for their investigation.

"I told you once that I would be willing to work with Mr. Arc and his past, if he could be convinced to accept the help. What I did not specify is in what ways I _can_ help."

"What do you mean?" I asked, tilting my head to the side as I tried to understand his intention.

"I mean that as Beacon's headmaster, I have enough influence to make nearly anything go away, so long as I trust that Mr. Arc is dedicated to keeping out of his old habits. You may take Qrow for example; the entire reason that he joined Beacon was to learn how to assassinate Huntsmen."

"He…he did?"

"Mmmm," he confirmed. "He and his twin sister both did. Qrow is now my most loyal employee and a good man, even despite the alcoholism. His sister, however, is not. Do you know the difference between them?"

I shook my head once, because of course I couldn't know that. I did _want_ to know because it was obvious that such knowledge could be useful for Jaune, and Ozpin clearly knew that too. It didn't feel like he was trying to manipulate me into using the information on him, though; it felt like he was trying to help me help Jaune.

"Their team, Team STRQ, was quite a strange one, filled with many odd and often intimate relationships. The difference between Qrow and Raven is that their teammates did a better job of helping Qrow out of his old life than they did for Raven; that certainly isn't to fault them, nor was it for lack of trying, but it does demonstrate why I rely on the teammates of troublesome students so heavily. I did what I could to help both of the Branwens, but in the end, it was their team that was the deciding factor."

He looked to me with half-expectant and half-knowing look, the point of the conversation being made clear.

"I can promise you, Ms. Nikos, that no matter what it is you fear your partner has done, it is not something I haven't worked with before."

He gave me a genuine and reassuring, but expectant, look, and I had to avert my eyes. He was right, of course, about this being the hardest part of being loyal. Jaune shouldn't being doing these kinds of things, and not just because they're bad ideas, but because they're _wrong_. If he needed help putting his past behind him, then maybe accepting Ozpin's offer was the best solution. If he really did do _that_ to Junior over information about his family like he said, then Ozpin could probably help him with that, too. _Jaune would never accept Ozpin's help on his own, though._

But loyalty isn't about doing what they would want, is it? _It's about helping them, even if they won't help themselves._

"When Jaune left the White Fang rally," I finally began to answer, still averting his eyes, "he wasn't concussed and hiding next door. He…he went to this information dealer that Yang knew—someone called Junior—at a place called The Club. Things got…it didn't go well."

Ozpin sat there patiently and understandingly, never making to hurry me along and concealing any reactions he might have had. His eyes were locked in to the information, but that was all I could tell from the brief glances I took before hiding my eyes again.

"He…they got into a fight. I'm sure you know by now how Jaune can fight…" I half-asked, earning a small nod when he realized I was waiting for him to confirm. If nothing else, the headmaster would have to have watched the tape of our spar in Goodwitch's class before meeting with me afterwards, and that was only a week prior to this, almost to the hour. "The place was destroyed, and Jaune…he…"

I took a deep breath, fighting with myself to tell him about Junior being dead. _He's here to help Jaune; it isn't anything he hasn't worked with before; Jaune needs the help to stop._

"He hurt some people," I said, cowering out of what I meant to say. I made all sorts of mental excuses, but in the end, the idea of Jaune thinking I had betrayed him was already hard enough to face; the least I could do was hide the worst things for him, for now.

 _Yang was the one to find him there, and she's already upset with him; that's got to be why._ If Yang is going to deal with that, then that saves me from needing to do it here.

That excuse feels weak even to me, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to hide behind it.

"I see," Ozpin said solemnly, taking care to approach the situation tactfully. "That is a bit troubling, but students having altercations with shady figures is not a new phenomenon; Ms. Xiao Long also has been involved in a nearly identical incident."

"I know. Yang has done the same thing to Junior, but…she didn't hurt anyone."

"Are you certain? A brawl with her is sure to cause some injuries."

" _I'm certain_ ," I answered firmly. _Yang might have hurt people, but she would break bones and jaws, not end lives._ Just thinking that sent a shiver down my spine that I hid from the headmaster poorly, if the way his eyes narrowed slightly were any indication.

"Do you have any idea what brought on this action from your partner? You seemed to note that this Junior dealt in information; are you aware of what Mr. Arc was looking for?"

"I…yes. At least, I think so." He waited patiently for me to continue, showing no sign of wanting to hurry me at all. "He told us that he wanted to find information about his family, and he thought that since Yang had tried the same with Junior, it was a place to start."

"This may be a harsh question, but do you believe him?" There was a little more seriousness behind his posture now. He had leaned in a little more and his eyes were slightly narrowed again, making me feel like this was somehow important to him. It put me a little on the edge, but not so much so as to make answering the question difficult.

"Yes, I do. At least…I think so. There was something about the way he said it…the way he was resigned. I feel like he might have given up on the whole thing after Junior failed him."

"It is not uncommon for orphans to become desperate in a search for their family. There are few who would fault him for going to such measures."

"I…I don't think he was _looking_ for his family," I countered softly. "He said he was…he was just looking for closure. I think he's given up on looking for a family."

"Why do you think that is?"

"I…I don't know. Maybe he's already found one?" It sounded like a bad cliché, but that didn't mean I had any better ideas.

"I should hope so. He does appear to have taken a liking to the seven of you, and the bonds formed between teammates are often stronger than family. That would be the best-case scenario."

"And…what would be the worst?" I asked timidly.

"That, for whatever reason, he's decided that he does not _want_ family."

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: _Ah, Ozpin, you silver-haired and silver-tongued fox, you, playing with the emotions and loyalties of your students._ In case it isn't clear, Pyrrha might not be as perceptive as, say, Jaune, and likely can't see through Ozpin's manipulations nearly as well.**

 **Also, that scene earlier wasn't a Nora x Ruby scene, per say; after all, what's a little karaoke and mild states of undress among friends. When I sat down to write out '** Jaune walks in on something weird in his dorm, **' that practically wrote itself. _Come to think of it, that may be a referendum on me more than anything._ **

**Ah, and we're starting to get into the Maiden selection process, how fun. I took the liberty of adding some details about how Maidens are usually chosen, namely that more than one candidate is picked for a peaceful transfer. It makes sense to me that old, frail, or sickly Maidens would have more than just one qualified candidate guarding/comforting/escorting them, because that increases the likelihood that one of those girls is the last person thought about. Our thoughts bounce around a lot as it is, and I imagine that some people on their deathbed might be shifting through thoughts in a panic, so having more than one candidate to think about might help.**

 **It's how Maidenhood is stolen that is really interesting, because we don't get the sense in the show that what Cinder does is commonplace, or if it is, Ozpin doesn't seem to let on much. Ambushing a Maiden seems like risky business if you can't ensure they think of you when they die.**

 **And yes, next chapter Jaune confronts Yang, _which should be a very peaceful and thoughtful session between the two of them, given how level-headed and emotionally-stable both of them are at the moment_...lol.**

 **Lastly, we had some discussion on what the three-way ship name between Yang, Blake, and Jaune would be.  
** _ZenithTempest_ **says that it's usually considered Black Dragonslayer or Dark** **Dragonknight**.  
 _Sd12345678910_ **informed me that the legendary Shipping Chart has it as either Stung Knight or NOT THE BEES!  
** _Sd_ **didn't like the second one as much, but as someone who cannot stop quoting vines and memes, the Nic Cage reference there made me chuckle.** **  
Personally, I would suggest 'Puns and Pussies' if we're going strictly off how the characters act in the show.**

* * *

 **Comments of the Week (** there are two because I make the rules, 'kay? **)**

"Well clearly the only way out of this for him is through. Through Yangs ovaries that is. Raven gave him the perfect plan, if he knocks her up she wont be able to bring herself to kill him. Just imagine Raven with her daughter and adopted sons kids playing Grandma "No honey, you need to rob three caravans or no cookies with dinner." Plus now we get to hear all about Qrows adventures in Winter. Which I hope occured in a discount tent." - _Kingofclubs8129_

 **Look, I got funny looks at work because it was like 12:30 AM at work when I read this comment and busted out giggling. Over several points this week, if someone said the word "** _through_ **" I would have to look away or fight not to grin.**

 **But yes, we all know that Raven is _extremely_ attached to her biological family and would never do anything to harm them or the ones they cared about. Raven is certainly the kinda gal who would _never_ abandon family, either. Under no circumstance...**

* * *

"I'm starting to doubt Yangs intelligence here. One one hand we have Yang knowing that her mother is a murderous outlaw with a teleporting semblance and on the other we have Jaune, who untill recently was involved in that sort of buisness, in the same area. I wonder what could POSSIBLE be the reason he's keeping quiet? Afterall, what sane human would value their life over keeping secrets from a friend?

Ohhh and Turquoise? You heard the man, keep thereatening his life. Apperantly it improves his writing!" - _The Qrow_

 **First of all,** _Turquoise Leaf_ **does NOT need the encouragement, especially not since I really am missing a week, which is what his original threat to riot was about.**

 **Second, I'm gonna come to the defense of ( _Second_ ) Best Girl Yang a little. We don't know very much about what Yang really does know about Raven or, more importantly, _when_ she knows it. That Post-Credit scene for V2 was pretty much ignored and considered non-canon by most people I know. In V3, Qrow and Yang have a nice little heart-to-heart where he gives Yang some details about Raven that make it sound like Yang did not know this stuff ahead of time. **

**Personally, I assumed that Yang did not know Raven's location (even generally) or semblance capabilities until late in V4, because when she does meet her mother, she mentions that Tai told her about the portals, meaning they had talked about Raven; it was also supposed to be revealed as if Raven did not expect Yang to know about the portals, implying to the audience that the knowledge was new.**

 **We also know that Tai asks Yang which one she's going after when Yang pulls Bumblebee out of the shed, implying that they had discussed both Raven and Ruby recently; I had put all this together to mean that Tai had told most of those details during V4, meaning that at this point she wouldn't know much.**

 **If I'm missing something, let me know, but for the purposes of this story, that was the approach it was written from: Yang _doesn't_ know that her mother has portals or even know that her mother is in Mistral; after all, she goes after Junior, an information dealer in _VALE_ , and Mistral is implied to be a very large place anyways. **

**She is a blonde, though, so...If she had knowledge of Raven's portals, location, and general bitchiness and _still_ did not suspect that Jaune was just protecting himself by staying quiet, then that would be poor job handling her intelligence on my part. As it is, I feel like the information she doesn't know and her emotional entanglement that she doesn't grow past until V4/V5 would play out like this.**

 **Hope that helps.**

* * *

"Who said it was a knife? A knife is far too small." - _Turquoise Leaf_

 ***siiiiiiiiigh***

 **Of course we coaxed you back just in time for me to miss a chapter. Perfect timing on your part.** **I blame** _Avidlag_ **for anything that happens to me now.**

 **lmao. See y'all in two weeks ( _I hope)!_**


	25. Red Eyes

**[REFINED Jan 3, 2019] Author's Note: Well, the wedding I was in came and went without _The Rains of Castamere_ playing, so all is well that ends well. **

**Naturally, since I took a week off from uploading, life has decided to kick me between the knees in retaliation, so** _Turquoise_ **, you don't even have to lift a finger this week. My work decided 'hey, we're behind; everyone is working a sixth day this week.' That's not so bad, but we had _also_ decided to work 12-hour shifts. **

**Now, as a broke college student, I appreciate working over 60 billable hours in a week, because that overtime pay is nice. But it does make for a really crappy weekend.**

 **Anyways, we're back with MoNT. Have fun!**

* * *

 **Chapter 23:** _"Hell hath no fury like a Branwen woman in a marginally-decent mood." – Taiyang Xiao Long_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

Despite what I let Ren believe, I had a legitimate reason to arm myself that didn't involve protecting myself from a potentially irate Yang, though it would be a lie to say that had never crossed my mind. With most of our teams scattered around for the night, it would be my best chance to run into Vale and take care of a few things without any scrutiny. Honestly, I could have told Ren as much, because I was bringing my plate armor so that I could drop it off at a weaponsmith somewhere to have it reforged into more useful equipment. The shoulder pads were useful, but only covered down three-quarters of the way to my elbow and with my wrist bracers being too short, I left a lot of forearm exposed. Given my tendency to catch blows on my arms with my aura and counter-strike, I didn't have nearly as much need for a chest plate as I did for full plate or even scale armor for my arms. _As long as I can find a high-end smith, I can get them forged light and smooth enough that my arm speed shouldn't be hindered much at all._

That was the part I could tell Ren, if I had thought I needed the excuse. The part I would not tell him was that I had asked Roman to refer such a weaponsmith, and would possibly work out other details with the criminal. Time is certainly not my friend here recently, and neither is luck, so I can't really afford to wait on things like this anymore.

"And speaking of being unlucky," I mumbled to myself as I finally spotted my target, standing off to the side of Beacon's front courtyard, leaning against the railing and staring out over Vale. Yang stood out, mostly because the only other person in this courtyard was the marble statue in the center.

"Alright Jaune, there's still time to back away and avoid this entirely," I mumbled again. In truth, there wasn't, and I knew that, but the joke settled my nerves…a little. Letting whatever happened stay unspoken sounded like a nice solution for me; after all, if Yang hasn't pressed the subject and hasn't told anyone yet, then it was likely she wasn't going to. That sounded good, considering the three main things that could have happened to put me in this situation, that being letting information about Torchwick slip, about her mother slip, or me being too 'friendly' while drunk.

 _What's bad is that at this point, I would rather it be that last one._ If it is, then avoiding this talk would probably work out for the best; after all, if Yang was willing to forget and move on, there would be no benefit to me dragging it back up. It was the other two options that I _need_ to confront her over. Even if Yang is willing to give me the benefit of the doubt and trust that I have my reasons, whatever she might know could come back to bite me in a serious way. She would then hold insight that none of the others have, and any excuses (read: lies) I give about any activities I partake in would run the risk of being seen through by Yang. If she knew I worked with Torchwick once, then every time I do something suspicious, she's going to put two-and-two together; even if that doesn't come to the correct conclusion, I would be playing with fire.

 _And that sentiment doubles when discussing Raven instead of Roman._

"Nice view," I called out softly as I walked up to the banister, taking a spot against the railing a few feet to Yang's side, far enough away to not be intruding. I made a point of keeping my eyes forward and not looking to Yang, hoping to let her settle in and get comfortable with the situation.

"You're…armed…" Yang pointed out, speaking slowly as she looked me up and down cautiously. "Expecting a fight?"

"I hope not," I answered back, making a show of taking Angau Glas off my back and leaning it against the railing on my far side. Without that absurdly long black blade protruding out from behind me, I didn't look nearly as menacing, or paranoid. Sure, my armor still suggested I was prepared, but it was minimalist in design anyways, and the fact it matched Crocea Mors' color scheme made it feel like I was dressed more like a casual Huntsman than one ready for a fight. Yang looked the same way, in her normal dress that was certainly functional enough to pass both as civilian clothes or training gear, not to mention the bright yellow bracelets on her wrists that I spotted. _Not that it was any surprise that she was armed, given the design of her gauntlets._ "Our teams keep repeating this stupid joke about why you're mad at me."

"I'm not—" Yang cut herself off, likely coming to the conclusion that it was silly to even try to deny that she is angry at me, or at least _was_ angry. She seems much more reserved and wary now, but given her quick temper, that wasn't liable to last. "You don't believe them, do you?"

"Nope," I answered quickly, noting that she didn't ask what that rumor was and thus had already heard it from someone. _Hopefully from her team and not from the rest of Beacon, but if she_ had _heard it through the grapevine, I was liable to be a dead man._ "I'm confident that I would never do something that stupid, even while drunk."

That was a lie, clearly, since I had done _something_ stupid enough to land me in this situation, and I would have found the irony funny any other time.

"Then why the armor?" She asked, her voice an odd mix of distant and coy, like someone who was trying to not enjoy the banter. That, or someone who was trying _to_ enjoy the banter but had other things weighing down on them.

"I think you know why," I answered back quietly and sadly, hoping that I could get her to play along and reveal what I had done without revealing that I _didn't_ know. I made sure to keep my voice soft and my posture relaxed, just in case she took it as a threat, trying to come off as sorrowful or pensive rather than confrontational. Depending on which of the three options I was looking at, she was likely to react to my statement differently. If I had confessed about helping Torchwick, she'd likely take it to mean that I was going to help him again; if I had grabbed her drunkenly, she'd assume I was here to get my ass beat; if Raven…I'm not certain what she would think, actually. She might think I was here to bring her in to Raven or she might think I was just paranoid in general, so if she had a reaction that I couldn't explain, I would suspect she knew about her mother.

She reacted only by cutting her eyes at me, not maliciously or angrily, but nervously and suspiciously; her posture shifted to match as she slightly leaned away, both to get a more wholistic view of me and to slide a little farther away from me. She held that concerned gaze for a few moments, and instead of challenging her by meeting her eyes I went back to staring out over Vale, hoping to display that I was relaxed enough to take my eyes off of her. A sign of trust and subordination, sort of, but hopefully one that would help her relax too.

"I honestly do not know what that means," she spoke finally, "but I _really_ don't think you want me to start assuming the worst. Blake already had to talk me off that ledge once…"

"Remind me to thank her for that," I joked softly, again trying to show that I was relaxed in the hopes that she would mimic it; at least, I didn't want to show how not-relaxed I actually was. It is hard to be mad or upset at someone who doesn't reflect and amplify that animosity. _Not impossible though, because I remember Yang slamming me into the infirmary's walls while I was bringing Ruby cookies._ Hopefully, if I kept everything apologetic and light-hearted, it would help Yang stay relaxed.

"I don't think you need to. She's just evening the score." Yang hadn't taken her eyes off me, but her posture softened a little—or maybe it was more accurate to say that she seemed to resign herself a little, because she appeared to be fighting herself to relax. "I'm sure she'd say that helping me reason through why you and Junior were fighting doesn't make up for what you've done for her."

 _So there it was._ I took careful note of her words, locking in on all information she let slip. If she knew what it was that caused me to attack Junior, then she knew about me getting handed over to Torchwick. Judging by the way that she was angry, she likely knew that I agreed to help Torchwick escape our teams' trap, otherwise she would have just been concerned for me.

"After this, I'm sure that I'm back to needing to make things up to her." It was Blake's mission to get the White Fang, after all, and I had ruined it behind her back. I helped them all escape and keep their most dangerous weaponry, all by undermining Blake. _And then she went and made Yang calm down about that; gods, I'm an asshole, aren't I?_

"How much have you figured out?" I asked, staring down at the railing instead of meeting Yang's eyes.

"Not a lot," she answered back, eyes staring down in front of her as well. "What I do know is…it's hard to…" She stopped fumbling around with her words and went silent. "Why did you go after Junior?"

I took a deep breath, but kept my eyes down. "He put me in a position that I hated…one that he didn't expect me to get out of. When I _did_ get out of it…" I trailed off, letting Yang connect the dots. That was about where she had walked in, anyways.

I spared a glance at Yang, who wasn't looking at me but was staring intently at the railing before her. All things considered, she took the answer well, even slightly nodding to herself.

Yang broke from her stare to look up at me, and before I could avert my eyes again she locked hers onto mine. I couldn't find it in me to break away from the roiling emotion held there, the depths of it shocking me for something as straight-forward as me betraying my friends for a criminal. I expected her to be furious over that information, or at least, to be more furious than hurt, but her eyes told the opposite story. "Did you know before he told you?"

"Did I…know before he told me?" I repeated, confused. Did I know that Junior was going to betray me before he told me? That didn't make any sense, least of all because Junior didn't _tell_ me he was going to do anything of the sort. _Junior had told me, what, that he had an information guy he was setting me up with?_ For an information dealer, Junior had provided me with shockingly little information, and in hindsight, that should have seemed suspicious.

Yang's face fell in disappointment, clearly not believing that my confusion was sincere and that instead I was trying a cheap ploy to divert blame.

"Did I know _what_ before Junior told me?" I pressed, still confused. It was possible—it made sense, if I thought about it—that Yang wouldn't have a complete picture and might be focused on things I wouldn't be focused on, but this felt like she was referencing something specific that I don't even recall. _Had Junior said something after I was blacked out?_ The bastard would, too, if only to make things harder for me upon awakening. _At least Neo should have taken care of that headache once and for all._

"Jaune, please—" Yang cut herself off quickly as her voice cracked, taking a moment to get herself under control. "Don't make this any harder. _Please._ " Her voice didn't crack again, but it was squeaking out with difficulty. There was a mix of pleading and fear in her voice that was hard for me to listen to, stirring guilt in my stomach that I struggled to ignore. _Raven would hate that something as simple as a sad voice could get under my skin, but Raven would hate a lot of things I'm doing here recently; besides, it's long past time to stop caring what she wants._

"Yang, I…I don't know what you mean by that, honestly. I don't even remember you showing up at the club. If you ask me something, I'll answer it for you, but I have to know what it is you're asking." I was sincere about that offer, too, since I've already decided that having Yang hide what she knows from me could end badly. Having her know too much is a risk, sure, but being honest with her might mean something to her. Yang is extremely loyal and protective—one of the qualities that Raven worked to break me out of when it became clear that my ultimate loyalty would never lie with her—and if I could earn her trust, there are few things that I suspect she wouldn't tolerate. The risk was giving Yang enough free information so that she trusted me enough that said free information didn't upset her.

Yang still didn't trust my sincerity, if the way she cut her eyes at me was any indication of her suspicion.

"How do you know _her_?" Yang asked, steeling her posture and her voice and making no attempts to hide her frustrations and anger. Her voice rose slightly, her agitation clearly mounting.

"Neo?"

Unless Yang thought that Torchwick was a girl, Neo was the only female associated with Roman that I knew of. She was there, too, hiding off in one of her illusions and waiting for me to leave and establish an alibi so that she could kill Junior. If Yang knew about Neo and her role in my plan, then her anger stemmed from me agreeing to kill Junior, not just working with Torchwick. _How she would have found out about Neo when the girl was hiding, though, I—_

My thoughts were broken as I realized that Yang had gone from letting her anger slip through the cracks to letting it slip almost entirely, clearly not pleased with my answer. Her eyes hadn't turned red yet, but the way her fists were clenched and the muscles of her arms were straining showed me that she was about to cross that line.

Which didn't make sense to me, because Neo was the only ' _her_ ' that worked with Roman. Sure, there were White Fang, but only a fool would think that Roman actually cared about them. Junior's two body guards might have been it, but would have been ' _them_ ' as there was more than one. If I excluded Roman altogether, the only other ' _her_ ' would have to be—

Oh. _Oh._

The realization dawned on my face, sending a shiver traveling slowly down my spine. Yang understood immediately what it meant when my face paled and my eyes widened, her control slipping and her eyes flashing red at me. Her hair hadn't yet lit aflame and she hadn't attacked me, which meant that she still had some fledgling of control over herself, but still…

 _Fuck._

"How do you know my mother," Yang spat out, her voice barely more than a hiss and her mother's eyes glaring me down, "and why were you keeping it from me?"

I only had a few moments to think before it would be obvious that I was stalling, and yet, all I could think of was how I was _never_ getting drunk again if this is what Drunk Jaune does.

 _Knowing about Raven is bad for me, but that last part is even worse_. That last part meant that most excuses I could come up with in the second or so that I had would fall flat, and only serve to through dust on the fire. If I was a more clever or devious man, I might could come up with a line on the spot that would get me out of this, but that was one skill Raven hoarded all to herself, the bitch.

It left me with one option. The worst option.

"I…work for her."

 _The damned truth._

Yang's reaction wasn't yet as volatile as I expected. Instead of blowing up at the information, she was surprised and confused by it, so much so that it shocked her out of her rage and her eyes reverted to their usual lavender as her mouth fell slightly agape. Her lips twitched, as if she was on the cusp of forming a question but couldn't quite get it out, or couldn't quite grasp what had just been said. Her reaction was a welcome one over her going ballistic, or at least, it was; once the shock began to subside, instead of the anger rushing back, it was replaced with confusion and hurt. It was _that_ that sent another slow, agonizing chill down my spine and further tightened the knot in my stomach, made all the worse by the way she both couldn't bear to look at me and couldn't look anywhere else.

"You…you… _what?_ " Yang asked in barely more than a whisper, her voice on the edge of breaking. Every now and then her expression would show a flash of distantness that would soon be overtaken by a flash of anger or of hurt as the gears in her head spun frantically, but mostly it was the utter confusion on her face that stood out. I knew that it was for the best that I explain as much as I can before she can come to any sort of conclusion about me, but I still found it hard to speak.

"Do you remember…when I said that I'm trying to break free from something?" I asked, earning no reply but a wary look as she turned her face away from me slightly, eyes still locked on to me. I let out a sigh and closed my eyes, wondering how in the world it was possible to have luck this bad. "It's her. Raven…" I steeled myself, seeing in her eyes that she was starting to put things together, and it terrified me that she might be getting things wrong. _It might terrify me more if she gets them right._ "Raven is the one I'm trying to break free from."

" _H-How?_ " Yang asked, struggling to verbalize what she was struggling to wrap her head around, her own voice fighting against her as she did so. The shock had begun to subside and she was no longer paralyzed in one spot, instead fidgeting back and forth wildly as the weight of what I had said was beginning to fully crash down on her. "How is that possible?!"

She turned away from me and grasped the railing with both hands, and I did not miss how quickly her knuckles went white as she gripped it for support. It…it surprised me how much it hurt to see Yang like this, to watch her struggle while knowing that I was the cause. It hurt a lot more than I expected it to, and somewhere in the back of my mind, I felt I should be grateful that Raven hadn't fully broken me of empathy.

But that didn't matter right now, and it didn't make up for things, and it didn't help.

"Yang, I—" I reached forward and placed a hand on Yang's shoulder, trying to be either comforting or sincere. The moment my hand landed, Yang's head whipped straight to me and her red eyes bore into mine; she shrugged my hand off her shoulder violently, and both her red eyes and set jaw warned me not to try anything so touchy or personal again.

"How is that possible, Jaune?" Yang asked again, much more angrily than the previous time. "She just… _happens_ to recruit one of my friends?! How could you do that to me?"

"I…Yang, you…" I fumbled my words as I realized that she had the order of events reversed. I'm not sure if she thinks it would be worse if I agreed to work for Raven recently, or if I worked for her since before Beacon. _I have a suspicion she'd hate it either way._ "Your time frame is backwards."

"What do you mean?" Yang asked dangerously.

"Your mom—"

" _Don't call her that._ "

" _Raven_ didn't turn one of your friends into her operative," I corrected, silently agreeing that Raven doesn't deserve that title anyways. Yang tilted her head to the side slightly, her wariness showing through her anger as she waited for me to finish. "You…"

"I _what_ , Jaune?" Yang spat out.

"You made friends with one of her operatives."

In hindsight, phrasing it like that made it seem like I was blaming her, and by the way her jaw twitched, that was how she took it too. I tensed, waiting for whatever move Yang was about to pull and fully expecting her to try to attack me, but it didn't come. Her fists clenched and her arms shook slightly, but she held it in.

And walked away.

"Yang, don't go," I called out following after her. This was going poorly so far, but things hadn't derailed so badly that I had no options left; as long as I could keep her from leaving, my chances were good…or decent…

I at least _had_ a chance.

She made a point not to respond to my callouts, but it only took a few hurried steps to catch up to her. I reached out to grab her left shoulder and yank back enough to spin her around, and was surprised to see her whip around much more quickly than I had pulled. Instinctively, my other arm came up to protect my face as Yang spun around, her right gauntlet unfolding and activating as she cocked back her right fist and held it there as a threat. As soon as I realized the blow wasn't coming, I put my hand down, mentally berating myself for flinching and making this more hostile than it already was.

" _Answers_ , Jaune," Yang hissed. "Who are you?! Why— _How_ do you work for my mom?! Why are you here?!"

"You know me, Yang; nothing has changed, I swear," I reassured as best I could, making sure to keep my posture relaxed and meet Yang's eyes. My words had little effect on her anger. "I'm still the same Jaune Arc who is in way over his head, and—"

"Is that even your real name?" She asked, making it clear how little trust I had at the moment.

" _Yes_ , it's my real name," I answered, somewhat incredulously. "Nothing about me has changed, Yang, I promise; you've just…discovered some of the details I was hiding. I'm still the guy who wants nothing more than to be rid of my past. And that includes Raven."

"How do you know her?!" Her fist was no longer held up as a threat, but it was still balled up and hanging around at her sides, ready to be used on any whim. She didn't challenge any of my first answers again, which I felt was a good thing, even if I still had a couple of important things left to get through. _Then again, that could just be because she was too distracted by thoughts of her mother to focus on them._

"She's the one who trained me," I answered slowly, knowing that there was no good way to explain any of this. "I… I've grown up in her Tribe, raiding and fighting for as long as I can remember." Her reactions were conflicted, with anger and hurt flashing across her face, but it was the uncertainty and confusion in her eyes that I noticed most. "Do you…what do you know about her? Do you know about her Tribe?"

Yang didn't answer or respond in any way, not even moving, but that made it clear that she knew very little about her mother. _It figures that Qrow and Tai wouldn't tell her many details._

"Yang, your mother…" I trailed off, rubbing my forehead with one hand and letting out a small sigh as I tried to decide how best to explain this. "She leads a tribe of bandits, raiders, and criminals in Mistral, and she's _obsessed_ with power. Everything she does is either to gain power, or to keep it. It's more important to her than…well, anything," I trailed of, deciding that saying _more important than family_ would either hurt Yang, or enrage her.

"So _that's_ why you're here? For power?" Yang asked with an edge that was starting to get under my skin. "Or is that just something to do when you're not spying on me!?"

"Spying on you!? I'm not—" I cut myself off, forcing myself to relax and ignore the frustrations and stress from this last week that was still built up. It was bad enough that Yang was on the edge of a meltdown; the last thing I needed was to lose my cool again. Despite my best efforts, I could still feel it welling inside me. "I didn't really have a choice in this, Yang. Raven isn't the kind of person to give away free favors, and she _certainly_ isn't someone who would let a debt go unsettled. She views raising me as a favor, and one that I have no hope of ever fully paying back." _Even if her raising me was more of a curse than anything._

"She _what_?" Yang asked, her voice dangerously thin and lower than it had been. Despite the edge and rage in her voice, her eyes and her slightly-agape mouth belied her shock and hurt, at least much more so than she had up to this point.

"She has me here because she wants to keep eyes on Ozpin and your uncle. Spying on you and Ruby wasn't…that wasn't part of my plan." It may have been part of Raven's original intentions, before she charged me with looking into Ozpin's Maiden situation, but _my_ plan had been to stay away from everyone, for all the good that did me.

" _How long?!_ " Yang hissed out, taking a dangerous step towards me. I looked at her slightly confused, the question not seeming to make much sense at first. Then again, it didn't make sense that she'd be angry about my objective above, well, anything else that I had told her, so I had to assume she was thinking of something else.

Given how furious she looked, it didn't take me long to guess why. _A stupid slip of the tongue on my part._

" _Yang…_ " I called out softly, trying to pad things and calm her down. It had no effect, or maybe even the opposite one.

She had focused in on the word 'raised.'

" _How long have you worked for her?!_ " she asked, both her fists shaking at her sides from clenching them too hard. She didn't even have it in her to repeat the same term, but the intent of her question was obvious.

I couldn't bring myself to meet her eyes, instead playing a dangerous game by taking my eyes off of her to stare despondently at the grass. I could see her growing ever-so-slowly closer to me in my periphery, as if I couldn't feel her presence approaching.

" _Jaune!_ " she yelled, close enough to be within an arm's reach of me.

"Thirteen years," I answered quietly, nervously shifting my eyes back to her, if only because there was no predicting what might happen. "Give or take…" I mumbled that last part, the words lost in a mix of nervousness and a part of me that knew better than to try to say anything to lighten the mood.

Any response, any thing she had planned to say, any words, any _thoughts_ …they all died on the spot, choked away in her throat as her breathing hitched. Through her eyes I could watch in real-time how she did the math in her, and when she began to put that timeline together.

"I was four when I was brought into the Tribe," I mumbled, not sure if I was trying to help my case or just help her get to her conclusions faster.

I could hear Yang's breathing still struggling—hell, I could almost feel it—and her lips were still open, twitching as if fighting for words to speak, or even the ability to do so.

I saw the gears turning in her head as she finally wrapped her head around it. We are the same age. I was four when Raven took me in. She was four when Raven left her. The only conclusion she could come to is that those events happened close to one another. _She won't even realize that they happened almost simultaneously._

I knew the exact point in time where she understood those implications, not that it was hard. Her jaw set, _hard_ , and if that was too subtle, her eyes flashed red and narrowed at me.

And if that wasn't enough, her right fist struck me in the chest and fired a shotgun shell into me.

My breastplate dispersed most of the damage from the blast and blocked the shotgun pellets, leaving me to deal with an insane amount of force spread across my chest. I was able to flex my aura to protect me but didn't have my semblance prepared, meaning that Yang's blow both knocked the wind out of me and knocked me on my back, but not before carrying me a few feet.

I let out a groan but rolled onto my chest and pushed myself on my feet. My instincts had kicked in and I knew being on the ground was a bad idea when Yang was your opponent, but I looked up to find that Yang wasn't attacking. Her fist was still extended, held in place ever since it had struck me, until she slowly brought it back to her side, staring at it intently the whole time. At her sides, her fingers flexed back and forth, trying to force herself out of her rage. The edges of her hair simmered, blazing up and dying down repeatedly as she fought back her rage.

We made eye-contact for a brief moment, her eyes still red and her face too conflicted to read, before she jerked her head to the side to break it, either unable or unwilling to continue looking me in the eye. She turned herself around as she did so, and began walking away.

"Yang…" I choked out as I fought to recover my breath. She made a point of keeping her head down and her fists clenched, but otherwise didn't respond to me at all; she just kept walking away.

I pushed myself to my feet and rushed after her. A knot in my stomach the size of an Ursa was tightening with every step Yang took and my overactive imagination was telling me just what it meant if Yang left now.

She would know about Raven and have to reason to keep that a secret; she would know that I was hiding from Ozpin and have no reason to keep that secret; she would hate me and have no reason to keep that secret… _and I'm not sure which option scares me most._

"Yang, I'm sorry…" I called out as I nearly reached her back, my mind starting to scramble for how to fix this, or at the very least, salvage it. "I—"

I cut myself off as my fight instincts started to kick in again; Yang had stopped walking when she heard me right behind her, and her right fist was shaking violently now. Without warning, she spun around and launched another attack with her right fist and gauntlet, though this time I sidestepped the blow.

"Oh, you're _sorry_?!" Yang half-screamed and half-scoffed, pulling her fist back to her side but not putting her arm down, instead keeping it ready for another attack. I didn't even realize that my right hand had glued itself to the hilt of Crocea Mors during my sidestep until I flexed my fingers and found the hilt between them. I forced myself to relax my grip, because drawing my weapon on Yang would be a line that couldn't be uncrossed, assuming such a line hadn't already been trespassed.

"You're _sorry_ , Jaune?! Is that supposed to make up for things!?" She more screamed than scoffed, eyes a vibrant and furious red and her hair smoldering at the least.

"Yang, I—"

"SHUT UP!" She screamed, hair exploding into full flames as she swung for my head with her right arm, a shotgun blast echoing from the spot my face had been just a split-second before I moved it aside. Unlike the other times, Yang either couldn't calm herself down after one swing or wasn't satisfied with one, because she continued to launch attacks at me. She fired at the ground behind her with her left arm to propel herself at me and all I could do was duck under most of her; her legs hit me in the shoulder and I pushed into them to cause Yang to spin and flip, but doing so negated her momentum and she landed the impromptu flip right behind me. All I had time to do was spin around and brace, but instead of landing a free hit, she grabbed the collar of my shirt.

"Do you think that any of this is okay!? Do you believe that you can just be forgiven!?" she yelled at me, her arm shaking from gripping my collar so tightly. "WELL?!"

"I didn't want any of this, Yang!" I pleaded when she made it clear she wanted me to answer, though I was still uncertain if she was just going to cut me off like the last time I tried.

"Oh, you didn't want any of this?" she repeated lowly, adding in a dash of mockery to the enraged glare I was receiving. "You didn't _want_ any of this, huh?! In that case, all of it is fucking fine, I guess!" Yang punctuated her point by lifting me by the collar and throwing me across the grass. I flexed enough aura and semblance to ignore the impact and keep my wits about me, spreading myself out for balance as I skidded to a halt. I ended up face-first in the grass and had enough sense to roll to the side, with a Yang's fist and shotgun blast blasting the ground where my back had just been.

"YOU BETRAYED US!" Yang yelled, looking up from where she had just tried to punch me to the core of Remnant. "You betrayed me, you betrayed Ruby, you betrayed Blake, you betrayed your team…"

"No I didn't, Yang! I—" I wasn't allowed to finish. Yang refused to hear anything and made it clear that the time for me to try to explain things to her was over, which frustrated me, because it signified that my chances of staying Beacon were going up in the flames of her semblance.

Yang had cut me off by launching herself at me with another shell from her gauntlets, which this time I ducked and rolled so that I didn't repeat the same mistake as last time. By the time I had returned to my feet, the sound of another shotgun shell let me know that she had redirected and was coming for me again, so I spun and ducked blindly. Her fist went right over my head but her momentum didn't carry her nearly as far away from me as her other attempts, leaving her close enough to launch a combo of attacks.

"YOU CAME HERE TO SPY ON ME!" Yang screamed as she led with a powerful right hook towards my face. I ducked to the side to avoid the blow, and once it had passed, Yang fired her gauntlet to launch that same arm in the opposite direction, catching my cheek with her elbow on the way back. Stunned and too surprised to have used my semblance, I had no defense to her follow-up left jab to my gut. After that, I flooded my semblance through my whole body for a brief moment, long enough to block out all pain and regain my senses, allowing me to duck under the powerful strike Yang was throwing at me with her right elbow. I backed out of her guard and gained enough distance to keep myself safe, if only until she pursued.

With no options remaining, I grit my teeth and drew Crocea Mors, keeping the point facing Yang in a defensive stance. Drawing my weapon was the final line that couldn't be uncrossed and I silently cursed myself for letting things get this far, but dying here wouldn't do me any good.

Yang's eyes widened as I pulled out my sword, but only marginally, more as she regarded the threat than anything. She wasn't nearly as angered by the action as I thought she would be, though I should have realized that there isn't much I could do right now that would make her _more_ angry.

 _Which gives me an idea._ I reached out with my semblance until I found Yang's aura, distinguishable by the fact that it _felt_ red from all the anger fueling her. If I could exhaust her aura and shut down her semblance, she would be much less dangerous and I might have a chance to get a word in edgewise. If nothing else, her temper usually flared hot and then burnt out, meaning that if I could force that to happen, she might not have it in her to be too angry to listen to me.

I had no more time to think as Yang charged in, unfazed by the sword pointing out at her. She tried to swat the tip away with her off-hand but I moved it down and grabbed the blade with my left hand, avoiding her redirection. She still launched her right fist at me and I brought the shaft of the blade up to catch the underside of her wrist and shove it up and to my right, forcing her momentum to spin her around until most of her back was showing to me. Instead of disengaging, Yang fired her left gauntlet and used that to completely spin around in the direction I had led her, letting her extended elbow lead the way. I had anticipated her going full-on berserker and hadn't capitalized on the last opportunity, so I was free to duck under this one as well, spinning as I did so in order to properly line back up when I popped up again. To finish things off, I used that spin and pop back into standing position to whip the hilt of Crocea Mors into Yang's stomach, causing her to groan and take a step back for balance.

I took a step back to match. It wasn't enough room for comfort, but it was enough to let me switch grips; using a sword, even a one-handed one like Crocea, was difficult when your opponent excelled at getting under your guard and boxing you to death. Instead, I went for a reverse grip and held it out behind my back entirely, not allowing the length of the blade to be any hindrance to my defense. It was risky, because it meant that I was going to rely on using one hand and dodging to evade Yang's attacks, but it offered the opportunity for powerful counter-attacks if Yang overcommitted. _And Yang is certainly doing that a lot in her blind rage._

"YOU MADE ME THINK WE WERE FRIENDS!" Yang screamed, her eyes still red and her hair still in large flames, as she propelled herself at me with her gauntlets. This time, I leaped forward into the attack with my shoulder, interrupting her before she could get her fist in front of her. The force of the collision rocked Yang and threw her flat on her back, and it felt non-too-pleasant on my end, despite using my semblance.

Yang wasn't down long enough to try anything, hopping back up and rushing in on foot. Her first swing was sloppy, testing my reflexes with a long right hook that I stepped sideways to avoid. From there, Yang could smell blood in the water with me holding my sword behind me, settling into a boxer's stance and launching a barrage at me. A left jab at my face dodged, a right jab to my gut slapped away with my left hand, a left uppercut at my chin that I stepped to the side for. It was becoming clear from the rhythm of the fight that I was at least capable of keeping this up, so Yang mixed things up by trying a sweeping kick for my head with her right leg. It was the opportunity I was waiting for, ducking down and forward to pass under her leg and behind her. Along the way, I swiped out at Yang's left thigh with Crocea Mors, scoring a large hit that should stagger her long enough for me to get away.

As soon as the length of the blade had swiped across Yang, I dove forward and tucked into a roll to create separation. As I got to my feet, I heard the tell-tale sound of Yang's gauntlet alerting me that she hadn't been nearly as staggered as I was hoping for, likely her semblance and rage blocking out pain. It was bad news for me as I didn't have eyes on Yang, and instead chose to sidestep blindly to avoid any attack, turning around as I did so.

Just in time to see Yang fire her gauntlet again—forward this time, to reverse her momentum and come to a near-perfect stop right next to me, her other arm already extending out to grab me by the collar once more. My eyes widened and I couldn't react before her fist crashed into my stomach, where I had no armor, and a shotgun shell was fired into me pointblank. My aura tanked the shot, but it hurt like hell regardless. She pulled her arm back for another blow and I desperately brought my right arm up, trying to get Crocea Mors between us to slice at or distract her, but her knee came up and violently clashed with my hand, breaking my grip and forcing me to drop my weapon.

" _YOU STOLE MY MOM!_ "

Another shotgun-boosted blow to my gut followed. My aura didn't break, but there was no way I was taking three of those in a row. I struggled to break free from her grip on my collar, but made no progress. Her fist pulled back, readying itself for another blow.

I looked up into her eyes, trying to look past their hatred and red tint for any hint of uncertainty, fear, or hurt; something that could be used to make her hesitate or think twice about doing this. I wasn't sure how much aura I had left and whether or not it would block the shotgun shot, or if Yang's next blow was going to eviscerate my intestines.

In desperation, I reached out with my semblance once more, forcing a connection between Yang and I and doing all I could to deepen it. There was no guarantee that Yang was in any state of mind to even notice our auras linking, and I certainly wasn't calm enough for my emotions to counteract hers, but I wasn't sure what else to do. Maybe she would feel my panic and pull back, or maybe the new sensation would be so foreign it distracted her.

Just connecting our auras was enough to make me angry. Not because I was loosing control over my anger like I had at Junior's, though that still wasn't as far behind me as I would hope, but because Yang's rage was bleeding through the connection so heavily that it was rekindling that same hatred I felt towards Junior. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that Yang being this upset was a bad thing, but that took backseat as I realized that there _was_ something I could do.

As Yang's fist came barreling towards my stomach once more, I directed my semblance towards me, but used Yang as the source of the semblance, just like I had with Pyrrha. Yang didn't realize it, but her aura was being flooded and strained continuously to power her own semblance, and she was so focused on using it that it was even easier to access her aura than it had been to access Pyrrha's, like scooping water out of a stream. I flooded as much of Yang's aura into my semblance as I could, hoping to overclock it.

Yang's fist impacted a solid wall, powered entirely by her own aura. With my semblance overclocked, all of the strain was transferred to maintaining the _semblance_ instead of maintaining the aura itself, meaning that Yang had in effect punched herself.

I had successfully stolen Yang's aura, and with it, I had also borrowed her anger.

Instead of trying to break her grip, I went the less subtle route and just clocked Yang in the side of the head with my right fist. Lost in my own anger now and fueled on by the aura connection I was maintaining, I put everything I had into the blow and successfully staggered Yang enough to break free.

"You don't know anything!" I hissed, stepping forward to press an attack. Yang had recovered and her semblance still burned bright, but there was a hint of surprise and uncertainty in her eyes for a moment.

I threw my right fist at her face and she ducked under it in a boxer's stance once more, delivering a powerful left uppercut to my ribs. My semblance flared to block the attack, and her aura paid the price for it. Without being staggered by her attack, I was left with a free opportunity and delivered a sharp jab to her nose with my left hand, forcing her to step back. There was a flash of confusion on her face, likely her feeling her aura going doing but not understanding why. Now a little more cautious, she didn't take any immediately openings I offered as I continued to pepper her with small jabs, instead letting me rack up small hits instead.

She grew impatient and launched her own attack, losing all control as she let loose shotgun shells with every punch she threw. I did my best to avoid them, but with the speed advantage she had amplified by the nature of her semblance, avoiding damage was impossible, technically speaking; _someone_ was taking damage, just not me.

I sidestepped a right hook then flared my semblance to tank a left hook, leaning back to avoid a follow-up right uppercut, and then ducking down as soon as I regained balance to avoid a roundhouse kick. As I stood back up I was kicked in the chest with her other leg and flared my semblance again. Yang launched herself at me via gauntlet-propulsion once more, but this time, something felt different. There was no trail of smoke and fire creating a halo around her person as she flew towards me.

Instead of dodging, I reached out and caught Yang's fist in my hand, using what was left of my aura to avoid being thrown back by it.

Yang's semblance had cut out, meaning she was out of aura, burnt out by both how long she had been using her semblance and how much of her aura I had stolen. Red eyes went wide in shock, staring at her hand as if it had been cut off or stopped working entirely.

I twisted her arm back, forcing her to groan as her semblance no longer blocked out the pain, and sent her down to her knee.

"You don't know a damn thing about me, Yang. You don't know a damn thing about _any_ of this, yet you think you have the right to be the one who's angry!?" I twisted her arm further, earning a whimper from Yang as she clenched her eyes shut and tried to deal with the pain. "Look at me, Yang. LOOK AT ME!"

Her eyes opened, lavender eyes staring out, threatening to glass over with tears; hurt; emotional; fragile.

 _Good._

"I didn't want to do any of this," I hissed, releasing her arm and watching as she immediately cradled it. "And I wasn't sent here to make friends with you! I'm not here to dupe you, or to spy on you, or to earn your trust!"

"But—" she tried to interject, her eyes flashing back and forth between lavender and crimson as she returned to her feet. "You—"

"—have _tried_ to avoid you all since the moment I got here," I finished for her, still seething. "It's not my fault that you all dragged me into your lives, Yang. I did everything I could to discourage it."

"You…?" Yang fumbled her words, looking lost as she poured back over her memories of the start of Beacon. "Your spar with Ruby was…?"

"On purpose? Yeah." That wasn't strictly true, but I was so frustrated that I wanted to say it, if only because it would hurt more to hear it. The look on Yang's face told me I was successful, though it was still mixed with confusion as Yang re-examined what she knew about me at Beacon.

Yang's attitude shifted suddenly, her confusion being replaced by anger as her eyes shifted back to red once more and her fists clenched. "What about Raven?"

"What about Raven?" I mimicked back. "You mean the mother I _stole_ from you? Is that the Raven you're talking about?"

"The one who left me when I was four, and who chose to raise _you_ instead," Yang spat at me, her vitriol unaffected by her aura going out.

"Oh yes, the loving, tender-caring mother I grew up with," I spat back, dripping with sarcasm and vitriol of my own. "Believe me, if I could have switched our places, I fucking would have. Do you really think that being raised by your mom was a _good_ thing?!"

Yang opened her mouth to answer, but closed it again without saying a word. She turned her head to the side slightly, giving me an uncertain, untrusting, but not disbelieving look.

"You don't know a _damn_ thing about her, do you?! And you have the gall to accuse me of _stealing_ her from you!? Do you even know who she is!?"

"She's—"

"A monster," I cut Yang off, pressing closer towards her. "We're not talking about some altruistic woman who decided to raise me out of the goodness of her heart or any such bullshit. We're talking about the woman who wanted to sharpen me into a loyal weapon, without a care in the world for what I wanted, since I was a _child_! Some days, I wish she would have left me to fend for myself instead of taking me in; at least then, life would have been easier."

Yang was speechless, shrinking back slightly and abhorred by the information she was apparently getting for the first time.

"Do you know why I'm here, Yang? I'm here because she wants me to spy on Ozpin, and Qrow. You don't enter into the equation; your team doesn't enter into the equation. I could have stayed far away from you and been fine, but _no_ , you all had to decide for some reason to drag me into your group. Raven loved to have the chance to keep tabs on you as well, so do you know what I did?!

"I've did everything I could to keep you people out of this! I'm doing anything I can to try to break free from her, which isn't easy when she can create a portal to you at any moment! I'm betting my life on somehow beating her and her tribe—" and her Maidenhood, "—while at the same time trying to hide who I am from Ozpin and your uncle…"

"Betting your life?" Yang asked, almost scared to even say the words.

"Uh huh. What, do you think your mom is the type that _wouldn't_ kill someone just because she raised them!?" Yang's silence was telling, and the way her face went white was even more so. "And what's worse is that I'm _losing,_ Yang, and I'm running out of fucking options. I'm desperate and already crossing lines I never wanted to even approach, and things look _bad_. Despite all that, I haven't dragged any of you into this with me, have I?!"

I was only a foot away from Yang now, the glare I was sending her forcing her eyes to stay locked on mine. She seemed to continuously shrink away the longer I seethed at her, which was fine by me. _Maybe she'd get something through her thick skull._

"I have all of this to deal with and I'm failing spectacularly, and you have the fucking nerve to be angry at _me_?! I didn't _ask_ to be saved by Raven. I didn't _ask_ to be sent to Beacon. I didn't _ask_ to get close to my friends! I didn't _ask_ to be betrayed by Junior, and I didn't _ask_ to get involved with Vale's criminal underworld! But here I stand, somehow the bad guy, all because some bitch has mommy issues and doesn't realize that her mother abandoning her was the best thing to ever happen to her. _Fuck you, Yang._ "

I turned around and stormed off, angry beyond my own comprehension and in desperate need of something to hit, repeatedly.

"Y-You can't go," Yang called out weakly. It didn't stop me in the slightest. "Jaune, stop!"

I did not.

"Jaune, _stop_!" she yelled again, unsuccessfully. "I'll…I'll tell uncle Qrow if you don't!"

My feet stopped, if only because I recognized the threat, as weak as it was. With how her voice was wavering, it didn't sound like _she_ even believed that she would.

"No, you won't," I answered lowly, before turning around enough to meet Yang's eyes. "You won't tell Qrow. You won't tell Ozpin. You won't even tell your team, or your dad, or your half-sister. Do you know why?"

Yang met my eyes, but made no move to answer.

"Without me, you'll never find your mom."

Yang recoiled and looked like she was about to get angry by my threat, but I cut her off.

"What, do you think that Qrow is going to take you to her? Or _Taiyang_? They tried to hide how horrible she is from you; what makes you think that they'll ever let you _meet_ her?"

"And…and you…would?"

"I don't want to," I answered back, enjoying the chance to throw salt in the wound. "But I didn't want to tell you about her in the first place, either. If nothing else, I'll tell you a _lot_ more about Raven than anyone else is willing to; hell, I already have told you more than your family will. The only chance you have is if I survive."

I left it unsaid how un-fucking-likely _that_ seems.

* * *

As we walked through the streets of a seedier part of Vale, the whispers from Team CRDL began to further grate on my nerves, distracting me from a mix of seething at Yang and running through plans in my mind. We were all safe from being caught or tracked down—I had made sure that all scrolls were completely shut-off and Team CRDL was too afraid of me to say no—so it didn't take a genius to figure out that they were whispering about me.

I hadn't exactly been in the mood to politely inform them that they would be spending their Friday night on another mission with me. I had barged in and drug all four of them out, whether they wanted it or not.

"Look, not that we would have been against it or anything," Cardin called out, apparently having drawn the short straw, "but did you have to just…drag us out here with no warning?"

"It's safer this way," I answered back without turning around or stopping. I didn't care if my anger was obvious from my voice.

"Safer?" one of his lackeys mumbled. I deigned to let it go.

"Safer for who?" Cardin asked.

"For me," I answered simply, taking a turn around an alleyway. I was mostly sure of where I was headed, but without a scroll, it was difficult to be certain; dealing with these buffoons didn't help my mental process. "If you have no idea that it's coming, there's no way you could have sold it out."

"What, do you think we'd do that?" Cardin chuffed, more out of indignation than guilt or nervousness; he didn't mean anything by it. Nevertheless, I stopped walking at his comment, and four pairs of feet nervously skittered to halt. I resumed walking, my point being made.

"We're here," I announced, matching the number on the door to the building with the one I was looking for. It was a small, rundown warehouse with a front office building. There weren't any lights on, but Roman had said we'd be meeting at an actually-abandoned warehouse, not one of his staging centers that _looked_ abandoned.

"Who are we here for, again?" A voice, Russel maybe, asked. There wasn't any disrespect or snark to his voice, only hints of impatient or boredom.

"A business associate of ours."

"Uh… _ours_?"

"Our last little mission was set up by a business associate, someone who knew enough about the situation to set us up," I explained, only because of the necessity of keeping them somewhat in the dark. "That person is no longer capable of helping us, so I've found us a new one."

"No longer…huh?"

"Dead. He's dead. Someone killed him, and now we're going to work with someone else."

"Who are we going to—GAH!" One of the others yelled as a glass wall next to him shattered revealing Neo from out of thin air, who took pleasure in her victim's brief terror.

"Her."

With a satisfied and smug grin, Neo sauntered on between all four of them and made her way to me, where she handed me a manila folder without a care in the world.

"Who is she?"

"Neo Politan," I answered for the either mute or quiet girl, knowing she'd offer no real answer other than a coy look that wasn't as terrifying to those who didn't know her. "The single most ferocious and bloodthirsty woman I've met…in the last hour."

Neo did not appreciate that comment, but I wasn't in the mood to care.

"Is she…?"

"A Huntress?" I finished Cardin's question, redirecting it before he got onto the wrong (technically, the right) track. "Kinda. She works more with the gangs of Vale than the Grimm."

"So she's a cop?"

Neo was aghast by such an accusation, but did not voice her complaints.

"No. You think she'd let us impersonate cops if she was?" Cardin shrugged, conceding the point. "Look, she'll bring you appropriate targets and do all the planning; all you've got to do is execute."

"You're not coming with?"

"Not tonight," I answered, tossing Cardin the folder with their target information. "This is a test-run to see how you guys run things without me. Neo's going with you, but I'm not allowed." All eyes turned towards Neo, who waved one hand cheerfully and gave an innocent smile.

" _Right…_ can she…?"

"She'll be fine," I assured them, trying not to laugh at the question _can Neo fight_. "You all should get going. I've got to try to find a weaponsmith that's still open this late."

I walked past Neo, stopping for just a moment to whisper to her.

" _No blood._ _Not this first time._ "

With my problems pawned off to Neo, I took my leave and exited through the alleys the same way that I came, pointedly _not_ turning around when confused members of CRDL called out questions. They certainly had plenty, not unfairly, considering I had drug them into the muck of Vale with no explanation and now was ditching them as soon as I could.

They would be fine with Neo watching them to ensure they caused no trouble, though. Roman volunteered Neo to act as their handler because, as Roman's vanishing-getaway specialist, she'd never been ID'ed or even seen by the Vale police or any Huntsmen. CRDL would never know the difference—okay, if they weren't stupid, they'd figure out a lot, but they'd not have any proof or anything so shocking as to sow disloyalty—and Neo would be free to use them without looping me in. That meant that I was somewhat insulated from any blowback CRDL earned, which was good; I'm tired of getting blowback on everything and if there is anything, _anything_ , in the world that is certain to go up in flames, it's the secret excursions of Team CRDL. _Neo would be able to vanish at nearly any time should something go wrong, and I would just have to start working on an alibi should CRDL try to give me up._

I also hadn't been completely honest about trying to find a weaponsmith. It only took me a few more turns, but I succeeded in finding Roman's _other_ warehouse without getting lost. Again, this one had a front-office, but there were lights on here, and the whole property had been upkept decently well. In all likelihood, there was actually a business operating out of the location, though not at dusk.

The front door was unlocked, leading to a reception area that was well lit but empty. I could hear someone walking around just behind the corner, and in a few moments a portly man in his fifties came walking around the corner.

"Yep, you fit the description. Come on back," he called out gruffly after looking me over.

He lead me into some side room off in the back, where several bags of equipment were strewn about. The ones that were open had several types of hammers, prongs, and other assorted items that would come in handy for a smith.

"How are the arrangements, Gerald? I know it's not orthodox, but…" Torchwick called out, drawing my attention to his presence, off in chair on the back wall.

"Bah, I've built dust-powered lasers and embedded them in wrist bracers in the middle of Grimm-infested forests, all with a nurse's reflex hammer and a campfire. This place will be a cakewalk for a job like this. Now, hold still and keep your arms out," Gerald directed that last part at me as he pulled out a tailor's measuring tape. I shot Roman a confused look, more at the absolute ridiculousness of the man's statement, but Roman either misunderstood or chose to answer something else.

"Metalworks," Roman explain succinctly, referring to the building we were in. "During the business week, they form parts for cars. During this weekend, they'll reform your armor."

" _I_ 'll be the one reforming armor, jackass. This place is just going to get it hot for me."

"Ah, yes. That's what I said." Roman rolled his eyes but otherwise let the insult go. "Don't worry about Gerald overhearing anything. He's as professional as they come." Roman cut himself off to search through his coat until he found a cigar, lighting it and kicking his legs back. "Now, you had something to discuss?"

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: What is that, Jaune isn't bending over backwards? He even avoided accidentally telling Yang about Torchwick? _Huh._ **

**Maybe after the week he's had, Jaune is going to do more than grit his teeth and try to wait things out. It's quite possible that it's time for Jaune to start taking chances and pushing his luck, instead of letting his luck push him. Will that work out with Yang? Well, the choice he left her with isn't the most ideal situation, but it isn't anything she can make an easy decision about, one way or the other.**

 **I don't have anything else to say, really, other than addressing the fact that I'm bumping the story rating up to 'M' from here on in. I swear, no matter _what_ the Comment of the Week below says, I'm not planning any strange sex scenes (or any sex scenes, but certainly not strange ones); this is more in response to the growing tone of the story. Junior's death was okay for its rating, but bumping it up is the safer option for the future. Plus, the language coming out of tense scenes fall under 'M' better, methinks. It's just a combination of where the story is flowing, _how_ the story is flowing, and what I want to show down the road that makes it the safer option. **

* * *

**Comment of the Week:**

"Change this story to an M rating, so that you can add some Jaune x Neo with cuck Yang. ;)" - _Dumbass0_

 **Counter-Comment of the Week:**

"Don't...don't do what Dumbass0 said." - _Josh Spicer_

 **I'm getting some really mixed signals here, guys. Also, I just need to point out that** _Josh_ **had already commented this week, but was so concerned about** _Dumbass_ **'s comment, that he went back and left this comment on Chapter 1 so that it would show up. That's dedication, folks.**

 **See ya next week.**


	26. 21 Questions

**[REFINED Jan 3, 2019] Author's Note: This week sucked for me.**

 **Someone wished me to get some sleep after last week and apparently jinxed me, because they had us work six 12-hour shifts, so not only did I get less sleep, I only had time to write on Saturday. This chapter is a little shorter than the last several because of that, but it's still longer than I intended chapters for this story to be originally.**

 **This was the last week that I worked that job before school started back, which left me with a much easier workload.**

 **Have fun.**

* * *

 **Chapter 24:** _"With Raven, flirting involved a lot more knives than with the average person. Sometimes, I would let her win a spar, just because nothing else put her in the mood so quickly. Still does, on occasion." – Taiyang Xaio Long_

* * *

Pyrrha's POV

* * *

A quiet cafeteria was a rare thing at Beacon, even during breakfast, but it being Saturday morning seems to have settled things down considerably. Most tables were empty and those that were occupied were barely talking, if at all, making the room feel hushed. As Ren and I sat down at our normal table, it became obvious that no members of Team RWBY were any livelier—that is, out of the two that were here, at least.

"Good morning," I greeted softly, doing my best to appear more awake than I was. I wasn't an anti-morning person, having spent years getting ready for early-morning fights, but that didn't mean I liked mornings.

"Is it?" Ruby groaned from where her forehead lay on the table. "Is there such a thing as a _good_ morning?"

I gave a funny look to Blake, who herself looked like she just rolled out of bed, but at least wasn't face-down on her tray. I couldn't tell if she was squinting or if her eyes were closed.

"Ruby didn't exactly want to be up this early," Blake explained groggily.

"You don't seem to, either," Ren added in his normal manner, making it seem like he was the only one here who wasn't tired. _That, or he is_ always _tired so he seems normal._ Blake groaned softly and didn't answer. "Why did you all get up this early? It _is_ a weekend."

"I could ask the same thing to you," Blake answered defensively, more out of habit than anything. Her reply didn't really make sense, but given her state of mind, that didn't seem surprising.

"Ren is always up this early," I supplied, "and I woke up in time for him to invite me to breakfast. Nora is still unconscious."

"Nora is in a coma," Ren corrected with a small smile. "And she's doing her best impression of a hibernating freight train."

"Nora snores?" Ruby asked, perking up a little—well, peaking her head up, at least; she wasn't perking up by any means.

Ren gave Ruby a nod as he sipped his tea.

"Heh. Yang does too."

" _Loudly_ ," Blake tacked on.

"Speaking of Yang, where are she and Weiss? Still asleep?" I asked, curious. Both Blake and Ruby groaned at the mention of their teammates. "Was it…something I said?"

"No, it's not you," Blake reassured.

"Weiss and Yang are supposed to go into Vale to do more shopping for the dance, and Weiss decided to wake _everyone_ up instead of just Yang."

"That's not true, Ruby," Weiss admonished, appearing to the girl's side with a tray of food and startling Ruby in the process. "I just _couldn't_ wake Yang up without waking the rest of you up. Honestly, I'm lucky I didn't wake the whole dormitory up."

"Hey, I'm right here," Yang drawled, taking a seat at the end and setting her own food down. Her eyes looked tired, but unlike Blake and Ruby, she was dressed to go out and her hair was fixed.

"I still don't understand how you can even be awake like this every day," Ruby mumbled at Weiss. The heiress didn't answer verbally, but made a show of taking a sip from her coffee.

"What about you guys?" Blake asked. "Any plans for the day?"

"I'm going to do as much as I can before Nora wakes up," Ren stated jokingly. RWBY would think he was being funny, and he was, but he was also 100% serious.

"And you?" Weiss asked at me.

"I'm gonna look for Jauuuu— _someone_ ," I corrected mid-word as my eyes nervously passed over Yang. "We…we need to have…we should maybe discuss… _things._ " I mangled my sentence horribly as the awkwardness of the situation washed over me. I hadn't seen the fight between them in person like Nora and Ruby, and even they hadn't been able to hear anything from the dorm windows, but we had all seen the recording of the fight that Nora took.

That was just yesterday, and there was no telling how either of them were going to be feeling today, which is why I wanted to crawl under a rock for bringing it up with Yang sitting here.

"Make sure to ask him about the fight with Yang," Ruby tacked on, much to my horror. " _Someone_ won't tell us anything…" Ruby made a show of giving Blake and Yang a look, and Yang gave an agitated glare that suggested that this was not the first time that Ruby had pried for information.

"Well, we haven't even seen Jaune since yesterday, so we can't help you much," Ren replied.

"Darn. Weiss has this _ridiculous_ theory, too."

"It is _not_ ridiculous," said girl cut back. "It makes complete sense."

"It makes _no_ sense!"

As I took a sip of my own coffee, my eyes flicked back to Yang, who had resigned herself to glaring weakly and trying her best to ignore the world.

"What is it?" Ren asked curiously.

"Yang is clearly having boy troubles."

All things considered, I did a good job concealing the fact that I nearly choked on my drink and my stomach flopped. I don't think that anyone noticed, outside of maybe Ren, who graciously did not call it out.

"See? Ridiculous," Ruby tacked on with a huff. "Until a few days ago, Yang hated Jaune."

"Mmhmm. She hated Jaune," Weiss confirmed smugly, "until suddenly she didn't. Then they met up at a bar, then started acting weird, then had a fight, and they're back to hating each other."

" _Exactly_ ," Ruby drawled, not realizing that she was missing the point; _I_ certainly didn't miss it, and I did not appreciate it at all. Weiss shook her head and moved on.

"She hasn't even bothered to deny it."

"She hasn't said _anything_ about it," Blake corrected.

"No, but _you_ know what it was about," Weiss accused, which made Blake retreat in on herself a little. "If you would just tell us—"

Ren and I shared a quick glance and decided to let this play out, since it felt like this wasn't the first time it had played out.

"I don't actually know what the fight was over, Weiss," Blake cut the heiress off.

"But you know something!"

"And I'm not going to just betray Yang's trust," Blake said softly, taking care to deescalate things. "Especially not when she's sitting with us." Our eyes shifted over to Yang, who was doing her best to ignore all of us and focus on her breakfast. She looked fine, but little things like how tightly she gripped her fork let us know that wasn't completely true.

"Blake, as Team Leader, I order you to tell us."

"No."

" _Mutiny!_ "

"Look, it was not over _that_ , okay?" Blake stated, hoping to get the topic to die down.

"…but it still could have contributed," Weiss added on, earning nothing more than a shrug from Blake.

"Don't be silly, Weiss," Ruby admonished. "Jaune's more like a brother to us. Yang would never crush on her siblings."

"I…don't know about _that_ , Ruby," Blake replied, clearly uncertain which direction the analogy was going and all the more wary for it. "Yang is an enabler, after all."

"…what is that even supposed to mean?" Ruby asked, clearly confused and not alone on that front.

"I…I might know," I mumbled, not ready for the intense looks thrown my way. "Not the enabler thing, but the fight." Even Yang had looked up now, slightly, and I briefly met her eyes. "Was it…did it have to do with Junior?"

Both Yang's and Blake's eyes widened.

"Uh, go ahead," Weiss prompted upon seeing their reaction.

"I went out to check up on the damage Jaune did to The Club. When I got there…it was taped off. By the police."

No one said a word.

"Jaune…Junior isn't…" I fumbled, steeling myself. "Junior is dead."

There were wide-eyes exchanging glances around the table and a few whispers, but it was Blake who made to speak first.

"Do you think that Jaune—"

" _No,_ " Yang cut Blake off before she could even finish the thought.

" _Yang_ , I know that you—"

" _No_ , Blake. He didn't kill Junior. He was alive when we left." Yang's voice was angry and low and she didn't look up from her plate, but her words were clearly intentional and honest. It was no coincidence that she hadn't said Jaune's name. "He hurt some of Junior's men, and he stabbed Junior in the hand, but he didn't kill him."

No one said a word again, with all of us looking to each other nervously as we tried to figure out what was just said meant. Although a little uneasy about the whole thing, it did feel like a weight was lifted off my shoulders; if Jaune _hadn't_ killed anyone after all, that would make it so much easier to talk to him about things.

" _Weiss_ ," Yang's voice hissed out, struggling to recover her composure. "Are we ready to go?"

A glance down at Weiss' untouched plate made the answer to that clear.

"Uh, sure. I guess we'll see you guys later?" Weiss announced as she rose from her chair, not missing at all the underlying message from Yang. She also grabbed her coffee and a biscuit for the road.

"Yeah, sure," Ren answered with a small wave that I added on to.

Weiss and Yang walked off, leaving their trays behind for us to pick up later. I don't think any of us missed how Yang's fork was bent in half.

"Didn't Weiss go shopping for the dance yesterday?" Ren asked once Weiss and Yang had left the cafeteria entirely. "What does she need to go back for?"

"To distract Yang," Blake answered, without looking up from her toast. Ruby shrugged but otherwise agreed. "They _are_ throwing the dance; it helps if Yang is at least somewhat involved in the preparations."

"Hey Pyrrha, don't you have a partner to go talk to right about now?" Ruby asked, shooting subtly in the back of the head and burying it in an unmarked grave.

"Uh, no, I don't think so," I mumbled back nervously. All three of my remaining tablemates gave me flat looks and I folded under the pressure. " _Fine._ "

"Do us a favor, and, like, fix everything? Please?" Ruby asked as I stood up and collected my tray. "No pressure."

 _Oh, no pressure. Sure._

* * *

Jaune wasn't in the room, but he _was_ somewhere at Beacon, and I eventually found him in a private training room. I made sure to enter as quietly as I could, and he was too busy fighting a training bot to notice me.

The bot was a pretty standard thing at training academies, if a little fancier than what I had back in Mistral, which meant it had to be several times fancier than anything Jaune had used. It was just a stationary pole with mechanical arms designed to simulate a swordfighter, at least close enough to be useful. Jaune had loaded it with a standard broadsword and was working on his fluidity with his overlong claymore.

The bot slashed at Jaune and he brought Angau Glas up to clash with it, creating a gridlock between them. Jaune's sword being longer, he pushed up and out with his wrists to point the end of his blade at the center of the bot and then shoved in; the tip connected and the bot's sword was too short, so it reared back and swung at Jaune's head to try to trade damage. Jaune ducked and pulled back on his sword, catching the blow on the edge of his sword and using the momentum to spin the large blade behind his back and come back around the other side with a down-diagonal slash that the bot was not fast enough to recover from. I decided to give the bot some help and yanked it's sword arm over with my semblance, getting it to catch Jaune's attack.

"That's cheating, you know," Jaune called out as he disengaged from the bot and deactivated the session.

"Yeah, but so is using a longer sword," I answered.

"Well, I was _trying_ to get some practice fighting faster opponents with this thing." Jaune shook Angau Glas in one hand to make a point, and the weight and length almost made him drop the weapon as it wobbled.

"I could help with that," I offered without thinking.

"Are you sure? I don't think that there's a medical team waiting around this time."

"Shut up," I mumbled, cursing myself for blushing. Even if he didn't seem bothered by almost dying, I still was far from getting over that.

"So, uh, did you want something?" Jaune asked, more uncertain than abrasive. "Or…did you come down here just to interfere with my training session?"

"Oh, yeah," I mumbled, kicking back into gear and remembering the awkward breakfast that had just occurred. "I came here to ask you something."

"Oh, goodie," Jaune mumbled as he rolled his eyes, clearly aware of what I wanted to talk about. "Well, what is it?"

"I wanted to ask you…" I trailed off, realizing that I had no clue how to broach this topic. Did I go straight to the fight with Yang? Ask about Junior and The Club? Ask if he was okay? "Did you…are you…?"

"…mmhmm?"

"Are…we going to the dance?" I chickened out, once again desperate for a rock to hide under.

"Uh, I mean, I was planning to go. Are you asking if we're going _together_?"

"Yes," I answered, berating myself and doing my best not to show it. "I was kind of confused after that thing in Ozpin's office."

"Oh, yeah. I didn't realize till afterwards that I had pretty much asked you to the dance," Jaune commented with an awkward laugh.

"Yeah. I realized that afterwards you might have meant something else. I just thought I'd, uh, come down here to check."

"Yeah, I didn't actually mean that, so I guess you're free," Jaune mumbled, letting his shoulders drop a little.

"I-I didn't mean it like that! I-I just—" I cut myself off as Jaune began to smirk a little and I realized that he was toying with me, which promptly earning him a punch in the arm. "You're not nice."

"You're right, I'm not. I guess no one will go with me, now…" he trailed off, giving me a challenging look.

"As your partner, I guess it's up to me to have to take you, then," I answered back, trying to play along.

"Oh, so we're just going as partners? That's cool."

I opened my mouth to object and the words died in my throat when Jaune smirked at me again, clearly pleased with himself.

"Look, are we going together or not?" I asked defeated.

"Tell you what: if you can get a hit on me, I'll answer your question. If I get one on you, you have to answer one of _mine_." He gave me a smirk that let me know that I did _not_ want to give him that opportunity, as if I was going to need any more motivation. "Oh, and no semblances."

"Deal," I answered quickly, grabbing the sword from the training dummy and spinning it around to test its weight and balance. My weapons were in my locker, but all I had to do was win one exchange, and we both knew that his length advantage was all but nothing compared to my speed advantage. "What happens if we trade?"

Jaune brought Angau Glas down in front of him in a ready stance. "We keep going till we don't."

Without warning, I lunged forward and swiped in an up-diagonal from where the sword had been resting at my side. Jaune stepped back and spun his claymore in a 180-degree arc to block my blow and I continued my lunge to get past his guard and to his side. With my greater speed, I pulled my sword back after clashing with his and brought my arm up and around until I could bring it down in a diagonal that was completely opposite to the first one, with the blade landing across his exposed back. Unfortunately, I was using a two-handed sword with only one hand because of the how I had tried to surprise Jaune, meaning that I didn't quite have the speed or power I was hoping for. It was a solid blow, yes, but so was the blow Jaune landed when he swiped across my stomach as he brought his weapon back up.

"Keep going?" I asked as I jumped back to reset the fight. Jaune nodded.

Jaune stepped into and committed to a large swipe from my left, and I had no choice but to go for a deflection; I could have dodged, but a blade that heavy could be dropped down to hit me if I had gone underneath, and going backwards would have afforded me no opportunity.

I held my sword with the point towards Jaune's incoming blade and let it pass just over the top, sliding down the length of my sword. When it reached the hilt, I ducked and flicked my wrists, causing Jaune's attack to go over the top of me and give me a free lane to his side. I popped back up and swiped at the center of Jaune's mass, forcing Jaune to yank his sword back to him to try to block. With the momentum of the sword fighting him, the best he could do was catch my blade on his handle, right across his fingers.

Jaune's eyes went wide when I tried to retreat; after all, I had done damage, and if he couldn't trade, I had won the exchange. He tried to continue bringing his sword back in front of him and use that motion to press an attack, but without nearly as much momentum as his last blow, I could handle this one much more easily. I pulled back from my attack and half-sworded before catching his blade on mine and flipping it over me. I stepped into his guard as I did so, and as soon as I shoved his weapon out to the side, I brought the pommel of my sword to his nose and then swiped down across his chest with the tip, before lunging backwards and disengaging the fight.

"Does that count?" I asked with a grin. Jaune shook his head and held his nose for a second before using his semblance to stop it from hurting.

"Fine. It counts. What was the question?" The look on his face made it clear that he knew what the question was.

"Are we going to the dance together?" I asked, not rising to his bait this time. _It's amazing what even a little bit of sparing does for my confidence._

"Well, I _would_ take you, but I have to officially ask you first…"

"Well, go ahead," I prompted with a grin and certainly, absolutely no churning or flopping from my stomach.

"I would, but in order to ask you something, I have to win an exchange…" Jaune trailed off, giving me a coy look as he made it clear what he was proposing. He was pitting my competitive spirit against my better judgement. "Should we go another round?"

"…yes…" I grit out, fighting myself for all I was worth to let him walk over here and hit me without even trying to defend. _If_ anyone _back home found out about this, I'd never hear the end of it._ I was famous for winning matches without letting anyone touch me, and now I was quite literally about to _let_ someone touch me.

Jaune gripped his weapon and approached me slowly, taking pleasure in each step and dragging it out as long as he could. My grip on the sword at my side tightened and it was clear that I wasn't exactly the calmest of people at the moment, but I did my best to hold firm.

That is, until Jaune wound up much, _much_ faster than was necessary for a free hit, raising his sword above his head with both hands. My eyes went wide and as soon as his arms twitched forwards my sword-arm shot up, my eyes following in horror. I could already hear him teasing me or using this to accuse me of _not_ wanting to go to the dance with him, and it was those thoughts that distracted me from the fact that he had faked his swing and taken his right hand off his sword.

And punched me right in the boob with it.

"And here I thought you were going to let me hit you. I should have known better," Jaune said with a chuckle as he retreated and confirmed that he had technically won the 'exchange.' It took all that I had not to massage where he had just hit, because the jerk hadn't pulled his punch.

"What is it with you and always going for the breasts?" I asked, recalling taking shots there during our spar in Miss Goodwitch's class. I wasn't exactly going to call him a pervert for dealing damage where he could, but…well actually, that was exactly what I was going to do.

"If you would stop exposing them, I would stop capitalizing on them," Jaune answered back with a grin, but he at least had the decency to be flustered a little.

"Is that so? We'll see if I _ever_ expose them to you again," I challenged back, fully aware of the double meaning.

"What's the point of me even taking you to the dance then?" Jaune joked. I was not exactly amused, though he clearly was. "Alright, alright, I'll let you choose: I can either promise to stop doing that, or I can ask you to the dance."

"The dance," I answered immediately, ignoring his attempt at messing with me again. _Besides, it_ would _be silly to make him promise never to do anything with them; never is a long time, after all._

I had to shake my head to dispel those thoughts, and from the grin Jaune tried to hide, he might have had a clue what I was thinking about.

"Pyrrha, would you go to the dance with me?" Jaune drawled, making a show out of being 'forced' to do so.

"Why, I'd love to," I answered back, ignoring his faux-misery.

"Well, good. Now that that's out of the way, I guess I can actually get to training. Unless…" Jaune trailed off, walking over to the rack of plain, stock weapons.

"Unless what?"

Jaune grabbed two glaives and tossed one over to me.

"Unless you have any other questions…"

* * *

I whacked Jaune in the back of the head with my wooden staff and at the same time he jabbed his into my gut, negating any damage lead I had taken. He tried to bring it up to catch me under the chin but I back-pedaled out before it could connect. I took advantage of his whiffed attack and made to sweep his legs out with my staff, and he tried to jump when he saw me going low. He telegraphed his jump too early and I pulled back on my attack and instead rammed my shoulder into his torso, knocking him backwards onto his back. I made sure to secure the win by pining him down and straddling his hips, using my staff to pin both of his arms above his head, leaving us face to face.

Despite it being my win, he was grinning at me, forcing me to realize the position we were in; worse, because of how I was stretched out to keep his arms pinned, he was in danger of KO by suffocation and the bastard did not seem concerned about that at all.

"Did you _plan_ this?" I asked incredulously.

"What, me? Plan such a _humiliating_ defeat?" He asked through giggling like a school girl, clearly unapologetic. "Don't worry, I won't let this keep me down."

"You're disgusting," I ribbed as I pushed myself off him, taking care to be as ungentle as I could. "Please tell me that wasn't a pun, either."

The smug bastard grinned and said nothing.

"You know what, whatever. I still get to ask you a question."

"You already did," he responded, his grin reaching shit-eating levels.

"I…I didn't—"

 _I asked him if that was on purpose, the asshole._

"You're not right."

"Alright, I'll be nice and let you have your question back," he announced, bringing himself back down from his smugness.

I thought for a moment, deciding that whatever my question was, it should make him regret messing with me. There were a couple of different ways to do that, mostly being either personal or embarrassing questions. _Or a little of both_.

"So, how did you grope Yang, anyways?"

"I didn't—" he cut himself off as he realized I was trying, and succeeding, to get a rise out of him. He forced himself to calm down before answering. "I didn't grope Yang, and that did not contribute to our…talk."

"Fight," I corrected.

"Angry talk."

" _Fight_ ," I corrected again. "Then what did?"

"Not so fast, Pyrrha. That's two questions."

"And you didn't answer the first one," I answered back.

"Emotionally," Jaune answered back with a roll of his eyes as he walked over to the weapons rack once more. "There's your answer."

"You emotionally groped Yang?" I asked for confirmation as I caught the two swords Jaune tossed to me. "Should I be worried for myself?" I asked tauntingly.

"No, I think we've established that I prefer your chest over your heart," Jaune quipped back. "Okay, that sounded less scummy in my head."

"I would hope so," I answered, launching an attack from Jaune's side before he was ready, to punish him for that comment. He reacted out of his periphery and brought both of his swords up to block his side and caught my first blade, but I pressed my weight into the blockade to force arms down and get a free swipe at his chest with the other one before backing away.

"Not cool."

"One to nothing," I responded back. We had decided that we'd do a complete round with each weapon, keeping score to see who got to ask how many questions when things were over. We had gone through several weapons by this point, with him usually taking the leads in bladed weapons and swords and me usually winning polearms or speed-based weapons, the only exception so far being him winning with the halberds we tried out.

I charged back in, twirling the sword in my right arm into a reverse-grip and dashing past Jaune, swiping out at him with the sword as I did so. He blocked and before he could counter I spun and slashed at him again with my other sword, the one in the standard grip, again blocked. This time he had only blocked it with on blade and the other one was trying to lash out at my right flank. I brought my reverse-gripped sword in my right hand up to smack the blade and get it above me but left me in an awkward position where I couldn't spin that arm around to protect my side as he brought that sword back down. I brought my other blade up to try to block any other attacks but missed, and as he brought one blade down my side, the other poked me in the ribs.

"Two, one."

Frustrated, I spun my right weapon back into a normal grip and initiated a double-bladed swipe from my right. Jaune blocked the blow with both swords held to the side, creating a gridlock as he absorbed the impact. Jaune stepped forward into my guard and used his height to push the gridlock down and away from him before trying to disengage his closest blade and slide it up at me. Instead of blocking it, I let it hit and summoned forth a burst of strength to break through Jaune's one-handed gridlock and score a hit with each sword.

"Three all," I taunted back.

"You want to end it there and switch weapons?"

"And lose any chance to ask you questions? Nope." We had also decided that it was only the person who won the final tally that would ask questions, proportional to how many points they won by.

Jaune swung his right sword at my leg and I swung my right sword to catch him half-way, also swinging my left sword up at his head. Jaune ducked and tried to stab out with his left sword, but found his face too close to where my right sword was lingering and pulled back before he got within range. I brought my left sword back from where it had passed over his head and he was forced to clumsily catch it on the cross-guard of his left sword, just above and to the side of his head. With that tangled, I lunged my right sword across his body for his right hip, which he had to twist sideways to avoid, although doing so strained his shoulder and ability to keep my other blade locked. With Jaune in no position to counter or block, I sliced both blades towards Jaune in a large X, breaking out of his clumsy block and landing two solid strikes across his body. Jaune tried to throw an attack with both of his swords to trade, but the speed I had yanked my swords with let them get back in time to block both blows with ease.

"Five, three. I win."

"I'm pretty sure you cheated there at the beginning, but go ahead."

"What happened between you and Yang?" I asked, finally working up the nerve to address the real reason I'm here, likely due to the adrenaline rushing through me.

"Oh, are we going to do this now? Wonderful," he mumbled to himself before shaking his head. "Look, Yang…I told her things about my life before Beacon at Junior's bar. That's why she was upset with me."

"And your fight?" I asked leadingly.

"I tried to explain those things further. It…didn't go well."

"Jaune, you need to tell me these things. We're here to help you. _I_ am here to help you."

"Pyrrha, I…look, I tried explaining things to Yang and it didn't…I'm not ready to share these things yet. Just…trust me a little longer."

"Trust you? I'm worried about you, Jaune, and you're not making things easier. How am I supposed to sit back and trust you when you disappear during a fight and show up at a bar, and then destroy that bar and the owner ends up dead later that night?" Jaune cringed at the point, whether because he knew about Junior's death or the entirety of the point, I wasn't sure. "How am I supposed to just sit back when all you do is say that you have a dark past, and when someone finds out about it, you two have a fight? How am I supposed to just trust you about all that?"

"Do you really want an answer to that?" Jaune asked lowly, a mix of shame and apprehension in his voice.

"Yes." Even if it counts as my other question, I need it answered.

"You can't trust me."

"I…what?" I asked, my breath hitching for a second.

"Look, just…why did you become a Huntress?" Jaune redirected, trying to find a way to explain his statement.

"I'm not the one we're talking about," I answered defensively, much to Jaune's visible frustration.

"You did it to help people, or make the world a better place, or something like that, I bet. Is that close enough?"

"I…I guess. I wanted to help people, to protect them. I've always felt like that was what I'm meant to do."

"Oh, destiny. _Great…_ " Jaune drawled. "Well, I didn't join Beacon for any of those reasons. I'm here because I'm doing anything I can to be free."

"You've said stuff like that before, Jaune. What does…what does that mean? Free from what?"

"Everything, Pyrrha. I don't know who I am, or who I would be if there weren't people controlling me. I don't have a purpose in life, other than to get to a place where I _can_ have a purpose in life. And that…it's not working.

"That's why you shouldn't trust me, Pyrrha. Not yet, at least, because right now I'll do anything that could help me get stronger, no matter how stupid. And I've…well, stupid is definitely on the table, okay?"

"Who is it that you're running from? Who is controlling you?"

"Everyone," Jaune answered with a long sigh. "When I was growing up, it was the people raising me. I come to Beacon and Ozpin tries to control everyone." A small wave of panic hit me at the mention of the Headmaster, who I had gone behind Jaune's back to already. "I try to get outside help and that starts to backfire on me. Now, I've got all three on me and I still haven't made any real progress.

"I'm starting to see glimpses of what life could be, of what I would _want_ it to be, but that's it."

"What do those look like?" I asked tenderly, taking care not to upset him and cause him to close off.

"I…I don't know. There will be moments with the team where things feel…right, for once. Or we'll do something with Team RWBY and I don't want anything to change, but those moments don't last. Sometimes, I feel like I would do anything to make them last." Jaune's fists bawled up at his sides, and he forced them to flex and relax as he walked back over to the weapon rack.

" _Jaune_ ," I called out softly, "are you okay?"

"No," he answered honestly, "but you don't need to worry about me yet. I've never been okay; nothing's changed."

Jaune tossed me a dagger and picked up a matching one for himself, and without another word, we went back at it again, though in a much different mental state. I was too worried about Jaune to be aggressive, and his aggression was worrying me further.

With a reverse grip, Jaune swiped at my torso and I back-stepped out of measure to avoid the blow. Unfazed, Jaune brought the dagger back and attempted to stab me with his back-handed strike, but I caught his wrist with my free left hand before it could reach me. Holding his weapon-hand up, I went to stab him with my own dagger, still held in a forward-grip, and he brought his free hand down to slap my wrist and cause me to miss his side.

Unable to get his hand free, Jaune dropped his dagger and let it fall down, trying to catch it with his other hand. Instead, I brought my knee up to collide with his hand right at the point he tried to catch his dagger, knocking it to the floor and making it skitter away. Instead of widening, Jaune's eyes hardened and I released his arm to better position myself to attack him with my dagger.

But Jaune made to attack first, which surprised me, given his lack of a weapon, but his hard-set eyes unsettled me. He made to swipe at me as if with a dagger, and when I looked at his hand, there was a white, glowing knife protruding from it. I wasn't sure where it had come from but I brought my dagger-arm up to block the blade on my bracer. The blow stung significantly more than I had anticipated, causing me to cry out with shock and drop my dagger altogether. It hadn't dropped more than a few inches before Jaune caught it out of the air and in one fluid motion swiped across my stomach, before kicking me away to seal a win.

"My turn to ask, right?" Jaune asked after shaking free the frustration he wore on his face during the fight. I thought about accusing him of cheating—which he totally did—but realized it might not be received well. I nodded to him. "Do you really…think that you're meant to be here?"

"What, at Beacon?" I asked, a little confused but making an effort not to come across wrong. His question almost sounded derogatory, or it would have if it wasn't clear by his voice that he was reaching out for answers.

"I…I guess. Do you think that there's some higher purpose for you, or that you're meant to do something?"

"I…think so. I—"

"How do you know?" Jaune asked, cutting me off as he desperately looked at me for an answer.

"I've…it's something I've always felt. I've always been strong and I could have done anything, but…I've always felt that there was something _more_ than I'm supposed to do. Like I was given all of my abilities for a reason, and just using them to win tournaments wasn't enough. I feel like there's something out there that I am meant to accomplish, or something that I need to protect, and I wasn't going to do any good by fighting for entertainment."

"You've always felt like you have a destiny?"

"You could say that, yeah. I don't know exactly what it is, but I'm searching for it."

"Do you think you control your own destiny?" Jaune asked, leaning in closer as if the question was more important than the rest.

"Yes. I don't think that anything is guaranteed. I've always worked as hard as I could so that I _can_ achieve my destiny," I answered honestly. There were times where I could have stopped, and just been content with being the best, but I kept pushing myself. It was why I chose to come to Beacon instead of staying in Mistral, because I needed the extra push and the chance to get away from my fame.

"I…I don't. Or, I kind of do." Jaune answered with his head lowered. "I don't think that anything is preordained. We're all free to flail about as we fling towards chaos, but that doesn't mean that we control our destiny. The fates of most people are held in the hands of only a few; we all answer to someone, after all. Only the people who answer to no one truly control their fate."

"Well said," a voice boomed out from across the room, causing both Jaune and I to jump. "It's an old philosopher's dilemma that you've stumbled upon, trading freedom for security."

"With all due respect, General Ironwood, it isn't a trade. At least, not one that _I_ made, because I would have chosen freedom."

"Given how you grew up, I can't say I would fault you for that. Giving up that freedom to become a Huntsman is a noble undertaking, and a commendable one at that, but no one ever said you wouldn't have second thoughts. I can only imagine what it must feel like, going from the wilds to the structure of an academy."

"You'd be surprised how much more freedom I have here," Jaune grumbled, a little more hostile than he should be in front of the head of Atlas' military.

"Don't mind him, please," I covered nervously for Jaune. "He's just a little upset that he keeps losing."

"I am not…" Jaune mumbled under his breath.

"It's not an issue; I should apologize for interrupting. I merely wanted to check in on Mr. Arc personally after his injury during our raid on the White Fang. I take it the concussion left no discernable damage?"

"None," Jaune answered curtly.

"Glad to hear it," the general responded enthusiastically, as if intentionally contrasting the cold shoulder Jaune was giving the man. They both met each other's eyes when they spoke, however, making me feel like I was missing out on some sort of hostility I was unaware of. "I will admit to also wanting to meet you both and express my admiration of your talents. Miss Nikos, you've knocked off many of Atlas' best recruits in your professional fighting days and I believe you to be the best prospect I've ever seen enter a Huntsman Academy."

"Uh, thank you, sir," I answered, a little flustered. After years of winning fights, you'd think I'd be better at taking compliments, or at least not acting like a fool when given one.

"And Mr. Arc," he said, earning a side-look from Jaune, "I've seen the footage of your spar with Miss Nikos. Outside of how the spar ended, you can consider me very impressed as well. Your level of command over a field of battle is impressive, especially against such an experienced opponent as your partner."

"Thank you, _sir_ ," Jaune answered, doing a poor job not sounding like it was through gritted teeth.

"You…saw that footage?" I asked, blushing a little harder as the thought of me nearly killing Jaune was footage that could be floating around somewhere.

"I did. I understand that Headmaster Ozpin has a tight grip on all the official recording of that fight, though I am afraid that video taken from the crowd watching it has been circulated online."

"That's…" horrifying, since it means that anyone could find out about that fight. If word got back to Mistral— _when_ word got back to Mistral—the media would have a field day with it. _Honestly, it's surprising that I haven't gotten angry phone calls from my old agent._ All the more reason to leave that behind me, I suppose, but that doesn't make it easy.

"Irrelevant," Jaune answered for me. "If anyone tries to use that video against you, we'll drag them through the mud for falling for such an obvious publicity stunt."

"…publicity stunt?" I asked, confused as to what Jaune was getting at.

"Isn't that right, General?" Ironwood gave Jaune a curious look as well, but didn't answer. "Pyrrha Nikos didn't let someone fight on her level, and she certainly didn't try to kill anyone; obviously, she staged that video as a prank. I was certainly in on it."

"Yes, an unfortunate idea for one, but student pranks are practically a right of passage at Huntsmen Academies," the General played along, though rolling his eyes as he did so before turning to me. "Although he is a little…unorthodox, I think your partner has his heart in the right place." He gave another look to Jaune that was a mix of flippant and starkly stern. "If not, I'm sure that Miss Goodwitch would help relocate it."

"She's already tried," Jaune drawled, crossing his arms.

"Well, I can see that I'm still interrupting something, so I'll leave you two to your own devices. Just be careful and remember that there _are_ cameras in these rooms." It took me a moment to understand his implication, and my face went red when I caught on to it. He never noticed, as his eyes locked onto Jaune's as the two continued their strange rivalry. "And Miss Nikos, you might want to clean that wound up."

"What wound?" I mumbled as he left, before looking down to find my right arm with streaks of blood coming out from underneath my bracer. Pulling it off, I found a long slice on my forearm that wasn't deep but bled enough to soak the whole inside of my bracer and leave my arm red. Jaune focused in on it too, just as surprised by it as I was. "I still have aura left. When did you sneak attack underneath my gauntlet?"

Jaune shrugged his shoulders, just as confused as I am.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: There are some important interactions between Jaune and Pyrrha this chapter, which I wish that I had more time to go into. Originally, this chapter was going to open where the last one left off over with Roman, but that was the first to go; it was superfluous to the plot, anyways. I'll make sure Jaune addresses it the next POV he has.**

 **Jaune and Pyrrha flirting while sparring very much so is what I imagine Taiyang and Raven flirting would be like, although Jaune and Pyrrha keep more clothes on.**

 **Pyrrha's trying to get through to Jaune, which would be a good thing for them both because it might make her less liable to go to Ozpin with her concerns, but after the... _conversation_ with Yang, Jaune is a little on edge about things like that. **

**It does appear that, for now, Yang is keeping Jaune's secret, at least from her team, but we'll see. She hasn't had time to process yet.**

 **More importantly, it seems that there was a great deal of...uh... _discussion_ about those Comments of the Week last week, which is hysterical that after _that_ confrontation, those comments are what y'all were focused on. Funnier still, the general consensus was summed up by ** **in the phrase "** CUCK YANG FTFW **," so...**

 **No, guys, that is not happening.  
** (if anything, yang and neo's roles would swap)  
 **No Enabler, either, but I couldn't resist that joke.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _Kingofclub8129_ on **Ch. 23**

" This will be a great story to tell the kids "Hey sweetie did I ever tell you about the time I found out your dad was my brother?" Do you think theres a remnant version of Kentucky where they can be with others of their kind? "

 **You, sir, clearly know the way to my heart is by insulting Kentucky, so props to you.**

 **Weirdly enough, Faunus traits have a weird quirk when being passed down, according to the World of Remnant videos. If two of the same kind of Faunus have a kid, it is a 100% chance to also be that kind of Faunus. This doesn't mean that the traits manifest the same way, but come from the same type of animal. In the Belladonna family, they all have dark hair, too, which means they might be Black Cat Faunus. Point it, two different Faunus have a random-Faunus kid.**

 **Which is oddly specific, considering that we haven't seen, well, _any_ Faunus families with mixed heritages. We tend to see a lot of similar Faunus together in the show, like in the background of Menagerie, where they tend to stick around. My Point? I think there's a case to be made that Faunus tend to like to hook up with similar Faunus...**

 **Which means that it is actually possible that they could run into a problem of dating their cousins and maybe not even realizing, so...**

 **I hate to insult Menagerie by calling it Kentucky, but... :O**


	27. Little Talks, Big Moments

**[REFINED Jan 4, 2019] Author's Note: S** **ince the story has moved out of that one chronological week period, we should get back to jumping forward a bit. This chapter takes place at least four days after the last one, and the next chapter is likely a bridge to get us to the Dance and Mountain Glenn.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 25:** _"Tai, Yang got all her mom's rage and all of your personality quirks. I don't think you could have created a worse combination if you had tried…" – Qrow Branwen, while opening a flask_

* * *

Qrow's POV

* * *

I took a deep breath and reached out to knock on the door twice, firmly and quickly. _Proper and professional, if only because the person behind the door would not expect that from me._

"Enter," a voice from the other side called out, not having bothered to get up and let me in. I did so, and strut in with a grin that only widened as Winter Schnee stiffened upon seeing me. "Can I help you?"

"Who, me?" I evaded, trying to piss her off. "No, I'm good. Just browsing for now." I made a show of looking around her 'office,' if you could even call it that. I mean, it _was_ an office, but one of the spare offices left unclaimed by Beacon's staff because it was so incredibly inconvenient and out-of-the-way. It's location on a seldom-used upper-floor of one of Beacon's administrative buildings meant that no professor wanted to subject themselves to the journey required to reach the office—although I would take such a set up in heart-beat, because it would discourage students from coming to office hours. It was actually that last point that was the reason Winter was set up here: to keep her away from students so that she can go through Beacon and Atlas's entrance records in peace.

"What do you want, Qrow?" Winter practically growled at me from behind stacks and stacks of paper on her desk. It felt good to know that I could get her to drop her dressed-up Atlesian manner so quickly, even if only because she hated every word that come from my mouth. _Being stuck here for several days with nothing but rigorous paperwork probably doesn't make her any happier, either._

"You know, what do any of us want, really?" I mocked, putting a hand under my chin for good measure. "Life really is a mystery in that way, don't you think?"

"If you don't get out, you won't have to worry about that 'mystery' for much longer."

"Ooh, a threat? How uncivil. And to think that I came down here to do you a favor, too…"

Winter did not take the bait, which normally would be to her credit, except that it actually wasn't bait.

"I'm serious."

"I'm sure you are," she drawled back.

"How would you like a chance to take a break from all… _this_?" I asked leadingly while gesturing loosely to the desk and paperwork around her.

Winter's eyelids fell as she gave me a flat, disappointed look. It wasn't hard for me to tell that she expected me to be trying to get her to ditch her work so that I could get her in trouble, which is insulting that she would suspect me of such a primitive and see-through scheme. _I would be much, much subtler about getting Winter in hot water._ "Ozpin requested I be brought in to do work for him, _not_ indulge the whims of a child."

"Oh, my dear, cold, bitter, unloving Winter, you would still be working for Ozpin," I countered, gaining a little bit of curiosity out of Winter, if nothing else, which I took as permission to go on. "You are currently working to help supplement Ozpin's intelligence efforts, yeah?"

"Technically correct," she answered, still suspicious of me. "I'm here because you aren't capable of handling everything," she added, taking pleasure in the dig at me. Like the (much) better man that I am, I let such petty words go unaddressed.

"So as long as you are taking a break to help _me_ , you're still working."

"I—" she cut herself of, not finding any easy way to refute the logic, though clearly not liking the conclusion of 'I work for Qrow now' that I was building towards. _Or at least, that she_ thinks _I'm building towards._

"All you have to do is have lunch with your sister."

"I… _what_?" she asked confused, before switching to a much more agitated demeanor as she realized that I must have been messing with her again. "I don't know what sort of fool you take me for, Branwen, but I would consider my next words carefully if I were you."

"I'm serious; all I need you to do is have lunch with mini-Schnee, and I'll do the rest." It was hard not to smile—actually, it was impossible—as Winter continued to glare at me as if I was trying to get her to agree to prank Ironwood or something.

"There is no way I'm falling for this, Qrow."

"Look, here's the deal," I cut in, starting to find this situation less amusing and more aggravating. "I need to have a conversation with my niece, the yellow one, away from her team. She's been running around frantically with your sister because they're organizing the school dance or something. If you get your sister to take a break and have lunch with you, _I_ can swoop in and force Yang to have a chat."

"…you're serious?" Winter asked, surprised. "I can't…I have my cover to preserve. Ironwood and Ozpin do not want any students to know that I'm here or what I'm doing; the whole purpose of me secretly vetting the students is that they do not know it."

"No, Oz doesn't want any bad apples finding out that you're here," I countered. "Are you afraid that your little sister is a terrorist, a criminal, or a puppet for Salem?"

"No."

"Then no harm done. I'm sure she can be subtle about it; I know that _my_ family can't." Tai was…discrete, sure, but only when it came to who he was sleeping with. _At least, that's what he_ thought _, but it takes two to tango and Raven was_ not _discrete._ Raven had a good head for stealth and subterfuge in the field, but in the dorm is was so painfully obvious that she was sneaking around with Tai that it hurt. Literally, it hurt, because she attacked me and Summer for calling her out for walking funny. Yang seems to have inherited an inability to even pronounce the word 'subtle,' seeing as her preferred method of extracting information is starting a bar fight. Ruby…well, Ruby _maybe_ could be sneaky, if she _ever_ did something worth keeping secret. "Come on, do you really want to sit here and do paperwork all day?"

She clearly did not, but it was also clear that she was fighting her instinct to not trust me.

"Today?"

"Lunch is in, like, an hour. Or are you not flexible enough to make that work? I do now how you Schnees are…"

Winter rolled her eyes, not rising to the obvious bait but giving in anyways. "Very well. Do not think that I won't sell you out when this backfires."

"Backfires? We'd have to be really _unlucky_ to have this come back and bite us."

* * *

"Who is it?" Ruby's voice called out from inside her dorm in response to me knocking.

"Who do you think it is?" I grumbled back impatiently.

"EEE!"

The door flung open in a matter of seconds, so quickly that I was concerned that Ruby hadn't even checked to see if her teammates were dressed enough for me to come in. _With my semblance, I do_ not _need to tempt fate by just barging into teenage girls' rooms._

"UNCLE QROW!"

"Uh, yeah. That's me," I answered back, playing hard to get. A lull fell between us for a moment. "Are you going to invite me in?"

"Oh. Yeah! Come on, I'll show you around!" Ruby exclaimed, practically radiating energy in the same way her mother used to, although Summer had a much better control over it; advantages of being 17 when you start Beacon, and not 15, I guess.

"I thought we were going to get lunch," one of Ruby's teammates called out from her position on her bed, eyes not even flicking up from her book. If I remembered correctly, she was the ex-White Fang student responsible for dragging Ruby's whole team into the Torchwick mess. Whether I should be cursing her or thanking her for that, I haven't decided.

"I know Weiss and I are," Yang called out, appearing from the closet and reaching over to put Ember Cilicia on. "We've got to make it quick, too, because after that Weiss and I are running back to Vale to pick up supplies we ordered for the dance."

"Ugh…" Ruby huffed at Yang. "Is that _really_ necessary?"

" _Yes_ , Ruby, it's necessary. Isn't that right, Weiss?"

"Well, we _do_ need to pick them up sometime before the dance next Friday," the Schnee responded.

"Which means you have, like, forever to do it," Ruby tacked on.

"It's always better to do things now instead of putting them off," Weiss countered back, sounding just like her last name would suggest she would. I had to fight myself to not roll my eyes.

"Yeah, but you two have done _nothing_ but work for that stupid dance ever since—" Ruby checked herself and did her best to casually chose a different word, though not exactly doing so subtly. "—last Saturday."

"This dance is going to be awesome—and you are _totally_ going, Ruby—and I'm going to make sure of it," Yang growled at her sister, making it very clear that this was not a new complaint, nor a new argument. Her tone was very similar to Raven's whenever we bickered over something. _Not exactly a rare occurrence, either._

"I'm with Ruby on this one," the faunus called out, still reading (or pretending to, at the least). "You're not subtle, Yang."

"And _you're_ going too, Blake!" Yang countered back, as if it was the worst punishment for either Blake or Ruby she could think of. It might very well be. "Keep it up and you'll both be wearing poofy, floor-length, old-timey dresses, too!"

"Wait, isn't today Wednesday? Don't you have class?" I asked, trying to get things back on track.

"Just Goodwitch's class," Yang responded off-hand. "We'll be fine to miss this one."

"You're going to skip… _her_ class, of all things?" I asked, fighting the urge to pull out my flask and down the whole thing. _I knew Yang was distracted, but I thought she'd still be able to rationalize why that was a horrible idea._

"It's not such a big deal. Yang and I are both scheduled to for spars tomorrow, so all we're really missing is watching other students fight," the Schnee added on, forcing me to realize that she was somehow on board with this plan.

Weiss' head shifted down suddenly as her scroll buzzed once, and she pulled it out to peak at it without causing a scene, going very still as she read whatever text she received.

 _That's my que._

"Well, as it turns out, I need to speak to Yang for a bit, so you might put those plans on hold for today."

"Um, no?" Yang responded offhandedly to my request, letting her agitation show just a little.

"Just Yang?" Ruby asked uncertainly, though with a little bit of defensiveness thrown in. Even the one 'reading' in the back looked up to give me a wary look. _It's nice to see everyone come together in defense of their teammate, but less so when that was directed against me_.

The only one who _didn't_ get defensive was Weiss, presumably because the favor I called in was working. _One down, two to go._ I only need to convince Yang's teammates to leave Yang alone, which is good because convincing Yang to have a nice chat isn't exactly possible.

"Look, it's nothing bad. Really, I don't even want to do this," I started off, worming my way past their guards. "To be honest, Tai found out that I'm in town and wants me to give Yang a kick in the pants to get her out of the funk she's been in these past few days."

"Oh my goodness, of _course_ dad's trying to get involved," Yang huffed, frustrated at someone who was not me, as was my plan. "How does he even know that?"

Yang was facing me when she said it, but as the words left her mouth, she realized that the clear-cut most obvious answer to that was her sister, and a glance at Ruby revealed the nervous guilt to confirm it.

"Nevermind. I think I know…" Yang half-growled at Ruby. I hadn't really even planned on Ruby taking the blame for that line I made up on the spot, but if it works, it works. In hindsight, it was just like Ruby to stay in constant contact with her dad, and it wasn't as if Ruby was very good at keeping secrets.

"Yang's dad wants you to give Yang a kick in the pants?" Blake asked, not even pretending to read her book despite still holding it up in front of her.

"Not exactly. He wants me to have a nice, thoughtful conversation to help Yang work her feelings out. I, on the other hand, am prepared to give a jolt to her system."

"Nope. Not happening."

Ruby and Blake's eyes met, both of them clearly seeing the opportunity for what it was and liking the idea.

"It…wouldn't hurt to try," Blake said softly, aware of the ire from Yang it would earn.

"Really, Blake? Selling me out?"

"It's just Uncle Qrow. It's not like we're really hurting you…" Ruby patronized— _patronized,_ Ruby of all people, to Yang!—catching Yang off-guard.

"I can't believe you two would betray me so quickly," Yang whined, though without any real vitriol behind it. Yang sounded more like she wasn't as surprised as she wanted to be, and given how fast Ruby and Blake did sell her out, the chances that they'd already tried to talk to Yang about this stuff was pretty high, if not outright confirmed. "Doesn't matter, though. Weiss and I still have to go run errands."

"Actually," the heiress interrupted after having spent the past few minutes typing away at her scroll, "we're ahead of where we need to be. We can afford to push things off until tomorrow."

" _Weiss!_ " Yang cried out as the Schnee put the nail in the coffin.

"That settles it, then. Everyone else, out!"

"Wait, you're kicking us out of our room?" Ruby asked me.

"No, you're going to get lunch, remember?"

"…oh."

The three of them made their way out, with the heiress no doubt planning on splitting off to go meet Winter, leaving just me and Yang (sporting an unhappy glare at me) alone in the dorm.

"Ugh, let's get this over with. What did dad say?" Yang groaned, sitting down on a bed and rolling her eyes.

"Oh, that? I just made that up."

"You…?" Yang trailed off, confused, before trying a different question. "I'm assuming you're here to lecture me, too?"

"Who else has lectured you?" I asked, pointedly not answering.

"All of them, but Blake the most," Yang answered, letting some of her exasperation slip out. "I'm fine, there's nothing wrong. I've just been…thinking a lot, recently."

"If _you_ have been thinking a lot, there is certainly something wrong," I commented, earning a limp glare from Yang. "Look, you had a fight with a guy. Happens. You're both hotheads and you're both 17, and to be honest, I really don't care about any of _that_."

"You…don't?"

"Nope. Not at all. I know exactly who your father is and I know better than to try to stop you from sneaking around…"

It took Yang a second to realize what I was getting at.

"WE WEREN'T—"

"Nuh uh uh!" I cut her off, raising a hand to let her know I wasn't going to hear it. "I said I don't want to know about any of that, mostly because if your dad finds out and _then_ finds out that I knew, we're all three of us dead men."

"…three?"

"Yeah. You, me, and the guy he catches," I explained. "Unless you're telling me he's going to catch more than one—nope, I just remembered, I don't wanna know."

"I-If this isn't it, can we get back to why you wanted my team gone?" Yang asked, her face starting to fluster as her embarrassment outweighed her agitation.

"Sure. I just need to ask you some questions that it's easiest if they're not around to hear."

"Then why didn't you say that?!" Yang interjected, upset. "You didn't have to trick my team into believing this was some sort of intervention."

"Would you have believed it if I told you that?" Yang opened her mouth to answer, but cut herself off. "Besides, this way you can say that I took care of any problems you had and you don't have to hear about it from them again."

"…okay, now I'm suspicious."

"You should be," I tacked on. "That's a pretty big favor I'm offering. Now, are you going to help me out or not?"

"Fine," Yang drawled, rolling her eyes.

"It _is_ about that Jaune kid—" Yang's shoulder's tensed and she otherwise went still, "—but not like _that_. Sheesh, you're really hung up on whatever happened."

Yang didn't respond and didn't so much as move, instead watching me nervously with her lips pulled into a thin frown.

"Look, do you remember that I told you I have contacts in Vale's underworld?" I let the question hang in the air before cutting it off. "Wait, of course you do. I was the one that told you that Junior was an information dealer…"

"You bragged about it, actually, when you took me there for my 'first' drink on my birthday," she accused, not dropping the look she was giving me.

"And if your dad asks, we got you a _virgin_ , right?" Yang rolled her eyes again, but gave a slight nod. "Maybe I should have bragged about extracting information _without_ destroying the place, Firecracker. What was so important, anyways?"

Yang's thin frown returned, but this time she averted her eyes and looked to the floor, unwilling to look up or answer.

"Doesn't matter. What does matter is that some of my informants are going dark, including Junior, and others are starting to get spooked."

"What does this have to do with Jaune?" Yang asked, though I detected a little bit of difficulty for her to say the kid's name, and I had to fight not to roll my eyes. _Seriously, were we ever_ this _bad when we fought?_

"You know, kiddo," I prodded. "Jaune got into a big fight with Junior last weekend, and you're the one who walked him home."

Yang went still again, this time a little defensive, and again I found it hard to take her seriously. Did she think that she was in trouble or something, or is she just surprised that I know about it? _It's not like she has been in a sour mood towards the kid since that night or anything…_ If anything, finding out that something happened between them was the easiest part of this whole thing.

"Yang, I'm not accusing you of anything, and I'm not angry that your friend trashed that club; normally, I wouldn't care one way or the other."

"Then why bring it up?" Yang asked defensively.

"Because Junior was found dead that same night, and that seemed to be the start of my informants going dark."

Yang didn't react to the information at all, staying still and looking at me nervously.

"No," Yang spat out preemptively.

"I just need to know if you think there's any possibility—"

"No."

"—that it was him."

"I said _no_ , didn't I?" Yang asked, her voice a little distant but very firm and defensive.

"Yang, I know you're all friends, but are you sure?"

"It wasn't him. Junior was alive when I drug him out of there."

I paused for a moment, watching Yang as she watched me. She very firmly and very coldly made it clear that Jaune wasn't involved in Junior's death, and there was nothing about her reaction that made me suspect she was lying to cover for him. Sure, it sounded like she was still upset at him, because I hadn't done anything that would get her angry yet, but she _was_ defending him. _The fact that she would pretty firmly defend him despite being angry with him just makes it even more obvious that there's something between those two; Tai is going to be_ thrilled

Unless I avoid that conversation by not telling him.

"Alright."

" _Alright_?" Yang repeated in disbelief. "That's it?"

"Well, yeah. What, did you think I had Jaune pegged as some sort of master criminal?"

"Well…no, but—"

"But?"

"I mean…he doesn't exactly have the best… _upbringing_ …" Yang explained, taking a lot of time to find the correct words, choosing them carefully.

"Yeah, and I'm sure that Ozpin would have had a field day with this if I had told him that I had a lead on Jaune. To be honest, it was a longshot anyways. It was just something I had to doublecheck." I didn't really see any harm in letting Yang know that I was technically hiding this from Oz, since I would let him know about it eventually—or I would have, if it had turned up anything. It is _my_ informant network, after all, and not everything needs to be run through Ozpin.

"Oh."

"Chances are, Junior's own problems caught up to him. Life of crime, ya know?" I couldn't help but chuckle a little at how tense Yang had been, and still was, throughout the whole thing. "If anything, some opportunistic thug probably took him out after Jaune did all the legwork for him."

"So that's…all you wanted to know?" Yang asked nervously.

"Yup, that's it," I answered, pushing myself upright and making for the door. "I'll make sure to tell your friends that we shed tears over our heart-to-heart, and that they should get off your ass about it."

"Uncle Qrow—" Yang called out limply, cutting herself off but catching my attention before I was to the door.

"Yeah kiddo?" I asked, turning my head around.

"Nevermind," Yang mumbled, shifting her eyes away and letting her shoulders slump a little.

"No, go ahead," I prompted, turning all the way around to face her. "You already stopped me; might as well get it out."

"If I…asked you about my mother, would you answer my questions?" Yang did her best to avoid my eyes, but did look up after a few moments.

"Well, that would depend on a couple of things," I began to answer. My right arm twitched and begged to reach for my flask out of instinct, but I fought it down for now. "Which mother are you talking about?"

I already knew the answer to that question, hence the twitch for the flask.

"Raven."

"What's bringing this up?" I asked seriously, giving Yang an inquisitive look.

"It's—" Yang cut herself off and refused to meet my eyes again. "Talking about Junior brought it up. The whole reason I went to Junior's club in the first place—the time that I trashed it—was because I was looking for her."

That sounded familiar, but wasn't something I would have paid much attention to since I was in the field at the time. I'm not really sure if I knew that or not, but it did make sense that it would bring the topic back to Yang's mind. The action itself sounded familiar, too, because I remember following Yang through the woods as she drug Ruby along on a search for Raven. Neither attempt bore fruit, fortunately.

"But you didn't answer my question."

"It depends on what you wanted to know," I answered honestly, making no real attempt to lie to Yang. There are things I wouldn't tell her, at least not now, for several reasons; the only thing worse that letting Yang know that I wouldn't tell her something was if she found out I lied to her. "If you asked me what she was like, I'd tell you that she was a lot like you when you're angry."

"Which is why my eyes turn red," Yang added on, though it sounded like a half-question.

"Probably. I'm not really good at explaining semblances or things like that." Oz might know more, or he might just shrug and mention how some people think our auras are our souls.

"Why haven't you or dad ever told me why she left?" Yang asked, getting right into the things that were probably best left buried.

"Well, your dad probably never told you because it brings up rough memories for him. That, or he never knew her like he thought he did, and might not feel like _he_ even knows."

"But you do?"

"I…" I trailed off, letting out a sigh. "Yeah, I do."

Yang looked at me expectantly with wide eyes, begging me to go on.

"My sister and I had no intentions of becoming Huntsmen after Beacon, or even of being decent people. Our plan was to—" _Our plan was to learn how to kill Huntsmen so we could grow the Tribe exponentially, without fear of being hunted down._ "—well, it was to get stronger and go back to our little Tribe. Once we got to Beacon, we realized there was a lot more to the world than that."

"And that's why you stayed?"

"Nah," I answered, watching Yang's reaction closely. "I stayed because my team made me realize that I wasn't the cold, heartless jerk I was raised to be."

"And that didn't happen for Raven?"

"No, she realized it, too," I countered. "As much as I bash on her for being heartless, that's not really true. She did settle down with your dad for a bit; you're proof that she was capable of affection…"

Yang scrunched her eyes and tried to shake free any thoughts of _that_ , which was amusing to watch.

"It's not that she's heartless and _can't_ feel, it's that despite that, she still chose to leave. We were both faced with some harsh truths about the world, and I chose to stick with my team and face them. Your mother chose to run."

"What truths?"

"That's above your paygrade," I answered, cutting Yang off before she could object. "I mean that literally, Yang. Raven and I were Ozpin's top two spies; there was some shit going down—" _There is_ always _some shit going down, usually Salem-related, not that Yang needs to know about that._ "—and it's not something I can tell you about."

Yang sat in silence for a bit, clearly lost in her thoughts as she pondered over everything. Yang being deep in thought was a strange thing, almost as if it just didn't fit her, which made the seriousness with which she did so significant.

"Do you know where she is, then?"

I didn't answer immediately, instead pulling my lips into a thin frown as I looked over Yang. Her eyes showed mixed emotions, with both hope and distrust mixed together in odd amounts.

"…I do," I answered, not wanting to lie.

"You've always known, haven't you?" Yang asked, a little bit of accusation slipping in this time.

"Not exactly," I responded, "but I could have found out, if I needed to. I have a way of getting in touch."

"Why haven't you ever told me this before? Why do I still not know where she is?!" Yang asked, her temper starting to flare up towards the end, before she caught herself and forced herself to calm down.

"Well, your reaction seems like a pretty good reason," I pointed out as Yang went back to avoiding my eyes. "I get it, this is important to you. I just happen to think it's more important that you _don't_ meet her, at least not anytime soon."

"Why?" Yang asked, cutting her eyes back at me.

"Because your mother would be a horrible influence on you, and she would _not_ feel bad for manipulating you." Raven would leap at the chance to get a hold of Yang for any extended period of time. For all the talk of Pyrrha Nikos as Beacon's premier duelist, Yang was also a combat prodigy, just with a few more obvious drawbacks; if Raven had Yang for even a month, Yang would come back a fierce combatant.

The problem with that is that in addition to having a month to sharpen Yang's abilities, Raven would also spend that month planting her ideology into Yang's head. _That_ was the real reason Tai wanted Yang kept in the dark about Raven while growing up, and I can't say that I disagreed with the tactic. In all likelihood, Yang was probably old (and stubborn) enough to resist going rouge like her mother, but even planting doubt in Yang's mind would be bad enough, and Raven was liable to tell Yang all sorts of secrets that would make it hard for her to trust us. With Oz's decision about a new Maiden looming and Yang's name still being in that mix, much to my resentment, any sort of tampering by Raven could be catastrophic.

In fact, just being so curious about finding her mother would be good grounds to rule Yang out of contention, or at least make it obvious she was not the #1 choice.

 _If that isn't an idea…_

"Look, as much as I hate to say it, you're right…"

"I am?" Yang asked, perking up but not completely trusting my words, though very clearly getting excited at the prospects.

"Even if she's a manipulative, self-serving, murderous bitch, she is your biological…spawn point. When things settle down on my end…well, I'll do what I can to get you a meeting with her."

"And when would _that_ be?" Yang asked, clearly not trusting that I was telling the truth. She couldn't really be blamed for that, I suppose, seeing as Tai and I had up until now actively tried to hide Raven from Yang, and vice versa.

"After the Vytal Festival," I answered, cutting Yang's exasperated moan off before she could get worked up again. "I know, I know, that feels like it's a while away, but you've got classes anyways. It's all you're gonna get, and if you _dare_ tell your dad about it, then you won't end up getting anything. Do we have a deal?"

Yang looked out the window, pointedly not answering. Her fist flexed at her side, and she stretched her fingers out to dispel her anger.

" _Yang?_ "

"Deal," she answered finally.

"Glad to hear it," I responded glibly as I made my way to the door once more, hopefully for good this time. "Good talk, kiddo."

It was, too. I ruled out Ozpin's favorite project as a murder suspect—come to think of it, Oz is likely to be _disappointed_ that the Arc wasn't connected somehow—which did technically leave me without a lead, but it was still just as likely that it was coincidence that my informants were going dark. It was only three of them so far, with one being a bar owner and one a bookstore owner, both in bad sides of town. They were known commodities in a dangerous world, and if both of them were taken out as part of their normal lives, then that meant I was only looking at one informant going dark, which was nothing, really.

More important than ruling out Jaune was the chat with Yang, mostly because it gave me more reasons to rule her out of Ozpin's Maiden selection. I mean, yeah, it was nice to get a chance to clear some of the air surrounding Yang and her mom, but that was more of a side-note. _The reassurance that Yang isn't going to run off in search of her mom anytime soon is more comforting than I expected, too._

All in all, the only negative was that I did a nice thing for Winter to make it all happen.

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

Even with my scroll's battery disconnected, it didn't take me long to find my heading. It was the same warehouse that I had met Roman at over the weekend, just as abandoned on this Wednesday night as it had been when I first came by, which was at least a little strange, unless this was yet another abandoned warehouse.

The parking lot was completely empty and there were no lights on inside, giving everything a sort of dead and eerie feeling. I made my way to the front door of the small office building attached to the front of the warehouse, the same place where I had met Roman and his smith, and found the front door unlocked. I pushed my way through the door carefully, keeping my head on a swivel and doing my best to stay light on my feet. The interior was dark and I could barely see, forcing me to walk even slower as I wondered around the immaculately-clean offices.

Making my way around the corner to the room I remembered going to last time proved fruitless, leaving me alone in the middle of a dark building with no idea where Roman was at.

I kept my head on a swivel, and good thing I did, because I caught the briefest flash of steel out of the corner of my eye. My heart and instincts leaped and I had spun to face my attacker and drawn Crocea Mors in one motion, using it both to block the attack I saw and then slide under said attack, slashing at the ribs of my attacker. The move worked flawlessly, but the moment my blade impacted my assailant, he shattered into pieces and fell to the floor.

Despite my adrenaline, I dropped my guard and turned around to give Neo a flat glare, returned only by an innocent, toothy smile.

"That's not funny," I whined, sheathing Crocea Mors as I did so. The grin on Neo's face told me she disagreed. "Is Roman here yet?"

Neo nodded and motioned to follow her further into the building, and the whole way I kept one hand on Crocea Mors, and the other right out in front of me to make sure Neo didn't try to place any more glass walls in front of me.

Neo led me out the back of the offices and straight into the actual warehouse, filled with random machines and crates, all marked with metal manufacturers' logos, with the occasional SDC logo strewn about. There was a little bit more light in the warehouse from emergency exit lights, but other than that it was still mostly dark.

"Would it kill you to have turned a light on?" I called out upon spotting Roman as Neo and I rounded a corner.

"Would it kill you to shut your mouth?" Roman called back, not bothering to take the half-spent cigar out of his mouth. "You seem to use it an awful lot."

"I'm just trying to make up for all the talking Neo doesn't do," I quipped back, before being greeted by a sharp object being poked into my lower back. "For example, Neo wants to say mean things about me right now."

"Eh, Neo wants to _do_ mean things to you pretty much all the time. Don't take it personally."

Neo eventually withdrew the blade from my back and scampered off somewhere, leaving Roman and I alone for the time being. _That, or she was just hiding nearby; with her semblance, it certainly is possible, and it seemed right up her alley to eavesdrop._

"Is that…?" I trailed off, pointing to a box Roman seemed to be standing next to.

"That's them," Roman confirmed, taking another hit on his cigar. "Go ahead."

I walked over and Roman backed away a few paces to make room as I began opening what was there. I pulled out two large items, them being a set of bracers and guards for my arms that overlapped so smoothly that it almost looked like two large gauntlets. It wasn't anything crazy, but it was a very comfortable and light-weight armor set for my arms made from my old chest plate.

"Well, it fits," I mused, flexing my arms and looking over how the set handled rapid motion.

"Of course it fits. What do I look like, some sort of amateur? My guys are always top notch," Roman responded, putting no real anger into his beratement.

"Except the White Fang."

"Those are not _my_ guys," he defended, not even pretending to defend the reputation of the Fang. It was a lost cause anyhow, seeing as I have had a chance to look behind the scenes a little; they had one or two good fighters in all of Vale, and a bunch of untrained fodder. _Still dangerous if deployed properly, but not exactly a force to be feared._

"Oh really?" I asked, checking to make sure there wasn't anything else in the box my bracers came in. "Whose are they, then?"

"You'll see soon enough," Roman answered. "That's the other half of this meeting."

"I was wondering if you were planning on telling me that," I mumbled. "What's going on?"

"Hey, you're the one who wanted more connections," Roman accused, forcing me to back down a little. He wasn't wrong, which was why I didn't have a response immediately.

"I don't need a network like you have. Knowing a gang of thugs down the street or knowing who deals small arms doesn't help me. I need _connections_."

"Uh huh. You and me both, kid," Roman dismissed, lighting up a new cigar and taking a deep hit to relax himself. "I thought I already told you that you and I are not in dissimilar positions."

"And what position would that be?" I made a point of asking.

"Firmly under the thumb of people we detest, and who would sell us out without a thought."

"Wow, you literally just described how the world works. _Thanks_."

"Listen here, brat," Roman barked out, detecting the mockery in my voice and deciding to go along with it. "I've met the lady holding your leash, and let me tell you that we are both in the same position of laying down plans to cut ties. The difference is that you are flailing about wildly and making it obvious to that person what you intend to do."

"And you?"

"…are a lot more _subtle_ at laying equally ambitious, if not crazier, plans," Roman answered in a hushed voice as a side door opened on the far end of the warehouse. "Ah, I was wondering if you'd ever bother to show up!"

Roman reacted as if someone was approaching, but for all I was worth I could see nothing except an empty warehouse.

" _I would have kept you wondering if I knew it bothered you,_ " a disembodied, static voice called out from the general area that Roman was addressing, making me really consider the possibility that Roman was in the employ of ghosts. The voice did sound ethereal, but that was because it had no source and sounded as if it was coming over the static of an old radio. " _It sounds to me that you're overstepping your bounds, Roman. You don't have any authority to question my punctuality._ "

"Oh, Mercury's fault for making you late, I'm sure," Roman acquiesced, putting on an obviously-fake grin and backing down at this person's threat.

" _This is your little prodigy, I take it?_ " the voice called out, leaving me with the odd sensation of someone looking at me. " _Hopefully this one isn't also a mute._ "

"Technically, neither of them are mute," Roman responded, nudging me in the side. "That's your que to say something."

"No," I responded flatly.

" _Great, he has a sense of sarcasm. Dust knows that_ that _has been lacking around here recently…_ "

"I'm sorry, what's going on?" I asked, more towards Roman than the…ghost.

"He can't see you, can he?" Roman asked, sending me further down the rabbit-hole I was already trying not to take seriously. _In a world with wizards, Maidens, Grimm, semblances, and actual magic, is a ghost really that unbelievable?_

" _No._ "

"It's a semblance," Roman stated, turning towards me. "One of _her_ underlings can make someone see illusions."

" _They're not just visual, either. If you try anything, you'll find out what that means,_ " a different voice than before whispered in my ear.

"Okay, that makes more sense than what I was thinking," I stated with relief to Roman, doing my best to ignore the voice that was whispering quiet threats in my ear. "Why can you see them, then?"

I tracked Roman's eyes, which were following our invisible guest as she walked towards me. I tensed but did my best not to show it; my semblance was ready, though.

" _Roman here has seen us before, though that isn't why he is allowed to now. Simply put,_ " the voice practically purred, which was weird coming from a static, disembodied voice, and even weirder that it was circling around me, " _Roman is involved too heavily in our enterprise for him to betray me. He has too much to lose._ "

"And I don't?" I shot back, showing that I wasn't willing to be a pawn passed between them, even if that was exactly what I was at the moment.

" _No, you don't,_ " the voice answered back sternly, stopping right in front of me. " _You could run back to Beacon right now and trade everything you know about Torchwick to Ozpin, coming out scot-free._ "

"If you think I'd _ever_ turn to Ozpin for help, you clearly don't know me," I growled back. The fact she mentioned Beacon meant that she knew I was a student there, which most likely meant that Roman had filled her in about me. With this person standing in front of me, I don't have time to shoot a glare Roman's way, but he certainly earned one.

" _And if you think I will be spoken to that way, you clearly do not know_ me" the voice growled back, punctuated by a punch to my stomach that exploded in flames, knocking me backwards onto one knee. I made to stand up and draw Crocea Mors but was met with a blade that I could not see against my neck before I ever got my knee off the ground. " _Let's have a chat, shall we?_ "

The blade pushed further against my neck, slicing into my aura a little bit, until I removed my hand from Crocea Mors' hilt. Even on my top form, this was not a fight I could win without Roman's help, and the smug bastard had made no move to intervene, only puffing away at his dying cigar. Fighting an invisible opponent who had the aid of whatever that second voice had said about hallucinations was a terrible idea. Thinking back, she had hit me _and_ deployed a fireball, meaning she had packed enough dust that she felt she could use it whenever, stockpiling on to the list of reasons I was outgunned.

"Fine."

" _Even if I believed that you wouldn't turn to Ozpin, you still do not have enough to lose._ " The blade was removed from my neck entirely, but the presence of the invisible person never moved, keeping me down on one knee. " _As I understand it, you have quite the backing for a Beacon student. Tell me, how is Mistral this time of year?_ "

My eyes widened as I caught her meaning, and this time I couldn't help but shoot Roman a glare.

"Hey, don't get mad at me," Roman dismissed. "Those were _her_ Paladins we had to move. She wasn't exactly pleased with losing some."

Roman's meaning was clear: he sold me out to save his own skin. _Not surprising that he would, but surprising that he_ had _to._

" _Now, I don't have any desire to confront Branwen,_ " she stated, grabbing me by the chin and forcing my attention back on her. " _I hear that you do not, either. Is that true?_ "

I remained quiet for a bit, staring intently at where I imagined her head was. She still had her finger under my chin, lifting it up to look at what I assumed was her, and the longer I waited to answer, the more her finger started to heat up. As it reached scalding temperatures and started to burn away at my aura, I had an intense feeling a _déjà vu_ between this moment and my last interrogation at Raven's hands, which played out not too differently, right down to Roman being (somewhat) present.

"Yes," I finally choked out. To my relief, she drew her hand back and let my head fall back down.

" _He's stubborn, for certain,_ " the voice called out to Torchwick as it moved back to where it had started at. " _I'm sure you two get along great._ "

"Eh, he's a bit whiny for my liking," Roman quipped back. "He's been useful to _us_ so far, though."

" _That reminds me, have you taken care of Tukson yet?_ "

"Well, you see, things have been busy around here, what with trying to turn your lousy White Fang 'soldiers' into an actual threat and all…" Roman took as much of a puff out of the remainder of her cigar as he could, before throwing the stump on the ground. " _But_ I did manage to have it handled, despite my busy schedule of managing terrorists and stockpiling dust."

" _Is that so?_ " the voice cooed dangerously. " _You see, earlier today I happened to notice that a certain bookstore is still in business, with a certain owner still at the till._ "

"Yeah, well, what can I say, Faunus-owned stores do better nowadays than they used to," Roman joked as he took out his third cigar of the night and put it in his mouth, before digging around his pockets for a lighter. "Maybe that whole racism thing is over. That's really going to hurt our recruitment drives if true."

Torchwick finally found his lighter and lit up his cigar during the dangerous silence that followed.

"Oh, you mean why isn't Tukson dead?"

Another silence, where I assumed Torchwick was being glared at or otherwise threatened. He didn't flinch as let out a puff of smoke, but his other hand was leaning against his cane. There was no pressure behind it, though, meaning that he could draw the cane easily if needs be.

"Well, you have our dear friend Jaune to thank for that," Roman announce with a grin. Now back on my feet, I thought about drawing Crocea or even unscrewing the pommel and throwing it at Torchwick, but fortunately it didn't feel like our guest was fooled by the redirect.

" _Explain._ "

"Well, why would I go and kill Tukson for being a rat when I have this shiny new pest control service in need of a test-drive?" Roman asked with another grin, this time at me. That implied to me that Neo had taken Team CRDL to deal with this Tukson fellow, and the 'test-drive' comment made me suspect that this happened the last time Roman and I met here.

" _I told you I wanted him dead._ "

"That's what you said you wanted, because that's how you think your problem was best remedied. You needed him _silenced_ , and you wanted a message sent to any more of those animals who had thoughts of abandoning their cause," Roman corrected sharply. "Silencing suspected leakers and sending a message to other leakers was the whole point of Jaune's enterprise, wasn't it? Except that instead of making them afraid of us, they become afraid of the authorities they _were_ going to talk to. I fail to see how killing Tukson would have been more productive."

" _Did it work?_ "

"Well, the more we use it, the more the mind games will work, but as for Tukson? I've had the lieutenants keep an eye out for him. He showed back up to a meeting this week, and word has spread that the cops bashed him for being White Fang." Roman took a puff of his cigar, taking his time and drawing it out, mostly because he was in good enough standing at the moment to do so. "With a few well-placed words here and there, that story quickly shifted to Tukson being beaten by the cops for being faunus, so I doubt we'll have any leaks from inside the Fang for a bit."

" _Interesting. This whole enterprise could very well bear fruit after all. Well done, both of you. We'll be in touch._ "

From Roman's reaction, it seemed as if our guest was walking away, though not before turning around for one last comment.

" _And Mr. Arc, don't do anything stupid. I'm starting to think you may have use after all, and it'd be a shame to cut that down so early._ "

Her words hung in the air for a bit until Roman felt comfortable that she was gone.

"Ugh. Such a bitch, don't you think?"

"I wouldn't know," I responded flatly. "She could have been a 400-pound man for all I know."

"Ah, yes, I had a feeling that she'd do that. Neo!"

About fifteen feet to my side, glass shattered and my heartrate spiked again. Walking out from the shattered glass was Neo, who apparently hadn't left earlier. She tossed a scroll to Torchwick, who caught it and began scrolling through photos.

"Here, have a look, kid," Roman said as he held Neo's scroll out to me.

The photos taken were of the meeting we had just had, taken from behind Neo's glass illusion. It wasn't one guest, but instead three, two girls and a guy. Their appearances weren't exactly subtle, as the one guy wore head-to-toe gray, which would be nondescript if he wasn't tall and also had gray hair. The girls were even worse, with one of them having olive skin and neon green hair, and a decently-skimpy green outfit to match; she looked more like a taffy-themed stripper than a member of Vale's underworld, though from my limited experience with young Huntresses, it seems that wearing bright colors is par for the course. If that is the case, she probably isn't half-bad in a fight, though her outfit doesn't seem all that practical.

It was the girl in the middle who was clearly the one in charge, as Neo had photos of her walking around and even one of her punching me. She wore a crimson dress with gold embroidery, and her black hair meant that while she didn't stick out as much as the green one, she certainly wouldn't blend in anywhere.

"Mercury, Emerald, and Cinder," Roman named as he pointed out each of the three of them.

"Why go behind her back to tell me this?"

"It's like I said: we're pretty much in the same boat here, kid. I've met your cruel mistress overlord, and now you've met mine."

"I thought you brought me here to help me make connections…"

"Oh, I did, and if you decided you wanted to trade one collar for another, Cinder would fill that roll just like Raven Branwen does," Roman 'reassured,' taking another long hit from his cigar. "The real reason she didn't want you to know their faces is because you are in a unique position to be a liability for her."

"Why is that?"

"Because she's going undercover in Beacon," Roman explained with a grin. "All three of them are. With you already there, she didn't want to risk you knowing their cover."

"And you blew it because?"

"I'd like eyes on them inside Beacon, just to be safe. If you can do that on top of Neo running your little hit squad, I'll dig up any info on your family that I can."

"Deal," I answered without needing to think. It wouldn't be anything extra for me to keep an eye on other 'students,' and if it was going to get me what I wanted, then it was a no brainer.

Besides, after tonight, I would keep an eye on this Cinder person anyways. That whole…interrogation scene felt way too familiar, way too much like the last time I was berated by a Maiden. That's not any sort of proof that this Cinder person is a _Maiden_ of all things—after all, I couldn't see and all of that could have just been dust—but it certainly felt like _something_ was going on. _Hell, she's even breaking into Beacon, and there aren't a whole lot of reasons to do that…_

I kept scrolling through Neo's photos, hoping that she had caught a picture of Cinder using her fire so that I could check if it _was_ dust or not. No such luck as I scrolled to the end of the photos from tonight and crossed over into the rest of Neo's photo library, causing me to freeze.

"Um…"

I instantly felt Neo's blade against my neck and part of me accepted that this was how I was going to die.

The photo on Neo's scroll was a picture of herself that at the very least she was going to carve my eyes out for seeing. In it Neo was laying on her side, stretched out in a pose, completely naked, except for a skimpy bikini made out of whipped cream and outlined in strawberries, and a thin trail of whipped cream down her stomach until her leg was folded up enough to hide anything important. There was also a pile of whipped cream on top of Neo's head, with a cherry on top. To top things off, she was also drizzled head-to-toe in strawberry ice-cream topping, and the knowing look that she gave the camera made me deeply uncomfortable.

In panic, I looked to Roman for help, and he shook his head and made it clear I was on my own.

Neo yanked on my wrist and twisted my arm until something threatened to dislocate, and when she removed her blade from my neck to grab the phone out of my hand, I practically threw it at her. She twisted my arm a little bit further for good measure before releasing me and shoving me away.

When I turned back, she gave me a death-glare with a silent challenge for me to say something about it if I dared. She certainly nailed the intimidating look, but the slight twinge of pink in her cheeks betrayed her just enough for my dumbass to open my mouth.

"Uh…at least…you looked good?"

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Come on, Jaune, you should know better than to just start scrolling through other peoples' photos. In poor Jaune's defense here, I don't know what sort of maniac actively keeps photos like _that_ just laying around in their photo album undeleted. Seriously, I know people do this, and I want to know how you aren't paranoid that every time someone picks up your phone, they're going to find them. **

**_Does that last bit technically count as me bashing on Jaune? Because I'm pretty sure I'm contractually-obligated to go out of my way to make Jaune feel like a ragdoll who gets tossed around, and I'd hate to forget that one week._ lol**

 **Also, Qrow is such a great uncle, huh? Helping his niece out and even letting her know that eventually, he'll tell her about her mother. Even if Yang didn't seem to trust him on that, it's not like she has any _other_ ways of finding things out about her mother, is it?**

 **Lastly, we've got Roman and Jaune starting to go a little further into business now, what with Roman going behind Cinder's back here. While we the viewers know that Cinder is (half of) the Fall Maiden, the odds of Jaune coming across a second Maiden are low enough that he isn't going to outright suspect that yet. The clues are there, and we'll see if he picks up on them at any point, but he does still have a lot on his plate.**

* * *

 **UttSbSFtICPitAN (Unrelated to the Story but Something Funny that I Couldn't Put in the Author's Note): My roommate made the critical mistake of letting me set up the Wi-Fi in our apartment. This meant a couple of hours spent either on the phone with Comcast or down at their offices, but I successfully got it running. I even got to name our Wi-Fi network...**

 **Now, we have 15 other units in our building who can all see this network, and I have no doubts that when talking to neighbors the question "okay, which Wi-Fi are you guys?" will come up. I had to make sure that we have both a memorable name, and one that _no one_ is going to try to hack into. What did I go with?**

 _ **Tentacle Hentai Torrent Server**_

 **[Since posting this chapter, I've changed our network to have two different Wi-Fi addresses, with different bandwidths so we could run Xboxes separate. Their names? _No Anime Here, Officer_ and _FBI Anti-Anime Task Force_ ]**

* * *

 **Comments of the Week:**

"Please make this [where] Jaune and Yang are together. Not that i hate Arkos its just that i find it as generic as White Rose and Bumblebee, just cause Jaune and Pyrrha are partners doesn't mean they have to be together" - _Guest_

"Just curious is this gonna be an Arkos or Dragonslayer (Jaune x Yang)" - (a different) _Guest_

 **First of all, smart move going anonymous before calling Bumblebee generic, because Tumblr would have had your head if they could have tracked you down. Shoot, they might actually come after me for enshrining your comment...**

 **Also, in the words of some post I saw somewhere on the internet, it** _isn't_ **a love triangle, it's a love angle. A love triangle would mean there was something going on between Yang and Pyrrha so that all three were entwined and if you'll excuse me I have a new fanfic to go write, please and thank you.**

 **In all seriousness, I don't want to just give anything away too early, which is why from the beginning both Pyrrha and Yang are tagged as main characters in the story listing, but the story does not have a listed pairing yet. All I will say is that I have plans for a lot of things to happen in a short period of time within the story, very much so reminiscent of V3. Whether that should excite or scare you, I don't know, but I can guarantee that at least one reviewer is going to be happy.**

 **Hopefully there'll be a lot more than one of you who like it, because my frail ego and Napoleon-complex towards Coeur clearly need the boost! xD**

 **[Obviously, since writing this, the story has made it to its official pairing: Dragonslayer. Er, Dragoon. Napoleon Dynamite. Whatever you want to call JaunexYang.]**

* * *

"My name was not invoked this chapter. I gain strength from the reprieve." - _Turquoise Leaf_

 **I don't know what I'm supposed to do at this point. I mention you by name? You get stronger. I _don't_ mention you by name? You get stronger. **

**What do you want from me, a coherent plot and a consistent upload schedule? Ha! Mess with me and I'll turn this whole story into the _Chronicles of Ozpin Manipulating Everyone From Behind His Coffee Mug._ **


	28. Briefing

**[REFINED Jan 4, 2019]** **Author's Note: Hmm, let's see, nothing really to report.**

 **College football is finally back, which means that my attention will be competed for on Saturday, my usual editing day. However, my Vols are...not going to do well this season, to put it gently, so the story is safe.**

 **[Narrator Voice: they did not do well.]**

 **Also, I just made sure to cut into my time for schoolwork to get the story cranked out. That's a responsible decision if I've ever made one.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 26:** _"Yang, you act so weird around Jaune now that I swear you're acting out one of my books... oh god, please tell me that you're not pregnant." – Blake  
"No. And I promise there have been no tentacles involved, you sicko. Please just drop this..." - Yang_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

All throughout the cafeteria, very little was spoken by any group as a blanket of silence fell over the student body. Or at least, every member of Oobleck's class, since it was the test he had just given that had soured everyone's great mood. Not even the prospect of the school dance, only two days away now, could lift anyone's spirits after the mental beatdown that was just administered.

"Hopefully he curves," Blake said in response to something as me and my team sat down at the other side of our normal table.

"He had _better_ ," Weiss huffed. I couldn't help but laugh at that, earning her full ire. "Something funny?"

"Nothing," I dismissed. "It's just that if _you_ need a curve, then there's no way that anyone _didn't_ fail that."

"I don't know how you can find anything funny right now," Ruby groaned, head having been down on the table since I arrived. "This sucks. Everything sucks."

I tried to fight off the urge to laugh, and somewhat succeeded, but the smirk I wore did me no favors either.

" _How_ are you in a good mood?" Nora groaned, doing her best Ruby imitation. "We literally just got out of there. _No one_ finished the test on time."

"Yeah, and what's he going to do? Fail us all?" I prodded back, thoroughly enjoying myself.

"He might," Pyrrha added, her voice sounding distant as she stared into her mashed potatoes.

"I've had professors in Atlas who did that," Weiss added, not helping the mood around the table.

"Yeah, but that's… _Atlas_ ," I replied, much to Weiss' indignation. "I'm sure that grades don't mean that much when it comes to becoming Huntresses. And Huntsmen, for Ren and I."

"You're just saying that because you probably did well," Yang grumbled, not looking downtrodden like the rest but rather angry. _Hopefully, she's just angry at herself, at least for my sake._ We haven't really spoken much since our fight, which was a week and a half ago now, and we haven't spoken at all outside of a group setting. Apparently, Qrow had a private talk with her last week, and the fact that I _haven't_ been arrested or blackbagged since then means that she doesn't plan on giving me up. _That, or she hasn't decided yet._ It would be best if I could confront her again and maybe clear the air now that she's had _plenty_ of time to cool off, but I don't actually know what I would say... ' _Hey Yang, so are you cool with me being a spy for your mom yet?_ '

"You do know who you're talking to, right?" I asked Yang, meeting her eyes for a moment. What looked like passing eye contact held at least a glimpse of seriousness on my end, reminding her who I was; that I caught the same seriousness in her eyes, but without much anger, I felt was a good sign. "This is the first actual school that I've ever been to. If grades were all that important, I wouldn't have gotten in, on account of _not having any_."

There was a silence that fell over the group as they realized that they couldn't refute that point. Nora and Ren nodded in agreeance, reminding me that they also didn't grow up in a traditional school setting. However, they weren't as carefree about the test as I was, which probably just meant that _normal_ people cared about such things. _Being raised by the Tribe probably just means that we're all going to see minor things like this differently._

"Can we please talk about something else?" Ruby groaned, forehead still down on the table.

"Like what?" Pyrrha asked, doing her best to help out but not exactly being forceful.

"I don't care. Anything but school," Ruby replied, raising herself off the table and returning to a normal sitting position.

"So Ruby, I hear you've got a _dress_ picked out for the dance…" I interjected, providing a great segway that Ruby shot me a glare over.

"Anything but that, _please_ ," Ruby answered quickly, trying to somehow prevent her teammates from hearing it. "I am _not_ wearing a dress."

"Oh yes you are," Yang called out from the end of the table. "Weiss and I worked too hard on this stupid dance for you to be _anything_ but perfect for it."

"Ugh."

"And that includes heels," Weiss added on smugly.

"Wh _at?!_ " Ruby squealed. "That was never part of the deal!" Ruby stared at Weiss in abject horror before frantically looking around the table for help. "Y-Yang?"

Her sister just grinned at her.

" _B-Blake_?"

All eyes shifted to Blake, who was doing a bad job of pretending to read her book. "Don't look at me. Yang already forced me to go to the stupid dance."

"Because we're friends, I'm going to pretend you didn't call the event I've been tirelessly working to put on stupid," Yang threatened vaguely.

"Why don't _you_ have to wear heels?" Ruby asked desperately.

"Because she's not short," Yang answered.

" _Hey_ ," Ruby and Weiss both sounded off.

"Sorry, _vertically challenged_ ," Yang corrected with a grin, causing Weiss to grumble something under her breath. "What was that, Weiss?"

" _I said_ , you're going to be mentally challenged if you keep this up," The heiress growled before settling back down. "More so, anyways."

"Good one, but let's not let Ruby think she got away from the point," Yang countered, leaning over to see past Weiss and Blake to where Ruby was hiding.

" _Ugh,_ " Ruby huffed, before looking to me for help with puppy-dog eyes. "Jaune?"

"Uhh…" I stalled, taking in the glares from both Weiss and Yang, the latter of which looked a little more serious than I was comfortable with. "I can… trade teammates to get you away from them."

"You can _what_?" Weiss asked angrily.

"Which ones?" Ruby asked, ignoring her (not for much longer) teammates.

"Are they serious?" Yang asked Weiss, with neither of them having an answer.

"Ren and Nora for Blake and Yang," I offered, earning a plethora of interesting reactions from around the table.

"Wh _at!?_ " Nora shouted, pounding a fist on the table. Blake looked similarly annoyed, with her ears flattening so much that her bow fell off, but she also looked confused as to why she was dragged into this.

"Why Blake and not Weiss?" Ruby asked, never haven broken eye contact with me as she did her best to avoid looking at her teammates.

"I don't want _Weiss_ ," I drawled for effect, earning a mixture of shock and outrage from the heiress. "Besides, I'd hate to break up partners. I'm sure with Yang gone, you can force Weiss to back off. She _is_ smaller than you…"

Weiss looked like she was about to explode, and if it wasn't for the table between us, I'm sure she'd have her hands around my throat right about now. _And I'm sure I'd made some joke about enjoying being choked that would ensure my death would be slow._

"Deal," Ruby responded with a giggle directed at Weiss, who did not miss that her partner failed to defend her honor.

"They're just kidding, guys," Pyrrha came in with a hand on my chest forcing me back, playing peacemaker so that we didn't start another food fight (to the death this time, most likely). Really, her hand felt like it was placed there to deter Weiss from launching across the table at me, since none of her teammates would have stopped her. "You are just kidding, right?"

"Sure," I responded ambiguously. "Beacon probably has rules against partner-swapping, anyways."

From the end of the table, Yang choked on her drink. "You mean _team-swapping_ , right?"

"I know what I said," I responded, looking Yang dead in the eye. She gave me a weird look and it took her a few seconds to shake it off and go about her business. _That's only made funnier considering who her parents are, too._ I'm sure that Yang was _never_ told those sorts of stories by her dad or her uncle; hell, the ones Raven told me were probably just to screw with me. _Deep down in the darkest, most twisted parts of her mind, though, Yang has to have wondered about it, right? I mean, it seems everyone but Qrow was involved…_

Gods, I _hope_ Qrow wasn't involved. That just makes things… _stranger._

"Blake, you said you were going to the dance?" Pyrrha asked leadingly, clearly trying to get everyone back onto safe, non-violent talking points.

"Y-Yes," Blake answered, giving me one last weird look for my comment to Yang before focusing on Pyrrha.

"Are you going with anyone?" Pyrrha followed up.

"I…am, yes. Sun is taking me," Blake answered slowly, aware of the eyes on her from around the table. She was the only one in the group who wasn't going solo or going with their partner, what with Yang and Weiss too busy planning, my whole team partnering up, and Ruby not being allowed to take Crescent Rose as a date.

Blake was clearly aware that everyone was thinking of their most embarrassing question to ask, but it was Nora of all people who ruined it by beating us to the punch.

"Isn't that awkward? You know, since he's not invited on our next mission?"

"Well, yeah… That's kinda how we ended up going together," Blake answered slowly, struggling to find her words.

"What do you mean?" I asked, never missing a chance to pour onto my friends' misery.

"Sun wanted to know what our plans were for going after the White Fang…"

"Oh…" Ruby hummed. "What'd you do?"

"You didn't tell him anything about it, did you?" Weiss asked with a little bit of an edge.

"It's not like it's anything bad!" Blake defended upon hearing Weiss' tone.

"No, it's not, but it would still be awkward to tell him that he can't come," Weiss explained as she backed down.

"Well…yeah."

"So what'd you tell him?" Yang asked, not letting the subject get away.

"I told him…" Blake trailed off and looked around at the group, embarrassed. "When he asked about it, I…chickened out and told him I didn't have a date to the dance."

" _No way,_ " Yang mumbled, a grin spreading across her face. "Really?"

"Yeah," Blake answered sheepishly, making a point of not making eye contact with Yang or me. "I basically asked him to invite me to the dance to avoid that conversation…"

Again, before anyone could begin to tease her, Nora cut in.

"Did it work?"

"Did…?" Blake repeated, unsure as to how Nora was teasing her.

"Did it work?" Nora said again, expounding a moment later. "Did he forget about the other conversation?"

"Oh. Uh, yes, actually."

"Problem solved, then," Nora concluded, giving Blake a decent defense for any of the mockery Yang was no doubt still planning on throwing her way.

In the lull in the conversation that followed, our table went fully silent as Team CRDL walked past us, on their way to any open table they could find. Normally, we might stop and stare at them as they went by because of the animosity my friends still held towards Cardin and company, all stemming from the treatment of that rabbit faunus—though antagonizing Blake at Forever Fall did them no favors either.

Right now, however, we all went silent and watched them because they looked beat up, and not from the test we just took; they looked _physically_ beat up. Dove was fighting a small limp, Russel and Sky sported black eyes, and Cardin moved much more slowly and frailly than usual, taking his time to gently set down at the table they had acquired. Cardin looked up from his new seat and met my eyes from across the cafeteria, giving me a firm but uncertain, even nervous look, before bowing his head back down and focusing on his food. The rest of his team did the same with their own plates.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me," Weiss drawled, her words very clearly aimed at me as she waited for me to turn back to her before continuing. "I cannot _believe_ you, Jaune Arc. Is this ever going to end?"

I kept my expression as neutral and as unassuming as I could, despite the fact that my mind was running full speed ahead. It didn't take a genius to connect the fact that CRDL moonlighted as 'vigilantes' and the new fact that they came in very clearly beat up, but I was under the assumption that CRDL's business enterprises were still a secret. _Sure, they weren't exactly discrete and rumors would swirl eventually, but they have Neo to keep them in line and it hasn't even been two weeks yet._ That was barely enough time for word on the street to start mounting, let alone reach the secluded premises of Beacon Academy.

"I'm sure that I have _no idea_ what you're talking about, Weiss," I answered back antagonistically, playing up to my usual habit of lying badly even though I wasn't actually certain I knew what she was getting at.

"Oh, you don't?" Weiss asked rhetorically in response. "What do you call that look you just gave Cardin?"

My face belied my surprise a little, as for one I hadn't _meant_ to give Cardin any specific sort of look, and for another I didn't realize my friends were watching me so closely.

"I know that look," Yang cut in, cutting off my response. My mind, in its quest to be as unhelpful as possible, conjured up how Yang could use this to expose me, and those thoughts kept me from responding before Yang finished. "That's the look of someone admiring his handiwork."

 _Admiring my…?_

"He's not even going to deny it," Weiss added on exhausted, leaning back and giving up on the point entirely.

"Look, it's impolite to kiss and tell," I responded finally, once I realized that they all suspected _me_ of being the one roughing team CRDL up. It's not like there wasn't a history of that there, and that they suspect me means that they certainly don't know that CRDL and I are on good terms, or more importantly, they don't know _why_ we're on good terms.

"Eww."

"Not like _that_ , Ruby!"

"What was it for this time?" Ren asked loud enough to be heard by the whole table.

"I don't remember ever confirming that I was involved," I answered back without much seriousness, eager to play along and let them connect the wrong dots.

"Yeah, but you always lie about everything anyways," Ruby countered.

"So what does it mean when I haven't lied about it yet?" I asked, getting Ruby to pause.

"I'm sure they probably deserved it," Nora added glibly, earning a look from Weiss. "What, it's not like they're just super great guys or anything. They could use a broken leg or two."

"Remind me never to tell Nora about anything wrong I do, _ever_ ," I joked as I just so happened to awkwardly cross eyes with Yang. I quickly looked away, not interested in challenging her after _that_ statement. _Yang has no shortage of leg-breaking-worthy material to share if she chooses._

"No deal," Pyrrha replied jokingly.

"I'm not gonna go into details, because you wouldn't believe them anyways, but let's just say that there is a lesson that they showed they needed to learn," I stated for the group, reinforcing the idea that I was responsible for CRDL's injuries and the idea that it was justified. I made to stand from the table, gathering up my tray and waiting for anyone to pile theirs on top of mine.

"Where are you going?" Weiss asked.

"To see if the lesson was learned," I responded, nodding my head in the direction of Cardin's table and heading off before anyone could question me further. There were mumbles from the table I left and I could feel the weight of several pairs of eyes on me.

Cardin noticed me when I was about half-way to his table and watched me approach. Not shockingly, no other teams wanted to sit at their table, so half of the seats were still open. As I arrived, I slid into the nearest empty seat that kept my back to my team and I set my tray down on the table.

"I guess you're—"

"Shut up, and listen," I cut Cardin off quickly, startling the man. "My team thinks that I'm the one who injured you, which means our cover right now is that I bully you guys. No matter what we _say_ , I need you all to act like I'm threatening you with my presence the whole time."

"What? No way! We'll look stup—" Russel began to complain, before flinching and shutting up when I whipped my head at him aggressively.

"If you didn't like it, you shouldn't have let me beat all four of you at Forever Fall," I stated plainly, making sure to glare at them for effect. Russel legitimately looked intimidated, and Sky and Dove did at least half-way decent jobs of looking wary of me. Cardin gave me a flat glare, but that seemed to fit him better anyways. "Now, keep your voice low and tell me what happened."

"A job went badly."

"No shit, Dove," I shot back, whipping my head in his direction and making him flinch, too. "Cardin, for the love of dust, fill me in before I really do hurt one of you."

"We were in the middle of... um…" Cardin trailed off, looking over his shoulder nervously to see if anyone was listening in.

" _Your job_ ," I supplied, letting him know he could skip that detail.

"Right, _that_. We were suddenly attacked by a group of about fifteen people."

"What sort of people?" I asked demandingly. "What sorts of outfits did they have? What sorts of weapons?"

"Slow down, okay?" Cardin huffed, earning a side-glare from me. "Mostly street thugs. Most of them weren't great fighters, which is why we got out of there; they just took us by surprise."

" _Most?_ "

"Two of them weren't," Sky jumped in. "They were little, but they beat the hell out of us."

"Did anyone notice any identifying marks on them? Any special weapons or uniforms I can trace?"

"No, they were all copying our outfits," Russel grumbled.

"You do realize our outfits are just ski-masks and dark clothes, right?" Sky asked Russel sarcastically. "It's not exactly a distinct look."

"You guys don't have anything to go on, then?" I asked, frustrated.

"Not unless you count the gashes I still have from that one bitch's claws," Sky whined, gently tapping the side of his shirt to reveal that it was padded with bandages.

I gave Sky a flat, irritated look.

"What? Does it actually help that I got hurt?"

"No," I growled at him, not even sure if I was pretending to bully these four anymore. "But _claws_ might have been a unique weapon to mention."

"Yeah, well…they're just…claws, okay? Not exactly that unique when all sorts of faunus can have claws!"

" _No_ ," I growled again, "but combining claws with two small assassins _does_ ring a bell."

"It does?" Cardin asked, pushing Sky away by pressing a finger into his bandages, causing the guy to very quickly scoot as far out of reach as the table allowed while wincing.

"It does," I confirmed, though it didn't make a lot of sense. After Junior's death, Roman was supposed to put out some sort of info on the streets that blamed Junior's death on some rival gang and that Torchwick wouldn't take Junior's assassination lightly. I know he did that, too, because it was an excuse for him to try to squeeze Junior's men into working for him _and_ go after rival gangs for 'revenge.' _It sounds like Junior's two enforcers didn't take to Roman's misinformation._ All they knew is that I knocked them out, and upon waking Junior was dead; it they were smart—or cynical—enough to see through Roman's lies, then that left me as their target for revenge. _That doesn't mean CRDL needs to know any of that._ "Doesn't make much sense why they'd attack _us_ , though."

"What are you going to do about it?"

"I'll speak with some contacts, see if I can't contact the people I suspect and see what's going on. At the very least, I'll have Neo work to make sure that any leaks on _her_ end are plugged, that way you guys don't get sold out again." I deliberately kept my answer vague, but most of CRDL seemed to prefer it that way, anyways. Better to put the impetus on Neo than me.

I pushed myself up from the table and made to leave, but not before Cardin called out. "Aren't you going to take your tray?"

"Nah. You losers can get it," I called out loudly, making sure that anyone who wanted to listen in would hear it. After all, I need to sell the whole 'bullying' angle.

* * *

The moment I left the cafeteria, I made sure to head somewhere I wouldn't be interrupted—or found. Having hurried through lunch, I still had about twenty-five minutes before the next round of classes began, ours being Miss Goodwitch's combat class. I came to the conclusion that after the test we had just had here, Oobleck's classroom would be the perfect place to hide from everyone. Oobleck didn't teach in the afternoon because he had office hours, so no classes would be coming here; even if my team was wandering around curious about me, the last place they would _want_ to check would be the place we had that test at.

Once I was satisfied the lecture hall was empty, I sat down and kicked my feet up on the table, pulling out my scroll to get to business. After a few moments, I opened up my hidden communication app for the first time today. There was a blank message from one of Raven's numbers—a reminder that she expected I set up a meet with her soon, to discuss what I know about Ozpin's Maiden process—but no other new messages. I promptly ignored Raven's message and tapped on my messages for Torchwick's current burner, deciding to message him first.

 _Me: Any updates ?_

 _Me: Did Neo run into trouble with operation last night?_

Roman was due to have some concrete, physical intelligence on my family any time now, so checking how that was coming couldn't hurt. It also wasn't smart to lead off with allegations of 'hey, Neo got the team ambushed' either, so a less confrontational opener felt good. _At least, for Roman; my text to Neo?_

 _Me: Cardin n co. got ambushed last night, thinking its Junior's old help. where tf were you? would they not let u out of daycare without an adult or something?_

In all likelihood, Neo was the one who would snap and kill me for disrespectful texts, yet despite that I couldn't hold back on my texts to her.

 _Me: or were you too busy covering yourself in icecream toppings?_

If I'm gonna get unceremoniously dumped into a shallow grave, I'm sure as hell going to earn it.

 _Torchwick: first I've heard of it. not seen her today. anything interesting?_

Uh, yeah, you could say that, in the least.

 _Me: our hit squad got ambushed last night_

 _Me: they got out fine, just roughed up_

 _Me: im thinking Malachites did it_

While waiting on Torchwick's response, I received a reply from Neo of a single middle-finger emoji.

 _Me: i dont want to know where that finger has been do i?_

 _Neo: maybe_

No. Certainly not, then.

 _Torchwick: they shouldn't know about hit squad or your connection to them_

 _Torchwick: i'll look into it_

That was another angle I hadn't considered. If the Malachites _did_ blame me for Junior's death, then the fact they attacked Cardin meant that they knew that I was behind the hit squad and not Neo. That, or they knew it was Neo and knew that Neo was the one who killed Junior.

 _Me: Any leads on how to retaliate?_

 _Neo: Now you're talking my language_

 _Me: To do that, I'd have to shut up._

 _Neo: :/_

 _Neo: Doesn't sound like a horrible idea_

 _Neo: …how about an ambush?_

 _Me: No thanks, I'll fight you in the open. I'm not stupid._

 _Neo: grrr not me. the malachites_

 _Me: Roman's handling it. sit tight, kiddo_

I made sure to exit out of my messages completely, before Neo figured out how to strangle me through the screen. During my little chat session, I had gotten a text through my scroll's actual messaging app, but promptly ignored it in lieu of my criminal masterminding. Upon opening it now, I found it a message from Headmaster Ozpin, requesting my presence and excusing me from my next class.

I would have to be dumb not to be at least suspicious that I just finished texting Roman Torchwick and suddenly I was being summoned by Ozpin. Clearly, the first thought would be that this is a trap, where he expects me to walk into his office where I will be outnumbered by himself, Qrow, and possible other staff members. It was a bad scenario for me, to be sure.

I also didn't have much of a choice, as skipping such a thing would at the least earn someone tracking me down from now on whenever they wanted me, but could also earn me actual disciplinary actions. If this wasn't an ambush, it would suck to act so suspiciously that they sent someone to collect me personally; what if they walked in on me when I was texting wanted criminals, or worse?

In the end, the fact that he included an official excused absence from class made me feel like this was not a trap. My next class is Goodwitch's, and I feel like Ozpin is petty enough to make me earn her wrath by missing her class _in addition_ to ambushing me.

That didn't mean that as I made my way to Ozpin's elevator, I felt much better, though. It wasn't until I saw Ruby already there waiting on the lift that I felt confident I wasn't about to be attacked.

"Oh. Jaune. Hi!" Ruby called out with a wave. "What are you doing?"

"They're getting you too?" I asked, putting on a solemn and sad voice.

"W-What? Getting me for what?"

"Getting you thrown out," I answered back with as much seriousness as I could muster. Ruby's face twisted in confusion, with a little bit of fear in her eyes. "That's what they're calling me in for."

"Don't be silly, Jaune," Ruby tried to call my bluff, but failed at sounding confident. "That's not—they're not going to do that to us."

"Oh, so you _do_ know why they called us both?"

"I… _no_ , but—"

"I hear that Ozpin likes throwing out multiple students at once. Saves him time."

The elevator opened with a ding and I walked forward. Ruby followed, but with a hitch in her step that nearly made me lose it and laugh hysterically.

"Y-You're making that up," Ruby posited after a long pause, though much more confidently.

"We'll see. I'm betting it's for bad grades…"

"Bad…?" Ruby tried to ask.

"Chances are that test this morning sealed the deal." I spared a glance towards Ruby, who seemed to be struggling to reassure herself that I was kidding. I decided to go for the kill. "You did fine, though… _right?_ "

Ruby never responded the rest of the elevator ride, and I didn't say anything either; if I had, I would have burst out on the spot.

The elevator opened and I strode forward confidently; after all, they weren't going to ambush me _and_ Ruby. There was a passing chance that Ruby was in on it, but she would be far too nervous and would give it away. _She was a little nervous from my joke on the elevator, but when I joked about getting kicked out, she would have stop breathing entirely if she was planning on facilitating just that._ Besides, the only person who would be involved with getting me kicked out of Beacon, or otherwise attacked by Ozpin, would be Ruby's sister.

"Speak of the devil," Ozpin called out, alerting his two companions to our arrival, though it was clear who his words were directed at.

"That's rude. Just because she wears the same colors doesn't mean she's the devil," I called out as if defending Ruby's honor. _Really, her partner more acts the part than Ruby._ Ozpin, Qrow, and someone who looked eerily like Weiss Schnee in ten years didn't react to the comment, but Ruby was immediately embarrassed by the company I was implicitly insulting. "Well, she _is_ short, and short people _are_ closer to hell than the rest of us, technically, but that still doesn't justify your comment. I expect an apology to Ruby."

"Are you done?" Ozpin called out flatly.

"N—"

" _YES!_ " Ruby practically yelled, before turning to give me the stink-eye for a moment. It was hard to take seriously, as Ruby struggled to appear anything outside of cute, but I allowed myself to be reigned in.

"Good," faux/old-Weiss stated sternly, glaring at me with even icier eyes than the actual Weiss.

"He's fine, Miss Schnee. His antics are as frequent as they are superficial," Ozpin dismissed, though clearly without any success at relaxing the now-confirmed Schnee. "You'll find him quite like Qrow in that regard."

Ozpin's eyes shifted back over to me and we met eyes during that last sentence. I did not think that a coincidence.

"That is the opposite of 'fine,' Headmaster."

"I'll remind you that I'm right here," Qrow quipped bitterly, "and I outrank you right now."

" _Children_ ," Ozpin rebuked, which only really had any significance to the Schnee, with Qrow taking it in stride as if it was his goal. "Miss Rose, Mr. Arc…I'm sure that you're curious as to why you were called here, so I'll get to the point—"

"We're being expelled," I cut in, mostly to embarrass Ruby further. It succeeded, easily, as her face was threatening to match her cape in color.

"Precisely," Ozpin joked sarcastically, though not with enough overt sarcasm that Ruby picked up on it. Her previously-red face drained of all its blood in a shocking amount of time. Wide eyed, she looked to her uncle for help, only to go red again upon seeing him hide his laughter and realizing the joke.

"I hate you all," Ruby mumbled, though not very softly. If Ozpin heard, his thin smile didn't let on about it and he let it go.

"No, that's not it. General Ironwood has processed enough of the information recovered from your… _operation_ against the White Fang, and has discovered that a lot of their resources are being routed to an abandoned settlement within a few hours of the city. We've decided to send both Teams RWBY and JNPR to aid Qrow and Winter in a reconnaissance and/or search and destroy mission. I called both of you in because it is customary to brief the head of any team sent on a mission, so that they can brief the rest of the team."

"Well, you've got the teams wrong, but other than that, go ahead," I cut in.

"Pardon?"

"It's Teams J-P-B-Y and R-W-R-N now," I spelled out with a straight face as Ruby tried to hide hers in her hands. "We traded members earlier."

"…I see." Ozpin shared an irritated look with Qrow, who seemed to just be loving every moment of this. "Did you agree to this, Miss Rose?"

"I-I…uh, yes…technically, I said yes, but I didn't think—"

"Well, then it's official. Teams Jupbee and Rowrun, is it?" Ozpin asked so sarcastically that even Ruby picked up on it this time, her face going flat as she realized we were still messing with her. "There actually exists an official channel by which teams are rearranged, and I'm certain that you did not get this approved by Miss Goodwitch, so we'll stick with RWBY and JNPR."

Ozpin trailed off and looked to Winter Schnee, who wasted no time in launching into details about the mission.

"We leave first thing Monday morning from Beacon's airfields. Team RWBY is primarily assigned to Qrow and JNPR to me, though both of us outrank all of you, so _don't try anything_." That last part was said with a glare at me, for some odd reason. "Our target is the Mountain Glenn area, which as Ozpin alluded to is a failed former outreach location of Vale. Originally, it was intended to be a satellite-metropolis and suburb connected to Vale via a secured, underground railway. When the Grimm overran the city, the railway was sealed on both ends. Our most recent scoutings of the city indicate that buildings still stand, though in disrepair; it would be a versatile and spacious base of operations for a large White Fang encampment, and as such engaging them is _not_ our primary directive. Do I make that last part clear?"

"Big base. Probably outnumbered. No attacking," I summarized when it was clear Ruby didn't want to answer.

"All that is needed is for us to bring back a concrete report of the White Fang's purpose for being there, how large their presence is, and how best to attack it. If we arrive and find it to be poorly guarded or undermanned, Qrow and I have the authority to greenlight any attack that we see fit. That does _not_ mean that you, or any of your team, may make such decisions. Am I clear?"

Ruby and I nodded, and I felt irritated that she kept looking at me when saying things like that. I realize that Ozpin compared me to Qrow earlier, but still. I've planned much more complicated and dangerous raids than a glorified scouting expedition, yet _I_ am the one treated like a child when a literal, 15-year-old child stands next to me.

"Anything to add, Qrow?"

"Sure. The place used to have civilians, which means there is bound to be a liquor store somewhere. Since _this one_ —" Qrow pointed to me lazily, "—has a recent history of alcoholism, I will take it on myself to confiscate _any_ alcohol we find in the city. Is _that_ clear?" Qrow asked in as mocking of a manner as he could, though I didn't doubt his words. The main thing I took from it was that they for certain knew that I snuck away from our mission to go to Junior's, but if they haven't taken any action about it, I was in the clear.

"Do you have any questions?" Ozpin asked quickly before Winter could say something at Qrow.

"I do, actually," I answered. For all the fun my antics are, this _is_ a full-fledged mission that they were sending me and my friends on, meaning that I want all angles covered. "What sorts of activity do you have confirmed in the area?"

"What do you mean by that?" Winter asked, trying to pin down what it is I was asking for. Ozpin and Qrow's eyes both narrowed on me as they noticed me actually buckling down, and no doubt any legitimate questions I could bring up would tip off to them that I have valuable experience at this sort of thing, but weighing that versus getting my friends hurt from bad information wasn't hard.

"You said you have intel that the White Fang have been active in the area. What, specifically, do you know?"

"We've found record that several transports of troops were sent via bullhead to the area to secure it. Mountain Glenn is indeed a mountainous terrain, so ground transport would be difficult even without Grimm. There has been a lot of small aircraft activity in the region, mostly bullheads which we suspect transported troops."

"Or the rest of the 'phantom' Paladins," I responded to Winter with a hint of sarcasm, more at how everyone has doubts that there actually _were_ other Paladins. _I'm fine with that, though, given my involvement._

"That would be the reason this is a recon-first op and not a search-and-destroy one," Qrow commented. "There has been enough movement for the White Fang to have secured a sizable base away from the Grimm, but if they _do_ have more Paladins, we may be getting in over our heads. For all we know, we could be sieging the entire city when we arrive."

"Any other questions?" Ozpin asked, keeping a keen eye on me.

"Requisitions?" I asked, greeted again by looks from Ozpin and company, though this time with a hint of confusion. "I get it, it's a 'scouting' mission, but if we're supposed to be ready for SnD, I'm assuming we'll be supplied as such. Correct?"

"What, you want grenades or something?" Qrow asked jokingly.

"Among other things, yes."

"What makes you think that we _would_ arm you in such a way?" Ozpin asked dangerously, clearly digging at my past. I had shown familiarity with organized strikes but showing that I was both prepared to be and expected to be armed heavily was another clue given away, unless I could play it off.

"Well, I assume the 'destroy' part of 'search and destroy' would give it away," I asked nonchalantly, taking care to show that I didn't _expect_ anything, per say. "If I found something that needed to be destroyed, it would take a long time for me to hack it to bits with my sword."

"There's always Nora," Ruby pointed out helpfully. She wasn't wrong.

"This isn't something usually shared with first-years, but I think we've already established that you are not ordinary first-years… Beacon has a military-grade armory supplied in part by Atlas. I'll see to it that each of your respective commanders—" Ozpin said, sharing looks with Qrow and Winter, "—takes you to them before you leave. You may bring any supplies you can convince them you could need."

"Could we have Qrow then?" I asked, earning a sharp glare from Winter and inspiring Qrow to snicker at Winter.

"No, I think it's good as it is," Ruby cut in, no doubt salivating over the chance to walk into a military-grade armory with her favorite uncle. Dust only knows what sort of monstrosity Crescent Rose will exit that armory as.

"Any _other_ questions?" Ozpin asked, now giving me a flat look, ready for me to drag this out.

I shook my head, and Ruby followed suit.

"Very well, you're free to go," Ozpin dismissed, with the elevator door chirping as he did so, clearly planned somehow.

* * *

Qrow's POV

* * *

"Thoughts?" Ozpin asked Winter as Jaune and Ruby's elevator closed.

"On the boy?" Winter asked, receiving a curt nod from Oz. "Intriguing, though I fear you have a second Qrow on your hands."

"Eh, so the kid likes to take the air out of ya. That's not so bad," I defended.

"I believe that Mr. Arc measures his words more carefully than Qrow did at his age," Oz stated, shooting me a glance to see if I agreed. I begrudgingly nodded, as I was just a punk for the sake of being a punk; Jaune does always seem to have an angle or something he distracts from.

"Perhaps I have not had enough time to see through his antics, then. Our mission should afford me a better opportunity."

"What about you, Qrow? Anything stick out?"

"Not really. He's cautious around us, but pretty relaxed with his friends. You saw a little of his animosity towards us slip when he was antagonizing Ruby."

"Indeed," Ozpin hummed. "He seemed perfectly comfortable siding with us for the sake of humor. While not exactly anything concrete, it may speak to his character or his motives."

"You'll forgive me if I don't trust him because we all made a joke together," Winter cut in.

"I will; it is hardly anything conclusive. How goes your task, Miss Schnee?"

"Coming along adequately, sir," Winter answered, though the twitch in her eye when her 'task' was brought up made me chuckle. "I have completed a preliminary look at all of Beacon's and Atlas's underclassmen transcripts. Unfortunately, nothing has stood out so far."

"Don't be so disappointed," Ozpin countered with a small grin. "Finding nothing means that no one is trying to sneak into Beacon. I would consider that a good thing. Qrow, anything to report?"

"Nothing."

"Also good news, then—"

"No, I mean I have _no_ reports," I restated more seriously. "All my informants are either getting rooted out or refusing to cooperate anymore. They're all too scared that I'm going to sell them out to the cops."

"That's ridiculous," Winter stated angrily. "Not even _you_ are stupid enough to burn bridges by arresting your own informants. Where is this coming from?"

"That's where I was going with it. From what I understand, someone is going around impersonating Huntsmen and assaulting any loose ends in the criminal world. Their targets have been widespread, going from Fang leakers to shady info dealers. Whoever they are, they're going around trying to undermine the police's credibility."

"And thereby also hampering yours," Ozpin filled in with a frown. "Do you think that the emergence of this group is any coincidence with our need to expand our informant network?"

I shrugged. "Hell of a coincidence."

"Have you tracked down this rogue group yet?" Winter asked.

"Workin' on it. Not easy without anyone willing to talk to me, though, but from what I've gathered they fight on a quasi-Huntsmen level."

Ozpin went silent and gave me a long, intense stare, clearly having thought of something.

"Do you suspect…?"

"The Arc kid?" I asked, not actually sure if that was where Oz was going, but he nodded to confirm it. "No, not really. I thought he might have been connected because of his tussle with Junior—the first informant to go cold—but after speaking with Yang that's not the case; the kid left Junior breathing, at least. Besides, everything I've heard is that it's always four assailants, not one. Say what you want about the kid, but there's no way in hell he could convince three of his friends to help him do that."

" _Always_ four?" Oz asked, zeroing in on that detail. "And quasi-Huntsmen… or perhaps, partially-trained Huntsmen."

"What are you saying?" Winter cut in.

"If there is someone attempting to slip past our guard, they could very well be using Mr. Arc as a distraction—James brought up as much, you'll recall. Mr. Arc may not have killed Junior, but do you think it's a coincidence that after he left Junior was killed?"

"You think that they're using him without his knowledge?" I asked.

"Possibly. If so, it lends further credence to the theory that there _are_ students here who are not what they appear to be. If they know the student body thoroughly enough to know Mr. Arc would distract us, they may know which students could be bought and used like this. Miss Schnee?"

"Hmm?"

"I have an addendum to add to your task. Since you have completed at least a preliminary check, I want you to instead focus on narrowing down which students might be involved in Qrow's counter-intelligence scheme. As always, whatever resources you need will be allotted."

"Yes sir."

"Qrow, I don't think you need to be told to shut down this rogue threat, at any cost. Amber's situation grows worse with every day she does not awake, and we cannot afford for her assailants to figure out how to breach the vault.

"Is there anything else?"

Winter and I were silent.

"Good. You're dismissed."

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts:** **Chugging right along, I suppose. Though Yang still has not decided how she feels about things, it does seem like she at least doesn't want anyone but herself being the one to judge Jaune. After all, she seems to have gone out of her way to protect him from Qrow, and though he didn't realize it, she gave him an out at the lunch table, too.**

 **Team CRDL...well, they're a bunch of thugs, just higher-end thugs than most. What's one more problem on Jaune's plate, really? Sounds like a good opportunity for some Jaune and Neo bonding, amiright? I do love writing Neo, because she has such a strong reverence in the fandom for almost no screen time. All we know is she can beat Yang 1v1 (albeit, a tired Yang), is loyal to Torchwick (we think), and has snapchat. _Yeah, that's right, snapchat; go watch V3E11 again and tell me that's not snapchat she's using._ **it might be V3E10, just whenever roman sends her to check on ruby. **All that combines into great headcannons about Neo being bloodthirsty and deranged, naturally, and this only makes her more popular. I've chosen to lean into this, writing her as more just regular thirsty (lol) and, well, a little deranged. In a word, stabby.**

 **Everything else was more progression of plot lines as opposed to new ones. Ozpin and Qrow are closing in on Roman (and Jaune)'s plot to blind them. At this point, advantage still goes to Roman and Cinder, because they only need it to last until the Vytal Festival, which puts Qrow on a tight deadline that he doesn't actually know about. Really, since the show doesn't have this element and things go off without a hitch, you would think they would be fine. However, the show doesn't have the added tangle of Jaune being Raven's surrogate, so that adds wrinkles as have already been shown.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _TopHatGuy_

"Huh, thought I already had you followed."

 **Wow, not only is** _Turquoise_ _Leaf_ **gunning for my life, he's even manipulating things behind the scenes to drop my viewership rates. Odd, considering that he originally threatened me to ensure that the story was never late.**

 **Anyways, welcome (back?) to the story.**

* * *

"Who is this, you cannot know. A knife is far too small and is invoked in ritual inscribing. A guest who gains power from his name. Who am I?" - _Guest_

 **Wait, hold on guys, maybe** _Turqouise_ **isn't as clever as I thought.**

 **Okay, I'll play along to the tune of the old Scooby-Doo plots:**

* * *

 ***ahem***

 _ **Alright gang, let's see who was really behind this guest account all along!**_

 ***it's** _turquoise_ **. Everyone feigns surprise.***

 _ **What, no way! Not**_ _Turquoise Leaf **! He was such an upstanding and overly-involved civilian who went out of his way to make sure that we could investigate and-**_

* * *

 **Come on, man. This is just sad. You can do better. I believe in you.** **I'm going to regret this. Dear lord why am I still typing? I really am a masochist, aren't I? I play _For Honor_ and cheer for Tennessee sports. Definitely masochistic. **

**I am a sadist too, so you watch out there,** _Turquoise **.**_

 **See you all next week.**


	29. Dance Dance, part 1

**UPDATE: Had issues with this chapter not showing up. This is a re-upload and since the original upload was less than an hour before this update, you might have gotten two notifications for the same chapter. We'll see if this fixes it.**

* * *

 **Author's Note: Oh, the best-laid plans of men and mice...**

 **Is that how that saying goes? Anyhow, I made a gross miscalculation about how dedicated to writing I would be this week. Destiny's Year 2 expansion dropped on Tuesday and...Yeah, I was not very responsible this week, okay? I actually have more fanfics for Destiny than I do for RWBY, though in word-count RWBY wins by over 350,000. Really, I have a one-shot (that could expand into a story if I ever finished this and wanted to do more), a story stalled out half-way because it was overtaken by my last RWBY fic, and a short series of one-shots.**

 **Long story short, I am very much entrenched in the lore of Destiny, and they went and gave me a lore-overload to sort through in this expansion. A true lore-gasm, if you will.**

 **And I still got this chapter up to snuff. The Dance, Part 1, coming right up.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 27:** _"Tai, you're not allowed to take more than one girl to the dance." – Summer Rose  
"Why not? It was their idea…" – Taiyang Xiao Long_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

Miss Goodwitch's class was cancelled today, meaning that after lunch there was nothing to do except prepare for the dance. I highly doubted that it was Miss Goodwitch's idea to cancel those classes, but I wasn't going to be upset over that in the slightest.

This did present unique challenges to Ren and me, since both of our dates to the dance lived in the same dorm as us and insisted that we weren't allowed in the dorm from lunch onwards. I didn't exactly understand the rationale behind that, and considered flaunting my authority as team leader, but all that was likely to do was get my authority ignored. I didn't quite feel like shattering my illusion of control over the team just yet, so I made the executive decision that Ren and I were officially banned from the room.

"So what's the reason we were kicked out of our own room again?" I asked Ren, trying to ignore the oncoming nausea caused by the Bullhead we were on.

"They don't want us in there," Ren answered simply, much more resigned to having to wander around Vale than I was.

"Yeah, I just don't see _why_."

"For one, they are _changing_ into their outfits."

"Well, yeah, but it isn't like that's anything _new_ ," I replied. "We've all been living together this long. If something awkward was going to happen while someone was changing, it would have already happened by now. Everyone could just take turns getting decent in the bathroom; it shouldn't take the _whole afternoon_ to put on a dress."

Ren gave me a curious look, checking to see if I was messing with him or something, and I didn't have a clue as to why.

"The unspoken point is that we're not _supposed_ to see their dresses until tonight," Ren explained, a little annoyed that I needed it spelled out. Ren's annoyance did nothing to dissuade me, though.

"But we've already _seen_ the dresses. That was the whole point of us renting matching outfits, wasn't it?!" I cried out. "We're on our way to pick them up right now!"

"…you've never actually been around girls, have you?"

"I have!" I defended, though my voice didn't hold well and I wilted under Ren's side-eye. "…technically."

" _Teenage_ girls?" He asked expectantly.

I held my tongue. Ren rolled his eyes. Raven and Vernal hardly counted, and the female Tribe members weren't any better.

"The way this works is that we don't get any say in it," Ren explained further, though with a bemused smirk. "We're not allowed in the room because we're not allowed to see them in their dresses until they _want_ us to. They also want us to stay in Vale the whole time because they're hoping that after we get our suits, we'll go pick up flowers to bring them."

" _Flowers_? But they never mentioned—"

"That's the point: it was never mentioned. We're supposed to know to bring them without being asked."

"…THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE!" I finally snapped. "How are we supposed to know to do something that is never addressed?"

"Again, you don't seem to have any experience with teenage girls," Ren commented, dodging the question and acting like _I_ was the crazy one here.

"I give up," I exclaimed, throwing my hands in the air for effect, and banging them against the close ceiling of the Bullhead.

"That's the spirit," Ren mocked, though it was sounding more and more like the entire point of this whole 'dance' thing was to wear guys down so that they can be controlled more easily. _If that were the case, then whoever invented these things is leagues above Raven in terms of ingenuity._ "Now just imagine how _I_ know all of this ahead of time."

"…Nora?"

Ren nodded solemnly, causing me to shiver as I thought of the day-to-day horrors that must have been. A lesser man would have broken, for sure. Worse, it didn't seem likely that Nora would just list out in detail what she expected in this sort of scenario; Ren and Nora had grown up semi-nomic, much closer to how I did than most Beacon students. _Ren knew all of this because he was so experienced handling Nora that he could translate that to generic teenage girls_.

Really, the scary thing was that apparently Nora was a good proxy for the average girl our age.

We were silent as the Bullhead landed, and other than discussing what route to take, we were also silent on the walk to the shop our suits were rented from. We were half-way there when I broke the silence.

"Is it…normal to rent clothes for a school dance at a high-end designer's studio?" I asked uncertainly, bringing up a nagging concern that had been eating away at me for days now.

"Why do you ask?"

"It's just… do you remember when they made us drop by last week to get sized?" Ren nodded to confirm he did remember. "No other guys at Beacon seem to have done that."

"Well, it's not like you know that many people around Beacon…"

"No, but I asked around. Sun, Neptune, all of CRDL, even random people in the prep rooms before fights. No one had to do that…"

"It's…not usual, no," Ren finally admitted. "Not from what I understand, at least. Typically, guys wear cheap rented suits that don't really fit and just get a nice tie to match their partner."

"…and Pyrrha sent us to this high-end place because…?"

"That's the other thing about teenage girls," Ren replied mixed with a sigh. "They're possessive and competitive."

"You know, you really are _zero_ help," I deadpanned. " _Possessive and competitive?_ How does _that_ explanation help me?!"

"They're _possessive_ —" Ren spat out, giving me a glare for cutting him off, "—in that they want to show everyone that you came together, hence matching our suits to their dresses. And they're _competitive_ —" he said, glaring at me again for effect, "—in that they don't want anyone else to look better. When it comes to showing off, nothing is outside of fair play."

"That…doesn't really sound like Pyrrha," I stated slowly, trying to wrap my head around Ren's greater point. I mean, Pyrrha did have a competitive streak a mile long, but so far I had only ever seen it when she had a weapon in her hands; she is far from aggressive otherwise. "She really strikes me as too nice to try to show up anyone."

"It's not usually about showing someone up. Yes, that _can_ happen, but usually only if there is someone specific they want to outdo. Pyrrha, and Nora for what it is worth…they don't have anyone to show up.

"But they're competitive, and they _won't_ risk someone else showing them up."

I didn't respond, instead trying to wrap my head around the logic there, if there was any. It sounded somewhat like the idea of 'peace through strength,' where the only way to never be attacked is to be so strong that no one tries, except in that scenario there are people who _would_ attack you. _This is a dance with the same classmates you've seen all year, though, and the only sort of attack would be someone else who wanted to dress up, but everyone wants to dress up, and this is way to convoluted to be real life..._

"Nope, I still don't get it," I concluded, giving up on the hope of _maybe_ understanding it. "I don't see why she'd be so… _defensive,_ " I said, not really convinced that 'defensive' was the word I was looking for.

"Uh huh," Ren mumbled, unconvinced. "You see _no reason_ that Pyrrha would be concerned about other women catching your eye?"

"Well…when you put it that way…" I fumbled after being put on the spot. "Hey, when did this turn into a referendum on _me?_ I thought the point of this was showing off to other women. It's not like I've going around hitting up every girl I see. Or _any_ girl I see for that matter."

"You poor soul," Ren mumbled. "You really do have no clue how this works."

"Uh, _yeah_ , I thought we established that."

"Do you even know what you plan on doing?" Ren asked.

"What, like, at the dance?" I asked back, confused. "I mean, I'm going to try to dance. I at least know that much."

"That's not what I meant."

"Dude, at this point, you're going to have to spell it out," I responded, not even trying to figure out what he was referencing.

" _With Pyrrha_ ," Ren added with a knowing, no-nonsense sort of look. "Don't try to tell me you haven't noticed."

"I…" I trailed off as the look Ren gave me let me know that denying it would be pointless. "I might have noticed, yes." _More like her aura practically screamed it at me, which is still a surreal experience to think back on._

Ren gave me an expectant look and waited for me to go on.

"That's kind of a personal question to ask, isn't it?" I deflected instead of just outright denying it.

"It is, but it still needs to be answered. After all, you're _both_ teammates, and anything happening between you could affect how the team works. That sounds like something I should know about," Ren spoke, choosing his words carefully and giving me a cautious, though slightly smug, look. "Besides, we're friends; we should be looking out for each other."

"Okay, fine; you win. _Sheesh_ ," I mumbled, not seeing an out from the thorough trap Ren had put me in. He had clearly planned out that line for a while now, and not even my propensity to bullshit was likely to get out of this. "I'll answer anything you ask so long as I get to ask you the same things about _Nora_. For the same reasons, of course."

Ren hesitated for a moment and I thought I was about to get out of this, but I wasn't that lucky.

"Do you like Pyrrha?" Ren asked simply, though even I could understand what _that_ subtext meant.

"Do I like Pyrrha?" I mumbled slowly in response, doing my best to decide how to answer.

"It's clear that she likes _you_ , right?" Ren asked hesitantly, remembering that I was not so good at this whole thing, as evidenced by our previous conversation.

"Yeah, that much is clear," I confirmed. "I mean, I…guess I like her. I don't… _dis_ like her, and she's…uh… _attractive_ , for sure."

"She has legs longer than the school week," Ren commented off-hand, causing me to completely end my train of thought and stare at him out of shock. "What? I _have_ eyes, Jaune."

"I get that, it's just…never mind," I said, shaking my head clear and trying to return to the original question. The irony that I now _wanted_ to go back to that question wasn't lost on me. _It's always the quiet ones, apparently._ "You aren't wrong on that, though. I guess I do like Pyrrha, just…"

"Not as much as she likes you," Ren supplied.

"Yeah. That sounds about right," I responded, piggybacking off the answer Ren laid out for me. "It's a weird spot to be in. I'm not sure if I actually like her, or if I'm just reciprocating."

It was a difficult question, but it brought up a much more interesting—albeit depressing—question: _if I didn't have the weight of my other life hanging over me, would I approach this differently?_ It is fair to say that I have not exactly encouraged anything between Pyrrha and I; I've been fine to let there be too much time in between any real interactions between us for anything to have grown, and a lot of that has been because I spend my time working on _other_ things, but is that the _whole_ reason? Or have I been hesitating because I don't think I should get too entangled because I might fail?

I was shaken out of my thoughts when I noticed Ren watching me closely, and decided to go ahead and flip the script on him.

"Alright, what about you, then? You and Nora aren't exactly… _normal_ friends, but you can't tell me there's not something mixed in there?"

"I…" Ren trailed off this time, earning a grin from me as the shoe was being put on the other foot now. "I don't know. I don't…think so."

"Really?" I asked, not doubting his sincerity but surprised nonetheless. "You don't think that Nora thinks so?"

"I…think that's just how Nora acts," Ren answered, though clearly unconvinced with his own words. I was even less so. "You've know her for a little while now; what do you think?"

"You're asking me? You must be desperate," I joked lightly to break up any awkwardness or tension that might have been building, and to give myself a little confidence to get the ball rolling. "Nora does seem all over the place, but she's _really_ attached to you. I would be shocked if she didn't look at you differently than other guys."

Ren seemed genuinely surprised by my answer, staring at me as if waiting for me to reveal that I was joking. Maybe Ren was just too used to Nora to see her hints and advances as anything other than just Nora being Nora. They were little when they met, so it certainly makes sense that Nora might not have developed anything more for Ren until recently, and by then Ren had been so conditioned to take Nora's actions in stride that he might not have noticed.

He could just be in so deeply that he was blind to everything.

"Huh. I guess I'll have to watch more closely. That's certainly something I should think about…"

"You mean you haven't?" I asked surprised.

"No. I…I've been with Nora for so long that…" Ren trailed off, clearly frustrated at himself for not finding his words. "Ever since my parents died, Nora is the only family I've had. I guess…I've been so focused on protecting that, that I haven't ever looked past it."

… _which sounds just like what I was thinking a moment ago._ I'm not sure if watching more closely or taking a step back entirely is the right move, but it's probably better than doing nothing.

We rounded a street corner and found ourselves staring at our destination, both of us remaining silent with plenty to think on.

 _Ren's problem isn't as bad as mine, though._ His is at least understandable, relatable even. Me? I'm hesitating because there's no telling if I'll _survive_ my break with Raven, much less actually get away from her. Having friends was something Raven warned against because she didn't want me getting attached to this life over her, which I promptly ignored when I decided I was going to break from her. _This is different, right?_

I'm not so sure anymore. If I'm torn away from my friends, is there such a thing as _too_ close? Or did Raven have a deeper purpose for keeping me from growing too close to the people here?

 _If she did, why should I give her an advantage?_

* * *

After picking up and putting on our suits at the shop that Pyrrha had directed us to, Ren and I had made it half-way to a flower shop when we remembered that we _did_ have a place to go back to at Beacon, and after a few texts to make sure that we were welcome to kill time there, we headed for the dorms with four sets of flowers in hand.

Without a free hand to knock, I unceremoniously kicked Team SSSN's door until it was finally opened from the other side.

"Alright, sheesh," Sun joked with a grin, stepping aside to let us in. "You can come in."

"Thanks," I mumbled, pushing my way inside and setting the two sets of flowers I had on their table, with Ren following suit. The place was half-empty, seeing as the rest of Team SSSN apparently wasn't showing up until a week before the Vytal Festival. _Why Sun and Neptune were here so earlier instead of back at their own schools, I'm not really sure, but it seems to be a constant thing among transfers._ The state of chaos and confusion all swelling from the ever-approaching Vytal Festival was remarkable, especially given how lowly Raven spoke of Ozpin's administrative practices. Not his skills, because the man has had more than a few lives of ruling over humanity, but his effort could stand to improve; as it stands, I'd be surprised if Miss Goodwitch wasn't doing most the work.

I wouldn't bet anything I cared to lose that she wasn't doing _all_ of it.

"That's a _lot_ of flowers," Neptune called out from his seat on his bed.

"Man, guys, I didn't realize you were trying _that_ hard to impress your teammates," Sun joked lightheartedly.

"They're not all for us. We brought some for you guys," I responded, pulling a chair out from the table and sitting down in it, letting my legs rest after a few hours of use.

"Uhhh…"

"But…don't you both already have dates?"

"They're for you to give to _your_ dates, idiots," I growled back at them both, though without any real vitriol.

"Oh," Sun mumbled, causing me to roll my eyes. "The black roses…?"

"Are for you to give to Blake," I finished for him, pointing to the flowers in question and giving him a slight, mistrusting and overprotective glare, just for good measure. He already had the looming threat of Yang should he do something wrong with Blake, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to throw my hat in that ring. _Blake wouldn't even be surprised to find out I was fixing things behind the scenes for her at this point_. "I didn't know who you were taking, Neptune, so I just got you a generic bundle of flowers. The lady at the shop recommended them."

"Oh, uh, thanks, but I'm not taking anyone," Neptune replied semi-awkwardly.

"Well, find someone who looks nice and give them to her," I somewhat commanded, my patience already running thin after an afternoon of what felt to me like pointless and convoluted preparations for something as silly as a dance. "Maybe try Weiss."

"…why do you say that?" Neptune asked, clearly reading in to my suggestion.

"Well, I only know two girls at Beacon who _don't_ have dates. Which one scares you less: Weiss or Yang?"

There was a silence that followed as Neptune made to answer, but stopped himself as he realized that he wasn't completely sure if he had a response.

"…Weiss it is, I guess," Neptune said eventually, trying to act casual and not doing a great job at it, or at the least not fooling me. I'm more than aware that Weiss has had her eye on Neptune and, judging by his poor acting here, Neptune is aware of that too.

"Dude, how much did these cost?" Sun cut in, examining the flowers.

"A lot," Ren answered plainly from his seat opposite of me.

"We can't just take these from you. That had to be way too much," Sun protested.

"Ren's exaggerating," I said, shrugging off Sun's concern and also shooting Ren a brief glare. "It was all blood money anyways. Might as well use it on something innocent," I said as if joking, though holding eye contact with anyone who would meet it in an attempt to make them uncomfortable. It worked on Neptune, whose blood drained from his face, but Sun saw the joke for what it was.

"Okay, _sure_. Did Roman Torchwick buy your suit, too?" Sun quipped back.

 _Something tells me he probably would have gotten me one just as expensive and fancy as the one Pyrrha got me is._

"Nah, he's renting me a limo to arrive in."

 _Sometimes the truth, properly told, sounded so obviously like a lie that no one would ever suspect it._

"…but the dance is at Beacon. How would a limo make it to the school?" Neptune asked, completely missing the joke. Sun and I gave me a flat look for a few seconds—hell, _Ren_ even joined in—until he realized that he'd been got. "Not cool, guys."

"Careful, Neptune," Sun called out in a mocking tone. "You'd hate to get on his bad side. You might end up making his third video."

"Nope. Not falling for it," Neptune shot back at Sun, though not without giving me a nervous glance.

"Huh?" I mumbled, completely lost with where the conversation was going now. "Third video?"

"Don't pay attention to him," Neptune answered, hoping up to push Sun away and try to distract me, though I had no idea why. "He's just trying to rile you up."

"Rile _me_ up?" I repeated, confused. I thought that Sun was messing with Neptune. In fact, if Neptune hadn't told me, I wouldn't have even known _to be_ riled up.

"Yeah, you know, make a third sparring video," Sun called out from being actively blocked by Neptune.

"Guys, you're going to have to slow down. What sparring videos?" Seriously, with the entire concept of a school dance and the details therein, and now whatever these two were talking about, I was really beginning to feel how different my life has been compared to theirs.

"You know," Neptune prompted, though I clearly did not. "Your fights with Pyrrha, and Yang."

I gave Neptune an uncertain and surprised look. I could figure out pretty easily that my spar with Pyrrha was recorded and would get passed around based solely on Pyrrha's reputation, but the circumstances surrounding my _fight_ with Yang were a lot different. _And if there_ was _a recording, did it pick up any volume?_ The thought was enough to put a knot in my stomach, though I hid it well.

" _You_ haven't even seen them?" Neptune asked incredulously, already pulling out his scroll. He started swiping through some social media app until he found the first one, which was a video recording of my spar with Pyrrha taken by one of the students in the audience.

"Oh, great, I'm internet-famous for losing a fight," I drawled, though still watching the video for Neptune's sake.

"That's not a _real_ loss," Neptune countered as the video of the fight progressed. "You're the first solo combatant to ever get her that far into the yellow. You had _Pyrrha Nikos_ on the ropes!"

I subtly looked to Sun, trying to see if he was planning on reeling in his partner, but received only a shrug. Apparently, this was normal for Neptune, to obsess over fighting; maybe just a Mistralian thing?

"Which doesn't matter. If it was a real fight, I would be dead," I countered back. That…wasn't _strictly_ true, because I did hold back on using my extra dagger, meaning that I hadn't used _all_ options available to me. It also occurs to me that a non-metallic weapon could have been significant enough to turn the tide of a real fight; instead of just punching Pyrrha, I could have followed up with a lethal strike to end the fight then and there; even if it wasn't lethal, I could likely break her aura and thereby cut off her semblance, leaving me with a distinct advantage. _None of that helps my point to Neptune, though._ "If it makes you feel better, Pyrrha and I have split a lot of our training sessions since then, though usually because we're practicing on very specific things."

"And here's the Yang fight," Neptune announced as he held his scroll up again, having completely ignored me. I did my best not to show how interested I was in the footage, but anyone watching me carefully (i.e. Ren) would have noticed. The footage was clearly shot from a distance and through a window, meaning none of our voices were captured, and it started just after Yang hit me for the first time. Given the distance of the video, it likely came from the dorms, and when I looked closer, the view out the window looked familiar.

"Nora?" I asked Ren, who nodded in response. The video was recorded from _our_ window, meaning it was either Nora or her karaoke-accomplice Ruby.

"Okay, that's enough," I announced, trying to get Neptune to put his scroll up.

"Hold on," Neptune replied, watching the screen. He wasn't content to put it away until after the moment near the end when I caught Yang's fist in my palm and forced her down on her knee. "Oh, that is still so cool. How did you do that?"

"Semblance," I answered ambiguously, though not completely falsely.

"What sort of semblance is _that_?" Neptune asked excitedly.

"A secret sort," I answered evasively, but more tired of the subject than touchy. Neptune made to open his mouth again, but I cut him off. "If you ask again, I might just have to _show_ you."

He did not ask.

* * *

It was a little surreal as we approached the entrance to the dance, if I'm being honest. The scene was just so…foreign to me, and that's not to say that I disliked it. It…it just was weird, going from the Tribe to a fancy suit and a gorgeous woman on my arm.

All of Ren's talk about the purpose of showing up and showing off at events like this started to make a little more sense the first time I saw Pyrrha in her deep red dress, with just enough of a slit up one side to _really_ show off. In contrast, my suit and matching red tie felt underwhelming, which was strange because before that I felt extremely overdressed in a fitted, designer suit that Pyrrha rented using her sponsor money and connections. She also went ahead and footed the bill for Ren and Nora, giving me a glimpse into just how serious her fighting career must have been as she adamantly insisted that she would be fine paying for it all.

Ren and Nora were just as sharp, with Nora pulling a dress off much better (and more willingly) than I would have ever expected. It probably helped that it was pink and made use of her signature heart-shape for most of her chest, with the dress slowly fading to light pink as it went down; all in all, it was a very fun-looking dress that suited her personality well, if a little dressed up. _I suppose that's why you go with designer clothes, though_. Ren, for what it was worth, was in a similar but distinct suit that I was told was designed around the bowtie he wore, which matched the center of Nora's heart in color. _I'm certain that Nora appreciated that symbolism, too, though apparently Ren wouldn't get it._

"Damn," Yang mumbled to Weiss as she looked up from their spot at the gate to the dance. They both wore simple white dresses, nothing too flashy since they technically were the hosts and _shouldn't_ steal the spotlight, though Weiss' dress was a little more Atlesian and Yang's a bit more sun-dressy.

"Yeah, yeah, fashionably late," I called out to them both, using the joke to hopefully cut off any teasing about Pyrrha deciding that our team was going to out-do every other team, or at least out- _spend_ them. Weiss would probably admire such a frivolous expenditure, though she'd be the only one in the whole school accustomed to such prices.

"Now _that_ is how one _should_ dress for such an occasion," Weiss berated towards Yang, alluding to some argument the two had been having all night. With nothing else to do while working the door, it made sense they would start judging people based on their dress. "Though the thigh-slit is a bit racy for my tastes,"

Pyrrha's cheeks started to match her hair, dress, and my tie, so I decided to step in and deflect the attention.

"Yeah, I told Ren that it was a bit much, but what can I say…he really pulls it off." Ren gave me a flat look, though the glance he took at Pyrrha softened that look as he realized my intentions. "Nora, I'm starting to understand this whole 'Rensexuality' thing…"

"Ren…sexu…?" Weiss mumbled, looking deeply uncomfortable. "Nevermind. You all look fantastic, despite Jaune."

Yang grinned at the dig towards me and Weiss looked pleased with herself despite what, really, was a weak attempt.

"Hey, don't be jealous of me because _you_ don't have boobs," I responded, keeping my voice low enough not to be overheard by others. For good measure, I puffed my chest out and gave Weiss a grin of my own while silently hurrying my team through the door before Weiss decided to hunt me down. Yang's jaw dropped for a moment at the comeback and Weiss never got the chance to even process what had happened before we were inside.

"That was mean," Pyrrha tried to berate me, though still sporting a small grin. Nora made no attempt to hide her bemusement, and even Ren's eyes betrayed how he appreciated the humor.

"Come on, Ren! Let's go dancing!" Nora cried out, dragging Ren away before any of us could even turn to face her.

"That's not such a terrible idea," Pyrrha mumbled, apparently having lost her nerve as she became more aware of the people around us glancing at us once or twice.

"Shall we, then?" I made a show of asking, offering my arm again. It was clear that Pyrrha had been waiting on such a proposition by the speed with which she accepted, and the smile she wore while doing so.

Dancing was…an unusual sensation, to say the least. The music was slow and formal, no doubt Weiss' choice, and also no doubt sure to be influenced by Yang as the night went on. There wasn't much to the dancing from a technical point of view, and even without any formal dance lessons I was able to follow along easily. It was little more than swaying back and forth while having your hands on your partner, with some moving around if you felt adventurous.

Watching Pyrrha experience the dance from up close told me that it was a relaxing, soothing, and fulfilling experience, even if the whole thing felt foreign to me and the hair on the back of my neck stood up most the time. Despite that, I was determined not to distract Pyrrha from her enjoyment, and for the entire first song, I was successful.

It wasn't until maybe half-way through our second song that Pyrrha noticed that I was, at the very least, a little distracted. Her face tilted to the side curiously, with a helping heap of concern shown there too, and I immediately felt bad for ruining this for her.

"What's wrong?" she whispered, soft enough not to be heard by anyone else.

"Nothing," I tried to reassure, for all the good it did. The look on Pyrrha's face told me that the worst thing I could do to her right now would be lie about it, and that broke me out of trying easily. "I'm just…a little on edge."

"A little?" Pyrrha asked with a hint of amusement. "You've been checking the corner of your vision like you expect to be jumped this whole time."

"You noticed that?" I asked, before realizing how stupid of a question it was. _She's been staring at me for the past five minutes while we danced; what did I expect?_ "It's not you, I promise. There's just something about this crowd that makes me uneasy."

"What about this crowd?" Pyrrha asked softly. "Everyone here are the same people who crowd the hallways and classrooms with us."

"I know that, but…that's different," I replied, allowing myself to relax a little bit by not trying to hide my nervous glances. Regardless of whether hiding it from her was effective, I felt safe enough to let Pyrrha see my nervousness, as irrational as it is.

"How so?" Pyrrha asked with a little bemusement that I didn't understand.

"Everyone's armed, for one."

"So you're more nervous when you're _not_ surrounded by armed people you don't know?"

"I'm nervous because it means that everyone in here is vulnerable," I whispered back, eyes darting for the corners of the room. "This is exactly the kind of place that would get attacked…"

"You've…planned attacks like that before?" Pyrrha asked, her emotions too jumbled to be understood.

"No," I answered truthfully. "But I…have been around people who have, and I've been on the receiving end of ambushes before. A bunch of soft targets with no weapons is an ideal target."

"Everyone here still has aura, though. And if anyone tried to attack, they'd find that a few hundred disarmed but aura-enabled students were still a horde not worth fighting. Not to mention semblances." _Yeah, and so did all those people the Tribe ambushed, but Pyrrha isn't counting that the attackers would have their own auras and semblances to cancel out ours, not to mention_ weapons.

"Right, I get that, I really do," I mumbled, still struggling to convey—or fully comprehend—why I was on edge. Despite my experience in ambushes, attacking a dance-hall of hundreds of quasi-Huntsmen and Huntresses was suicide. "It's just that all of this feels like an entirely different world than I'm used to."

"What, you mean that there aren't any other pirates?" Pyrrha asked sarcastically, stifling a laugh as she did so but getting her point across.

"I'm never going to live Nora down," I mumbled under my breath.

"I get it, though," Pyrrha cut in once she had tamped down her giggling.

"You do?"

"You're out of your comfort zone, which means I'm seeing a new side of you," Pyrrha stated with a coy smile.

"If you had to describe this new Jaune in a word, what would it be?"

"Right now? Paranoid."

"That's fair," I mumbled, earning a giggle from Pyrrha.

"I could tell you were nervous because it feels like your holding onto me for dear life," Pyrrha teased, though with a bit of a knowing look to her. I decided instead of loosening my grip, to double down.

"How do you know that's not where my hands _want_ to be?" I asked her, outdoing her coy look form earlier. My words had their intended effect as a bit of blood rushed to her cheeks, but she didn't let that affect her.

"Well, for one, your hands are _only_ on my hips…"

"Is that a 'groping Yang' joke?" I asked, feigning exasperation. "I take back what I said about being a pirate; _that_ is something I'm never going to live down."

"I didn't hear you deny it..." Pyrrha taunted.

"I DIDN'T—" I cut myself off when I realized I was far too loud and began to attract eyes from our neighbor, causing Pyrrha to laugh at my expense once more.

"Does it help?" Pyrrha asked suddenly, to what I did not know, and I let my confused expression beg for her to elaborate. "Scanning the room like that. You don't even realize you're doing it, do you?"

"No," I answered honestly. "That's something that was drilled into me a long time ago."

"You always mentioned being taught skills like that. I'd like to hear stories of whoever taught you someday."

"Well, I've certainly got entertaining ones, if only for the shock value," I mumbled, thoughts drifting off to the many, _many_ training techniques Raven employed that would be barred from Beacon. "In this case, it wasn't taught to me by a person so much as life." This time, Pyrrha was the one who was confused, prompting me to be the one to elaborate. "It's a survival skill in the sorts of places I grew up. And by that, I mean you _don't_ survive without it."

"Oh," Pyrrha said, not knowing how else to respond. "What do you see when you do it?"

Instead of answering, I took a quick glance at what was going on at the punch table behind Pyrrha.

"Follow my lead."

Before Pyrrha could begin to question what that meant, I pushed to spin us in a half-circle, letting Pyrrha now face what was behind her previously.

"Look over my shoulder," I instructed. "Tell me what you see, and what that tells you from a tactical standpoint."

"Uh, okay. I see Ruby standing alone behind the refreshments."

"Mmhmm," I mumbled, remembering that detail among others. "What I saw when I looked over there told me that _that_ area was not of any concern to me, at least not as far as someone attacking over there. Why?"

"Ruby?" Pyrrha asked, more guessing than hypothesizing.

"She's in heels, which while her teammates think is funny, means that she wouldn't be able to intervene quickly if something happened. What else?"

Pyrrha stared intently, her eyebrows furrowing as she did so. After a few moments of her not answered, I reached out with one hand under her chin and tilted her head a little to the right.

"The General and Miss Goodwitch?" Pyrrha half-asked and half-exclaimed.

"Those two are the overbearing and quick-acting type. _Normally_." That last word _might_ have been a dig at Miss Goodwitch for almost letting me die, and judging by Pyrrha's blush, she understood that reference. "Ironwood certainly seems on edge, and just beyond him are two Atlesian Knights guarding a girl."

"You got all of that with a glance?" Pyrrha asked, both surprised and impressed.

"You say that like they don't stick out like a sore thumb. There's a tall Atlas general, a blonde who puts the fear of god into the whole school, and two robots all standing in a straight line from us. I saw almost nothing else."

"You saw Ruby's heels," Pyrrha countered.

"I saw Ruby standing alone and _remembered_ that her team wanted her in heels. I actually never looked at her feet; that was just a hunch."

" _Huh,_ " Pyrrha exclaimed, again at a loss for words. "Let's keep moving around and you tell me what you see."

"Are you sure? I don't want to ruin the dance for you, any more so than I already have."

"Nonsense," Pyrrha reassured sternly. "I enjoy watching you, especially this different part of you I haven't seen."

I let that comment go unteased, but I didn't even need to tease Pyrrha about watching me for her to blush as she realized her poor phrasing.

"Alright, first thing I see now are Blake and Sun dancing—"

"Ooh, focus on them! What's going on?"

"Uh…" I muttered, slowly accepting my role as some sort of seeing-eye dog for Pyrrha, despite her functioning eyes. And the fact I'm not a dog. Because if I were it would be weird that I was staring at a cat faunus. _Hell, this line of thinking is weird enough as it is, and also probably a bit racist._ "Blake seems more relaxed than Sun—"

" _Really_?"

"Yeah, Sun has his hands high and safe, and seems to be trying really hard not to ruin things, as if one little slip and Blake is out." Really, he wasn't to blame, considering most of his interactions with Blake have been related in some fashion to her hunting the White Fang, meaning Sun has only seen an…intense side of Blake. A relaxed, soft, welcoming side of Blake _does_ exist beneath all that for those of us fortunate enough to see it, and it sounds like out of Sun, Pyrrha, and me, I'm the only one not surprised by this. "Blake looks really amused at how nervous Sun is. She might actually be enjoying herself." If I wasn't mistaken, she might actually be smiling, or at least coming very close to it.

"And now?" Pyrrha asked as she turned us once more.

"Ren and Nora are tearing up the dance floor."

"Really?" Pyrrha asked, not nearly as surprised as the last time she said that. Pyrrha paused for a moment, listening to the music that was playing. "The music is still really tame. What sort of dance goes with this music?"

"I assure you that they are _not_ dancing to _this_ music. At least, Nora isn't." Ren was probably just mirroring Nora, after all, but he _did_ have some moves and he wasn't holding them back.

"And now?" Pyrrha asked, rotating us further.

"Now I see…" I trailed off, going quiet with shock as my eyes roamed over what looked like the three people that Torchwick and I had met at the warehouse. It was difficult to tell, since I was going off memory from the photos Neo showed me before I…uh, scrolled too far, but on second glance I was even more sure it was them; the gray dude and the bright green-haired girl gave them away.

"You see what?" Pyrrha asked, taking keen note of my sudden silence and interest, forcing me to try to backpedal things a bit. _The last thing I need is to accidentally let Pyrrha know about Torchwick._

"Cardin and company," I responded, feigning an evil smirk. "Standing off to the side as a team. Doesn't appear that anyone was willing to go as their dates," I stated, trying to sound as vindictive as I could to play this off as me being a jerk to them still.

"Well, I can't say I'm surprised. They did pick on an older student; she probably knows a lot more of the student body than we do," Pyrrha rationalized, taking my line about CRDL easily. Just to play it safe, I absentmindedly rubbed my left hand up and down just a little bit of Pyrrha's side, for no other reason than to distract her and draw her attention elsewhere. Judging by the way Pyrrha stiffened and the look on her face, I could have sworn that Pyrrha was ready to melt, giving me a _great_ option whenever I needed to distract her in the future.

 _I do suppose that there are other contexts in which this information could be useful, outside of counter-espionage._

At the moment, I was too pre-occupied with the fact that Roman's leash-holder was, for some reason, at Beacon's school dance. This did not in any way help settle my frayed nerves, but it did give me something to focus on; half of the nerves were the fear of the unknown, or paranoia clawing at my stomach. Since this Cinder person knew who I was and that I was an asset to her—an important one, by Roman's insistence—I felt that _I_ was safe. This would be reassuring if I had any reason to think that _I_ was her target.

The music went through a prolonged wind-down as the current song ended, and it was at this time that both Pyrrha and I realized that we had been on the floor for a good while now. We met eyes and it was clear that both of us were thinking the same thing, but neither knew how to gracefully say 'let's stop dancing together.'

"Do you…want some punch?" I asked finally.

"Yes," Pyrrha answered stiffly. "Maybe a break?"

"I was thinking the same thing," I answered reassuringly.

As we made our way off the dance floor, Pyrrha and I split up to go off on our own for a bit, and I made a straight line to behind the refreshments where Ruby was hiding, though with Yang now having joined her.

"Hey Ruby, wanna dance?" I called out as I approached.

"I _will_ stab you if you try to make me," Ruby grumbled back, startling me enough that I stopped short of her by a few feet. Upon closer inspection, Ruby hadn't even turned to look at me and was instead pouting as she glared in the general direction of the dance floor. I looked to Yang in confusion.

" _Someone_ can barely walk in their new heels," Yang explained with a dopey grin that was very clearly aimed at Ruby. "If you tried to take her dancing, she'd probably fall to the ground before you made it to the floor."

"I am never forgiving you and Weiss for this," Ruby growled again, though now that I knew why it was hard to take her seriously. Ruby just wasn't built to be able to pull off 'angry.' She just came off as a pouty puppy, and the snicker Yang hid behind her arm made it obvious that I wasn't the only one who felt that way.

"That's a shame. Hey Yang, wanna dance?" I switched gears quickly, making a point of turning away from Ruby just to mess with her.

"Sorry, gotta man the door," Yang shot back automatically, taking pleasure in shooting me down.

"Is that what this is?" I asked, gesturing to the fact that the was an awfully long way away from the door.

"'Fraid so."

"Wow, that's too bad that you'll be too busy to dance with anyone _all night_ …" I drawled, very thinly veiling what was almost a threat. Yang met my eyes and narrowed hers as she caught on to the promise that one way or another, I would trick her into a dance somehow, no matter the consequences. I am nothing if not stubborn, after all. "Well, I was dragged here to dance. I have to find _someone_ to dance with."

" _Pyrrha_?" Yang asked in a ' _duh_ ' voice.

"She's taking a break," I explained simply. "Blake?"

" _No!_ " Yang cut in suddenly, making Ruby jump and earning a strange look from me. "Look at her. She's _actually_ enjoying her dance with Sun, and so help me if you ruin that I will mount your head on a pike."

"…kinky?"

"W-What about Nora?" Ruby interjected, very obviously trying to head off Yang and I's ensuing verbal spar before it began.

"That'll work. Thanks, Ruby," I responded, already turning to go track down Nora. "Yang? You really weren't any help, so no thanks for that."

I was off without waiting for Yang's reaction, finding it more difficult to find Nora now that she and Ren were no longer commanding a large radius of the dance floor to themselves. I did eventually track them down, and walked up to them in a very plain slow dance, actually matching the music now.

And walked past them, checking behind me to make sure that Yang and Ruby couldn't really see me. I'm not really in the mood to take a chance here, any more so than what I am already planning on doing is, anyways.

"I absolutely hate everything about this," one of my three targets grumbled to the others, not seeing me approach from the side. All three were standing off to the side against a wall, watching the dance rather than participating in it.

"And I am tired of hearing you complain," their ringleader, the Cinder lady, snapped back at him. "Just hold your tongue until the music gets a bit…rowdier. You'll need to be seen then, which means you won't have time for your complaining."

"Oh, what happens then?" I asked as I announced my presence, walking up from their side. All three flinched and their hands shuffled, obviously looking for weapons that they hadn't brought with them; that mostly confirmed my suspicions, but then again, _everyone_ here were Huntsmen-in-training, so reaching for a weapon when startled was hardly a unique reaction.

" _You_ ," Cinder growled softly, eyes narrowing dangerously at me. "How do you…?"

"Your voice," I answered quickly, before she could begin to suspect Torchwick for having undercut her efforts to remain hidden from me. It was a small favor to Roman, and I doubt I really gained anything from it in the moment, but I also didn't lose anything by it either. In response, Cinder cocked her head to the side slightly in confusion. "I overheard you earlier. I distinctly remember _that_ voice."

She turned to glare at her green-haired accomplice, who panicked in return. "I altered your voice during the illusion, ma'am. I swear!"

"Not very well," I added on, deciding that Cinder's ire was much better placed on her lackey than on me, especially given Roman's…fear of her. As an added bonus, I further confirmed that I _was_ under some sort of illusion that night, and that the green one was the source.

"What do you want?" Cinder hissed at me with a dangerous edge.

"Oh, nothing, just coming by to say high to my new friends!" I responded louder than necessary so we weren't all mysteriously whispering away from the rest of the dance. "I guess I never put two and two together than you were staying in Beacon _and_ were coming to the dance…"

Her two lackeys were a mix of confused and suspicious, but Cinder herself saw what I was getting at.

"Yeah, well, we were just fortunate to run into another student. I think we might still be lost in Vale if you hadn't given us directions to the airfield."

"Oh yeah, Mercury was _horrible_ at looking things up," the green one jumped in once she realized what was going on.

"Hey, it's not my fault my scroll kept crashing, okay?" The one called Mercury defended, slightly irked to have to take on the role of the idiot in this conversation.

Not only was I helping them establish whatever cover-identity they were after, but I was also tying that cover to me. They couldn't ever move against me without undermining their presence in Beacon, and if I went down for anything Torchwick-related, they would be logical accomplices to question, meaning that she would have to hesitate to take down Torchwick. It was an exchange I gleefully took advantage of, and the hint of annoyance in Cinder's eyes confirmed to me that she had already realized as much.

"I gotta go track down my date, so I'll see you guys around. I'm sure I'll try to steal a dance from you two at some point—sorry, Mercury, not you. If you need someone to introduce you all to the rest of the students, come find me!"

I walked off with a wave and a fake smile that they were forced to replicate, and for the most part did a good job of doing so. The funniest part to me is that I would be the absolute _worst_ person to introduce them to the student body.

After all, _I_ still need to be introduced to most of them.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Oh, good lord, it took us long enough to get to the dance, didn't it? Well, the plot chugs along once more, and for once Jaune is the one making a nice move there at the end to secure a little wiggle-room with Cinder and the gang.**

 **As I alluded to up above, the dance did get split into two parts, as there is one more dance that I want Jaune to have (and maybe a second, depending on if it flows well) that would just have felt awkward back to back with Pyrrha's dance. The only thing I wish could have been different for this chapter is that I wish Neo could have already have joined Cinder's team at Beacon. However, in the show Cinder doesn't round out her team with Neo until after the Breach and really we don't see her in disguise until the Vytal Festival.**

 **I could easily flex my Author Powers and make her sign up early, but I see no internal logic for her to join earlier than in the show. Since the show has her wait until the Festival, chances are she was just running Roman's side of things from behind the scenes. _So shall it be here._**

 **Also, since Jaune isn't trying to seduce Weiss, the whole moment where Jaune tells Neptune to go dance with Weiss is undercut, so I tried to preserve a little of that in a manner that didn't feel too forced to me. Jaune _has_ shown the beginnings of a protective streak towards his friends, hinted at by his slight threat towards Sun, so wanting to set Weiss up follows, even if he didn't do a whole lot.**

 **Also also, the whole Jaune/Ren discussion is not** _strictly_ **accurate in its portrayal of female teenagers, I know. There is certainly some exaggeration there, amplified by the fact that I'm a very pragmatic person and have in the past been frustrated by such things. However, I do have a really strong appreciation for rituals, traditions, and ceremony, so I'm not bashing on prom, guys. Just having some fun with the juxtaposition between prom and** _Jaune Arc, assassin and Tribesman from the far reaches of the wilderness._

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _guest_

"So this is gonna be a Raven x Jaune thing right?"

 **Ah, _now_ we're getting to the really fun ships. It's not easy to change acronyms, but I gotta say, Raven sure does put the 'Maiden' in MILF...**

 **Alright, now that I've forced you all to read that sentence with your innocent eyes, let's move on to what has somehow turned into the best part of this fic, the** _ **Turquoise Leaf Threatens Mutiny and Other Horrible Things Upon the Author**_ **section...**

* * *

"HEIL Lord Ike! I shall protect thou with my life!

Wait, is that a leaf outside? A.. turquoi- *gargling noises*

 _I sent my regards._

-Turqoiseleafclonenumber51" - _TopHatGuy_ (emphasis added)

 **Oh, come on, the guy _just_ got Comment of the Week, too. Let me have this one. If my ego gets any more frail I'm gonna have to try to pick a fight with Couer for like the seventh time this story. I don't want to do that...**

okay maybe a little so _don't let me_ _have that opportunity_

 **Also the one time I have a reviewer ready to ride for me _without any stipulations about making sure the story turns out good_ (looking at you, **_Avidlag_ **:P ) he gets iced off-screen. Apparently we didn't have the budget to show his death...**

 **Also squared, bonus points for properly _Heil_ ing me, as it should be. I'm not minoring in German just because I'm a masochist, I'm looking for some right proper respect!**

* * *

"How dare you insult the great Lord Turquoise, blessed be his name. I will have you reported to the high ruler for treasonous acts of Enabler for this!" - _guest_

* * *

"Only I can threaten the writer with maiming, Guest. Don't even have a name. Shame. Shame upon your house" - _Turquoise Leaf_

 **Ooh, now things are getting interesting. What's this, a schism in the cult? A civil war that I can use to pit my detractors against each other?**

 **Now I just need to figure out how to get them all in a room for a final showdown. What should I call it?**

 **The _Turquoise_ Wedding?  
Blue Arbor Bloodbath?  
Sea-Green Tree Flap-Flap Deathball?  
Chartreuse Vegan Clamp-Down and Evisceration?  
The Terribly Tremendous Turquoise Total Takedown of Tricky preTenders?  
The _It's 1:07am on Sunday Morning and Ike should stop googling alliterations and go to bed_ Event?**

* * *

"Tennessee sports? You really do like abusing yourself.

Not gonna lie I'm really enjoying this Turquoise Leaf meme." - _Gabriel H. Sapphire_

 **Whether you know it or not, you have now delivered the most crippling blow to me yet. The realization that I have created a meme is a staggering accomplishment built literally on the back of a threat against my life should I stop uploading, virtual slavery, if you will. This is clearly the peak of my life and I am barely even a part of it, serving only as the platform for what is clearly something greater than myself.**

 **That sucks. Imma kill off everyone just to spite y'all now. :P**

* * *

 **See you next Sunday, guys and gals. _If I make it that long..._**


	30. Dance Dance, part 2

**UPDATE ( _Sept. 23, 2018_ ): Chapter will be late by a week because it's not finished. I'll give the **excuses **reasons why next week, but in summary you can blame: (me, duh), Destiny, the state of Florida, and quantum mechanics. D:**

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 **Author's Note: Shorter chapter here this week because, well, it was a rough week here. Not really, I've just been putting off all my work to play Destiny, which is making this weekend hellish. Two formal labs to write up, a problem set due Monday morning that I'm still clueless on, and a presentation to give Tuesday. _Isn't procrastinating fun?_**

 **Fortunately, this chapter is important enough that it didn't need to be padded. In fact, it was going to be shorter anyways because I didn't want to distract from what was going on.**

 **Eh. Anyways.**

 **Also, the meme/comment section at the bottom got...interesting this week.**

 **Enjoy.**

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 **Chapter 28:** _"Your name will certainly grab Ozpin's attention, so much so that he'll let you into Beacon just to keep an eye on you. Don't disappoint him, and he'll do anything to keep you from getting kicked out..." – Raven Branwen_

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Jaune's POV

* * *

My initial suspicions were correct that, as the night went on, more and more of Yang's influence over the dance manifested itself. Songs slowly got less and less formal and it wasn't long before nothing but pop or dance music played through the massive speakers that Yang had somehow convinced Weiss to rent. The students all seemed to love it, and I was thoroughly amused to sit around and watch, and I wasn't the only one.

"You know that we should join in," Emerald—Cinder's green-haired illusionist, as I had come to find out—berated her partner Mercury Black.

"We're here. We've established our presence," Mercury shot back from his spot leaning against the wall next to me, watching the crowd the same way I was. "We even danced earlier."

"You know what she said," Emerald berated again, alluding to their now-absent leader. It hadn't taken me long to figure out that their presence at the dance was intentional, and with these two constantly bickering about establishing an alibi for all three of them, Cinder's absence loomed large. Or it would, if I had any reason to stop her. As it stands, all of the people I cared about were at this dance, and if whatever she wanted was elsewhere, I wasn't going to stand in her way. With so many eyes on the dance, Beacon's security was bound to be lax elsewhere, but again, it wasn't going to affect me. _I, much like Mercury and Emerald, have a solid alibi._ "We need to split up and get involved once the pace of the dancing picks up. If it is chaotic enough, someone will misremember seeing her here too, but only if they actually remember seeing one of us."

"You are _such_ a kiss-ass," Mercury drawled, pushing himself off the wall with a huff but otherwise relenting.

"Mercury Black… You know a Marcus Black?" I asked as the reason that his name felt familiar finally revealed itself.

Mercury stiffened and his eyes went cold, but otherwise did a remarkable job of not reacting. To anyone not looking for such things, he appeared unfazed.

"I might," he answered, keeping his voice low, almost to a growl.

"You anything like him?" I asked, keeping my own voice low. Given his age, I'd say that Marcus was Mercury's father, which would only justify going stiff at the mention of his name. Marcus Black was an assassin, and was good enough to be off the radar of those who mattered. Better yet, he was good enough to be on Raven's radar, or at least the fringes of it. I had heard his name once or twice when Raven was either looking to outsource some work, or track down skilled assassins who had been sent after her people. Marcus had never been involved in either, but the fact that he was on a short list was significant.

"No," Mercury answered, meeting my eyes with a firm glare. There was a coldness to his eyes warning me to back off the subject. " _I_ am still alive." Without another word, he turned around and headed to the dance floor, with Emerald kicking into gear and splitting off to do her own thing moments after.

"Well…that was interesting," I mumbled to myself, not really able to find anything else to say about it. Problems with parental figures wasn't exactly an issue I am isolated from, after all, but all of mine were still breathing. _Granted, my goal of breaking free from Raven puts me on a pretty confrontational path with her._ Mercury's answer, and his demeanor as a whole, spoke of someone at odds with, in this case, Marcus Black. Interesting, maybe, but other than that it didn't really mean much to me.

Now with a moment to myself and a real chance to think, I looked around and realized just how exhausted I felt. Mentally exhausted, of course, as my body was nowhere near giving out after what amounted to a couple of hours of standing around; not with years of Raven's training under my belt. Yang's choice of music helped somewhat, as I actually did feel more comfortable with the blaring music and more energetic crowd; the whole place had a much different energy than earlier when Weiss ran the show, which is to say that there _was_ energy. Still, I felt like a fish out of water, but not in the sense that I stood out. Really, with the trouble Pyrrha went to in order to style our team up, I looked like I belonged at this dance. I _felt_ like a fish out of water though, in a much more literal sense. It felt as if I was slowly drying out and couldn't breathe, like the air around me was foreign and was stifling me.

My eyes spied the stairwell to the balcony, and before I could actually think about it, my feet were already taking me there. Upon arriving, I learned that Yang's playlist must have been more popular than Weiss', because there wasn't anyone else out on the balcony, and instead everyone was inside dancing or mingling. It was to me, in a word, perfect.

I had barely been leaning against the railing for a minute when I heard footsteps behind me, soft but hurried. Despite my efforts to relax, I my instincts wouldn't just let me allow someone to walk up behind me, and I found myself peaking over my shoulder to spot Yang stepping out on to the balcony.

"Have you seen Ruby?" Yang asked, scanning around to see if Ruby was hiding out here.

"Um…no," I answered, thinking back on the last few minutes. With how small she was, she didn't exactly stand out, and the crowd was active enough to block views anyways.

"Well, _great_ ," Yang huffed as she let her arms drop to her sides, drawing my attention to the pair of crimson heels she had in one hand. She held them up and practically shook them at me when she noticed me look at them. "She ditched her heels, and apparently the entire dance. I swear, when I find her…"

"You should relax," I stated as soothingly as I could, as I reached out to set both my hands on her shoulders, gently pushing down in an attempt to settle her. "Even Weiss thinks that you've been working too hard on this dance, so relax. It's here; there isn't anything you can, or _should_ , do."

"Yeah, well, we both know the dance isn't the real reason I've worked so hard…" Yang trailed off with a frown, giving me a sad and accusatory glance. I did my best to accept the accusation with grace, waiting a few moments before answering back.

"Then maybe it's time we addressed that real reason."

Yang's eyes remained locked on me, ever suspicious and unsure, but I held firm. She hesitated to answer, instead shrugging her shoulders slightly to get my hands off of them, and it didn't take anything more than that for me to withdraw them to my sides.

"How can I trust you, Jaune?" Yang asked softly. Timidly, even; much more so than I anticipated, and it struck a chord somewhere in me. It wasn't said to make a point or cut into me, but was meant more as an actual question.

"I wouldn't lie to you, Yang. I give bad lies when I want to hide things, and I want to hide things a lot, but I don't…I don't _really_ lie. I'm not good at it, and I don't like it. If I'm not going to hide something from you, I won't lie about it, either."

"That's not how I meant it," Yang countered softly, her eyes watching me carefully. "But all of that _sounds_ nice, unless _it_ is a lie. You've been lying about who you are this whole time, after all…" Yang's words weren't angry, but instead cynical and tired. She had accepted things as they stood now, at least enough so as not to get angry when bringing it up. She did seem…disappointed, maybe.

"Have I?" I asked, challenging her last statement. "What about the Jaune Arc that you knew was a lie?"

"You weren't a _spy_ , for one," Yang hissed loudly, so much so that she flinched and looked around to see if anyone overheard. Fortunately, the music from the dance room provided a nice blanket to keep our voices from carrying, and as I periodically scanned around, I made note that there were no suspicious birds eavesdropping. That was the last thing I needed right now. "And you didn't work for my mom."

"Sure I was," I countered glibly. "And sure I did. I was still a spy then, too. What, did you think I somehow became one during the middle of the semester?"

"That's not what I meant and you know it," Yang responded flatly, more annoyed than upset.

"I never lied about who I was, Yang. I've been pretty upfront with all my friends that I'm not exactly like them, haven't I?" I paused, giving Yang a chance to challenge that notion. She wanted to, but relented as she found she couldn't. "I hid all of that stuff, sure, but I never lied and made you believe that I _wasn't_ some sort of shady person. You all practically forced me to be your friend—minus you, technically; you were the only hold-out for the longest time.

"I didn't lie about what _I_ wanted, either. I want to be like the rest of you, and I want to be in charge of my own future, it's just…I'm not. Yet."

"And what does _that_ mean, exactly?"

"It means that…well…" I trailed off, not entirely sure how to broach the subject of Raven with Yang. So far, I was 0 for 1 trying to talk about that subject without being attacked. "Do you remember during our fight, when I said that I would have traded places with you growing up?" I hadn't said it as eloquently, or as nicely, but Yang nodded in response. "I need to take that back. I…I wouldn't wish that on you. I'm not sure I would wish it on anyone."

Understandably, Yang didn't know how to respond to that.

"I said it because I was hot at the time and wanted my words to sting—actually, _that_ was the only time I've really lied to you. Your mother is… _terrifying_ , to say the least, and I'm dumb enough to try to defy her. She wants me in Beacon to spy for her, but I am here because I want to be free of her."

"None of…none of _that_ answers my question, Jaune," Yang stated, not easily getting past the mention of her mother but deciding to push _that_ topic off for later.

"How are you supposed to trust me?" I asked, bringing the original question back up. "Well, do you _need_ to?"

Yang didn't like that answer, evidenced by the flat glare she gave me, but I wasn't finished yet.

"No, I'm serious, Yang. You know a little bit about who I really am—more than anyone else does, at least. What is it that you really want from me now? I assume it's something, or else you would have given me up to your Uncle."

"I...answers, Jaune." Yang answered after a moment of hesitation. There was a little bit of the fire back in her eyes as she kicked herself into gear, and it felt good to see. The timidity and uncertainty before just didn't fit her, and the fact that it was only because she wasn't sure how to feel about me didn't make me feel any better, either. "I want to know everything about why you're here, why she sent you here, why you thought you could—" Yang cut herself off, "—why you thought it was a good idea to be our friend… I need to know _who you are_ , so that I can decide if you can stay."

Her words hung in the air as I evaluated them, and the implicit threat if I failed her standards. I did not fail to note the protectiveness there, her desire to decide if it was safe for her friends to interact with me. Although it was aimed at me, it was nice to see, since it wasn't something Raven would do at all. If someone was trying to sneak their way into Raven's camps, she might vet them, but vetting someone to see if their a good enough person for your friends to know? Raven would have laughed at the idea, and called it a waste of time.

"Are you sure _that_ is what you really want? You want to know if I deserve this life?"

I let my words hang in the air as I met Yang's eyes, silently challenging her. A small dose of uncertainty and hesitance showed on her face, and it was the hint I was looking, and hoping, for.

"Because if so, I think that I should already be gone. _Of course_ I don't deserve any of it, Yang. If that was the only factor, you would never have had to think twice about it."

My words hung in the air again. Yang did not give any sign of disagreeing with my point.

"So that makes me think that you want something else from me—not that you _don't_ want answers, or deserve them, but it's not what you want most. There's only one thing I have that you would really want: access to your mother."

Yang's fists clenched at her sides, but not violently like they normally did just before hitting me. There was a looseness to them, almost as if she was pre-emptively clenching them in the anticipation of getting angry.

" _Jaune_ —"

"In either case, do you need to trust me?"

"Huh?" Yang asked, having been broken from her train of thought by the question.

"Either you want me to explain myself, or you want to know about your mother. Do you need to trust me for me to do either?"

Yang cocked her head to the side, confused, and I pressed on.

" _I_ certainly need to trust you, if I'm going to tell you those things. And I…I do, Yang; it's just not easy for me. You don't have to trust me to get what you want."

"I…I want them both, but you're right. The reason that I didn't…tell anyone…" Yang trailed off for a moment, before looking up and staring me in the eyes. "No one will tell me about her. My dad has always tried to avoid it, and even uncle Qrow dodges the subject; he…he told me that he'll tell me about her _later_ , after the Vytal Festival… I don't even know if he means that. They just assume that if they don't tell me, then I won't know. But I _want_ to know, and I've _always_ wanted to know…"

"And if I could tell you, then you didn't want to risk ruining that."

Yang didn't reply, but she did frown and look to her feet guiltily. "If I…let's just say I was willing to hear you out and not tell anyone. How…how much would you tell me?"

"Well, not as much as if you threatened to rat me out unless I talked, obviously," I joked darkly, successfully earning a scoff from Yang and lightening the mood, if only slightly. Other than that, she was too focused, too hung up on my answer. "I guess that, if I trusted you, I'd tell you everything you would want to know. Probably some things that you wouldn't want to know, too. I would certainly tell you things that Qrow would hide from you."

Yang went very still, eyes watching me intently, trying to judge how serious I was being. She seemed wary of the offer—warier than she's been of talking to me in general, at least—but she looked like she was holding herself back. After all, the offer that had just been laid before her was the first real chance she's ever had at getting what she desired. _If someone laid before me my freedom, it wouldn't matter to me_ who _it was offering it; I'm already in bed with the mob, so how much worse could I do?_

I guess the fact that Yang would hesitate just goes to show who the better person is, not that it was ever really a question.

"…just like that?" Yang asked softly, as if in disbelief or struggling for words.

"I said 'if I trusted you,'" I pointed out softly. Yang flinched and showed flashes of anger once she felt that I was jerking her around or pulling back my offer just to hurt her, so I made to continue before she could build any of that up. "And I do, Yang. You've had more than enough opportunities to betray my trust already, and that was while we weren't even speaking. That counts for something, at least to me."

"But?"

"But I don't trust you enough to…reveal everything about me, not yet," I answered after taking a sigh to collect my thoughts.

"What more could you _possibly_ be hiding that would be so much worse than…" Yang trailed off for a moment, not finding the words she was looking for to describe what she knew. "…than _everything_? Do you…do you think I'm going to sell you out _now_?"

"No," I answered quietly. "No, I trust that you won't betray me. You've earned that much. It's just…there are things—thing about _me_ , not Raven—there are things that I'm not sure I want you to know yet. Things that are…not easy to defend until you know more about everything else."

"What are you trying to say, Jaune?" Yang asked, stepping forward slightly to bring us both close enough that we could reach out and touch the other.

"I would trust you to know everything, Yang, but I wouldn't trust you not to hold it against me."

Yang stepped forward again, until there were only inches apart from us, and never broke eye contact the whole time.

"I still don't see how it could be any worse than stealing my mom," Yang stated, challenging me with both her words and her eyes.

"Maybe it's not," I relented softly, deescalating the situation just a bit. I refused to back up or break eye contact, though. "The only way I'll know for sure, though, is by telling you want you really want to know."

Yang's head cocked to the side slightly, curious to hear what that was supposed to mean.

"I'll tell you about Raven, and if you handle that well, I'll tell you more. Eventually, I'll tell you about _me_ , and if you handle that well…we'll see." Neither of us broke the silence as my words settled in the air. The fire in Yang's eyes was telling, as was the tiny, satisfied grin that she was trying to suppress. "Do we have a deal?"

The question was really just a formality. I was offering Yang a path to the second thing she wanted by getting the first thing. It was stupidly generous.

"When do we start?" Yang asked, failing to hide her grin now.

"Tomorrow, when we don't have to worry about any eavesdroppers," I said, breaking eye contact to look at the door to the balcony to further make my point. "I'll be busy tomorrow morning—" I cut myself off as an idea shot through my head. It was a terrible, stupid, horrible idea, but once I had thought of it, there was no way I wasn't going to do it. "—Actually, what are you doing tomorrow?"

"It…sounds like I'm about to be meeting you somewhere…"

"I…this is a bad idea, but how badly do you want to see who your mother really is?"

Yang didn't answer, but she didn't need to. Her jaw set and it was clear from her eyes that she was determined, and now that the possibility was right in front of her, she wasn't shying away from it.

"I…am supposed to meet her, tomorrow, _in person_ , to report in. It's been a few weeks since I've done so in person—" The last time, of course, being just after the White Fang raid, when she charged me to look into the Maiden. "—and we're supposed to meet tomorrow in the forest."

Yang's eyes went wide, either with shock, surprise, or outrage, or an intricate mix of the three.

"I take it you'd be interested in tagging along?"

"I…I-I…you want me to _meet_ her?" Yang asked, showing a bit of hesitation and nervousness at the sudden prospect that she wasn't ready for.

"Kinda. You can hide and watch how things go down. I am…good at pressing her buttons, when I need to. I'll put on a show for you."

 _And really, isn't that just the smartest thing I can do, huh?_ There absolutely is risk involved here, both in antagonizing Raven and bringing along what would amount to a spy. Raven is as cautious and paranoid as they come, and if she caught me bringing backup to our meeting, I would be a dead man.

But the benefits? I have Yang on the ropes here. If she's willing to truly hear me out, then I have a real opportunity. To do what, I'm not entirely sure, but at the very least I can show her who her mother is and _ensure_ that Raven never gets her hooks in Yang. If things go well—if Yang doesn't blame me for what I am, or hold it against me—then maybe I would have a new ally. _I…I don't think I_ want _to get Yang involved in this. I certainly don't want her dragged down to my level. I don't want any of my friends to go through that._

But, at the very least, it would be nice to have a friendly ear to talk to, about the things that _really_ matter. While I wouldn't let her share the burden, maybe Yang could help lighten the load.

"I…I'm in," Yang decided suddenly, resolving herself and crushing any remaining hesitation.

"Good," I added on while internally trying to decide just how bad of an idea this probably was. It sounded like a bad idea, but something about it felt right. "We'll meet at the cliffs at noon. I'll have to find out where we'll rendezvous at."

"Rendezvous? With who?"

"An ally," I answered cryptically. "I have a way to hide you, but I'll need a little help from a…little friend." I smirked a bit at my own pun, not that Yang would pick up on it. "Yang, are you sure about this?"

"Which part, giving you a chance to explain yourself or potentially meeting the woman who abandoned me as a child?" Yang asked with a bit of an edge to her voice, letting some of her stress come through her voice. She sounded a bit overwhelmed, but was clearly doing her best to fight through it. "I'm not sure about either of them. In fact, I'm sure that both are bad ideas."

"Yeah, I kinda feel the same way," I offered with a dark chuckle.

"But I've been looking for her for years now, and I haven't found out a thing. You…if you can show me her in less than a _day_ …"

"I can do a lot more than show you her, Yang. I can show you who she is."

"We'll see," Yang countered, cutting her eyes at me slightly. "But if you can do that for me, then…giving you a chance to explain things—giving you the chance to show me that you're not my enemy…that's not the worst thing in the world."

"Wow, I'm touched," I teased. "You have such a way with words."

Yang smacked me on the arm for that and I couldn't help but laugh.

"If you told me that you got your horrible sense of humor from my mother, I'd probably believe you," Yang quipped, giving me a flat stare.

"If it makes you feel better, you got all of her facial expressions," I answered back. "And her stupid, smug grin. Among other things…" I trailed off, looking down from her face and reaching out with a finger to poke Yang in the chest. Yang caught my finger and pushed it away before that happened, though.

"Yeah, that's how you win me over, Jaune. Tell me that I have my mother's boobs. Really charming."

"If it makes you feel better, I'd much rather look at yours…?"

"No, that does _not_ help your case…" Yang trailed off, shaking her head to dispel the topic completely. "So, now what?"

"Now? I don't think we should risk being overheard anymore than we already have. Until the morning, I think we're done. Unless…"

"Unless?"

I extended a hand out towards Yang.

"I did say I would get a dance from you eventually. What do you say?"

Yang wasn't impressed, biting the corner of the lip as she stared at my hand as if unsure that it was safe to touch. Her eyes flicked back up to mine nervously, looking over me and evaluating what she saw. I thought about reaching out with my semblance and getting a feel for how she felt, and in turn letting her see that I wasn't a threat, but decided against it; this was her decision to make, and it wouldn't do well to try to force her into anything. _At least, not like that._

"Come on, Yang. I'm still the same guy. I haven't been lying about who I am, I've just…been hiding the rest. Everything you knew about me is still true; it's just…there's more to me, also."

Yang avoided my eyes and looked down to her feet, taking a deep breath.

Then reached out and took my hand.

* * *

With practically the whole school tired from the dance last night—not to mention whatever sorts of _after-dance_ activities went on across the schoolgrounds—leaving unseen for Vale early in the morning was ridiculously easy. Avoiding my team or Team RWBY was even easier, because after Ruby had somehow accidentally foiled an attack on the CCT (by a mysterious female attacker that I was 90% sure I knew), our teams had refused to leave Ruby's side the rest of the night. Which, of course, meant staying with her while Ozpin and the Vale Police did their investigation of the scene. That kept everyone up even later, and I wouldn't be surprised if when Yang got up to meet me at the cliffs, she was the first of her team to do so.

First things coming first, though, I had one more meeting to do before then, and it was a little under a half-hour walk once my Bullhead landed to find my destination. Yet another nondescript, seemingly run-down building on the shady side of Vale, though as I approached it was obvious that there was a little more activity here.

Following the instructions I was given, I walked right in the front door, ducking to keep Angau Glas from getting caught on the door frame. I was armed with both of my weapons, since I wasn't certain I would be able to run back to Beacon before the meeting with Raven.

As I stepped inside, several pairs of eyes from obvious thug-types looked up at me. People were sprawled all about an empty foyer with a few old couches, and each of them were enjoying their breakfast, but that didn't stop a couple from slowly reaching for weapons. No one made an offensive move, and my instructions were to walk past anyone and head to the back to find Torchwick. I did so, noting the weight of the eyes watching me as I did so.

I got into the back of the place and found both the source of the food everyone had been eating—an impromptu buffet of greasy breakfast food that smelled delicious—and a face I was looking for in Neo, who was leaning against the wall and perked up upon seeing me. That was until she disappeared, no doubt using her semblance, causing me to go stiff and wait for whatever game she wanted to play.

"Behind you," Torchwick's voice called out from the far side of the room after a few moments. I turned to look at him to find that he had just stepped in the room from another doorway, and it only took me a moment to realize that he was trying to spoil Neo's fun. I spun around to find Neo lunging at me, just in time step to the side and avoid her (playful?) attempt to stab me. In retaliation, I slipped an arm under her arms and lifted her off the ground, suspending her in the air like a small child. She kicked and threw a fit, playing into the analogy all the better, before giving up and relenting to just glaring at Roman as I carried her with one arm.

"She's not going to forget that, you know…" Roman called out as I approached.

"Hey, you're the one who gave her away," I deflected, still carrying Neo unceremoniously with my arm hooked under her chest. Her feet were still flailing a little, but she had mostly given up. "Do I want to know why you're putting on a breakfast event here?"

"Simple," Roman answered, leading us to a private room down another hallway. "The best way to earn the loyalty of your men is to keep their wallets and their stomachs full."

"Seriously?" I asked incredulously. "Buy them breakfast? What are you going to do next, pay them overtime?"

"Hey, not so loud. I don't need them getting any ideas…" Roman sat down in a chair behind the desk of whoever's office this once was, and motioned for me to sit down across from him. Against my better judgement, I had to set Neo down before doing so. "So, what do I owe this visit to?"

"I need to borrow Neo, but that can wait till last. How—"

"You want to borrow Neo _after_ what you just did to her?" Roman asked with a grin, flicking his eyes towards the girl. I followed and found her giving me the biggest death glare she could muster.

"We can talk about that last," I emphasized again, mostly to give Neo time to cool off. "Any progress on my intel?"

"It's close," Roman assured me. "I had to go through my old Atlas contacts to get anything concrete. I wasn't exactly about to blow my cover by popping back up on Atlas' radar, so I had to take it slow and make sure I covered my tracks."

"Yeah, I get it. You didn't want to get caught. How's it coming, though?"

"Well, someone's impatient," Roman taunted. "I'll have some actual files to give you here in the next few days, kid. All I've got till then are some anecdotes I've heard about your family, and some old legends."

"Well…" I led, motioning with my hands to get on with it. "Let's hear it."

"Aren't you pushy? I have half a mind to leave you to Neo after all," Roman pushed back against me as he lit up a cigar without a care in the world for the fire sprinkler above him; hopefully, it was too old to work. "The name 'Arc' has pretty strong ties to Vale. There are stories of the first king of Vale and his knights, whose names are all lost to history. I've heard from a couple sources that a few of those original 'knights' had the name Arc, but that's more legend than anything.

"What is concrete is that there have been two different orders of 'Arcs' throughout the centuries. Not much is known about the first one except that it was probably sort of an order of knights utilized by Vale's king; probably powerful, but we don't really know."

"Why not? Wouldn't there be some sort of record?" I interjected. "We have old records kept by Vale's kings, so why wouldn't we know about them?"

"Because," Roman cut back in sharply, "of the second order of Arcs. At some point somewhat recently—let's say, oh, the last two hundred years—this first order of Arcs was toppled, and its descendants formed a second one. Instead of being a sword for the kingdom, this time it was a dagger."

"What, like espionage?"

"Sort of. As Huntsmen started to become a thing, 'knights' weren't needed as much. Assassins, though, never go out of style, they apparently tried to erase the name 'Arc' from history to hide themselves. For a while, the whispered of ' _Arc_ ' was one of the most dangerous names in the intel community—the community they basically invented across Remnant, that is. Back when I worked for Atlas, we all knew that name. Knew what it used to be, at least."

"Used to be?"

"Mmmm," Roman hummed, taking a puff from his cigar. "At Atlas, we were never sure if 'Arc' was a title or if it really was a family name. You could be proof of the latter, or you could just have taken that name because you're offspring of the last 'Arc.' Either way, about a hundred years ago they broke off from Vale and decided to do their own thing."

"Broke off from Vale, or broke off from whoever was running things in Vale?" I asked, assuming that Ozpin—or whatever the Wizard's name was then—was the one calling the shots.

Roman didn't respond, but shrugged and obviously pretended that he didn't know.

"They were hunted down by… _dark_ forces shortly thereafter. They were on the downswing for decades before I got into the business, to the point that they were mostly a non-factor. Their name, and whatever secrets they still knew, still carried enough weight to make it a significant event when the last of them were confirmed dead a few years ago.

"Well, not quite, it seems…"

"Wait, so you already knew about this? Why were you making me wait?"

"Eh," Roman shrugged. "Didn't know what you already knew. You seem to have in inkling about a lot of things that a punk like you shouldn't; I just figured you already knew a lot of it. Besides, the files I'm getting you will explain it a lot better."

"Fine," I relented, willing to let the subject slide. What was a few more days, really?

"Now, speaking of, you're going to have to get the info from Neo when it comes in."

"Why?" I asked, checking to see if Neo was still angry at me. She was.

"I'm going to be...laying low for a while, so to speak" Roman said carefully, pausing in the middle to choose his words. "As a favor to miss Fall, I'll be heading out of town to wrap up some business, and then after that it will be radio silence on my end for several weeks."

"That doesn't sound good."

"Eh, it won't be fun, that's for sure, but Neo and I have a plan. All of this is to say that anything you need will run through Neo, and I'll make sure she gets your files to you. _Won't you, Neo?_ "

The girl in question did not respond. Nor did she stop glaring at me.

"That does not fill me with confidence."

"Well, maybe you can get her in a better mood. What was it you said about needing to borrow her?"

"I…uh…" I trailed off as Neo pantomimed slitting a throat at me. "I need to borrow her for the afternoon, if that's…okay with you."

"Okay with me?" Roman repeated with a grin. "Hell, if you think you'll survive it, you have _my_ permission."

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Well, things are technically on an upswing for Jaune. Yang is not only willing to keep his secret, but also at least open to the idea of letting him explain himself. All he has to do is successfully hide Yang from Raven during their little meeting to discuss what Jaune has figured out about Ozpin's Maiden situation.**

 **Following canon, Torchwick fully expects to be in Atlas custody by the same time the next week, which would technically count as laying low. So low, in fact, that there would indeed be no word from him, at least not until the attack on Beacon.**

 **Next chapter will have some Yang POV, but until then, Yang's decision to hear Jaune out can be attributed to a few things. One, Yang has always been more of a loose-cannon with less defined (or just less rigid) morals; I'd point back to the Yellow Trailer again. Since she hasn't had the character growth in V3-5 of the show, she's still a bit flexible. At this point in the show she seems to have grown past her obsession with her mother, but only because she was unsuccessful; it's not until later that she really resolves not to follow in Raven's footsteps, and if given the opportunity early like here, things could play out differently.**

 **Also, Yang's line here about Qrow and Taiyang avoiding the subject with her are key, too. Yang has clearly been grasping at the idea of her mother for a while, going so far to trash Junior's bar, and yet neither of them ever seem to have sat her down and told her what she needed to know. In the show, this doesn't really happen until V4, and even then it is only implied (Yang tells Raven how she found out about her portals). Yang's temper at Jaune burnt pretty hot, but when she didn't immediately turn him in, she made it clear she wasn't going to, whether or not she knew it. Now that she's cooled off, she finally has a real chance to find out about her mother; of course she's going to take that.**

 **She hasn't had any real guidance from her uncle or her father on the subject. What else is she going to do?**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _Avidlag_

"For the record, I have been posting. You just have to figure out which guest comment it was : p.

Also meant to say this last chapter but life has been a maelstrom. The otp of this story was revealed. It's Ikedawg x Turquoise Leaf. The pairing no one even thought of!"

 **Well, there's a lot here to dislike, isn't there? First, you're implying that you've been one of** _Turquoise_ **'s guest soldiers, which is just a magnaminous, photosynthetic betrayal of trust.**

 _Am I using that word right? No? Who cares, not me._

 **Second, I'm not even sure I _should_ address that second part. That's like...shipping Winston Churchill with Adolf Hitler.**

 **And now I have _that_ image stuck in my head! Why do this to me?**

 **Obviously, I am Churchill in this analogy. I clearly am not Hitler here.**

 **...Ignore the fact I'm minoring in German; Churchill might have done that. You don't know. Hitler wouldn't have minored in his own language, that's for sure. How stupid would it be to minor in your own language? Could you imagine me going to school and minoring in English? Pfffft.**

 _alsostopspoilingmysupersecretotpokaythanksbye_

* * *

"okay, okay, hear me out... a whole TURQUOISE PLANT" - _Boerhae_

 ***blocked***

 ***reported for spam***

 ***reported for hate speech***

 ***unblocked***

 ***announced that you're blocked***

 ***announced how awful what you just said was***

 ***re-blocked***

 ***re-reported for spam***

 ***reported to the EU for making a meme***

 **How do people come up with such purely evil things in this pure, non-turquoise world? It's disheartening.**

* * *

"You'll receive your bi-weekly "two weeks of life" punch card in the mail, hand delivered by Turquoiseclone31." - _Turquoise Leaf_

 **Bi-weekly as in twice a week, or as in once per two weeks? Seriously, the English language needs to decide which that is supposed to mean. 'Bi-monthy' could mean once every two months, which would be hexa-annually, or it could means twice a month, which would be every two weeks, or bi-weekly. Unless bi-weekly is twice a week, in which case-I HAVE A HEADACHE SERIOUSLY I AM SO DONE WITH MY NATIVE TONGUE. FORGET THIS.**

* * *

 **I don't know how you did it, but you have really upped your game this week. There have been several bots leaving guest reviews with a vague link promising instructions on how to build your own bot with the intent of "F*ing with fanfic authors." I have to say, I am impressed, because I've gotten these spam comments on every story I've ever put on this site (except for 1 so far); you have really stepped up to the plate.**

 **It's just sad that you have to so blatantly recruit others to make bots to further your cause. I thought you had some sort of grass-roots, anti-Ike resistance going. Instead, your trying to hack my election.**

 **Okay, that analogy doesn't really work well, but you get my point.**

 **STEP 1) BotsSTEP 2) SpamSTEPS 3-?) ?STEP last) Profit**

please read this next part in your best Donald Trump voice:

 **I am so smart and you...are not With all of these _fake reviews_ from my enemies, who are clearly just jealous of how good I write, and trust me, I am the best at writing. You know it, I know it, and that's why you have to resort to _fake reviews_. I will give my myself the power to moderate _all_ guest reviews to fight all the _fake reviews_. That means no more anonymous sources leaking things to the lame-stream media, like the cowards they are. Nothing will stop me from winning. Nothing.**

 **SAD!**

 _ **The Failing Turquoise Leaf.**_

 ** _Fake Reviews._ **

okay you can stop before you go insane.

 **It does look like I'm shifting the emergency powers** (authors can turn on a 36-hour review window to moderate all guest reviews before they hit the site. all users reviews go through like normal and only guests are put on hold, meaning i can cut down on these bots _or_ i can weed out who all of your anonymous supporters are) **to myself to better combat this 'bot' crisis. We'll see if I give them back.**

 **This means nothing for the Hitler/Churchill comparison from earlier, I swear. Churchill might have declared himself the supreme chancellor of Britain and declared war in the name of cleansing his territory of people based upon color. We don't know that.**

 **By color, I _of course_ mean turquoise. D:**

 **See you all in your gulags next week! lmao**

* * *

 ** _Since writing the above section, but_ before _it was published, user_** _Boerhae **posted another comment, which I noticed from my burner account I use to keep tabs on everyone I block, just in case. It appears that he was not banned for his hateful comment earlier, but if he is commenting again, then perhaps this is a good sign. Maybe, just maybe, he has had a change of heart, and has come to apologize. **_

_**Should I accept such an apology? It wouldn't be easy, not after the emotional distress his last utterance caused me. It might be seen as a sign of weakness to show such mercies to my enemies.**_

 _ **But then again, if I make my enemies my friends, have I not defeated them? Do I want my world to be a harsh reality, or do I want to be the bigger man and set a precedent for unity and forgiveness, rather than spite and cruelty?**_

 ** _Yes. Yes, I think I shall be benevolent after all. Think of it as my effort to truly make this world a better place. Now, let's read his heartfelt apology for his blasphemy about a 'turquoise PLANT,' as it were._**

"so I've been thinking since my last review, and I think I've come up with something revolutionary. a turquoise Forest. like whoa"

 **Okay, that decides it. Mass genocide it is. There is clearly no other way. Death to anything even remotely that color from here on in.**


	31. A stabbing-good time

**Author's Note: Well, here we are, a week late. I left a note at the top of last chapter letting you guys know this one was going to be late and I gave you three reasons (destiny, quantum mechanics, the state of Florida), so here's the explanation...**

 **Destiny: Not the concept, like fate or anything, but the game, Destiny 2. For about a month now (ever since the new expansion), most of my free time during weekdays has gone to homework or Destiny, where it _was_ homework or writing. **

**The State of Florida: W (Tennessee) hosted Florida for a football game last Saturday, which is when I was going to finish the second half of the chapter. I had a buddy come up and stay the night Friday night, and I assumed he would be out partying before the game, which would leave me enough peace and quiet to finish writing. _Nope_. He had three different parties lined up for _after_ the game, which started at 7:30. **

**The game went horrendously, and we left the stadium in the middle of the third quarter, which I thought would mean that I would have enough time to finish writing before bed (and I could edit in the morning before uploading). After all, he was going out partying and I am not about all that.**

 **He never went out. The game had gone so badly that almost every party in the area was cancelled. _The game had gone so badly that everyone was too sad to get drunk._ **

**Quantum Mechanics: I had a big homework packet for Physical Chemistry that covered quantum mechanics due on Monday, and a test later that Wednesday, so I spent Sunday doing that. If I hadn't, I would have tried to finish the story and upload it Sunday night.**

 **So, those are my excuses. That, or it is all a plot to antagonize** _Turquoise Leaf_ **. This chapter is pretty long, so maybe you'll forget about this by the time you get to the end... :O**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 29:** _"YANG! What do you_ mean _you stabbed Jaune in the woods!?" – Ruby Rose  
"Please tell me that isn't some sort of euphemism…" – Blake Belladonna_

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

Were it not for the exhausting day yesterday played out as, I would have had trouble sleeping last night. As it turns out, a few weeks of planning the dance plus the actual work required to put on the dance yesterday was a pretty good way to wear you out; for example, after glancing over at Weiss' bed as I was getting dressed this morning, I'm really not sure where Weiss ended and her bed began; it didn't help that her hair (and skin tone) practically match the sheets. Add to that the later-than-expected night and the stress of Ruby somehow getting tangled up in a break-in at the CCT _during the dance_ , and the whole team was practically comatose.

Except for me. I slept pretty well, but not nearly as good as I should have. What can I say, the idea of waking up and meeting the woman who abandoned me as a child was enough to affect my sleep, no matter how tired I was. It was like the night before Christmas, except the complete opposite. To make things more…uneasy for me, my guide would be one of my friends who was secretly raised by that abandoning woman _instead_ of me.

To say that I was, at the very least, a little on edge would be to undersell it. It didn't help my nerves that Beacon felt dead around me. I knew _why_ it was so quiet and empty; the dance before had taken the energy out of everyone. It was 11 am and practically no one had gotten up yet, though that was mostly because it was also Saturday; Beacon students weren't exactly known as early risers on their days off.

Knowing all of that didn't make things feel any less creepy as I wandered Beacon's abandoned halls.

Jaune's text that he was ready for me at the cliffs, while it did evoke mixed emotions at first, was practically a gift from above. This was earlier than expected, but that was good, because I don't know how I would have kept my sanity if I had to try to kill a few hours while waiting for this; hell, I could barely wait for the handful of minutes I've been up for.

The sun felt warm as I made my way outside and over to the cliffs on the edge of Beacon. It felt like a perfect day outside, which for some reason annoyed me. _There should be a thunderstorm on the horizon, threatening to blow us over or something; that would be a much more appropriate setting for…this._ But no, seemingly only to mock me, the sun shone and the birds chirped everything had to be perfect.

I was broken from my thoughts when I spotted Jaune on the edge of the cliff, standing with his back to me (and Beacon) and staring out over the forest. I walked up to stand next to him without a word, and he barely acknowledged my presence, eyes locked on the Emerald Forest before him. Giving him a once over, I initially noticed that he seemed ready for a fight, as he had both of his weapons strapped to him and was wearing his new armor.

"You look tired," I observed flatly after noticing bags under his eyes. He looked as tired as I felt. _Maybe more, actually._

"Yeah," Jaune responded with an exhale. "I've…been up for a while."

"Doing what?"

"…meeting with some friends," Jaune answered after a brief pause, not even trying to hide how suspicious his answer was.

"Oh, _great_ ," I mumbled darkly. "Is this another one of your 'I'm not lying, I'm just hiding the important part' lines?"

Jaune tried to look offended but couldn't take himself seriously, letting me know that that was _exactly_ what this was.

"You still haven't seen your mom yet. One secret at a time, Yang," Jaune deflected with a little tease. I decided to let it slide, mostly because he implied that I _would_ find out the other secrets eventually. "Besides, you're about to meet one of them."

"I am?"

"Of all the things I'm about to do, introducing the two of you is probably the dumbest," Jaune answered with a shake of his head, "but yeah, she's important to the plan."

" _The plan?_ "

"Yes, _the plan_ ," Jaune repeated, mocking my tone. "The part where you remain hidden from Raven? That's on Neo."

"…oh. That makes more sense, I guess…"

"What, did you think that I was bringing you along and you were going to have to meet her?" Jaune asked incredulously.

"…kind of, actually," I answered weakly. I knew that he had mentioned something about hiding, but I figured it would be behind a tree or something; somewhere where she might spot me, and then I would have to step forward.

"No, that…that would not end well for _me_. I would prefer to keep my insides on the inside, please and thank you…" Jaune shook his head again, missing the strange look I gave him. "Neo has a semblance that will let the two of you hide from her. And speaking of, we should get moving. Neo's waiting down there for us… _somewhere_."

Jaune turned and started walking in the direction of the long, winding path down the side of the cliff, motioning for me to follow. It seems to me that just jumping off the cliff with a landing strategy would be faster, but delaying this didn't exactly sound like a bad idea to me.

"Why exactly is your friend waiting in the Grimm-infested forest if you already met up with her this morning?" I asked after a few minutes of descending in silence.

"Because…" Jaune started to answer but trailed off. "Because she didn't like the idea of being seen at Beacon."

"Well, _that_ just fills me with confidence," I grumbled back. Of course Jaune would have shady friends. Why would he be content to just having a shady past when he could go so much further than that? _And yet, here I am, joining up with Jaune_ and _whoever this shady woman is in order to spy on another shady woman. This had better be worth it._ "Just wait till _Pyrrha_ finds out that you've been meeting up with a badgirl behind her back…"

"That sounds like a threat," Jaune deadpanned, unfazed.

"Only if it holds any truth," I taunted back. That wasn't...strictly true, not that Jaune would know how these things work. Just the possibility of cheating was heartbreaking normally, even if there wasn't anything official and it wasn't technically cheating. _Given Ren's story last night about how clueless Jaune was about dance etiquette, I'd bet Jaune doesn't even think anything of it._

"Well, I _have_ seen her naked. Or mostly naked, at least…"

Silence fell between us for a few moments and I did _not_ know how to respond to that, instead staring at Jaune intensely.

"No, it's not like that, Yang" Jaune stated with a laugh, which didn't really put me at ease. "None of them know about the people I, uh, associate with sometimes, so you _could_ get me in trouble, but just not for hooking up with anyone. Not that you _would_ do that to Pyrrha…"

He wasn't wrong about that, because it would be really mean to bring that up to Pyrrha specifically, especially _if_ it wasn't actually true. The fact that he _knew_ that it would hurt Pyrrha was telling, because it meant that he was aware of what pretty much everyone knew about Pyrrha at this point. _And they went to the dance_ together _last night._ It meant that maybe he was a little more aware than I suspected him to be.

As the idea that maybe there actually _was_ something developing between Jaune and Pyrrha took hold, my stomach flopped as I realized that Pyrrha didn't know _anything_ about who Jaune actually was, or at least, I seriously doubted it. Jaune might have been lucky enough to have me hear him out, but that was largely because he was willing to help me out with Raven. _Pyrrha doesn't seem like the type to handle any of this well._

" _It's not like that, I've only seen her naked_ ," I imitated, mocking Jaune with a little bit of actual bitterness coming from the thoughts I had just had.

"That's not what you think. This was just normal things between friends…"

"I am _so_ glad that we aren't your idea of friends, then," I cut back loudly.

"I was scrolling through the photos on her scroll and went too far," Jaune explained with a little desperation. "Sheesh."

"That's still not normal, Jaune."

"What, you don't—"

" _No_ , I don't have photos of me _like that_ on my scroll!" I berated dramatically. Jaune opened his mouth to speak again and I cut him off before he could even _begin_ to it. "And no, no one _else_ has photos of me on _their_ scrolls, either!"

"That's not what I—" Jaune tried to counter but cut himself off with a huff. "Ugh, never mind. I won't be going through _your_ scroll now, that's for sure."

"Um, _excuse me?!_ "

"That was a joke, Yang," Jaune answered, trying to calm me down by drawing his sword from his hip, which initially had the opposite effect. "Seriously though, heads up as we walk through here."

" _Heads up_?" I repeated, taking a look around. We were finally off the cliff and into the forest, but other than that, everything was normal. I ignored the voice in the back of my head that said that _none of this was normal_ , as it wasn't being helpful at all. "Aren't we meeting your friend?"

"That's why we need to stay alert," Jaune answered back seriously, walking through the woods in a very defensive manner, as if waiting to be ambushed. I shifted Ember Celica into gauntlets just in case, but was still really confused. "Neo is a very... _stabby_ individual."

"Stabby?" I repeated, earning nothing more than a grunt in affirmation. "Sure. _Stabby_. Why not? That's probably the least-weird part about this whole thing…"

"Yang, about—" Jaune started, concern in his voice before he cut himself off and decided not to try again.

"No, go on. About what?"

"About…what you're going to see…" Jaune continued, struggling either for the right words or the courage to say them. "…what you're going to hear…"

"Yeah, Jaune, I already know that I'm not going to like any of it. I've made it this far without strangling you, so you can rest easy that I'm not going to overreact to anything."

 _Strangling him could very much so fall under an appropriate reaction_ , the little voice in my head pointed out, unhelpfully.

"It's not…that, necessarily. You already know _who_ Raven is; she made it clear when she left you. You might be surprised at how…comfortable she is with who she is, but I don't think you would hold that against me..."

"Who exactly _is_ she, Jaune?" I asked, breaking him out of his thoughts. "It's always been easy to say that she's a monster for leaving me, and the few honest things that dad or uncle Qrow would say about her played that up, too, but deep down? I'm not sure that I'm convinced. I've been looking for her for _years_ now, and…I don't know, but I guess I wouldn't do that if I truly believed that she was a monster."

"If you didn't believe it before this, you probably will after," Jaune warned darkly, and without any hesitation.

"What is she like, then?" I asked, a bit of morbid curiosity driving me. _Emphasis on 'morbid,' too._ "Give me a primer in what it is I'm about to see."

"Raven is…" Jaune trailed off again. I thought he was about to go back to struggling to answer, but he surprised me with the resolve he came back with. "She is obsessed with power, and ruthless, but not like you would expect. Anyone can have power and still be weak, in her eyes. Qrow has power, but he's not free. _That_ is what counts to her."

"He's not free?" I asked, confused.

"Someone—in this case, Ozpin—controls him," Jaune explained.

"He—what? The Headmaster doesn't _control_ Qrow! He just works for the man."

"And he can't _stop_ working for him," Jaune answered darkly, and when he noticed my confusion, he elaborated. "If Qrow decided right now that he was done with it all and tried to leave—to exercise his freedom and just walk out—he couldn't. Ozpin wouldn't let him. Ozpin cannot afford to take the risk that Qrow might not just want to retire, or the risk that someone might get to Qrow."

"Jaune, that's ridiculous," I pushed back.

"It's not, Yang; it's happened before. Qrow and Raven were the ones that had to hunt down a deserter, once, back when Raven still worked for Beacon. Someone from Ozpin's trusted circle tried to get out and use what they knew to keep Ozpin at bay. Ozpin didn't have much of a choice but to have them silenced; they knew too much to just leave."

"Do you know how…how stupid this all sounds?" I pushed back again, getting uncomfortable with the accusation that my uncle and mother were the Headmaster's assassins, and even more so by how serious Jaune was about it. "This sounds like one of those stupid conspiracy blogs."

"That's nothing, Yang," Jaune responded with a dark chuckle that did nothing to settle my serves. "If Qrow tried to leave, Ozpin would have no choice but to hunt him down, and as long as Qrow takes orders from Ozpin, he never has true control over his own actions. Qrow may be powerful, but he's not _strong_. He's not _free_.

"Or so goes Raven's philosophy. She hates having to conform to others, and even more so hates the idea of dying for someone else's problems. That's why she hates Ozpin in particular."

" _What_ is why she hates Ozpin? She clearly hasn't died for him."

"Summer did," Jaune pointed out, not taking any pleasure in the way my face soured at the mention of my real mother. Jaune did, at least, have the kindness to soften his voice when he said her name. "For however weird their relationship—or rivalry, to hear Raven tell it—was, and remember that they both had kids with the same teammate two years apart, I think…it really bothered her when Ozpin got Summer killed."

"That's…that's not how it happened, though. My _real_ mom died on a mission," I pushed back again, this time a little more emotionally than angrily. "Even if it was for Ozpin, he didn't… _do_ it."

"He…I guess they wouldn't tell you that, either. Summer was killed in an ambush set specifically for her, because of who she was and how effectively Ozpin had used her…abilities." Jaune paused, looking to me softly to see if I was going to question any of it, but I was too focused on what he was saying to think about asking anything. "Ozpin was outplayed and sent Summer into a trap, alone, because of it. He doesn't get played often, but seeing Summer die because of her trust in Ozpin was the push Raven needed. Her mind was set from that point on, that dying for Ozpin was a fool's errand. She likes to call it such often."

"You don't sound like you disagree with her," I pointed out, finding myself unable to dwell on Summer for much longer. _Ruby needs to hear this at some point—but how am I supposed to tell her how I know?_

"On that point, I don't. Ozpin's stated goal might be good but hell will freeze over before I die on the alter of his arrogance," Jaune spat bitterly, resuming his trek through the woods. "If I had my way, none of my friends would be sucked into his games, either, but I'm too late on that front. He's already got his eye on your whole team, plus my partner."

"And you, probably," I pointed out, noting the fact that it was common knowledge that Jaune was a problematic student for most of his early time at Beacon.

"Heh...I'm a bit different, but you're right. I'm certainly on his shortlist to keep an eye on…"

I followed Jaune aimlessly as we seemingly wandered through the trees, I guess still looking for his friend. I wasn't really sure what the plan was, but I was too focused on the things Jaune had said.

"Summer couldn't be the reason Raven left," I called out as the thought struck me. "She didn't die until after Raven abandoned us."

"True, but Summer dying was what made sure that Raven could not be convinced to come back."

"Come back?" I asked, a bit unsure. "What chance was there that she would come back after abandoning us?"

"A…good one, I think. If Taiyang, Summer, and Qrow had gone after her, I think she would have gone back willingly. This is all hindsight, of course, but—"

" _Why didn't they?!_ " I burst in suddenly.

"I…I don't know, Yang. I wish they had, too," Jaune answered softly, settling me down from my small outburst. "If they had, maybe she would have brought me along. I could have escaped all this. Believe me when I say that would have been best for everyone."

"Okay," I mumbled, forcing myself to calm back down and acknowledge Jaune's point. He wasn't the enemy here, and it was sounding more and more like he actually _was_ a friend. _An ally, at least._

"Raven was smart enough to know that if they came for her, she wouldn't win that fight alone. She knew that she wasn't _strong_ enough to be free, but...she _was_ clever enough to be. By going back to the Tribe and taking it over, she made it clear that she was powerful enough not to be worth attacking, both to Ozpin or his enemies. Ozpin kept an eye on her activities, but as long as she didn't leak any of what she knew, that was enough for him to hold off attacking her."

"And what about going back willingly?"

"She…she knew that if her team came for her, she might be talked into going back, so she did what she could to burn those bridges."

"What does that mean?" I asked, looking for Jaune to spell out his intention. Instead, he gave me a sad, knowing look, and nodded towards me. " _Me?_ "

Jaune nodded once, solemnly, and I suddenly caught on to his meaning.

"If…if Blake told all of you off and completely abandoned the idea of being a Huntress, of being a good person, all to go take over the White Fang, would you rush to bring her back and forgive her? If she abandoned her _child_ on your doorstep to go break bad, do you think you still could have?"

"I…"

 _Of course I would_ , I wanted to say. I…I'm not sure, though. I can't really be sure. I would hope I would, especially if it means that it would work, but that's not a guarantee. _And that doesn't get in to if she would_ deserve _us forcibly forgiving her._

"I don't think she liked doing it, but she knew it was her best shot of being free. That should tell you how much 'strength' is important to her. Anything you've heard from Qrow or Taiyang that sounded like hyperbole—that sounded like they were painting her as a monster to keep you from feeling like you lacked something—wasn't _always_ true.

"But it is now. I didn't know it at the time, but I grew up watching her harden. I'm not really sure what she desires now, aside from more power. Maybe that's really all she cares for, or maybe she's moved on to wanting to control others. She certainly tries to control me."

I wasn't sure how to respond to that. I wasn't really sure how to _feel_ about that—dad and Qrow had never gone into detail about Raven before, which had always left a secretive feeling around the subject. That feeling probably played a part in why I've always been so determined to find out; I do have a bit of a rebellious streak, sure. Just because I may have been looking this whole time didn't mean that I really knew what I expected to find. _Okay, that…doesn't sound like my smartest move ever, but really, what the hell else am I supposed to do?_ You can't just expect a kid to get abandoned by one mother, watch a second one never come home, and then have her go on with her life without ever talking about it.

Before I could even get to thinking about what exactly Jaune had been implying, he suddenly shifted his demeanor.

"Alright, Neo, I know you're there. Fun's over! Come on out!"

A blur in my periphery appeared and I flinched in its direction. Jaune noticed my reaction and brought his sword up to deal with the threat, but instead of striking towards it, he shoved it out towards me. Before I could react to that, another thin blade crashed into Jaune's just in front of my chest, with Jaune shoving back my would-be assassin.

"What the hell?! Is this your friend?!"

"Yeah, this is Neo. I think she likes you." I had to disagree with Jaune on that account, seeing as the first thing she tried was killing me. The flat glare Neo gave me made me feel like she agreed with me on that one.

"You told me she was stabby, but I didn't expect her to be a toddler!" I called out, gesturing to the fact that she was small enough to fit in the pockets of my shorts. Her flat glare turned murderous pretty quickly in response to that. "Where did you find her, a day-care?"

"Relax, Neo. Yang here is just worked up because she's not used to your…particular way of saying hello."

Neo shrugged at Jaune before returning to glaring at me.

"Yeah, she's not really that talkative. Not with her mouth, at least…"

"How old _is_ she?" I asked again, taking a little pleasure in how annoyed the girl who tried to kill me was at my repeated insults to her height. "Oh gods, and you saw her naked, too. They're going to through you _under_ the jail for doing that with a child, Jaune!"

Neo's glared shifted to Jaune as she cocked her head at him dangerously, obviously angry at Jaune for revealing that detail.

"Uh, I only mentioned that the event _happened_ , Neo. I swear that I did _not_ describe to her in any way how you were posing nude while covered in ice-cream toppings and very clearly enjoyed seducing whoever had the camera…" Jaune pretended to backpedal, but instead clearly antagonizing this person. _I'm okay with that, because I want to see her antagonized and I don't mind if she does try to kill Jaune at the moment._

"How about we discuss what the plan is?" I jumped in to break up the tension. After all, Jaune dying now would mean that I would have gotten up and come out here for nothing. _Oh, and there is the whole part about watching one of my friends(?) be murdered in front of me that I don't care for either._

Neo liked that suggestion enough to pause whatever physical harm she had been planning on Jaune and turned to him expectantly.

Jaune, in turn, didn't seem thrilled with my diversion, but went along with it.

"We should find a clearing," Jaune announced as he started walking, waving for us to come with. "And then I'll make the call."

"That's it?" I asked, watching Jaune closely as we walked. "You just call her and she shows up?"

"Yeah," Jaune answered plainly, missing my point.

"So she's already nearby?!"

Jaune continued to walk but turned to give me a strange look, holding it for longer than I felt was necessary. "You… No one has ever explained her semblance to you, have they?"

"No one has ever explained _anything_ about her to me," I answered a bit bitterly, and Jaune frowned slightly as he picked up on just how significant that was. It was no secret between us that the main reason I was here was because Jaune is the one person to have ever been open about the subject with me—and wasn't _that_ saying something.

"Mmmm…" Jaune mumbled, nodding aimlessly. "Personally, I think your mom's semblance is proof that there is some cosmic power out there, and that it has a sense of humor."

I gave Jaune a funny look at that, and he looked pleased with himself, though he did continue to elaborate.

"Raven Branwen has one of the most potent and, frankly, physics-defying semblances I've ever heard of, much less seen. She can create portals across any distance."

"She can _what_?" Jaune didn't look like he was kidding and even Neo was nodding along—which was strange that _she_ seemed to already know this.

"Portals. Human-sized and safe to travel through, though with a little boost—" Jaune trailed off, flexing and pulsating the cream-colored aura around his arm to make a point, "—they can get bigger."

"And why is that supposed to be funny, exactly?" I asked, ignoring for now whatever Jaune was implying that could have been done with those larger portals. While I do want to find out what exactly they both have been up to in the past, there were bigger things to focus on for now. There would be plenty of time to grill him later.

" _Because_ ," Jaune answered dramatically while grinning, "she can only create a portal to someone she forms an emotional attachment to."

"She can only…" I mumbled slowly, trailing off as I thought about what that meant. Jaune was certainly right about the irony there, if everything I've been led to believe about Raven is true. "But we're about to meet her…and that means…" I trailed off again, this time giving Jaune a mistrusting look, trying to hide how uncertain I was about how I felt.

"Yeah, I know; she has one for me," Jaune admitted, making it clear that he understood the problem there. "In my defense, she still has working portals for Taiyang and Qrow, and I _know_ she's not particularly attached to her brother. I think that once she establishes a connection, she'll always have a portal."

"Still, she has one for _you_?" I asked, half-unsure if it actually was a question or more of an accusation.

"Yang, she _did_ take me in at age four. I don't know what counts as forming an 'emotional attachment' for Raven, but I'm sure almost raising someone might count. If it helps, she probably has one for you…"

"How would _that_ help?!" I asked a little frantically. "That's…more unsettling than anything, considering that whole speech you just gave about her secretly being the devil."

"Sorry. At least she hasn't used it?"

"Yes, reinforcing that my mother has had the power to visit me and still never has is a good way to make me feel better."

"How am I supposed to win here?" Jaune asked, throwing his hands up in front of himself defensively.

" _You're not_ ," I grumbled, marching ahead.

We were at a clearing in the trees by now, about a fifty-yard-wide pocket of grass with nothing else in it. It was probably the worst place to try to hide from someone that I could think of.

"Now what?" I called out loudly, venting a little frustration from earlier.

"You two stand somewhere over there," Jaune called back, pointing loosely to a section of the grass as he walked about ten feet away from us, "and I'll stand here."

"That's it?" I asked, unimpressed with the stealth of this set-up.

Jaune gave Neo a knowing look, before suddenly just disappearing.

"Huh _what now_?"

" _Come on, I just told you that your mom can teleport across Remnant, and you're surprised that I can disappear?_ " Jaune's disembodied voice called out from the direction he had just been in. " _Neo, no—_ "

Jaune appeared suddenly to the side of where had had just been, revealing himself as if walking around an invisible wall, and he was hurrying to stop Neo from coming after me with her umbrella-blade once more.

"I'm supposed to hide _with_ her during all of this?" I asked, the prospect of being stabbed in my kidney while fixated on Raven flashing across my mind.

"You'll be fine. Neo has yet to stab anyone on my watch," Jaune reassured, though with a thought crossing his face afterwards that made me _really_ unsure about that. "Seriously, you'll be okay. Neo will keep you two hidden, and I'll…

"Yang?" Jaune asked after trailing off, his voice much more reserved and serious than before.

I looked up to meet his eyes, catching a glimpse of the uncertainty and fear there, before he could fight it back down.

"There are some…things, that you're about to see…things that won't make sense."

"Yeah, I know," I reassured. "I'm not going in blind, Jaune. We just had this talk."

"No, you don't know," Jaune cut back. He cut his eyes towards Neo nervously, a little mistrust placed there that made me feel even worse about being alone with her. "I don't have time to explain them yet, but…Raven is going to want to discuss certain topics that involve…magic."

" _Magic?_ " I repeated, almost scoffing at the word. When Jaune's demeanor remained serious, a little bit of doubt crept through me.

"It's not going to make sense right away, but…whatever you hear—whatever you _see_ …it's safest if it stays secret."

"I…okay," I answered with the only word I could find, now a little nervous at the gravity of Jaune's attitude. I was unconvinced that magic was real, obviously, but I can't exactly say that I think Jaune is lying. _It would be a weird thing to_ start _lying about._

"Neo," Jaune shifted, looking towards the girl in question, "I'm not even going to bother asking you to keep a secret. Dust knows that you're a chatty one." Jaune shook his head and looked down to his feet, almost as if ashamed of his own joke, which he should have been. When he looked up, it was back at me, and I got the feeling that he understood my silent question. "At this point, the people that Neo would tell are less dangerous to me than the ones that you could. I'm not even completely sure if it would be a surprise to some of Neo's friends."

The words hung in the air for a few moments, before Jaune reached into his pocket and pulled out his scroll. Our alibi—that we were just going into the woods to train, or for me to beat him up as payback—meant that we both kept our scrolls on, though mine was silenced for obvious reasons. That being said, Jaune didn't immediately begin scrolling through it, instead staring at it as if paralyzed. Jaune broke out of it by shaking his head quickly, before rolling his neck and shoulders, then moving on to shake his arms. He looked like he was trying to psych himself up to do something stupid like jump into a freezing pond or steal one of Nora's pancakes, and it apparently worked, because when he calmed down he began the call.

* * *

Maybe a minute after Jaune put his scroll away and began waiting, the silence was interrupted by a soft, strange noise as a crimson portal began to open in front of Jaune. I flinched a bit at the sudden noise, but Jaune stood straight, eyes focused directly ahead and his hands twitching at his sides for his weapons.

The portal only opened to be about a foot wide before a black object shot out of it, causing me to noticeably flinch; at my side, Neo had tensed up much the same, and I only narrowly remembered that I couldn't be seen but _could_ be heard.

The object turned out to be a black bird that flew around, apparently scouting the perimeter of the clearing. Upon noticing that the bird looked a lot like a raven, I was faced with the harsh reality that I was indeed Raven's child, because I would also use trained dragons if I could find any. They wouldn't even have to be yellow, though that would be a bonus.

Once the bird was finished with it's sweep, it flew back to the portal, where as it landed it morphed into a full-grown person before my very eyes. I exchanged a quick glance with Neo, who was equally as impressed, before coming to the conclusion that, _okay, maybe Jaune wasn't kidding about the magic stuff._ Then again, he did just mock me for being impressed by Neo's semblance, so there was always the possibility that this person just had a semblance.

I considered that possibility for all of two seconds, since I was able to recognize the woman, if not by her face then by her presence. I already knew this person's semblance, and it had nothing to do with morphing into birds.

"Raven," Jaune called out flatly, confirming my suspicion.

"Jaune," my mother called back coyly, sporting a smirk. "So nice of you to finally report in. I was afraid I had scared you off after last time…"

"Yeah, like it's that easy…" Jaune grumbled with hostility. Raven guiltily acquiesced to his point, still wearing that small smirk of a grin. "If it were as simple as that, I would have ran away when I was six."

"Oh, aren't you dramatic?" Raven mocked. "If my memory serves, you're not exactly making long-term plans with the Tribe anyways, now, are you?"

Jaune visibly tensed as one of Raven's hands casually fell to her side, giving her the option of drawing her weapon and not being subtle about the threat. The air itself felt as if it was getting thicker.

"Yeah, well, I figured you'd appreciate that I wasn't plotting to overthrow you…"

"Appreciate that? I'm disappointed that you wouldn't," Raven cut back. "It really feels like you haven't learned anything from me…"

"I learned how to be a bitch," Jaune cut back aggressively.

Raven frowned at that and furrowed her brow, letting Jaune's words sour in the air, before drawing her sword slowly. " _That_ , I'm afraid, comes naturally for you, though to your credit so do the balls it takes to say that to my face. _Draw_."

Raven's command caught me off-guard, mostly because I didn't expect whatever sort of meeting this was supposed to be to start with a fight. I assumed that it was nothing more than a friendly spar, but when suddenly faced with my mother _right there in front of me_ , nothing I assumed felt right anymore.

Jaune begrudgingly did draw his weapon, not looking as nervous about the ensuing fight as I was, but before he could get his sword out of his sheath, Raven cut him off. "Not that one. The other one."

"What does it matter?" Jaune grumbled, though he did fully re-sheath his sword as commanded.

"I understand that sword was a gift. It would be disrespectful if you haven't practiced with it…" Raven stated dangerously, her eyes narrowing on Jaune.

Jaune hesitated for a moment, but eventually reached up behind his head to grab the hilt of his claymore. The moment his hand got higher than his shoulder, Raven crossed the distance between them and went for a powerful swipe to Jaune's lower torso in a move clearly designed to strike where he had no chance of getting his massive sword down to block in time. Jaune instead turned to the side and brought his other sword, sheath and all, up to block Raven's blade outright, and she was well out of his range by the time he could readjust into any sort of attack.

"Well, at least you haven't gotten soft," Raven chirping nonchalantly as if she _hadn't_ just tried to cut off Jaune's legs.

Wordlessly, Jaune reached up and drew his claymore, this time finishing the motion without being attacked, though Raven looked more like she was just allowing it to happen than anything else. Jaune held his sword vertically in a resting stance and Raven held hers out in front of her in much the same, and from my spot off to the side I could see that each of their weapons were about the same length, with the curve of Raven's nodachi shortening its effective length slightly. From her opening strike, though, it was clear that she held an insane speed advantage.

Jaune slowly approached Raven, taking care to angle slightly away from where Neo and I were so as to build some space, keeping them far enough so as to not run into us. Jaune suddenly lunged one step forward and reared back to strike at Raven from overhead, using the same opener he had way back in his spars at Beacon. Raven wasted no time playing defense, instead dashing forwards and to the side to pass under Jaune's arms and by his side, bringing her nodachi with her to drag it across Jaune's torso. With all of his armor on his arms instead of his chest, the blade bit into Jaune's aura hard.

Jaune's move wasn't finished, though, and he spun the same way he had against Ruby or Cardin, going with Raven's attack to lessen the damage. He dropped his blade down to catch momentum from his swing and brought it at Raven's shoulder. Surprised but not overly so, Raven had already fully extended her blade out past Jaune and had to furiously whip the long blade around and yank it back towards her body, narrowly managing to get her hands back above her head. Jaune's blade was deflected by the curve of Raven's, allowing her to just barely duck under and allow it to pass by harmlessly. Continuing her motion, Raven pulled her pommel as far back behind her head as she could so as to get the point of her weapon to face Jaune in the narrow space between them.

Any other combatant would have lunged and tried to stab Jaune from there, but Raven had the foresight to see Jaune had preserved the momentum of his swing post-deflection and was bringing his sword all the way around for a massive overhead chop. While she _might_ be able to pierce his aura, his blow would certainly have enough force to kill most people, no matter how much aura they had.

Instead of her somewhat awkward-looking overhead stab at Jaune, Raven used her position to easily parry Jaune's downward swing and force his blow into the ground. With Jaune's blade embedded in the dirt and Raven's still between Jaune and his weapon, Raven swung the point up towards Jaune with the intent of slicing him with the tip; the curve of her blade was facing away from Jaune after the parry, but if she could force him back with this move, he would both have to leave his weapon and she would then follow up with the business-end of her nodachi.

Jaune didn't fall for it, instead yanking on his handle and pulling out a regular-sized sword, separate from the embedded shell. With the element of surprise on his side, Jaune was able to slap Raven's blade across and away from him as if he was parrying directly after drawing a sword from a sheath. Capitalizing on his momentum and Raven being out of position, Jaune brought his 'new' sword up and behind his head in one swift motion to chop back diagonally down at Raven's exposed side.

It looked like Jaune was about to get back the damage he allowed at the beginning of the fight, at least until Raven out-did Jaune's own trick. With a quiet pop, the blade fell off of Raven's handle and she brought it up to defend herself, somehow catching Jaune's blade in the inch or two between both of her hands. The two struggled there for a moment, with Jaune trying for everything to use his size advantage to either push Raven over or force her to try to disengage.

"Not bad at all. I'd be more impressed if you didn't have to rely on simple tricks, though," Raven commented, her voice betraying a little of the strain required to maintain the gridlock between them.

" _Not bad?_ I'm winning," Jaune shot back in a manner that made it seem like that was not a common occurrence.

"Are you?" Raven asked coyly. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind hit Jaune from the side, which wouldn't have been an issue if the shell of his weapon wasn't imbedded next to him. As such, Jaune was forced against it and Raven provided a little extra push that knocked him over it, sending Jaune onto his back. No sooner had he hit the ground did ice cover his arms and legs, pinning him in place.

Neo leaned forward, watching more intently now, and I was right there with her. Being the teammate of the SDC's heiress meant that I had seen a lot of dust be used in combat in a lot of different ways, but it also meant that I could recognize when dust _wasn't_ being used. Raven hadn't used any sort of cannister or gun to shoot Ice dust, the stuff had simply just _appeared_.

"I would be more impressed if you didn't have to rely on cheap tricks," Jaune quipped sardonically from his impromptu cage on the ground, earning a satisfied smirk from his captor.

"You're good; I'm better. Ready to move on?"

Raven's expectant pause made it obvious that Jaune would not be getting off the ground or out of his ice cage until he gave in.

" _Huh, talk about getting the cold shoulder,_ " I whispered to Neo, who looked at me flatly and probably imagined stabbing me.

One eye-roll later, Jaune gave in. "Fine. Just let me out already."

Raven attached a new blade to her handle with her oversized sheath and used it to bash the ice, shattering it way easier than should be possible for ice thick enough to pin Jaune to the ground.

"Now, what have I done to get the _cold shoulder_ treatment?" Raven asked Jaune with a vicious grin that frozen me dead in my tracks. I could feel Neo's gloating eyes on me.

"Oh, great, and here I had spent the last decade thinking that Yang got it from her _father_ ," Jaune groaned at Raven's pun as he stood up, dusting ice off himself. Raven sheathed her weapon and then shrugged her shoulders, all the while grinning; it was like looking into a mirror, straight down to the way her arms folded upwards as her shoulders shrugged.

"You have a report for me?" Raven asked expectantly, leaving the answer to that redundant and not bothering to respond to Jaune's quip.

"More or less."

" _Explain_ ," Raven commanded, her eyes narrowing and her features loosing all signs of her previous humor.

"I think I've narrowed down the field to a handful of likely candidates," Jaune answered back unflinchingly.

" _Narrowed down_?" Raven repeated, displeased. "You've been there most of a semester and _that_ is all you have for me?"

"Hey, I'm just working with the hand that _you_ dealt me here," Jaune responded, digging his heels in a bit. "This has only been part of my job for a few weeks now, too. It's not like you originally sent me here for this. You told me to make Ozpin just suspicious enough of me to get into Beacon, and that means I'm not exactly in any position to get caught trying to piece together his candidacy process."

Raven was unconvinced, if the flat stare and calculating eyes she showed Jaune were any indication.

"Besides, Ozpin hasn't made his selection yet. He's moving slower than I would expect, given the gravity of the situation."

Despite the mistrust on her face, Raven did eventually agree on this point, which thankfully broke up some tension.

"Ozpin has always operated a bit slowly. His actions are deliberate, and he rarely rushes into things. I can only think of one such example…"

"Summer?"

"Yes," Raven answered solemnly, a fist tightening at her side. "Despite our differences, Summer deserved better. Her death did not fit someone of her strength."

"Yeah, _that's_ why you we're upset about it. Because of her _strength_ , not the fact that you might have formed an emotional attachment to someone," Jaune drawled, making it obvious he was unimpressed.

"I'm fully aware how tied down I was, Jaune," Raven hissed back with enough venom to make Jaune visibly flinch. "Leaving was much harder than it should have been, and I'm not foolish enough to deny that it was because I was too attached to my teammates. I'm getting tired of your belief that I just deny that I'm mortal."

"The fact that you used the term 'mortal' doesn't help your case, you know," Jaune cut in.

"It would be extremely stupid of me to believe myself immune to such things," Raven continued, pointedly ignoring Jaune's words by speaking over them. "I know all too well that I cared for my team, Summer included. Hell, we've made out before; I'm pretty sure I had a portal for her before Tai…"

I shut my eyes, cringing as I did all that I could to ignore the image that was now searing itself into my mind. I knew that Team STRQ was a little competitive in certain areas, but that was... To call it traumatic to hear your mom talk about your other mom like— _no, don't give in, stop thinking about it._

"Of course you did," Jaune exclaimed, trying and failing to be surprised. "Is there anyone on your team that you _didn't_ get romantically-involved with?"

"Qrow."

"Thank the gods for _that_ , then."

"What makes you think we were ever romantically involved? All I said is we made out…" Raven trailed off with a smirk, clearly enjoying the pain that she didn't even know she was putting me through. Jaune made to answer but cut himself off as he found he had no answer to give. "Let's just say there's a good reason that they try to ban alcohol at Beacon."

"Gods above, could we _please_ talk about something else?" Jaune groaned, earning furious nods from me even though he couldn't see it. If Jaune looked uncomfortable, then I was trying to figure out how hard I would need to bash my head against a tree to forget this ever happened.

Something told me that I would _never_ forget the way that Neo was curiously eyeing Raven, with just the feintest hints of a smile appearing on her lips, or the way she shifted that curious look to _me_ just afterwards, silently wondering how much of that I had inherited. _If she tried to stab me right now, I'm not sure I'd stop her._

"We could always discuss _your_ conquests in Beacon for a change. Since you're _not_ taking my advice and staying distant from everyone, I can only assume you'd tried to preserve your lineage by now…"

"No, let's not…" Jaune answered uncomfortably.

"Yang?"

I perked up at the mention of my name, before going wide-eyed and red-faced once I caught the implication there. Neo gently nudging me with her elbow did not help things, either.

"N-No!" Jaune cried out defensively.

"That's a shame. Are you ever going to take my advice on _anything_?"

 _Wait, whAT?!_

"Not if I can help it," Jaune shot back, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Can we just…you know what, forget it. _Why_ do you want to know who Ozpin's next Maiden is going to be?" Jaune asked, his attempt at defining a new subject being as obvious as it was appreciated by me.

"Isn't it obvious?" Raven asked back.

"No, it's really not," Jaune answered back. "It's not like you have any candidates of your own that are young enough, so stealing the power wouldn't work."

"Maybe," Raven answered simply, "or maybe not. Vernal's not too much older than you. It might be worth taking the chance to see if she could be eligible. The thing is, as long as I can find out things _ahead of time_ , I have options to play around with."

"And that's what I'm here for," Jaune filled in, though not exactly pleased with his placement.

"Precisely. I would imagine that Amber's attacker will be looking to finish off the job, which would make for an excellent opening, would it not?"

"It…would, yes. Ambushing the attacker and Ozpin's new half-Maiden at the same time, or even just the survivor of the two's inevitable battle…it could work."

"We let her assailant do all the infiltrating and distracting, and swoop in to put down the victor," Raven added on, with what could only be a vicious smirk. "As an added bonus, it would be an embarrassment to Qrow to let all of that happen under his watch."

"There…could be an issue with killing them, though," Jaune added hesitantly.

"And what would _that_ be?" Raven asked with an edge.

"The candidate…you might not want her dead," Jaune stated nervously, unsure of how to proceed. "It's…Yang."

" _What?_ " Raven asked, a mix of an edge and surprise to her voice. I was just as surprised and not exactly pleased that I was being dragged into this apparent assassination(?) plot.

"They haven't decided yet, obviously, but I…think it might be her."

" _Explain_ ," Raven commanded forcefully, her voice escalating in volume significantly.

"Beacon doesn't have any stand-out upperclassmen, at least not any that are Maiden-eligible. A few Grimm-slayers, but no one that could defend themselves from human enemies; you'll see a lot of young faces in the finals of the Vytal Festival, I'm sure. That means that any candidate would come from my class, and the top choices are probably Yang or Pyrrha Nikos."

I wasn't sure what was going on, but I was nervous now, with the hair on my neck standing up. Based on Raven's reaction and overall behavior towards this 'Maiden' thing, it didn't seem like something I wanted to be. _Especially since Raven was just plotting to kill them._ At the very least, Raven didn't challenge Jaune's notion that she wouldn't want to kill them if it was me, but she also didn't confirm that she would save me from _being_ killed, either.

"Nikos?"

"Yeah, _that_ Pyrrha Nikos. Undefeated, champion duelist from Mistral. She's good, and should be the obvious first choice for the Maidenhood."

" _Should be_?" Raven asked, narrowing in on that detail. "Why isn't she, then?"

"I don't know for sure if she's not," Jaune backtracked a bit, which earned a frown from Raven. "It's just a hunch, but I think that… _I_ might be the reason she doesn't get picked." Jaune trailed off, but the obviously expectant look from Raven forced him to continue to elaborate, and I was hanging on every word trying to figure out what exactly was going on. "With Amber getting attacked because she ran off alone, they're going to want someone they can rely on, yes?"

"Ozpin will want someone he can control," Raven confirmed, as if what she said was the same thing as what Jaune said.

"Pyrrha…is my partner, and I'm pretty sure that if she had her way, more than that—and _no_ , we haven't!" Jaune cut that last part in frantically as he saw the grin spread across Raven's face, it being obvious that she was about to compare him to her team and their… _ugh._ "Ozpin is still suspicious of me, and it's pretty obvious that I could potentially drive a wedge between Pyrrha and them. I don't think they'll risk that.

"They're not wrong, either. I would do what I could to keep my friends away from Ozpin."

Raven watched Jaune intently, thinking over his words and judging them carefully.

"You may be right, then," Raven said finally. "Yang would be the safest choice. Certainly the easiest to manipulate."

 _Um, no the hell I won't! Certainly not now._

"Qrow would be her handler, and she already trusts him. Her whole team is strong enough to protect her from most threats, and you know that Ozpin will try to incorporate Ruby, firmly solidifying Yang under his control. She may only be 80 percent the fighter of Pyrrha, but she's easily four times as controllable."

There was a _lot_ to unpack there, with the least important part being that Jaune thought I was somehow only 80 percent of Pyrrha as a fighter. More important than that was the idea that Qrow and Ozpin would try to control me _and_ my team, with Jaune specifying Ruby to be used to keep me loyal. It sounded ridiculous and even the accusation made me angry, but it easily gave me enough doubt to keep me from doing anything. _I will certainly be having words with Jaune about this, but in the meantime, maybe it couldn't hurt to distance Ruby from this, just in case._ Ozpin…he did get Summer killed, if Jaune was telling the truth, and Ruby would be all-too-eager to volunteer for any mission she thought would help people.

I would like to say that the fear of Ruby following in her mom's footsteps was the reason I was willing to hear out what Jaune was saying, but it would be a lie to say that I didn't care just as much that they were talking about _me_ being used and _me_ being controlled.

"This is…an interesting opportunity. I'm going to have to keep a closer eye on Yang from now on…"

I perked up at that, specifically on one word. Jaune did, too.

" _Closer_?"

"Mmmm…" Raven hummed in affirmation.

"Since when have you been checking in on her?" Jaune asked with an edge that Raven did not appreciate but I sure as hell did. It was a lot calmer than I would have been, but it was a start.

"Oh, I've been keeping an eye on her for a while now. You know my rule about saving her…"

"No, no I don't believe I do," Jaune answered back, still a little hostile.

"Because I am _such_ a sentimental person," Raven started of, clearly mocking Jaune, "I am willing to use my semblance to save her. _Once_. I can't very well do that unless I know she's in over her head."

"And how do you know that?" Jaune asked pointedly.

"Qrow," Raven answered simply, much to my and Jaune's surprise. Shock, in my case, really. "He may be softer than me, but that doesn't mean he'll overlook the value in his niece having a guardian angel, even if only once." Jaune scoffed at the term angel, and I was really beginning to understand him better, seeing as I'm ready to burst forward and kick my mom's ass. "He keeps me updated on any missions she's going on, and I use pinprick-sized portals overhead to check in unnoticed."

"What the actual hell?!" Jaune burst out finally. "Why didn't _I_ get this sort of protection?"

"I told you, I only save someone once. I already saved you, idiot."

"The hell?!" Jaune exclaimed, both confused and angered.

"I seem to recall bringing you into the Tribe as a child, despite the fact that Salem was hunting your family down. Have you _seen_ any of her assassins, _ever_?"

Jaune didn't answer, instead gritting his teeth and glaring at Raven.

"That seems like a pretty big favor for a heartless old bitch like you think me to be, isn't it?"

Silence, though you could almost hear Jaune's blood-pressure rising. Raven was clearly enjoying it.

"You've never even had the decency to _thank_ me for sticking my neck out for you…"

" _Thank you?!_ " Jaune finally exploded. "I'm supposed to _thank you_ for hiding who I am from me!? For raising me to be your weapon instead of letting me die with the rest of my family!? What sort of twisted person demands to be thanked for saving a child from murder, much less leverages that into a lifetime of servitude?!"

Jaune's arms were shaking now as he took a few steps towards Raven, whose hand fell to her weapon and whose eyes glared back at him. Jaune wasn't cowed by her threat in the slightest, unlike when she reached for her weapon earlier.

I exchanged a glance with Neo, who was similarly concerned about the situation but motioned to stay put. _For now._

"You would have been raised into a weapon regardless of whether it was by me, your family, Ozpin, or even Salem. You should just be _grateful_ that I am the _only one_ who _isn't_ intent on sacrificing you for Ozpin's great war," Raven spit back out at Jaune, matching his vitriol without getting as loud.

"Bullshit!" Jaune called out, growing ever closer to Raven. "My family had been out of Ozpin's war for decades at that point. We were just trying to get away from all of this shit, the same as you, except without the obsession with power! You just found a child and saw a weapon in need of sharpening!"

"And how, pray tell, would you know all of _that_?" Raven asked, much more venomously than previously. A chill ran down my spine and I waited in dread for the moment when I was sure that they were going to have a _real_ sword fight.

"Not from you, that's for fucking sure!" Jaune shouted in her face. "If you had your way, all I would know about my family is that they are dead and that means they weren't good enough to be worth knowing about!" Jaune was face to face with Raven now, seething mad and dangerously aware of how close he was to exchanging blows. " _Say something, bitch!_ "

"I will _not_ ," Raven threatened, "be spoken to this way."

Raven raised her other hand, her non-weapon hand, and as she did so a wave of fire began to build up around Jaune, starting at his feet. Jaune didn't even notice, as he suddenly and savagely lunged forward to headbutt Raven right between the eyes, causing the flames around Jaune to sputter momentarily as Raven's concentration was broken.

With Raven stunned, Jaune launched his fist towards her stomach for what I thought was a punch, but it looked like Jaune was holding something. He hadn't been holding any weapon beforehand, but I noticed a pointed object pulsating the same way Jaune's aura does, just the wrong color. Jaune's aura is almost white, and this object was blood-red.

Despite the yell Jaune let out while doing so, Raven reacted to Jaune's strike too late, her hands grabbing Jaune's wrist but only after it buried the weapon Jaune was holding in her stomach. Raven made a noise as the shock hit her and they both looked down in shock to see what had happened. The blow landing surprised Jaune so much that his rage was broken, and he was too shocked by the blood that was dripping off his hand to move.

Raven, however, didn't let being stabbed stop her. From where she had a grip on Jaune's wrist, a beam of ice enveloped and then shot to the ground, locking that hand in place before expanding to lock up his feet as well. Raven took a step back, sliding off of Jaune's weapon only to reveal nothing, except for a hole in her abdomen than was bleeding. Raven put a hand up to it to confirm that, yes, that was blood pooling despite her full aura and no apparent weapon, and she stared at that hand for a few moments in confusion before shaking it off.

With a grimace and a quick stream of fire from her hand, followed by her aura kicking back in, that wound was crudely sealed and Raven's attention returned to Jaune, who had been trying for all he was worth to break free of his second cage of ice.

"Now, _that_ was a nice trick, though your aim could use some work," Raven stated way too calmly, letting dread build slowly. "Let's try one of mine, now, shall we? _I won't miss._ "

Raven stepped forward again, and Jaune tried his best to fight back without his right arm or feet. He pulled out the sword on his left hip in a reverse grip with his left hand, swiping it at Raven like an oversized dagger. Raven caught the blade in her hand and sent a stream of fire up the shaft, burning Jaune's hand until he was forced to relinquish the weapon. Jaune let go with a grimace and a yell, shaking his hand out of pain before yet another stream of ice emerged to pin encase his hand, leaving Jaune immobile and his torso exposed.

"Let's see how you like it…" Raven cooed evilly as she slowly passed her hand up and down the blade, streaming fire over it to heat the edges. This continued for maybe a half-minute until the metal was on the edge of softening. Raven took her time and made a show of lining up the tip of the sword with exactly where she had been stabbed, before slowly pushing against it.

"You've always had a big aura, Jaune, so this may take a bit," Raven announced, letting her anger slip through her tone. The combination of the pressure from the tip of the blade and the intense heat forced Jaune to grit his teeth, but his aura held for a bit.

Aura being finite, though, meant that it ran out eventually, which was noticeable by the slight movement of the sword inwards as the barrier finally fell and the pained gasp Jaune let out.

"You know," Raven announced slowly, taking her time to push the sword deeper into Jaune's abdomen, "you really ought to invest in some armor for your chest. _Someone could stab you_."

Raven punctuated that last past by suddenly shoving the sword in harder, enjoying the groan it elicited from Jaune. I saw the blade emerge out Jaune's back and realized that at some point I had unfolded my gauntlets, ready to tear Raven's head off. Neo's hand on my arm stopped me at the last second, and even that wouldn't have held me back if I saw Raven push that blade even a millimeter further.

"Now, whose fault is this?" Raven spat in Jaune's face, forcing him to focus on her despite the searing hot blade in him. Jaune didn't answer and had to fight just to present an angry face, eventually succumbing to grimacing as the heat continued to torture him. " _I said,_ whose. fault. is. this?"

" _Mine_ ," Jaune spat out finally, giving her what she wanted.

"Exactly. You stabbed me first. All things considered, I'm being _very_ generous here. After all," Raven paused, yanking the sword out in one smooth motion, much to Jaune's displeasure, "I even cauterized the wound for you. That's more than you did for me."

Jaune didn't answer, fighting just to stay upright now.

Raven rubbed her temples with her free hand, shaking her head slightly while doing so. "And I thought my relationship with Tai was strange. What are we gonna do about this, kid?"

"You…are a monster," Jaune growled after gathering his strength.

"Most days, sure" Raven answered nonchalantly. "I'm fine with being seen as a monster. It suits my purposes. The question is: are you?"

"I'm not like you," Jaune answered firmly, a little bit of his anger coming back to him.

" _You stabbed me first,_ " Raven countered pointedly. Her words hung in the air, and Jaune never found the words to respond with.

"I'll tell you what we're going to do, Jaune," Raven announced after taking a breath and calming down. She seemed…well, sad was the wrong word, but she didn't seem like she _liked_ where all of this had gone. "We're going to forget that this last part ever happened, okay?"

Jaune didn't answer, but he stopped glaring at her, which was sort of an answer.

"I'm going to forget that you stabbed me, and you're going to realize how lucky you are that I'm going to forget that. You're going to go back to Beacon and continue to lay low and keep an eye on Ozpin. Might as well keep an eye on Yang while you're at it, now. _I_ am going to go back to the Tribe and continue to pretend that you're _not_ going to rebel from me in every little way possible. Does that sound good?"

Jaune continued to stare at Raven, though the way he started to grimace indicated that his adrenaline was wearing off. Raven was also fighting off a wince, but her wound was not nearly as wide or deep as the one she gave Jaune. Still, her top was much bloodier, and aside from the ice prison, Jaune looked like the less harmed one, even if he wasn't.

"I'm going to need an answer, here, Jaune."

"Deal," Jaune answered weakly, dropping his head down when Raven accepted it.

Raven held her hand out towards the ice hold Jaune up and made a crushing motion with it, causing the ice to shatter and release Jaune, who promptly fell onto his knees now that he wasn't being supported.

"Good luck explaining that wound back at Beacon," Raven called out, slicing open a portal with Jaune's sword before tossing it on the ground towards him. Without another word, she left, sealing the portal behind her.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Ah, this was fun to write, not in the least because of the POV. This is Yang's first introduction to Raven and the dynamic between her and Jaune, so she has no clue if this was normal or not. The safe bet would be that stabbing each other is not normal, but at this point, all bets may be off the table.**

 **It also means that, since we got neither Jaune's nor Raven's POV for their talk, we don't know what either of them were thinking. Or, well, you guys don't; I'm cheating because, like, I _do_ know what they were thinking. **

**We do get to explore a direct contrast between how Jaune builds up Raven to Yang, and how Raven actually is. Initially, Raven shatters Jaune's image of the heartless monster who cares for nothing when she expresses that she's tired of Jaune accusing her of being such. As some of you have pointed out, throughout the story it does seem like Jaune has been wrong about her anyways, because the way she's acted towards Jaune doesn't really seem all that hard. She's been, dare I say it, a bit soft on Jaune, not that he can see it.**

 **Of course, that doesn't make Jaune _completely_ wrong, as the ending shows. Raven is outraged that Jaune would actually stab her because she _has_ been soft on him and the ungrateful twat can't see that (in her words, naturally). She gets even with him, but that's about it before she calms down and regrets the way that things have turned out. Jaune sees her as a monster and she knows that he's not fully wrong to, even if he can't see the ways that she's been lenient with him. **

**Reality, as it always does, lies somewhere in the gray area.**

 **And what a hell of a way to introduce Yang to Raven, huh? I wonder if that's going to leave a lasting impression that will drive Yang down a certain path...**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _Avidlag_ , I guess, why not?

"Sorry my friend, but I'm one of the fans who doesn't want to harm you, which is to say your guess was incorrect. I'll give you a hint though, even as a guest I somehow get C.o.t.W.

I find it interesting how natural Ren and Pyrrha's interactions with Jaune are these past two chapters. Is Nora's next?

Crazy prediction of the week : Pyrrha and Yang gain maiden powers and have a magic cat fight over Jaune. And thus begins Jaune's quest to hunt down whatever deity has been messing with him his whole life. Or goes insane."

 **Even as a guest you got the Comment of the Week? Come on, man, at least don't make it _obvious_ that you're buying these things! I can't afford an investigation into my shady C.o.t.W. practices right now. **

**Also, we need to throw in Neo as another Maiden for the cat-fight, because Cuck Yang jokes need a comeback. Throw in Raven as the fourth one just for the MMILF jokes (hint: the MM stands for Mother/Maiden), and have Nora officiate.**

 **Wait. I think I just described an orgy.**

 **Time to update the story settings, I guess. Citrus for everyone...**

no

* * *

"Lord Chancellor Ike. I am the Director of your Intelligence service (Name pending your decision).

As the Director of your primary arm of your intelligence service, we are responsible for all intelligence actions of your nation (Name pending). Including battlefield intel for our large and powerful army against Turquoise, and more... shady things. (Read murdering forests).

So Lord Chancellor? What shall we do?" - _TopHatGuy_

 **First, let me just express how _overjoyed_ I am that the Hitler comparison seems to have caught on. yay me. lmao**

 **Second, it occurs to me how appropriate that I am now trying to ban the color turquoise, seeing as colors are a major theme in RWBY, with Atlas even having the Color Revolution in its lore.**

 **Third, for the names... How about the nation of Isaacistan? Ike is just too hard to come up with names with. As for the Intelligence Service, let's try the Department of Ike's Protection and Stopping Horrible Incidents from Transpiring. Too bad that it doesn't have a good acronym build in, _huh_?**

 **Lastly, our first step obviously should be ensuring that I never miss an upload so that the enemy has no reason to strike...**

* * *

"TURQUOISE CAR BELOW ME." - _Gabriel H. Sapphire_

 **I DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS BUT IT SOUNDS BAD. R.I.P. YOU, BUDDY. WE WILL REMEMBER YOU.**

* * *

"I'm colour blind, but I'm pretty sure leaves can't be turquoise in the first place... I sense some similarities between turquoise leaf and Jaune in the sense that they wear masks... PERSONAS TO HIDE WHO THEY TRULY ARE! *reported for fake news*" - _youngsavage_

 **You seem like a English teacher, trying to read between the lines when there is nothing there. I promise that this story has absolutely, positively no foreshadowing. None. Stop looking and definitely don't spoil the ending for everyone else if you do find some. Not that there is any. Especially not in this chapter. I'm serious, stop it. Foreshadowing is just something that good writers do. Go read Couer if you want any of that.**

 **Mmmkay bye.**

 _Now I have to figure out how to somehow work the color Turquoise into a massive plot-twisting plotpoint. Thanks for that._

* * *

"First, I can't wait to see the Raven meeting. Second, would you like to sign my petition to revolt?" - _Turquoise Leaf_

 **First: oh, hey, thanks! Hope that I didn't massively disappoint the biggest threat to my life with this chapter. It was a lot of fun to write and to be honest, the ending wasn't 100% planned and kinda wrote itself. With a little extra work, I think it actually fits what I have in mind for the story better, which is my favorite part of writing: when the story aligns better than you intended.**

 **Does that make me sound like a horrible writer or a great one? I'm not sure of the net gain/loss there.**

 **Second: Absolutely. I need a good terrorist attack to scare my subjects into handing over emergency powers. Totally not giving those back.**

 **That's totally the reason I missed last weeks chapter: I was actually trying to rile support against me up so that I can crush it all at once. _That is totally how it happened and has nothing to do with me managing time irresponsibly._**

* * *

 **Alright, assuming I live another week, I'll see you next week. buh-BYE :P**


	32. Pre-Breach

**Author's Note: Here we are yet again.**

 **Nice little transition chapter here leading into the Breach timeline. Had some constraints on my writing time, one of which I'll discuss below in Comment of the Week because it was one of _your_ faults, thank you very much. :P**

 **The other one was that this was Fall Break for my university and I went with my family to Texas, which was a combined total of about 15 hours of driving. Or ten hours of driving, ten hours of riding while someone else drove, and then an hour of flying; we found a cheap flight from Dallas to Memphis that cut out some of my trip, thankfully. I had some time to write while riding, but even that was squeezed out by the _mysterious issue from above..._**

 **And since I just came from Texas, my recessive southern accent is starting to come out. I tried to keep it out of the chapter by writing in the POV of two distinctly _not_ southern-sounding characters.**

 **Enjoy, _y'all._**

* * *

 **Chapter 30:** _"How is telling everyone that_ I _stabbed you any better than telling them that Raven did?!" – Yang Xiao Long  
"I never said it was better for _you _." – Jaune Arc_

* * *

Ozpin's POV

* * *

The elevator chimed as it always did when it reached my office, and I ignored it as usual, waiting for its occupants to stroll forward as they always did. After a few moments of silence that I was not expecting, I looked up to find that Winter Schnee had somewhat awkwardly been caught in between entering the room like anyone else would have, and waiting at attention until called forward, at precisely the moment where she had tentatively decided to forgo her protocol and step forward uninvited. She panicked slightly when my eyes caught her in such a transitional state but recovered remarkably quickly, striding forward into the room as she knew she should. I was not James, and this certainly wasn't Atlas; such strict formality did once satisfy my ego, but over centuries you just got tired of having to wait for people to do their jobs. Beacon—really, these past few lives overall—was a place that I would tolerate with intense personalities and informality so long as it yielded results.

Winter knew that, which was why when I caught her struggling to decide whether or not to stride forward, she did so unwaveringly. She knew that is was what I expected, and if she wanted to pretend that she _hadn't_ just been caught struggling to force herself to ignore her protocol, I would play along. Over the years, I've come to view such moments very fondly for how human they were.

Besides, it was quite bemusing.

"Miss Schnee," I announced, deciding to help her out and establish a little bit of formality. I could just have comfortably called her by her first name, but when she inevitably addressed me as 'Headmaster' it would only create an awkward gap in formality. Better to snip it in the bud. "Thank you for coming. Have a seat, please."

"Headmaster," she acknowledged, causing me to smile behind my mug as I took a sip. Without another word, she did as asked and sat across from me. Her eyes swept across the room, taking in any details and finding only the lack thereof; there were no others in the office with us, and my office hardly ever has anything of note in it except for my desk.

"This meeting is just between us," I clarified, making it obvious that I noticed her glancing around and felt no need to keep her in the dark. "I'm sure you probably can guess what I want to talk about."

"My mission," Winter stated obviously.

"Both of them," I appended, expounding when Winter's eyes shifted slightly. "Your _upcoming_ field mission and your longer-term objective."

"Ah. Of course. I had nearly forgotten the former was—"

Winter cut her tongue suddenly, deciding against whatever she was about to say, as if I was going to hold some sort of subordinate thought against her. I found it hard not to chuckle at that, since it had been over a millennium since I thought that even _trying_ to subjugate thought would work, let alone be effective. _Unfortunately, in that time not everyone else came to realize that._ Not everyone else had the luxury of learning through experience, either, though more than a couple revolutions in the last century or so meant that there were those with that experience _now_.

"Go ahead, speak freely," I bade, letting my ease show through my features, which soon reflected on the young woman before me.

"I had forgotten that it even was a mission, sir," Winter explained with a hint of embarrassment. "With the tedious nature of my other task, I've been looking forward to the field assignment as a break more than anything else."

"That's understandable," I reassured with a smile. "Digging through Beacons records all day—even as immaculately as Glynda has stored them—is sure to be a mind-numbing task. Since we are on the topic, what have you found so far?"

"Nothing concrete, I'm afraid," Winter answered with a frown. "As far as entrance records go, I can find nothing out of the ordinary in any of Beacon's admission records, with the same going for Atlas' as well. Since then, I have moved on to compiling a list of…problematic students, if you will."

I nodded absently. "Ones who seem more likely to be turned against us…"

"Indeed. Students who, whether through reputation or situation, present more of a security risk than others. I have already taken the liberty to consult Beacon's teaching staff as to which students' behavior should earn my attention, and I have supplemented those with students who come from broken or sketchy backgrounds. It's not that having a rough upbringing necessitates that someone is going to become an enemy, of course, but that they hold a greater chance to have been desensitized to unsavory conduct." Winter finished defensive, and understandably so; such overt measures were certainly much more Atlesian in nature than was normal for Vale, and her rationale would rub some the wrong way. She was effectively trying to crack down on deviance _before_ it happened, which was…a dangerous game to play, even if she was only trying to crack down on deviance sooner to when it happens. Technically, looking into students' backgrounds with a fine comb could only reveal things that already existed, but it was the intent that was dangerous.

"If someone was raised on the streets, they have a better chance of having flexible morals than someone raised in a stable environment," I summarized for her, showing that I both understand and did not disagree with her point, despite the risk of overreaching. I had the benefit of balancing the survival of all humanity, which lessened other concerns. _There were those who would vehemently disagree with what they would term 'spying' on my own students—including what I suspect is a majority of my staff—but in this case, I was well within my right as Headmaster to defend Beacon._ I wasn't even crossing those lines yet. "Anything of note on that front?"

"Again, nothing definitive, though I feel it holds more promise." I looked Winter over carefully, noting the confidence in her words that, coming from her, likely meant that she had a bona fide lead and was being polite. "Are you aware of Team CRDL?"

"I am aware that there exists such a team, yes. Outside of that, I'm afraid they've not done a huge amount to catch my eye. Remind me which they are, if you would."

"Four boys, first year, arrogant, noted for causing issues among the student body…" Winter trailed off expectantly, doing a good job of hiding her frustration when it was obvious that I hadn't recalled them. She gave something that was a mix of a sigh and a huff before continuing. "Class bullies, particularly towards faunus students?"

Winter let out another huff when I did not catch on, apparently running out of descriptors.

"It's a large school, and I have seen _decades_ of students graduate," I offered in my defense, thought my amusement did seep through my voice. Decades was underselling it.

"There has been retaliation towards them from the rest of the student body," Winter shot back a little more sternly than maybe she meant to, if the way she hastily softened her posture was any indication. "Particularly by another student on my list, Jaune Arc—"

" _Oh_ ," I cut in, "I am with you now." She was referring to the Cardin Winchester that Mr. Arc had attacked in the changing rooms, and his team that all scuffled with Mr. Arc at Forever Fall. There have been countless bad eggs as far as individual students go, and often even whole teams, and throughout the years Team CRDL was far from the worst thing I had seen. If it weren't for the fact that Mr. Arc seemed to have singled them out as antagonists, I may need to see their file just to remember them. "What about them? Were their records suspect?"

"No. They all come from the same feeder academy, and for all I can find, their time there was mostly uneventful. They initially made my list because every professor who has them recommended them to me."

"Well, that is certainly a start."

"Indeed," Winter acknowledged. "While I initially suspected that their poor behavior was isolated to your typical 'bully' scenario, I am…more suspicious now."

"And what causes that?"

"Nothing concrete, still, but more than I have for any other students put together. My suspicions began after noting that each of the members has been continuously upgrading their arsenals throughout Beacon, despite not having earned any commission through missions, their status as first years hindering such endeavors."

"Not to be confrontational, but huntsmen spending money to upgrade their weapons is hardly a shocking thing. Young huntsmen are more likely to want to upgrade so as to maximize their potential, or move beyond more primitive weapons from their formative years," I countered, not coming across as hostile and Winter taking my suggestions in stride. "And even then, it's somewhat of a mainstay in Huntsman culture to invest in weaponry."

"From what I have noted, these have been more than just a few upgrades. Each of the boys has nearly doubled what they previously had in armor, and comparing footage of their earliest spars to their most recent spars shows a significant difference. Trust me to judge when someone is throwing lien into their equipment, Headmaster."

I nodded, conceding that point to her. Of all my experiences, I can't say that I count being spoiled during childhood as one of them. _That's not to say that Winter was, by any means, spoiled by Jacquee Schnee, but she would have grown up in circles of other affluent children._

"Further, all of the boys are on some form of partial scholarship to Beacon, which indicates that none come from a background with access to enough spare lien to bankroll this spree."

"I see…" Winter was, if nothing else, demonstrating her thoroughness by checking their financial status at the school, and for a moment I was grateful that neither Qrow not Glynda were here. I had technically given Winter free reign to investigate with all the resources of my position, but neither of my two closest aides were liable to approve of such intrusive measures. _They would likely accuse it of being a witch hunt, which was not technically wrong; it was just that humanity_ always _had to be protected from the Witch._ Hunting her was, so far, an unending task. "Even still, all it would take it one student with an unknown connection for this all to be nothing. No applicant is going to brag in their application about their rich uncle who funds them, especially since they want the discounted tuition rates that scholarships would provide."

"Correct, but that does not explain everything," Winter countered, leaning forward with a little more energy. "They are an isolated team in that they share only loose connections to the rest of the student body; just the sort of thing that would keep other students from stumbling upon their activities."

"And you said they were class bullies. I doubt many would _want_ to associate with them…"

"Their scrolls have gaps in their tracking data, always during the night."

"You checked their scrolls' tracking data?" I asked, equal parts surprised and impressed.

"Only their Beacon scrolls, yes. If they have private scrolls, I could not access that data, naturally. Once or twice per week, all four will turn off their scrolls and they will remain that way for several hours, only to be turned back on at roughly the same time."

"That…could be something," I conceded, my interest growing despite not showing it. "Of course, you said yourself that they could have private scrolls. Most students choose to roll their private numbers over into their Beacon accounts, since such are paid for by the school and can be given back at graduation. If they do have a benefactor for gear, such a person could just as easily be providing scrolls as well. Of course—"

"Such a person could be an enemy of Beacon," Winter cut in, picking up on where I was going.

"Such a person _could_ be an enemy of Beacon," I repeated, adding emphasis where I felt it was needed, but otherwise not objecting. It was still too early to accuse anyone of treason against humanity, but Winter's lead was a solid one.

"Considering what we already suspect about any infiltrations, it could fit."

Specifically, it would fit the idea that Mr. Arc was being used as a smokescreen against us, James' suggestion if I remember correctly. Or maybe it was Qrow's. _Credit matters not without verification_. CRDL was unassuming by all marks, even despite their reputation in Beacon. It wasn't even far fetched that they had only stepped into that role as a way to further integrate into Beacon; after all, most classes had bullies, and while an unfortunate reality, it was just that: reality. People might turn their noses up at them, but at the end of the day, they weren't _suspicious._

They also fit the bill for Qrow's four-man, Huntsman-level counter-intelligence squad, which has only continued to make things more and more difficult for our intelligence initiatives across Vale. To hear Qrow recount the tales that he could scrounge up, these people were full-on Huntsmen who were strategically targeting the rats of the underworld—rats referring to those who were talking to the authorities, of course. It was certainly possible that their reputation was their greatest weapon, and that half of their effectiveness came from the illusion of their omniscience. In reality, they weren't likely super spies, and it wasn't unthinkable to believe that with some _outside guidance_ , a team like CRDL could be the source of such terror.

Then again, this entire idea ascribed to them a great deal of cunning, discipline, technical skill, and connections that seemed well beyond that of CRDL. Such could be their intention, and if that were the case then they were so masterful in their deceit that they had completely fooled me, but it all felt…far-fetched. Even the best undercover agents had a few tells, a few traits that just couldn't be suppressed; things like the way their eyes always shifted around the rooms they were in, how they were never careless, carefree. Jaune Arc was that way, even when he wasn't playing games, especially with his eyes. Ticks like these distinguished those who knew the game, and how they fit onto it, from those who couldn't distinguish a chess board from a brick wall.

To his credit—Mr. Arc's, that is—he did seem to relax around his teams exclusively, which was the main reason that he still felt to me more like Qrow than Raven. _And speaking of…_

"That's good work, Ms. Schnee. Rest assured that while you are out on mission, I will personally be picking up where you left off; it's my intention to make it through your notes and then put extra measures in place to monitor the more deserving candidates." It would not do to put Glynda on this case now that a few liberties had been taken.

"Of course. I've taken care to be meticulous with my recordkeeping," Winter interjected, causing me to smile because _of course she was meticulous with her recordkeeping_ , "and I am confident that it will not take you long to find what you need."

"As am I. Moving on from that, I am curious about someone else we mentioned earlier, one who you said made your list…"

"Mr. Arc?" Winter asked, expectantly.

"Am I _that_ transparent?" I asked with a small chuckle, taking a sip of my coffee.

"N-No, sir, it was just a good guess," Winter stammered, a little nervousness that could be attributed to the formality gap slipping back in. I waved her concern off good-naturedly and then bade her to continue.

"Given the nature of your list, what rationale did he present to earn your attention?"

"Do you mean besides the dead last name or the fact that both you and the General watch him carefully already?" Winter asked, a little bit of sarcasm seeping through that I didn't have the heart to discourage. _Personality was in short order for her, anyways; to berate her for such a small and amusing display of it would only do her ill_. The fact that she would remain James' problem did weigh in, too.

"I'm just curious what you see. A fresh pair of eyes, if you will."

"He is…anomalous," Winter stated, taking her time to find the correct word. "His story seems suspicious at best, especially his insistence that he has no formal training. The way he carries himself, both in and outside of combat, contradicts that."

"Not to mention that his spar with Miss Nikos outright confirms that he's been trained," I cut in helpfully.

"Not just trained, but trained _well_. He was nowhere near as talented as miss Nikos, as few are, but dictated every facet of the fight. His situational and spatial awarenesses are advanced past most Huntsmen that I've examined, not to mention that he appears to have deduced his opponent's semblance and worked a counter to it _during the fight._ "

"The kid can fight," I summarized, deciding not to bring up the fact that Mr. Arc should have already known his _partner's_ Semblance.

"Yes," Winter confirmed with a dark chuckle, "the kid can fight. I would stake my reputation that he was trained by an exceptional combatant, or at the _least_ a good one. In either case, he's also been in fights before…real ones."

"I have suspected as much myself," I confirmed, taking a sip of coffee and readjusting my stance in my chair. "Controlling the flow of a fight with pacing and footwork is not something you learn by fighting Grimm, and I've not ever seen a combatant so willing to abandon clean combat without having learned to do so in _actual_ fights. Simply put, Jaune Arc has seen fought his way through some facet of hell to get to Beacon."

"Any other notes on him you've observed?" After all, we already knew as much, and adding Winter's thoughts to the subject changed nothing.

"Much like Team CRDL, he has a tendency to turn his scroll off for several hours at a time, usually in the night. Not on the same nights, though," Winter interjected that last part, as if I was about to ask it. I wasn't, but saw no reason to interrupt now. "From what I understand, his team and Team RWBY either knows what he is doing, or just accepts it. They are protective of him."

"As is he of them."

"I…had noted that, too. Of course, there has been his recent…feud with Miss Xiao Long, though they seem to be working through it, in their own…inefficient way. It has not had an effect on how close the two teams are, I understand, and even that feud seems to be coming to an end."

"Interesting…"

"It could speak to his character, I suppose…that he can have a fight and then reconcile?"

"Well, that is interesting too, but not what I was referring to." Winter was unsure what I was getting at, but had just a hint of defensiveness. "I was more referring to the incredible insight you have into their team dynamics. That is far beyond what I could gleam from the files you were provided…"

Winter Schnee of all people squirmed in her seat uncomfortably, and through centuries of practice, the humor in my eyes was entirely concealed from her.

"I…have an inside source," Winter admitted hesitantly. I let her stew in the silence until she felt the urge to continue. "It's Weiss, of course."

"Interesting," I mumbled again, allowing the repetition of the word get under her skin. "I seem to recall that your role here was a secret, at least up until your actual mission. How does Weiss work into this?"

"I…have been in contact with her. I have…trusted her to be discrete about our talks. She can be trusted."

The nervousness in her voice told me that she knew that she was admitting to breaking orders, and that under Atlas' rules, that was bad.

"It was Qrow's idea," Winter finally burst out, content to have a scapegoat, even if it wasn't surprising who it was. "He asked me to distract Weiss so that he could get Yang alone, for a debriefing I believe. There are only so many safe topics that Weiss and I have to discuss these days."

"And so you decided to share the secrets of your job over discussing family?"

Winter, though she did she ashamed of the question, was not shy of her answer. It was an obvious yes.

"Well, given the valuable intel to come from it, I suppose I can't argue with your methods. In the future, you need not phrase it as if you've been including Weiss in your hunt. Simply saying that you and Weiss talk about her team, friends, and life at Beacon would have sufficed." _After all, that_ is _what sisters would normally discuss after not speaking in a while, if they wanted to avoid speaking of family._

"Thank you, sir," Winter responded with tangible relief, and just a tinge of embarrassment.

"I believe that's all for now, Specialist Schnee," I announced, waving a hand loosely for her to stand. "I do have a task for you."

"What would that be, sir?"

"Seeing as your mission is tomorrow, you no doubt will have countless hours with Teams RWBY and JNPR. Qrow already knows this, but do spend what time you can speaking with the members individually. Beacon policy is that the sponsoring Huntsman or Huntress talk with each student about their ideals, philosophies, and plans for the future, and that all holds for seven eighths of the students."

"Except Mr. Arc."

"Except for him," I repeated. "It counts twice as much for him, and if he wants to deflect from the future, get him to talk about the past. Or his goals. Or his fears. Anything, really. So long as you believe it to be reliably truthful, it would go a great deal to understanding what we have on our hands. There are precious few concrete details we know of his life."

"Consider it done then, sir. Is that all?"

"One last thing, and then you're dismissed," I called out. "Spend the rest of the evening with the teams."

"Huh?"

"You've been cramped in an office for a while now, Specialist. If you feel the need to sneak around behind my back to see your sister, then consider this an order to interact with her and her friends. Qrow is already doing much the same, hopefully without involving alcohol, but a chance to relax and mingle couldn't hurt."

Winter was uncertain, if the apprehension on her face was any indication.

"And if this happens to put me in position to study Mr. Arc as his attachments to his friends?"

"Well, that would be incidental, now wouldn't it?" I asked innocently, taking a sip of coffee and returning to my computer screen. "Though it would seem irresponsible to be in such a position and _not_ take note of such things. You're dismissed."

* * *

Winter's POV

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The walk required to find either Team RWBY or Team JNPR would leave me time to reflect over the meeting with the Headmaster, but that was only once I had a bearing of where to look. It was early in the afternoon on Sunday, a day off for students, which meant that they could be anywhere; that the teams were so close-knit suggested that they were likely to stay in groups, or at least _most_ of them would. Mr. Arc was so far the only one prone to running off alone, although Weiss was certainly independent enough to split off if she wanted to, as were a few of the others. That they all had a mission first-thing in the morning meant that they were unlikely to go far into Vale or do anything overly strenuous; nerves arising from their upcoming first mission should subdue them. _Again, discounting Mr. Arc due to the nomadic manner in which he purports to have grown up._ In this case, that also extended to two of his teammates, as well as the Belladonna girl on Weiss' team, making it hardly a unique feature among the group.

And then one had to factor in the fact that _Qrow_ was supposed to already be with them. His one redeeming factor in being an acceptably-caring uncle aside, Qrow was nothing if not reckless. I've wanted to tear his head off for it several times, but always restrained myself, content in the knowledge that life would backfire on him in time. Knowing that Qrow was likely with them meant that the group was somewhere that Qrow could freely drink—so inside Beacon's buildings was out—and somewhere where the nine of them would inevitably be able to roughhouse at.

It came as no surprise, then, that as I walked through the back gardens of Beacon, I spotted my nine targets standing around some of the trees in the grass behind the school.

"And that makes the score…let's see…  
Qrow: 12  
Jaune: 11  
Pyrrha: 10  
Me: 9  
Blake: 9  
Ren: 9  
Nora: 7  
Ruby: 4

"...and it's Weiss' turn," Yang Xiao Long announced finally after reading off the score to whatever exercise they were running. "Weiss-cream, you're tied with Ruby at four, with the chance to put her dead last with your turn here."

"I still want it on record that I hate this game," my sister grumbled with a pout that did not suit her, or at the very least, did not suit the image our father demanded. It suited the little girl I grew up with perfectly, along with a mean competitive streak to compliment it.

"Yeah, tell me about it," her partner added on, shaking her hands as if some sort of lingering pain afflicted them.

"Eh, you're just saying that because you're losing," Qrow commented flatly, walking forward to come out from underneath the shade of the three they were standing under. In his hands were three throwing knives that he shuffled around, two in his off-hand and one in his dominant hand.

Scanning the scene quickly as I approached, I noticed that none of the group were laying against the tree, despite the fact that everyone not 'up' was lounging around on the grass. Upon inspecting the tree itself, it had several chips in it where throwing knives had obviously found their marks.

 _A contest of accuracy, then._

"Ready?"

"As I'm going to be," Weiss huffed, nodding to Qrow.

…who then threw one knife straight up into the air as high as he could, pausing for a second, and then throwing a second one. No one seemed to find this odd at all, the only one reacting being Jaune, who motioned to move further out of the way, only because he was too close to where the knives were going to land.

Weiss tracked the knives decently well, as that was apparently what she was to do, and as the first one fell she snatched out and caught it by its handle in what was a decent display of coordination, timing, and discipline.

The second knife, not as much so. For whatever reason, it had strayed a few feet from the first one, out of one arm's length for Weiss. After catching her first knife her focus shifted to the second and she leaped over towards where its trajectory took it, extending out her arm to have a chance to catch it. Despite her height (and therefore reach) disadvantage, she did make it to the falling knife, but without enough time to track the blade's handle properly. She squeezed as soon as she got there, her palm gripping around the blade itself as it tore towards the air to the ground.

" _Ow!_ " Weiss gasped sharply as the blade passed right on without a care for her hand. She shook it instinctively, and a few drops of red fell to the ground, unnoticed or ignored by my sister.

"And the last one," Qrow called out, holding up the third knife as if ready to throw it. Weiss walked over next to the tree and braced.

For good reason, too, because Qrow chucked the last knife at the tree next to her. Weiss shot her hand out next to her, seeking to snatch the blade out of thin air, grasping with her better hand as the blade passed by.

She caught nothing but air, the blade having impacted the wood a few moments before her grip was established.

"Aw, better luck next time, Ice Princess…" Qrow taunted with a lopsided grin that would have been forcibly removed had I made it over there in time.

"That's one point for one catch," Yang called out dramatically, "but minus two for drawing blood! That puts Weiss in last place!"

"What sort of demented game is this?!" I called out, announcing my presence to those who hadn't noticed me approach, namely Weiss and Qrow. Qrow's stupid expression only got worse, and Weiss went stiff as she realized I had been watching.

"Game?" Jaune Arc called out, his tone way too familiar to Qrow's for me to even think about calming down. "Why, this is a bona fide _training exercise_. What sort of backwards society would actually play _games_ to pass the time?"

"The kind that is disciplined enough not to have students drop dead during spars," I shot back, hiding a wince as I realized that my words cut more towards miss Nikos than Arc. Backing down wasn't currently an option, though. "Training exercises have the potential for fun, and _yes_ , I do know what that is," I cut Qrow off preemptively, much to his displeasure. "They also have a practical, applicable purpose to them. What, pray tell, could be the purpose to this?"

To my irritation, Jaune did not immediately answer, instead seeking to make a point but strolling forward and handing the knives to Qrow. Without a word, Qrow threw them in the air, and Jaune took his time staring me down with a flat expression before tracking them down at the last second. He made a big show of reaching out his arm and catching the first blade by the blade itself, before doing the same to the second one. Jaune tossed those on the ground at my feet without a word, before walking over to stand _in front_ of the tree. Qrow (and everyone else) seemed a little put off by that, but after a few moments decided to chunk the blade right for his face. Jaune reacted faster than Weiss, catching the blade between the fingers of both hands with several inches to spare.

Returning his flat expression to me and further revealing how much of a dramatic clone of Qrow this guy was, he walked over to Weiss, still not having said a word. He picked up Weiss' hand and held it up, putting his own up next to it, showcasing that hers had a small slice and his were unharmed.

" _Aura manipulation_ ," Jaune stated flatly, impressed with his own display. I fought the urge to roll my eyes and give him nothing, as his little display was more annoying in how long it took than it was impressive. He was, after all, noted to be accomplished at strengthening aura to block attacks.

Before he released Weiss hand from his display, both of their hands began to glow white for a moment and Weiss' slice healed itself, leaving no scar behind as a testament to his Semblance's potency.

"That's…uh, two for the first two knives and three for the bonus knife," Yang tallied up tentatively. "That puts Jaune in the lead by four! Take that, uncle Qrow!"

"It's not even his turn!" Qrow protested. "He should lose all his points for going out of order!"

"How bored must you all have been to invent such a game?!" I cut in angrily.

"Invent? Hell, I grew up with this game," Qrow cut in, actually doing so more as a peacekeeper than anything else, which was an unusual role for him. "It was pretty popular among the bandits I grew up around, for obvious reasons. They didn't always even _have_ aura…"

"Besides, we _were_ going to do some light spars, but _someone_ —" Ruby paused and cut her eyes to her half-sister, who wore a chagrinned smile, "—decided to get a little too stabby, so now we have to 'tone it down.'"

"I'm sorry, a little too _what_?"

"Stabby," Ruby repeated, as if it were actually a word. I looked around the group confused until someone decided to fill me in.

"Jaune and Yang decided to, uh, _settle their differences_ ," Weiss explained for my sake, using the same terminology we had previously used to explain their feud, "by having a spar out in the Emerald Forest. They won't exactly tell us _how_ it happened, but Yang got a little…"

"Things got out of hand," Yang filled in for her with a roll of her eyes, annoyed more by the uncertainty of Weiss' tone than the story itself, "and I stabbed him with his own sword."

There was a lot to dissect there, but my first thought was that of all things to transpire in that scenario, this was not the worst. _Qrow's niece disappearing into the woods with a male student? That they came out and_ he _was the one to be penetrated was fortunate, to say the least._ The world is not ready for a Branwen grandchild—Qrow's or otherwise—and thankfully, that seems to have been avoided. Quite frankly, given the co-ed nature of Beacon's dorms, it is surprising that Beacon has such a low drop-out rate due to pregnancies. In Atlas, accommodations had to be made to separate the young men from the young women; as General Ironwood put it, when you locked them in a room when it was too cold to go outside, you shouldn't be surprised by these things.

I gave Yang a flat, disappointed look, before rounding it onto Qrow.

"That's twice he's almost died during spars. This is your doing, isn't it?"

"Hey, I didn't influence it at all. I wasn't there for either of them!" Qrow protested, making a solid point. If his Semblance could affect anyone across any distance, I had a feeling I would have led a miserable life by now. _Or not, as after a week I would have overcome his stupid Semblance and put him down permanently._

I rounded to Jaune instead.

"Is there anyone else you would like to allow to attempt ending your life?"

"You know, maybe I would like to be on the _other_ end of that this time," Jaune responded cheekily, playfully cutting his eyes at the two women who had nearly killed him. Pyrrha Nikos flushed and nervously avoided the attention, whereas Yang Xiao Long rolled her eyes and brushed it off. "Would _you_ like to spar sometime?"

"I wouldn't stop at half-dead," I responded flatly, ignoring his proposition entirely. "Besides, I'm in agreeance with the notion that we shouldn't be sparring the night before a mission, regardless of the risk for injury."

"It doesn't matter anyways, Jaune. I've got next dibs on putting you in the hospital," Nora called out. For all his games, Jaune Arc failed to hide the shiver that ran down his spine.

"Yeah, no. I'm not letting _that_ happen."

" _Let_?" Yang asked incredulously, with a grin that seemed too genuine and bemused considering it originates in stabbing her friend. Pyrrha seemed to agree with Yang's sentiment, although she was not so callous as to blatantly grin about it.

"Besides, a few cuts or a stab I can heal pretty quickly," Jaune dismissed without acknowledging Yang. "Even with my Semblance it might take a few days to recover from shattered kneecaps…"

Most reacted negatively to that idea, with Qrow's youngest niece going so far as to cringe while holding her knees, groaning something to the effect of 'normal knees.' Nora Valkyrie, however, had a different sort of objection.

"Legs, Jaune. I break legs, not kneecaps," she corrected as serious as I had ever seen her. "Get it right."

 _Perhaps this mission will be less of a break than I had hoped._ Or maybe I should just expand my search of suspicious characters at Beacon to include the whole damned school.

"Is there a reason you've come to see us, Winter?" Weiss asked, obviously searching for a way to change the subject. "Not that we, uh, don't want you here, but—"

" _Speak for yourself,_ " Qrow cut in childishly.

"—It was a little unexpected."

"I intended to spend the evening with the teams, so as to get a feel for the dynamic between them, since we are all to work together come morning…"

"Aww, that's so sweet," Yang drawled sarcastically.

"Under Ozpin's orders, probably," Qrow added with snark. After a few moments of silence where I realized they were waiting for me to deny it, eyes began to roll. _Heads would soon, too, if something didn't change._

"Yeah, that's more like it," Blake Belladonna tried to whisper to the person closest to her, Lie Ren, but overestimated how quiet she was. Or how intently I was listening. I would graciously let it go.

"How about a compromise?" Qrow offered, instantly making me suspicious and scowling at the suggestion. After a moment to think about it— _what could honestly be worse than this, really?_ —I forced myself to change my demeanor to encourage him to continue.

"I'm listening."

"We can all go to the armory and stock up now, instead of having to do it early in the morning."

That idea was instantly taken to by the teams, especially Ruby, whose fervor was…unsettling. I fought to keep myself from rolling my eyes at the notion that we would have been getting up early for this, seeing as take-off was scheduled for 7:30 and we would have likely done this at 7; hardly early by any stretch.

If it meant moving on from this…mess, I would certainly allow it.

* * *

Allowing it was a mistake.

Ruby and Jaune alone picked out as much gear, supplies, dust, and miscellaneous gadgets as the rest of us combined. Not to mention that Ruby also grabbed pet food by accident, loading up several cans of the stuff in a backpack that came from—no prizes for guessing it—the armory. This felt more like an all-expenses-paid shopping-spree than a pre-mission load-up.

Why Jaune was grabbing dust, I wasn't sure; he hadn't ever shown any dust functionality to his weapons, and at most they could provide maybe a small distraction; he didn't actually pick up any dust _ammo_ , just actual explosives crystals. More significant was the fact that I was sure I counted at least fifteen different knives that he strapped to himself, not even mentioning all the other gadgets he stocked up on.

He and Ruby stocked up on supplies as if their lives depended on it, and when viewed that way, it wasn't anything I could hold against them. While they may not have been necessary, they very well might end up being so, and when Qrow vouched for them on such grounds, it was one of the few times that I admitted defeat and deferred to Qrow's point.

 _That_ was the absolute low point of all my time at Beacon, to be certain.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Okay, so if we all had a magical soul forcefield that could protect you from harm, and you were with a group of bored friends, something like this would happen, right? You're all fighters, you're bored, you need to work out some energy... Stupid things like this are bound to happen. And I'm with Jaune here, it _does_ have a practical purpose. One that he is uniquely suited to, but hey, there's nothing wrong with playing games that you're good at. **

**Other than that, I don't have just a whole lot to say here for now. Winter and Ozpin started to get into the 'surveillance state' debate, though both are unsurprisingly for such measures, at least for now. Winter is the only one that would have the possibility of going the other way since we don't know much about her philosophies outside of being a Schnee and being in the military. She likely shares Ironwoods views on a lot of things, and Atlas in general strikes me as a much more security-heavy, liberty-light society anyways.**

 **Ozpin, of course, would be for anything. When faced with the extinction of humanity, all alternatives are preferable. Ozpin may recognize the dangers there, but he knows through experience that those dangers are the lesser of two evils. He's willing to pay that price for all of humanity, even if humanity may not agree.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _FireFox614_

"Now that people have said things about it, and I get these kind of vibes from Couer's Relic of The Future. I'm really in the mood for Jaune x Raven. Sure it'd be the most toxic relationship since Hitler and the Jews. It'd still be really fun to read, cuz I'm mean,Raven is a total milf and anyone would smash if it didn't get them either killed or left an abandoned baby afterwards with severe Mommy issues"

 **Okay, so like, this comment stuck with me for a few days after you wrote it, mostly because you do bring up something I've gone through too. I'm kinda in the mood for a interesting Jaune x Raven fic myself, as weird as that feels to type. Note I say this, which should make it clear that this story does _not_ end with Jaune banging Raven. Sorry. Not sorry.**

 **I have never really understood the whole MILF thing before, and I really regret typing this as my little sister does read this story, but I _totally_ see it for Raven. She looks younger than Qrow in the show, by a few years, though I guess as the Spring Maiden has an advantage? Maybe? **

**I don't know, but anyone trying to actually hook up with Raven is in for a rough time, both in the good way and the bad way s. If you just wanted to be a booty call, though, you literally could not pick a better partner. Hot? Discrete? Available at literally any moment? _Check, check, check._**

 **All of this is to say that you got me to start reading _Relic of the Future_ again. I had started it and got through the first three chapters before I just, I dunno, fizzled out. It was an interesting premise and I liked the idea of Time-Travel Jaune again after _Not this time, Fate_ , but the amount of time jumped back threw me off at first. It felt weird that Jaune was twenty, when he should have been eight or nine like his friends. **

**So I started it again, solely because of the curiosity caused by implying that there were some Raven x Jaune themes. I literally had to read two chapters from where I left off for those to pay off. This was on Tuesday when I picked it back up. I was caught up on all 250,000+ words before the next chapter dropped this Saturday.**

 **I binged that _hard_ all week, which cut into literally every facet of my life, though having a car ride helped. I feel like this story might just have reset my opinion of Emerald in the show the same way that _Not this time, Fate_ did for Weiss. Come V6, she might end up moving up the list. **

**I swear, if any of you try to write a fic to humanize Mercury, I will hunt you down. If you thought** _Turquoise Leaf_ **was bad, wait till you try to get me to _like_ Merc the Smirk. **

**It would be fun to read, the Raven x Jaune story. If you guys ever find a good one, or if Couer ever revives that idea for a Raven x Jaune x Yang love-triangle story, DM me and let me know.**

* * *

 **No _Chronicles of the Turquoise War_ this week, guys, so instead I'll pose a question to you all. I've had more than a few reviews saying that they really loved the story once they decided to read it, but it just took them a while because the description kinda turned them off. I've got nothing against them for that; I'm the same way. There are a lot of fics and as a fanfic reader, I'm actually pretty picky. Good grammar, good sentence structure, nothing ridiculously OoC, spell-checked marginally well, and interesting premises are all things I require before I get invested in a story. This is why Couer is the God-King, after all. **

**What I'm posing to you guys is: what about the description needs to change? It's been updated a few times, but writing those descriptions are hard, because it feels like you are blatantly advertising your story. Which...you are. It all feels corny to me because of the word constraint.**

 **Over the coming week I'll try to write out a few new descriptions based on any suggestions or common ideas you guys have, and next week I'll put them down here and see if you all think any of them stand out. If you want to try your hand at writing one for me, DM it to me and I'll throw ya in there too, username attributed. _yes, i know i just said not to leave it as a review despite my constant need for reviews :P_**

 **Maybe we can trick some of the stranglers into going ahead and starting the story. After all, I haven't had anyone say that they resisted starting it because of the summary and then _disliked_ it. **

**Food for thought, though. See y'all next week.**


	33. Jaune Goes Spelunking w Yang

**Author's Note: You know, a suspicious amount of things went right for me this week.**

 **First, my German test on Thursday got delayed till next week, and then the professor decided to make it take-home to make up for other classes she missed with an illness. For those of you following along at home, that means that because I didn't have to go to class, I now have an easier test.**

 **Then, throughout the whole week, I've just really not been in a mood for Xbox, which has meant more time to do other things. As a bonus, I have had just this feeling of really wanting to sit down and write, which as a writer is like the greatest feeling ever, second only to when you _tear out the hearts of your unsuspecting readers._ Maybe that's just me, but it meant that this chapter grew a little longer than it needed to because I felt like writing an extra segment (the opening POV with Qrow, as well as the _very_ last little bit at the end). **

**Lastly, my football team, like, won a game? On the road? At a ranked opponent? My spell check keeps telling me that there's something wrong with typing that out, but I've checked the final score like four times and it still says that Tennessee beat Auburn.**

 **Man, Auburn must be really bad.**

 **All of that put together just...makes me nervous. The world isn't supposed to ever be _nice_. The other shoe will drop.**

 _Turquoise Leaf_ **is planning something, I just know it.**

 **Until that hits, enjoy.**

* * *

 **Author's Note 2: After last weeks AN about the story description, I have incorporated your feedback and...the summary hasn't changed. _Yay_ _me._ I might tweak it a bit as the story progresses, but your response was mixed, as some even expressed that the summary had caught your attention and encouraged you to read it. In the end, we're at 557 people who have this story favorited and 747 likes, so clearly it's working well enough. **

_**Although that means that either 190 of you have commitment issues or just haven't yet fully realized the extent of this story's genius... :P**_

 **I did update the thumbnail for the story, for those of you on mobile who see that thumbnail often. Funny story, actually; would you believe me that if I said I did _not_ change it because while scrolling through other fanfics I found one with the same thumbnail as the previous one? It was just a simple pic of the Arc symbol taken off a google search, but seeing someone else using it was a silent challenge.**

 **Never mind that we have more words, chapters, reviews, and likes than the other one. Defeat was admitted and the picture was changed. I stayed up like thirty minutes on my phone one night playing around with pic stitching apps, and I've got three different images to use as the story shifts throughout its planned entirety.**

 **Now, enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 31:** _"You're not the only one who wants to protect their friends." – Yang Xiao Long_

* * *

Qrow's POV

* * *

As far as Bullhead rides with Winter Schnee go, this has not really been all that bad. Ever the uptight one, Winter split her time between trying to interact with the teams and checking up on the pilot, meaning that half of the flight was great. _And hell, all things considered, Winter really hasn't been that bad during the times she was back here with the rest of us._ It certainly helped that it was a short flight; the distance between the city of Vale and Mountain Glenn was decently short. Short enough for Vale's authorities to think that an underground railway between the cities was the best way to get in and out of Mountain Glenn, at least. That could have been out of necessity, since building a road would be even more vulnerable to the Grimm, without even mentioning the 'Mountain' part of Mountain Glenn. _And besides, a railway proved easier to seal off in the end._

Of course, Winter was much more concerned with watching how the teams interacting like a hawk (while pretending not to, terribly) than she was being excessively stuck-up. Being charged by Ozpin with keeping a keen eye on certain parties here was clearly something she was a little over-fixated on, seeing as one of them hadn't even said a word the whole time.

In any case, it meant that the flight was actually kinda relaxing, or as relaxing as a Bullhead full of nervous kids can be. The flight from Beacon to our drop-off was an hour and a half at most, and probably more like an hour and a quarter. Just long enough for a nap, if you ask me, and I certainly wasn't the only one to think so. Sitting in the middle seat on the opposite wall was the Arc kid, leaned back and sound asleep pretty much since takeoff, which stuck out when compared to his peers; the others were clearly too restless to sleep. His two teammates that had similar histories—growing up on their own, that is—both seemed to struggle with nerves, though one was _clearly_ more hyperactive than the other. The only other one here who didn't have a normal upbringing was the White Fang chick from Ruby's team, but she read the whole time instead of trying to sleep, so she wasn't much use in comparing against Jaune.

That he could force himself to relax like that implied that this was not his first time resting before a big mission—as I would know pretty well by this point. The kid led some sort of outlaw life before Beacon, that much Oz believes him on, and with the way he swings a sword, there's no telling just what he might have pulled off in the past. _Mistral's a big place—if that's actually where he's from, and that's a big if—and it would be a waste of time to try to investigate every armed robbery or raiding instance in the past five years._ As far as I'm concerned, it's pretty obvious that he didn't join Beacon for the same reason that Rae and I did, seeing as he's made almost no attempt to blend in and avoid Ozpin's attention. He's also made no attempts to try to kill other students yet, although— _well, no, he did put Ruby in the infirmary once, and his spar with his partner was taken too far also._

…could he…? _No, he's still different from me when I started; he let himself get attached to his friends much faster than I did, though that was more Raven's fault for keeping me 'focused on the mission.'_

None of that makes me feel any better about that fact that Yang sought out the seat next to his and has been there the whole flight. Sure, she tried to be subtle about it, inviting Ruby over to her other side, but at the end of the day she magically ended up next to him, a fact that neither I nor the kid's partner failed to notice. _I'm going to have to ask Tai if he's_ sure _that he doesn't have any bastard kids floating around out there; there's almost no way that he should have two of Beacon's top five most dangerous women wrapped around his finger like that._

I swear I'm never getting sober again if all his attention from Miss Goodwitch makes it three of five.

 _Is it bad that I'm pulling for my niece to lose out in this scenario?_ I'd say no, but I'm sure Yang would disagree, if she would _ever_ admit to it. Taiyang would kill me if I let this Arc kid bring out some of Raven's worst traits in Yang, as if I _needed_ motivation to stop that from happening.

And hell, Yang stabbed him two days ago, but that somehow ended their feud and seems to have brought them closer… _Maybe she's got more of her mother in her than we realized…_

"Alright everyone, _attention!_ " Winter called out as she stepped back out from the cockpit. Most eyes flicked to her, save for the one who was still asleep, who was quickly jostled by the women sitting on both sides of him. Once Winter was satisfied she was being listened to, she continued. "We're five minutes out from the mountain range, and then five minutes after that we're dropping. We have no idea if the White Fang has any sort of radar or posted lookouts, so we're going to hug the mountains and drop over the nearest edge of the city to avoid detection as much as possible. Are there any questions on that?"

"How are we dropping?" Jaune Arc called out, attentive rather than anxious or nervous like his peers.

"Short-range LSDs, staggered over a lateral strafe," Winter answered back very technically. It was clear that she had lost most of the students on that, and even Arc for all of his mysterious background looked to only have understood about half of it. " _LSDs_. Landing-Strategy Drops."

"Oh, yeah. Totally knew that," Ruby laughed off nervously, fooling no one.

"The Bullhead is going fly over the outer edge of the city at about 10 meters. Qrow's team will jump at one location and mine will jump at a second."

"Ooh, who gets what team?" Ruby asked, her eyes widening a bit and flicking towards me in a way that I will never get tired of.

"We're actually breaking the teams up for this assignment, to teach you all how to be adaptable," I answered before Winter could, surprising her as much as the rest of them. I knew that there was _something_ I forgot to tell her about, after all… "I'll be taking Nora, Ren, Winter-lite—" I paused for a moment, both to let the taunt towards both Schnee sisters sink in and to make Ruby wait anxiously. Both worked pretty well. "—and Ruby."

"Indeed," Winter grumbled, adding a glare towards me but otherwise unwilling to rise to the bait. It was clear she saw what I was doing, and wasn't appreciative that I both left her in the dark and off-loaded the work onto her, but something told me she'd have preferred having the important tasks anyways. "That leaves me with Ms. Belladonna, Ms. Xiao Long, Ms. Nikos, and Mr. Arc."

"One hell of a harem," I mumbled at Jaune, not quite caring enough to keep it too quiet to be heard. I was greeted with flat stares (and flat ears from one particular person), which did nothing to make me regret it.

"Still more than you ever seem to get," Yang called back antagonistically, grinning at her own comeback.

"You'll have to forgive me for not hitting on your friends, Firecracker."

"Please don't encourage him," Winter grumbled while sitting herself down and strapping in for the final approach.

"Don't you get any ideas, either," the Belladonna rounded on Jaune, who had almost gotten away with nobody actually denying that he had acquired a harem, and the shit-eating grin on his face told me that he knew _exactly_ how close he was to bringing that up. Her eyes flicked over both Yang and the Nikos girl for a moment. "Or at least leave me out of it…"

" _Excuse me?!_ " Yang cut back at her partner, while Nikos looked equal parts shocked and embarrassed. In likely the smartest move of his life, Jaune Arc remained completely silent.

Lost in the midst of the banter was Ruby, who had gotten out of her seat and made her way over to take a new one right next to me, strapping in for the approach as well. "Uncle Qrow?"

"Yeah, kiddo?"

"Are all missions…like… _this_?"

"And what do you think _this_ is? We haven't even technically _began_ the mission yet…" I answered with a small laugh. Ruby's expression became more nervous as she caught my meaning, before going to a more flat, disappointed look after looking back over the chaos over on Winter's side of the Bullhead. "Let's just say that there's a good reason I work alone these days…"

* * *

The best part of being the _defacto_ leader of our group was that I could force everyone else to jump out of the Bullhead first, and then lazily fly down and transform a few feet above the ground, with no one being the wiser for it. While they all were recovering from hard landings, they were too busy to look up and see me float down after them.

"Alright, we're here!" Ruby called out, her enthusiasm and energy seeping out before she dialed it back. "What's our first move, uncle Qrow?"

"We've got a couple," I answered to get their attention. "Fan out, secure the area, look for any signs of the White Fang, and keep an eye out for Grimm while we're at it."

"How do you want us to split up? Groups of two?" The Schnee girl asked as she walked up next to Ruby, making it clear that they were ready to pair up with their partners; the other two from JNPR were doing the same.

"Nah, too much ground to cover. We'll all split off solo."

"That…" the Schnee started to cut in sassily, before deciding that showing any sort of emotion was beneath a Schnee, I'm sure. "Is it wise to split up in enemy territory?"

"We're not going far, obviously. If you see anything—Grimm or Grimm- _masked_ —you call for backup. Ruby, do you still have our ace in the hole?"

"Ace in the hole?" Nora Valkyrie asked, confused and a little suspicious as Ruby began to take off her backpack.

"Yeah, you think imma let a _Schnee_ be the one to discover the White Fang? As if…"

"Hey…"

"Oh, you don't count," I dismissed towards Winter's sister. "You're not nearly bitchy enough."

" _Hey!_ "

"Taa-daa!" Ruby announced loudly, trying to distract us from our bickering just like Summer used to. _Although with a lot less violent threats; maybe Ruby will grow into those._

" _Woof!_ "

"A dog!"

"A _dog_?"

"A…dog?"

"Not just any dog…but a _good boy!_ " Ruby reassured while giving Zwei a belly-rub. He deserved it for keeping quiet the whole flight over, too, because as much fun as it is to antagonize Winter, fighting over Zwei's inclusion in the mission was not something I looked forward to. " _Oh, who's a good boy?!_ "

"Ruby, _why_ did you bring Zwei on a dangerous, potentially life-or-death mission?" Weiss asked, trying to calm herself by pinching the bridge of her nose. Really, she looked like she was ashamed of being surprised by the action.

"I asked uncle Qrow!" Ruby deflected with all the grace of a drunken elephant.

"Zwei is fine," I reassured, for what good it would do. "We got him for Tai a few years ago as a, uh, gift." By 'gift,' I mean a hail-marry on my part to keep Tai from being too depressed about his shitty lot in life. _Less of a 'gift' and more of a 'sorry that your first wife left you and your daughter, and your second, better wife died and left you and both your daughters' reward._ In hindsight, it's extremely lucky that Tai doesn't look at Zwei as a reminder of the reasons that I bought him. Maybe that's why he sent him to Beacon with the girls… "He may be cute, but that corgi is a trained death machine."

Weiss, Ren, and Nora all looked to said death machine, only to be disappointed as he was still on his back, with his tongue hanging out, receiving a belly-rub.

"I'm petrified," Weiss drawled, doing her best impersonation of Winter. The corners of her mouth twitched upwards the longer she looked at the dog, though, meaning that she wasn't all _that_ upset at Zwei's presence.

"Eh, okay, he's still a _corgi_ , but he's trained and he's got aura. He'll be fine."

I didn't need to explain things any further, as the compulsion of petting a dog overrode any concerns about having said dog, and even the Ice Princess fully smiled at the thing. Zwei certainly enjoyed making the rounds and having everyone shower him with attention, so much so that he might have even known that was going to happen when he got into Ruby's backpack earlier. The dog was smart, that was for sure.

"Alright, time to split up. Who wants me first?"

"Uh, what?"

"You four split up, and I come talk with you one at a time. Who wants to go first?"

"Uh…shouldn't you split up too?" The Schnee asked, giving me an uncertain look. "You know, to cover more ground?"

" _Yes_ , that would make the most sense, but I'm not allowed to," I answered back with just enough tone to make it obvious that this wasn't my preferred outcome. "As your facilitating Huntsman, I'm required to split each of you off from the group and talk to you about your futures or something. Subtly, of course, but I don't really care all that much."

"Uncle Qrow! That's mean!"

"Which is why _I_ have you four, and _Winter_ has the four difficult students…"

"Huh?"

"You're telling me," the Schnee started slowly for emphasis, "that you split the teams up solely to make your job easier?!"

"Um, yes. Does that surprise you?"

There was silence from everyone, with the most definitive answer being Ruby shaking her head slightly.

"Wait, why are _we_ the easy students?" Nora cut in, clearly a little jealous that she wasn't on that short list.

"Well, you four are pretty easy to sum up," I answered simply.

"Uh huh," Winter's sister cut in unimpressed, forcing me to choose her first.

"Let's see: you're a Huntress because of daddy issues," I began, pointing loosely to Weiss, who choked on air for a moment, "you are an agent of chaos and a good kid, and you're dedicated to limiting her damage," I said, switching over to Ren and Nora, respectively, "and you are just like your mom."

"Uh, that's not exactly very thorough," Ren commented. Nora and Ruby were both nodding along with my analysis, with Ruby trying to hide from me how much the comparison meant to her.

It probably wouldn't help to let her know just how much she _looked_ like Summer when she smiled like that, too. _Dammit, where'd I put my flask?_

Mini-Schnee still hadn't quite recovered from my assessment yet.

"Eh, it's close enough. The other side's a lot more confusing, trust me."

"How so?" Ruby asked innocently.

"Well, for starters, you have some sort of four-way love triangle developing, and—"

"Three-way," Weiss cut in, deciding it best not to respond to my 'daddy issues' comment. "I seriously doubt that Blake is involved in that."

"Really? You sure?" I asked, only to be greeted by semi-confident assurances from all four. "Huh."

"It's really only two, since Yang doesn't count either. I mean, she just _stabbed_ Jaune, like, two days ago…" Ruby added on. "Right, guys?"

There were no replies to her, and all three of them did their best to avoid eye-contact with Ruby.

" _Right, guys?_ "

"Four or three doesn't matter; either way, Blake's got that whole 'White Fang' past that makes her more difficult than all of you combined."

"GUYS! Am I missing something here?!"

"Then you've got Pyrrha, who could be just as successful as a full-time pro fighter as she could a Huntress, which could complicate things. It means she chose this life, which means she had a _reason_ to…"

"By that logic, I should be over there, too," Weiss cut in. "I chose being a Huntress over an easier life, too."

"Yeah, but unless you're actually a heartless bitch, being Jacque Schnee's understudy isn't much of an option."

There was a bit of tension in response to that, but only at first. The more seconds ticked by, the less anger the Schnee had at me, because I was pretty dead on the money.

" _Why. Won't. Anyone. Answer. Me?!_ "

"You've also got Yang, who…eh, she's just as boring as you guys, but there are a couple of complicating things with her…" _Namely, the fact that she's on Ozpin's shortlist (with Pyrrha) and her mother is a glaring issue._ "All of that isn't including any sort of love triangle complications, which you _do not_ want me handling."

Not that you want _Winter Schnee_ handling emotional matters, either, but better the prude than the drunk, I guess.

"And then there's _Jaune_ ," Nora finished for me, leaving it at that is if it was explanation on its own.

"Yeah, then _that_."

I might still swap over for a chat with Yang—Tai _will_ kill me if I don't at least _try_ to look out for her, after all—but there's no way in hell I'm getting stuck talking about all of those problems. _Certainly not with what little alcohol I have with me._

* * *

Winter's POV

* * *

"Behind you, Miss Nikos," I called out in warning, not wanting to startle the girl. With championship-level reflexes came championship-level reactions, and causing either of us to take an aura hit because she flinched at my sudden presence would have been unfortunate.

"I know," the girl called back, not turning to view me but acknowledging my presence nonetheless. "I heard your footsteps."

She had, had she? More than just detecting _someone_ was there, she didn't seem surprised at my voice, meaning that she had deduced _who_ solely from footfalls. Attention to detail and acute alertness, then, showing that she wasn't complacent to depend on her talent; she has battlefield acumen, or at least as much as she seemingly can get through controlled spars. Given her place on Ozpin's list of candidates, such traits were more than just a boon; they will save her life.

 _That is, if she is considered worthy of the burden, and that's what I'm here to help determine._ Amongst other things.

"That's quite aware of you," I pointed out, taking my time with how I wanted to approach this conversation. "Most of your peers would either have not heard me or not been paying enough attention to know which person I was. Where have you learned such discipline?"

"Discipline?" The girl repeated, testing out the word and apparently not finding it to be the one she would have used. "When I first started fighting, it was my fear of losing that forced me to become disciplined. After a while, my competitiveness drove me, and then in my last year of fighting it was the fear of being exposed by someone that drove my discipline."

" _Exposed_?"

"Not…exposed, I guess," she responded softly, taking the term back. "I was on a pedestal, and had a three-year win-streak. Part of me _wanted_ a challenge, but the rest of me was terrified of what would happen if I found one."

 _Her worry was not without its merit, given her sparring incident earlier this semester._ It wouldn't do to bring that, and her partner, up quite yet.

"Still, I heard no mention of any specific _person_ driving that discipline. Would you have me believe that you've done this all yourself?"

"I…guess so, yes," she answered weakly, wilting under the bit of pressure I put behind my words. "I've always been the one to focus myself, so I guess that means it's been mostly self-discipline."

"Do not shy away from that, then," I instructed firmly. Her wilting demeanor was already starting to annoy me, seeing as no one with such strength and discipline should allow themselves to be so weak in other areas. "Nearly all young fighters need their head set straight by an outside force, typically a tutor or instructor; that you have done it yourself since a young age is remarkable, not detestable. Take pride in it."

In that specific regard, she was much like my younger self. I too had no specific _person_ in my ear, teaching me the discipline that all combatants must have, but I did have the crushing weight of circumstance to sober me up. _Although significantly different in circumstance, it would appear that we achieved comparable results through comparable means._

"That's not the reason, though."

"Beg pardon?"

"You praised my self-discipline as the reason I knew it was you that was behind me, but that wasn't because of that."

"What was, then?"

"I've…been making it a point to be aware of as much of my surroundings as I can, at all times. It's an area I need to improve in." Her words weren't laced with self-pity or uncertainty, though, instead spoken with a simplicity and an air of finality. It was a fact she had accepted without compromising it with emotion, and her solution was implemented as such. _Another striking similarity, although I did not have the privilege of being the one to point out most of my shortcomings._

For the sake of those similarities, I decided not to point out to her that what she was describing—identifying and fixings one's flaws without assistance—was an extremely poignant example of self-discipline. _If she felt that is was different, then she perhaps has a reason she has not yet communicated, and one that I would be interested to hear._

"It is a seemingly insignificant, yet crucial skill to have, both on the battlefield and off of it," I commented, affirming to her that I agreed with her decision to pursue the skill. _It would serve her well_. "I have, however, seen film from many of your matches in preparation for this mission—Headmaster Ozpin was gracious enough to lend me information on those under my charge, seeing as I have no prior experience with most of you. That said, I cannot ever say that I found your situational awareness lacking, or even average; from what I have seen, you have had no issues dispatching several opponents at once, which displays remarkable awareness. Why do you feel this is a shortcoming?"

Based on her reaction, I thought that I might have phrased the inquiry too precisely, or struck at the root of an issue without easing my way to it. _So be it, then; I'll have my answers either way, I suppose._

Pyrrha Nikos, who had been searching through some nearby rubble for any clues as to the area's activity, stopped and stood up straight, before turning to face me.

"Jaune is…" the girl began to answer quickly, before trailing off and rethinking her words. "…better than me at it."

"I see," I responded, face neutral so as to not give my thoughts away. _That was the biggest drawback to her candidacy—any potential emotional baggage or over-attachments to what could be seen as weaknesses._ That was not by any stretch dismissing Jaune Arc as a weak individual, but rather his unpredictability and unknown motivations were an undue influence that needed to be monitored, at the least. That she spoke of him with a little bit of shame was alarming; was she merely ashamed of someone being better than her at something? That spoke of arrogance, to think one perfect in all areas. _Or was she ashamed to bring up Mr. Arc because she is aware of the reasons that he is problematic?_ "A little competition is not anything to shy away from, either; _iron sharpens iron_ , as they say."

"It's not just that he's more aware of the surroundings; that's part of it, yeah, but he…" Ms. Nikos trailed off, staring off at the pavement for a few moments. "Do you know what people mean when they talk about the ' _flow of a battle_ '?"

"I do, yes," I answered easily. Any Huntsman or Huntress that had ever been in a close spar knew the feeling, even if they weren't aware enough to label it as such during the moment. There was an ebb and flow to all engagements, a rhythm between combatants, and learning to both understand and utilize that flow was a difficult and high-end accomplishment for any fighter.

"Jaune doesn't _just_ go with the flow of a fight. More than anyone I've ever faced, he _controls_ that flow, without fail." She stopped to let the words sink in, and I considered their implications for a few moments. Influencing the flow of a fight was sometimes a simple thing, even so simple as being the first to initiate an attack, and in other times it was nearly impossible. It certainly wasn't a skill that came easily, as you must first be so experienced in battle as to understand how the flow affects both parties. Only once you have that established can you _attempt_ to do things to disrupt that flow in a way that only impacts your opponent. All of that had to be done without losing focus on the fight itself; there was no magical property to the concept of the flow that would protect you from making a mistake or being too slow.

"It's so subtle that I'm not sure if he's consciously doing it. Our spars will naturally flow towards a certain types of fighting, and before long it feels like he's anticipating your moves _because_ he's controlling them."

"That is certainly the hallmark of an experienced fighter," I commented, not thinking of anything else pertinent to add. I had briefly learned from older fighters who had much the same quality—this pervasive sense that whatever you did, you were playing into their hands. As age whittles away at strength and speed, your mind becomes your first and last resort in a battle. _What I have not seen is that ability in anyone younger than, say, fifty, and even then, it has always been a conscious ability._ And that wasn't even to say that it was a fool-proof thing, as I had overcome such tactics in my own spars due to my youth and speed over those opponents. Granted, Atlas was not the first place to look for such fighters, it being a more militaristic and gun-warfare oriented society. Mistral, and to a lesser extent Vacuo, were known for keeping such traditions alive, whether through formal settings, or just the nature of the people Vacuo tended to attract.

"I'll go back over the fight and realize that all the other ways the fight could have gone would have worked in my favor better, if I hadn't been led away from them." The girl stopped what she was doing again to reset herself with a huff of breath. "That's not to say that my advantages in other areas don't make up for this gap between us, but it's a personal goal to approach combat the same way he does."

"How do you think he came by this sense? Do you believe that this could be spontaneous, or learned through experimentation?" My question, I will admit, was loaded, as I was looking to see what she suspected of his origins—or if she _knew_ of them and hadn't told.

"Ever since I've noticed it, I've gotten better at it, but only by facing it repeatedly," she began to answer, setting her conclusion up before pausing. "I think the only way he _could_ have learned it is by doing the same—that he repeatedly fought someone with the same ability. And…given his _other_ views on combat…"

She trailed off, her voice growing quiet and uncertain towards the end.

"It is not likely that he learned through _friendly_ spars, at least not in our sense," I finished for her, vocalizing what were clearly her concerns. "And given his ability to rapidly heal, it's quite possible that whoever taught him would have gone until blood was drawn—or further." Most of the information was not new, but it might further refine the criteria for whomever his teacher was; given miss Nikos' intuition, their skill would have to be top-rate, and they would likely be hardened individuals. There were several such fighters wandering Remnant, in all sorts of roles ranging from assassins to Huntsmen to nomads, but they all shared a common trait: they were dangerous. It was impossible to keep track of all the great fighters on Remnant, simply because the wilds were a dangerous place and often bred powerful people who have never visited a proper city.

It isn't uncommon for Salem's forces to reappear every five to ten years with a new, unknown person who burst forth on the scene by killing someone that was seen as untouchable. _As far as I am aware, Summer Rose was the last victim to be made an example of in such a manner._

That provides as good of a pivot in topic as any, I suppose. Pyrrha Nikos' technical skill was not the limiting factor in her consideration for Maidenhood, after all, and dwelling on the finer points of her skill was a waste of time.

"You certainly speak _very highly_ of your partner, miss Nikos."

The girl went a bit stiff for a moment while she was looking through the busted window of an old shop, but otherwise tried not to react to my words. That it was obvious that she was trying was all I really needed to see.

"Why shouldn't I?" She challenged back after waiting a few moments. "It's no secret that he's good; not since our first spar, anyways…"

"So you would say that your opinion of him is based entirely on his performance as a student Huntsman?" I asked, hiding the bemusement from my voice. I am amused, too, that she thinks she can or should try to hide this from me. _Given the nature of students to gossip, miss Nikos' affection for her partner is one of the single largest open secrets at Beacon._ It took me all of fifteen minutes of looking into Jaune Arc to find someone willing to point his partner's feelings out.

"I…"

She did not finish her sentence, and still had not turned to face me once more.

"He has other qualities that are good, too," she finally responded, her voice a little softer and less certain now; she likely knew that she was as good as caught—which she was—and dreaded this conversation continuing.

"I'm certain he does," I added blankly. "Just as I'm certain that you're not the only one to take note of those other _qualities_ of his recently."

 _That_ got a visible reaction, as she turned half-way towards me in an animated manner, before stopping herself mid-way and staring down at the ground once more.

"I suppose that this situation brings forth a lesson that I'm certain you've never had to learn before…" I stated pointedly as it became clearly that she was biting her tongue, whether out of embarrassment, awkwardness, or principle. I suppose that I also cannot hold that against her too harshly, because were I in her shoes, I would not be willing to advertise my weaknesses either. _Then again, I would not be in this situation in the first place._ A Schnee took what they wanted when they wanted it, or so father always said, and in affairs physical, I had applied this strategy before.

My words caught her off-guard enough to get her to look to me, if only out of curiosity for what lesson I could be referring to.

"Not every battle is worth winning; a pyrrhic victory, if you would. Sometimes, you come out better for losing the fight."

The girl stared at me blankly for a few moments, letting my words sort themselves out for a few moments, before reacting to them poorly. An…understandable reaction, given the roles between us.

"And what makes you think that _this_ is one of those times?" Pyrrha Nikos asked pointedly, a bit of anger and defensiveness rising up in her. She never let herself be impolite, but only a fool would have missed the way her eyes cut at me.

"Despite whatever you may see in him, surely you cannot argue that he would not be an unsavory influence over you," I answered carefully and deliberately, taking note of her reaction. She did not like my assertion, not in the least, and the vigor with which she rose against it was a welcome change in demeanor from the shy girl she had been moments ago. _Whether or not I agree with her decisions, a temperament to defend them is certainly a better quality for a Maiden than the willingness to allow one to be trampled._

"Why would you say _that_?!"

"His past is unknown," I answered simply. "And what we do know of it is rather unsavory. He has never had the opportunity to develop a sense of morality or ethicality. He grew up a bandit, and has only known a life of crime."

"And you're going to hold that _against him_?" She asked, letting an angry silence follow her words. "We shouldn't write people off because they haven't ever learned why right is right and wrong is wrong; we should offer them the chance to _learn it for themselves._ That's why Jaune is in Beacon—"

"He's told you as much himself?" I asked condescendingly, seeking to undermine her argument and begin to allow her to see what she has blinded herself to.

" _Yes_ ," she responded firmly, with a hint of smugness, to my slight surprise. I hid it well, I'm certain, but her reaction seemed as if she had perceived it. "He's _told us_ that he wants to be here, and he wants our help." Her tone was defensive but soft when talking of her partner, but now shifted colder and more confrontational. "Headmaster Ozpin said that he wants us to help as much as Jaune will let us; that he's seen it work before. With Mr. Branwen, actually."

"Not exactly the best example," I shot back at the girl dismissively. Qrow Branwen was a lot of things, but a model gentleman was not one of them. As far as role models, I would be hard-pressed to pick one who was any worse without technically being a bad influence. "Qrow is not exactly a model of reformed discipline."

"No, but he's the one that was chosen to lead this mission," she cut back aggressively, meeting my gaze with an equally stern one. "Over you and your 'discipline,' too, so you'll forgive us if we're not trying to turn our friend into _you_."

With that, she made it clear that the conversation was over, turning sharply away from me and resuming her investigation of the area with a clear disregard for my presence.

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

There were several small piles of rubble strewn about the street, providing ample cover for my approach. The last one was around ten feet away from my target, who was patrolling through the streets seemingly aimlessly. It being broad daylight, I didn't have the option for stealth in the traditional sense, so I had to make do with what I had: rocks. Pebbles, really, but small pieces of rubble nonetheless.

My target was at least ahead of me, meaning I could throw a pebble up towards a building or far side of the street without being noticed. I did so once, and my target's head whipped towards the direction of the noise, stopping in the street for a few moments to listen for activity.

A second, slightly larger pebble landed on the other side of the street in front of my target, making their head weapon nervously to that side now. Cautiously, my target inched towards the cause of the noise while arming themselves.

I made my move, chunking the largest of my three pebbles back towards the building again, aiming for what used to be a window-front of a store. As the rock traveled in the air, I quietly mantled over the rubble pile I was in and began sprinting for my target.

"SHOW YOURSELF!" she screamed as my third pebble landed, creating extra noise as it kicked around shards of glass that had been busted out long ago.

She noticed my footsteps behind her and panicked, spinning around fist-first with a gleam of panic in her eyes.

"Hi Yang!" I chimed innocently, channeling my best Ruby impersonation, after having ducked Yang's blind swing.

"GAH— _Jaune!_ " Yang exclaimed, the words somehow both dying in her throat and sounding extremely upset. "Why did—were you _trying_ to—what the hell!?"

"Did I…scare you?" I asked with a grin.

"You did _not_ —" Yang cut herself off as I obviously trailed my attention over to the abandoned shop that she was about to destroy not moments ago. "You're a dead man; you know that, right?"

"Gee, you sound just like your mother…" I drawled back, only realizing after the words had left my mouth that they might not be the wisest thing to say under this, or any, circumstance. Fortunately, Yang either didn't pay attention to it or decided not to react to it.

"What are you even _doing_ here? We were supposed to split up!"

"Yeah, well…what can I say, it was boring out there…"

" _Boring_?" Yang repeated incredulously. "We're hunting the White Fang! Why aren't you nervous?!"

I gave Yang a flat look for that; it was a pretty stupid question, all things (that she knew about me) considered. "What are they going to do, incase me in ice and stab me?" She winced at that, making it clear that my point was made. "Besides, we're hunting the same White Fang that let you and me sneak into their rally with some of the lamest excuses ever; if they're out here, chances are they're stupid enough to advertise their location."

"I…well, yeah. They weren't exactly well-run in Vale…"

A convenient excuse for me, naturally. My reason for not wanting to look for the White Fang was that I had stock in Torchwick for intelligence and resources that I would need to have a chance of escaping Raven. And since Torchwick was more or less running Vale's White Fang scene for his—and Cinder's—benefit, it made sense to not actively seek them out for now. _And if I could somehow confirm Cinder as the Fall Maiden's competition, then having done her a few unsolicited favors could not hurt that either._ Yang didn't need to know that the reason our disguise at the rally had worked was because I was behind planning the rally, or at least she didn't need to know that for my excuse here to work; the Fang's reputation had labeled them pretty incompetent, and that worked for me.

As much about me as Yang may know, that didn't mean there still weren't some secrets I'd prefer to keep for now, and not even really to protect myself. After what happened with Raven, I'd doubt that Yang would hold anything that I've already done against me, but what good would telling her do me now? _She'd be forced to carry on like normal, knowing that every time I wasn't around I could be out rubbing elbows with terrorists._ As nice as it may be to have someone to talk to, I don't want to drag her into the muck that I'm stuck in. It was bad enough that I was betraying Blake's trust like this. I don't want to have to live with the fact that I am driving a wedge between Yang and Blake if I can avoid it.

"Besides, I wanted to see which of you Winter would go for first," I added on as Yang and I began walking the abandoned streets of Vale.

"What do you mean?"

"For our first-year missions, our facilitating Huntsman or Huntress is supposed to break us off individually and get us to talk…" I explained casually, despite the uncertain look from Yang. "Stuff like why we want to be Huntsmen, what our plans for the future are, have we ever killed anyone… You know, the important stuff."

"Have we ever—" Yang cut herself off from repeating that question, either finding it ridiculous or _hoping_ that it was so. "How do you know all of this?"

"Raven told me," I answered, watching Yang's reaction more closely than I let on. She didn't react poorly to the name, which makes me feel like we're past that stage where the thought of my past angered her. _Getting stabbed earns you Yang's sympathy, it seems._ "Back when she was training me to get into Beacon without being caught, that is. That _last_ question was one that she got asked, and not one she answered truthfully…" I ended with a small laugh, more to keep things from sounding too dark.

"I bet," Yang grumbled, a little agitation _not_ directed at me seeping through. "And how would _you_ have answered?" Her tone was playful, though there was certainly an underlying attempt at getting information out of me.

"Well, _I_ wouldn't have needed to lie," I answered with mock-indignation. " _I_ am a good person, after all, the people I've killed notwithstanding."

The way I played my answer off worked, as it took a second before the realization hit Yang, though once it did I could _feel_ her eyes on me.

"You…?"

"Yeah, I have," I answered so that she wouldn't have to actually ask. It was hard not to roll my eyes just a little, which feels like it should make things worse. There was a little shock in Yang's expression, mixed in with a sort of sad look she gave me; somehow, the lack of any anger there only made me feel worse. "I told myself that I wouldn't fight for Raven during her raids, that I would only go to heal people. Then once I started joining the fights, I told myself it was only to keep people from being hurt; I could disarm combatants and knock them unconscious where the other bandits wouldn't have cared.

"For the most part, I stuck to that, but it…it wasn't enough. I made one final promise to myself, one last line in the sand: I would not kill anyone who didn't deserve it. _No innocents_ , I told myself. If someone attacked the Tribe, I'd fight to protect us, but if _we_ attacked someone else, they did not deserve to die for that."

"That's…" Yang trailed off, uncertain of what to say but unwilling to be silent any longer. "I don't know. It's not like you were in the best spot, and…you did try to avoid innocent people. That counts for something…"

"Yeah, well…" I trailed off for a bit, and Yang looked up at me when I didn't confirm her sentiment. "The day that I broke that promise was the same one that I demanded out of the Tribe."

" _Oh._ " Yang didn't have anything else to say, and even that was laced with a lot of emotion behind it that I didn't care to dig into. _Either she'd hold it against me out of anger, or she would forgive it out of pity; neither option really sound that great._ "Do you…want to talk about it?"

"I don't know, do you really want to hear the details about how I ended the lives of innocent people?"

I didn't look towards her, but I heard Yang take a deep breath from next to me, and let it out sharply.

"Alright, asshole," Yang's voice shifted suddenly, surprising me, but not as much as the light punch in the shoulder did. "You're really dramatic, you know that? I've _already_ decided to blame Raven for pretty much everything she's made you do, and yet you're over here trying to make things as bad as possible…throwing some sort of weird pity party. I get it, you did bad stuff, but you didn't _want_ to, and you're trying to get away from her. _That's_ the important part. You're not going to make me change my mind by telling me more of what she had you do."

"She didn't _make_ me do everything, Yang."

"Yeah, but she sure influenced everything," Yang cut back sharply. "She basically raised you, so the fact that you _aren't_ a horrible person who would abandon your friends and teammates means a lot. If you're ready to move on from all this, then it's time for us to talk about our next move."

" _Our_ next move?" I asked pointedly.

"That's what I said, isn't it?"

" _My_ next move is going to be more of what I'm already doing; working behind the scenes with—with Neo, and her connections, to figure out how I'm going to escape, and in the meanwhile, I'm going to keep doing want Raven wants me to," I answered very stiffly, making it clear through my tone and posture that those plans were, indeed, for _me_. In case that wasn't enough, though… " _You_ aren't going to get dragged into this business, so I would imagine that you would focus on being a normal student."

"And leave you alone in this mess?" Yang asked loudly, making it clear she wasn't backing down, and that I would have to force her out of this. _And I will, if she's going to force my hand._ "Nuh uh, nope. You are clearly in over your head here, and the last time I saw you try to be diplomatic you ended up getting stabbed!"

"I'd have it noted that I at least stabbed first," I grumbled, more to avoid not having a reply immediately. "Yang, I'm working on this; I don't need you to get your hands dirty for me."

"Oh, you're _working_ on it? Jaune, you've got a psycho who can create portals and—and use _magic_ on one hand, and you're getting involved with Vale's underworld with the other—and don't think I don't know that Neo's a criminal of _some_ kind! You've got all that, and how close are you to getting it working?"

Yang's words hung in the air, and she was making my point without realizing it. In fact, our points were the same: that I was seemingly doomed to fail here.

"You _need_ my help, Jaune, and I _want_ to help."

"I don't want you _to_ help, Yang! Do you think I can't see this is going poorly?" I let the words hang for a few moments, giving me time to come down off my outburst. "I'm looking at a longshot, and I don't know if adding you will change all that much—no offense to you, but you haven't even seen Raven on top of her game yet." _And you know nothing about Ozpin, Salem, the Maidens…nothing of power, not yet._ "We're…playing for keeps, Yang. One way or another, this all ends…violently. I am not willing to bet your life on the same odds that mine was bet on, okay? I refuse to drag you down with me."

There was a tense silence for a few moments as Yang and I exchanged intense stares, each of us feeling out how committed the other was to their goals.

"Okay, okay," Yang called out softly, deescalating things between us and drawing us back in. "I get that you want to protect your friends, Jaune, but don't forget that I'm the same way. I want to protect you, too, and you're the one who needs it most."

I opened my mouth to object to that, but a sharp glare from Yang killed the words in my throat.

"I'm not saying to just throw me between you and the wolves, but I am saying that I can help you make this possible. I…could distract Raven to buy you some time; she seemed interested in keeping an eye on me once she found out I was…uh…"

"On the short list," I filled in for her, not that she would know much else about said list.

"Yeah, _that_ ," Yang agreed. "If I'm supposed to get some…some sort of power, and she wants to control it…she would want to meet me, wouldn't she?"

"Careful, Yang," I warned, the fear that Yang might be putting too much into that idea of a meeting. _Raven would only want to try that if Yang was looking for guidance, or to see what she was missing out from her absentee mother, and if Yang put too much importance into that meeting, Raven could actually get her claws into her._

"Give me a little credit, Jaune; I'm not doing this because I'm desperate to find my mom, not anymore. Seeing what passes as a friendly argument between you two jarred me out of having any sorts of delusions about who exactly she is. What I'm saying," Yang pivoted here, drawing my attention in further, "is that if Raven spends a lot of time meeting with me and trying to convince me to think like her, then that's a lot of time she's _not_ thinking about you. You could even impress her by 'convincing me' to meet with her and keep it secret, which could buy you time, too. Would…that work?"

"It…could, maybe," I allowed, thinking on it further. Raven would absolutely jump at the chance to bend the ear of another Maiden, especially if she could do so from underneath Ozpin and Qrow's noses, but if that person was Yang? That would be too good to pass up, even for her, and that could actually be its own issue. She would be wary of such a coincidence, but the idea had already been planted in her mind at this point, and she hadn't dismissed it out of hand. With a few well-placed reports on Yang indicating that she struggles with abandonment and desires stability, Raven very well could come to the conclusion that she could fill that role. _She's already testing the waters around acquiring a second Maiden; this would be a perfect storm for her._ "There's only one drawback."

"What's that?"

"I…don't actually think that you're going to be the next Maiden. I think it's going to be Pyrrha."

"But you said that they wouldn't pick Pyrrha because of you," Yang pointed out, slightly confused.

"Yeah, well, I played that angle up for Raven. You're still probably high on their list, but Raven is a bigger drawback to you than I am to Pyrrha, and Qrow is Ozpin's right-hand man; he would know that Raven would try to interfere. With that being about equal, Pyrrha is an obvious first choice."

"You lied to her?" Yang asked, surprised and somewhat impressed.

"Yeah. Not something I can get away with often, either, but it worked out big here."

"Does…does that matter, though? That it's not true?" Yang asked, giving me an expectant and hopeful look. "If Raven thinks its me, then she'll still be distracted by me, right?"

"It would work," I confirmed, my thoughts already beginning to get away from me.

As it stands now, there's three likely ways the Maidenhood plays out. Option one is Pyrrha and option two is Yang. In either case, Yang would distract Raven and possibly work as a peace offering between the two of us; at the least, it might lessen some tensions that were just created. I would certainly feel better about laying plans with Yang there to deflect some attention, and I could do it all while keeping Yang _out_ of the business with Torchwick.

Option three, however, was where a bit of chaos was thrown into the mix: the outside threat claims the Maidenhood. Even if my suspicions of Cinder Fall turn out true, that puts my biggest hope for leverage against Raven out of my reach. Sure, I was a distant ally of Cinder's at the moment, but she doesn't seem the type to do favors for nothing. Maybe I could slide closer to them, ingratiate myself with her and her crew, and give Raven another thing to consider when weighing the cost of my death, but that was all predicated on 1) Cinder not seeing through it and 2) Cinder actually being the one after the Fall Maiden. If it was someone else entirely, this all fell apart.

Which means that I would need much more time to figure out how to counter Raven's strengths. I would need to last all four years of Beacon without things boiling over, and at the rate things have been going recently, that looks unlikely.

… _unless Yang and I get close enough that Raven won't risk harming me for fear of losing her grip over Yang, Maiden or not_. That risks Yang actually listening to Raven, but right now that feels like the lowest risk of all.

"Okay," I relented, finally.

" _Okay_ okay?!"

I nodded quietly.

"Yes!" Yang exclaimed dramatically, shaking a fist in the air in celebration. She ran forward a few steps ahead of me down the street, turning around to talk back as she worked out her celebratory energy. I had to fight to not roll my eyes, a fight which I lost.

"I'll let you help me by distracting Raven, but that's it. I'll work with you to prepare for meeting with her, and we can discuss things related to that, but I draw the line at you getting involved in everything else."

"You'll _draw the line_ , huh?" Yang asked with a grin that made me nervous. "You haven't been very good at sticking to those…"

"I don't know what you're implying," I lied, doing my best 'prude Weiss' impersonation. _Maybe we should just call that a 'Winter' impersonation from now on._ "I don't think it deserves a response…"

"Whatever you say," Yang dismissed, still bouncing around in the street with much more energy than I felt was necessary for effectively joining my death-march. " _Secret Team JY_ is officially in business!"

"Needs more letters," I antagonized, trying my hardest not to grin a little. Sometimes, it was hard to see how she and Ruby were related. This was not one of those times, and despite myself, her energy was infectious. "Go ahead and throw Neo's name in there, too, I guess."

" _Secret Team JYN_?"

"Yeah, sure." Torchwick could also have been thrown in there if we were including Neo, but somehow I thought it best to keep that detail under wraps. _With the R from Roman and the L from Yang's last name, we could be Team JNRL, or Team General._ It worked, so long as you pronounced the sound each letter made separately.

Hey, anything was better than _Juniper_ , really. A plant? How was that intimidating at all? At least Ruby had her team named after—

A sudden shift in the concrete beneath me threw my stomach for a loop and stopped me dead in my tracks, and not for motion sickness. I froze, doing my best to figure out what it was, and when I looked up I saw that Yang had not noticed and was still prancing around a few feet ahead of me.

Before I could call out to her to be careful, the asphalt that we were standing on began to crumble and give way, starting directly underneath Yang.

"Jaune! Look out!" Yang cried out as the ground beneath her feet gave out and she fell through the street into some sort of sinkhole.

Barely a moment later, the hole expanded past where I was standing, sending me falling through a large drop-off into some sort of cavern, with several large rockfaces to bounce off on the way down.

The sound of Yang letting out a startled and pained cry from somewhere, followed by the impact of one of those rockfaces, was the last thing I experienced before the world went dark.

* * *

The world did not stay dark long, as a combination of curling up into a ball as I fell mixed with a liberal application of my Semblance kept me from being knocked completely out. I tried to reach out and boost Yang's aura as well, but I was just jostled around too much as I fell to have any idea which way to reach out.

I used my Semblance to heal what injuries I had, but it did nothing to lessen how dazed I was, which meant that I had hit my head on the way down. Possibly concussed if aura couldn't heal it immediately, but nothing major as I could push myself up and walk around fine. Just a bit out of it.

What was I doing again?

 _Oh, yeah. Yang._

I looked around and saw a yellow mass laying face-down on the ground a few yards away, and shuffled over to it and as soon as I saw it. A wave of panic washed over me as I approached Yang's still body, and I pushed my Semblance out towards her as I approached. I felt her aura there and amplified it, but without her awake to consciously direct it, the best it could do is stabilize her injuries.

I forced myself to calm down and sit down on my knees next to her once I realized that she couldn't be dead; dead people didn't _have_ aura for me to interact with. I tried nudging her awake, but she didn't react at all, clearly out for the count.

Worse still, the sound of voices and footsteps racing towards me finally registered in my brain, and it wasn't like I had time to hide both of us.

"Ah, _great_ ," I mumbled under my breath as I looked up to an unfortunately-large number of White Fang grunts surrounding us. I rose to my feet in front of Yang, though with the way they circled back around I wouldn't be able to protect her well at all.

I was still armed, but that did very little to me. There were around twenty of them, and under any other circumstance, I would say that I was surrounded by twenty dead men. Hell, even still dazed I would take my chances, but I wasn't the one I was worried about here. More than half of the White Fang were armed with rifles, while the other half had spears and heavy melee weapons; anti-Grimm weaponry. With Yang unconscious, any stray bullet would find no aura to stop it from harming her. _One stray bullet would mean death._

And that was only if they didn't _intentionally_ shoot her when they realized that they were going to lose anyways.

There was only one option.

"We surrender," I called out, making a show of keeping my hands in the air, but not dropping my weapons. "We demand to be taken to your leaders."

 _Roman_ , I thought somewhere in my mind. _Vale's White Fang would at least have to talk to the Mountain Glenn White Fang, right?_ He could get us released, or at least held as peaceful prisoners for now.

"What are Huntsmen doing here?"

"I don't like this."

"We shouldn't give them a chance."

"Yeah, take them out while we can!"

"You _idiots_ ," I called out loudly as it became increasingly clearer that there wasn't anyone in the group with any authority over them. It was literally just a pack of grunts, with no one to do the thinking for them. "If you kill us now you won't find out _how_ we found you."

There was silence after that, discounting some whispering among those closest to each other.

"That's a good point."

"We only need the talkative one."

"Yeah, take him alive and that's it."

"I said," I shouted this time as I pulled Angau Glas off my back, " _WE_ surrender."

" _Get them!_ "

A wave of panic shot over me as one of the rifleman in front of me began to point his weapon from me to Yang. If this was going to work, they were going to have to see me as such a great threat that me offering to peacefully surrender was a lucky break to them, and the only way to do that was to _slaughter_ a couple of them first. The drawback there being that with every second the fight went on, Yang was more and more likely to be killed, accidentally or otherwise.

The first to die was the rifleman in front of me. My only ranged option was Angau Glas, which I swung in a large arc in that dude's direction. With a small flex of aura into the handle, the outer shell detached and was slung at the rifleman, impaling him center mass. Either he had no aura or he wasn't paying attention to me; didn't make any difference to me, or the other grunts who reacted visibly to their comrade's sudden death.

 _That's right, focus on me, the monster before you._

It worked well enough, as soon dust rounds began to ping off my aura, chipping away at it slowly. In a risky ploy, I took my time walking the the hailstorm of bullets as I charged the ranks next to where my first victim had stood. I batted away the end of a spear with a half-sword grip as I charged a spearman, implanting the end of Angau Glas's broadsword form into his throat.

Sure enough, as I pulled it out and he slumped to the ground, blood gargling as he gasped for air, the bullets dried up. After all, who would keep wasting bullets when they so clearly weren't helping?

"Anyone else?" I challenged, my voice low into a growl. Despite the lingering daze from the fall, I remembered to make my voice sound sadistic, just to intimidate these punks further.

I slowly stalked parallel to Yang, drawing the White Fang towards me and away from her. Whether they realized it or not, they all formed a new line between Yang and I, and if even one of them turned around to check on her, I would charge the whole goddamn lot of them.

Eventually, they pushed out a fellow grunt to face me, one who had a broadsword comparable to my own. It was clear from the way he held himself that he knew he was being sent to his death, and it was even more clear to me that he was dying with a new-to-him weapon in his hands, as he clearly did not know how to wield it.

I approached him with a glare that he wilted under, my sword held with the hilt in front of my waist and the blade itself trailing out to my side. He held his sword straight out at me, almost as if it were a spear and he wanted me to stay back. I swung my sword at his, knocking it aside so I could lunge forward at him, rotating my wrists and arms up so as to send the point of my blade travelling down the shaft of his. A spear from the wall of his comrades to our side shot out towards me, keeping me from fully capitalizing and impaling him center mass, so I settled from yanking my sword back and slicing his forearms as I did so.

No blood, though. _He had aura, which was why likely why he got shoved out here._ All it would do is prolong his suffering.

I approached again in the same fashion, sword out and down, and this time I brought my arms high for an overhead strike. He reacted ( _flinched_ ) hard and might have even closed his eyes to brace for the impact, meaning he missed that it was completely a feint. Not even a particularly good one, either, but I stopped with my wrists above me and rotated them, spinning the sword over and behind my head so that it came around and whacked my opponent in the side of the head. It struck flat, sadly, but he didn't know that and flinched as if that would somehow stop his head from getting cut open.

 _This is too easy, really_ , I thought as I pulled my arms back and slashed down, slicing across the top of this guy's foot. Blood shot out this time and his crowd reacted late, pushing spears towards me only after I had crippled him.

The guy dropped his sword and started hopping on one foot, trying to both hop back to his crowd and stop blood loss. I slid in behind him before he could, putting my back against his and putting me face to face with the crowd of White Fang. I swung my sword one-handed as if trying to chop my own head off from behind, conveniently finding his neck in the way. He must have seen it come because he put his hands up to try to stop it, but I reached back with my left hand and grasped the end of the blade, applying pressure until he was pinned between my sword and my back.

Before the crowd could figure out to help him, I leaned forward to lift him on the ground and spun around, putting him between the White Fang and me. I pulled down on the blade and leaned forward further, leaving him with no leverage to resist with. Sadistically, I shifted my arms slightly side to side, as if drying off my back with a towel.

A small grunt from my victim was all I needed to hear to know that his aura had ran out and the blade had bit in, and with one final jerk, the weight from my back relieved itself and my blade bounced harmlessly off my aura. Two distinct sounds of objects hitting the floor were heard.

I turned around slowly, the excessive amount of blood on my back not lost on me. I made a show of picking up the other half of Angau Glas, and then sheathing it.

"I said, take _us_ to your leader. Are there _any_ objections?"

Silence across the pale faces in front of me.

"Good. I 'surrender.'"

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Ah, it's times like this where that blanket 'M' rating really lets my sadistic side out to play. _Beheading by reverse shoulder-press?_ Neato. **

**As we can see, the general timeline of the Breach is accelerated here a little bit, but that makes sense. Normally, Ruby doesn't get swallowed up by Mountain Glenn's poor infrastructure until they'd already made camp at night, but that's with four students, a dog, and a Huntsman. Here, we've doubled everything but the number of dogs, so they would of course cover more ground.**

 **Sort of. Jaune already knows how this game is played (as far as the Huntsmen/Huntresses splitting them off) and he has an interest in not stopping the White Fang as he explains, so instead of just Yang being the unlucky one, Jaune gets dragged along.**

 **Worst thing to ever happen to that one Faunus, that's for sure.**

 **Oh, and we also get Winter not exactly handling sensitive, interpersonal matters very well, and subsequently Pyrrha telling her off the in the politest, most Canadian way I could think of. Not that Qrow would have done any better. Really, Winter is there to scrutinize Jaune, and it seems that he found a way out of that.**

 **Personally, I'd take my chances with Winter rather than a big hole.**

 _#nocontext_

 **Unrelated, but I finally started my quest to rewatch RWBY V1-5 before V6 comes out. In one night I finished V1 and two-thirds of V2, actually stopping at the _exact_ point that this story is now at. It was...really weird to watch the equivalent to 300,000+ words and over half a year of updates in one sitting. **

**Also, for how poorly some of the animation has aged, there are some really funny lines that I had forgotten about. That, and I had forgotten how badly I wanted to dropkick Volume 1 Weiss off a bridge.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** alright lets just get this out of the way now. ugh

"He made a likeable noble cinder he could do it" - _DarkFireCat5241999_

"I have a fic that humanizes Merc, funnily enough, Couer's Captain Dragon." - _Summer-Rose-RWBY_

"Ummmm. Captain Dragon by Coeur humanizes Mercury soooooo..." - _HIGH_

 **Okay, so last C.o.t.W. I wrote this:**

"I swear, if any of you try to write a fic to humanize Mercury, I will hunt you down. If you thought _Turquoise Leaf_ was bad, wait till you try to get me to _like_ Merc the Smirk."

 **This was born out of my long-running antagonism towards Mercury because he is a tall, cocky, sarcastic, care-free, annoying little shit. It's like looking into a mirror, so naturally have decided that there could only be one of us.**

 **Yes, I get it, guys. _Captain Dragon_ humanizes Mercury; spoilers for that, if you haven't read it. I completely forgot that, which is sad because while I was _writing the last chapter_ , my sister was sitting on the couch opposite from me, finishing (you guessed it) _Captain Dragon._ I even joked that the ending had the perfect amount of Mercury in it, that being none (left). **

**I just somehow completely forgot that _Captain Dragon_ was a thing while I wrote the C.o.t.W. Good job calling me on my bull, I guess. Double shout-out to **_Stateoffear_ **for PMing me about it discretely and not in my comment section, where everyone else can see that I goofed! :P**

* * *

"I am re reading this fic as is habit to find things I missed on my first reading. That being said I just saw my friends again for the first time in two weeks and thought to myself remember the knife game they played in that story you read? Well the designated mom of our group yelled at me but I think the next time we get together if I don't tell her I can convince R, J and possibly H (not giving names) to try my variant of it. You start with a set point value depending on the gloves chosen 10 for leather 15 for normal work and 20 for bare handed.

Dropped knife -1 point, cut glove or hand -2 And caught 3 When one person hits 0 or 50 the game ends with the highest score winning.

Ps. Don't worry they don't know about this story, I will take all blame when someone is hurt, and two of us have extensive medical training. We only get together every two or three weeks because of college so it will be a while before I can say how it goes but I will give an update when it happens." - _G_

 **Okay, so I really, _really_ want to tell you not to do this, but...**

 **I mean, I'm curious. Sickened, but curious.**

 **Just maybe...wear a helmet? Shoulder pads? Don't be drunk while doing it?**

 **Who am I kidding, this is totally going to backfire on me either way. Have fun, I guess!**

 **You're not allowed to** **die (your friends are, naturally) but as a faithful viewer you are now required by law to stay alive and praise me _._ :D**

* * *

"Summary needs more Turquoise. 0/10. Don't forget about the souls I need from you~" - _Turquoise Leaf_

 **Look, I told you, it's still too early for the story to start dropping bodies like crazy. I killed off Junior to feed that bloodlust of yours, isn't that enough? Do these poor White Fang grunts not count?**

 **Fine. Alright, I'll go Game of Thrones in this bitch, I don't care. You want your souls? You'll have your souls.**

 **Mess with me I'll kill off everyone and turn this into a 'Taiyang x Neo to repopulate Remnant' fic. In graphic, gory detail. Taiyang 'Entire Team' Xiao Long is about to hit a whole new level...**

on the other hand when/if bodies start dropping, i now have a scapegoat...

 **Also, if** _G_ **or his friends die, there's more souls for you! lmao xD**


	34. Nora's Fireside Chat

**Author's Note 2: Electric Boogaloo: I was reading through some old chapters and noticed that apparently part of my formatting doesn't transfer over from Word to FF well. Whenever I use 'shift+enter' to put a line break with no space in, it ignores that break entirely and creates run-on words/sentences.**

 **I use this mostly for the opening quotes when there's more than one person being quoted, or when showing text messages. I can't believe no one's pointed out how awfulIts looks whenSentences look likeThis allThe time. lol. That's going to bother me until I have time to re-edit every chapter. Oh well.**

 **EDIT: The single-line breaks work when done on FF's editor. They just don't carry over from Word. Still going to bother me till I can go back and fix all the old chapters...**

* * *

 **Author's Note: Oh, oh yes, we're going to Nora's POV.**

 **Let's ride.**

* * *

 **Chapter 32:** _"No, there is_ no _acceptable excuse for demolishing a building during a stealth operation. I don't care sneaky you think you can be, there will be_ no _explosions, whatsoever." – Qrow Branwen_

* * *

Nora's POV

* * *

This just…sucks. Like, really, there's no other way to say it; Qrow sucks. We're here to crush the White Fang and yet for some reason I'm _not_ allowed to just destroy whatever gets in my way?! How stupid is that?!

' _Oh, no, Nora, you can't fire grenades into a building, it might collapse.'_ Yeah, that's the point, idiot. You think that _I_ am walking in there after I heard a noise from inside? My weapon has two modes, and so do I—smash and kaboom—and none of those are 'walk into the building alone with the scary noises.'

"Ugh, this is all so _stupid_ ," I yelled with a huff, swinging my hammer around in circles to try to pass the time. "If we just knocked a couple of buildings down, the White Fang would come find _us_ , and then we wouldn't have to waste all this time being 'sneaky.'"

I switched Magnhild into a grenade launcher and aimed it at the nearest building, waiting for it to do something aggressive so I could bring it tumbling down. I'm not too important to admit that I was begging the thing to act up.

"Whoa, don't shoot! I surrender!" The building called out in a female voice.

"Grrr! Even the stupid buildings don't want me to destroy them," I growled, frustrated that the building had done the _opposite_ of making itself a target. I couldn't bring myself to harm a defenseless creature once its surrendered, even an old building. "Are you sure you don't want to fight?!"

"Yes," Pyrrha called out with a laugh, stepping out of the building with her hands in the air, "I'm pretty sure."

"Pyrrha!" I cheered, tackling her into a hug moments later. "What are you doing here? This is _my_ area!"

"Uh… I guess—"

"They sent you to make sure I didn't destroy something, didn't they?!" I accused as I realized that they _would_ , too. _Even if it required Qrow and Winter to work together, they'd do it, just to ruin my day._

"W-What?" Pyrrha gasped in genuine surprise. "N-No, I think that our search areas just happened to overlap, since we were in different groups…"

"Believe what you want, but I know a conspiracy when I see one, Pyrrha," I teased, though not letting on about it. Pyrrha was a lot more fun when she wasn't really sure how to react to me. Everyone was, really, and coming to Beacon was the best thing _ever_. Ren is just so used to me that nothing affects him anymore, or at least, none of my usual shenanigans. "Qrow's smarter than he looks. You can tell him I haven't destroyed anything… _yet_."

"Nora, I'm not _on_ Qrow's team," Pyrrha pointed out, her patience thinning a little, not that she would want me to know that. _She's never even come close to losing her mind around me, and that's saying something, too, because I've been trying to see how far it goes._ Jaune just gave up and accepted things a long time ago, and Ren pierces right through me with those gorgeous pink eyes, but Pyrrha is the only one who hasn't figured it out yet. That, or her patience actually is infinite, in which case I might feel bad for wasting our time. "I'm on Winter's team, remember?"

"Oh. Yeah." I released Pyrrha from my hug and shifted Magnhild back into a hammer so I could lean against it. "How are things with Mega-Weiss, anyways?"

"They're…tense," Pyrrha answered genuinely without even reacting to the nickname, but with a little shame in her features too. Not exactly the reaction I was expecting, since Qrow said that they're supposed to be discussing their feelings and…

 _Well, maybe Pyrrha and Winter discussing their feelings was a disaster waiting to happen…_

"Do you…want to talk about it?" I offered, kinda unsure if I should or if she'd even appreciate me trying. I _have_ to be a better option than Winter, but, I mean, come on…that's not saying a whole lot. _A three-legged Beowolf is probably a better conversationalist than Winter._ Hell, the actual season of winter is probably more comforting than Winter.

"…kind of, yeah…"

"Awesome! Come on, let's get somewhere private!" I exclaimed, grabbing Pyrrha by the wrist and dragging her further down the street.

"Nora, how can we _get_ any more private?" Pyrrha called out over the rush of wind as we made our way through the street. "We're in an abandoned city!"

I ground to a halt suddenly, forcing Pyrrha to stay upright by the grip on her arm I had.

"Good point." I turned to Pyrrha expectantly, doing a really bad job of not smiling while waiting for her to begin. "Go ahead, I'm ready for some gossip!"  
"N-Nora, this isn't gossip!"

"It's not?"

" _No_ , it's about _me!_ " Pyrrha cried out. "Gossip is when you tell secrets about other people!"

"And then you share those secrets, right?"

"Actually, we're going to skip that part entirely," Pyrrha amended, much to my disappointment. It might as well not even be gossip at this point. " _Right, Nora?_ "

" _Fiiiiine_ ," I drawled out, which didn't really make Pyrrha feel all that much better. "I already promised—" _against my will_ "—not to destroy anything while I'm here. I _guess_ that includes friendships, the lives of others, and trust…"

"That…" Pyrrha was thrown off by what I said, but decided not to question it and shook her thoughts free. "You know what, good enough. You wanted to know what happened with Winter and me, right?"

"YES."

"Well, in order for it to make more sense, has…Mr. Branwen come around and—?"

"Asked us personal questions about our motivations, deepest desires, fears, and plans for the future?" I finished for her in a sudden burst of words. Pyrrha's shock at how precisely I cut her off was obvious. "Yeah, he didn't do that. He told us that he was _supposed_ to, but didn't feel like it. It was mutual, really."

Pyrrha gave me a strange look that was _totally_ based on jealousy, since _her_ team leader clearly made things awkward. Maybe Qrow wasn't that terrible, although a few destroyed buildings would _greatly_ increase his cool factor.

"Anyways…?"

"Anyway, Winter _did_ do that, and things got…a little intense…"

"Uh huh," I mumbled, unimpressed. "Intense for _me_ , or intense for _you_? You're not exactly a very confrontational person, Pyrrha."

"Hey, I can be pretty intense," Pyrrha tried to defend, only to break into a giggle when she tried to be serious about it. "Okay, but I _did_ tell her in no uncertain terms that everyone likes Qrow more than her."

"That's…it?" I asked, extremely disappointed, even after I had _lowered_ my expectations. "Come on, girl, it's pretty obvious that she knows that. She doesn't seem to care what people think."

"No, but I told her that we think Qrow is _better_ than her."

"That's…better." She certainly seemed the competitive type, and clearly had a bone to pick with Qrow. Maybe in more ways than one. "What happened?"

"First, she started trying to ask me about my…self-discipline habits, which was weird."

"Uh huh."

"But then she really latched on to how I talked about Jaune's abilities and—"

" _Oh_."

" _Oh_? What do you mean ' _Oh_ '?" Pyrrha interrupted herself, looking at me funny. "Nevermind. Needless to say, she seemed really intent on interrogating me about my—about Jaune."

"Makes sense," I commented freely, earning another look from Pyrrha. " _Deepest desires_ , remember?"

"I really wish you wouldn't phrase it like that," Pyrrha stuttered, her face going pink, just a little. Poor girl couldn't ever hide it, too, since her red hair and even her choice of armor just really made it pop.

"Yeah, well _I_ really wish you'd go ahead and pin Jaune to a wall and get this all over with," I quipped back at her, letting just a tiny bit of frustration seep through. _Hey, it's been hard to watch, really._

" _N-Nora!_ "

"What? Don't tell me you don't want—" I was rudely cut off as Magnhild was yanked out of my hands and the handle shoved into my mouth, making a very lazy gag. " _weawwy?_ "

"Do you want me to tell you the story or not?" Pyrrha asked, giving me a flat stare and letting just a little bit of her frustration slip through. That alone was good enough for me to claim victory, so I shook my head to let her know I would listen more. Magnhild was removed a few seconds later, apparently after she had decided that I was trustworthy enough. _Fool, two seconds isn't long enough to determine my honesty…_ "It…started when she brought up…um…when she implied something about…" Pyrrha continued to fumble her words as I gave her possibly the flattest look on Remnant. _A look so flat it would make Weiss look like Yang._ "…competition…"

 _And speaking of…_

"Yang?" I drawled, making it clear that Pyrrha was beating around the bush for nothing. Honestly, Ruby was the only person who didn't see something weird going on with Yang and Jaune; I mean, she _stabbed_ him. That firmly places her as at least a rival to Pyrrha, after the whole 'sparring' incident. _Kinda sucks for Jaune that all the girls he attracts are super violent towards him…_

I wonder if it works the other way, too. Like, does Jaune hurt the people that _he's_ interested in? _So far, the only people Jaune has really hurt are…Cardin…and Ruby…_

Oh god.

"She never used a name, but…it's that obvious, isn't it?"

"Depends on what ' _it_ ' is, I guess," I answered with a shrug. " _You_ are obvious. If Yang really is trying her luck, she's at least sneakier than _you_."

"Is she?" Pyrrha asked, a little defensive. "I might have broken Jaune's aura—"

"And gashed him a couple of times," I cut in helpfully, though Pyrrha didn't exactly see it that way.

" _And_ gashed him a couple of times," Pyrrha allowed, "but I didn't _stab_ Jaune."

"Okay, Pyrrha, I hate to do this to you," I lied, taking pleasure in that I was finally able to set some things straight. _Me, of all people, having to set someone_ else _straight._ _Ugh_. "But one, Yang got Jaune alone in the woods before stabbing him." I emphasized with a wiggle of my eyebrows to drive the point home, and Pyrrha was _not_ sure how to react to that. I also paused a solid three seconds, letting just how _obvious_ that sounded sink in. " _You_ nearly killed him in front of half the school. The point for being subtle goes to Yang on that one.

" _Two_ —and I can't believe that _I_ have to explain this to _you_ —normal people don't flirt with someone by trying to kill them!"

 _I hope._

Pyrrha winced pretty hard at that, as she freaking should. Seriously, like of all of Beacon, Jaune had to go out and start talking with two of the three students in the whole school who were just as likely to crush him as they were to kiss him. _The third, naturally, being me, and even_ I _haven't actually done anything to anyone yet!_

This _does_ mean that once ole Nora gets going, there's already some precedent I can work with… Or, more importantly, a standard to exceed.

"Anyways, back to the story," I announced with a huff, beginning to understand why everyone keeps telling me that having patience is so important. 'Cuz it's _hard_ sometimes, jeez. "What did Winter have to say about Yang and Jaune?"

"She…said that there could be a good lesson for me to learn from this…"

I nodded absently. It made sense so far. Sounded about like what I imagine a heart-to-heart/advice session with a Schnee would.

"She told me that I was fortunate to…to lose out on Jaune." Pyrrha admitted in a low voice, not meeting my eyes. "She said it was an example of when it is _better_ to lose than to win…"

" _Huh?!_ "

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking," Pyrrha said, motioning towards my shock but without any energy or fight. Hell, _I_ felt a little insulted by that; Jaune's my leader, after all. _Just what does Weiss' sister think she's getting at?!_ "It turns out that she has a…very low opinion Jaune because of his past."

"Because of his past?!" I repeated, this time actually insulted. "Like, the past that's really similar to Renny and I?!"

"Mmhmm," Pyrrha hummed in agreement. "Winter appears to view him as a detriment to our team, and…to me."

"What!? Does she think he's some sort of monster who came to Beacon to eat children!?" Pyrrha was too uncomfortable to comment on that, so I kept going. "Just because Jaune didn't grow up shipping Faunus off to the slave-mines doesn't mean she's any better than him!"

"N-Nora?" Pyrrha asked, giving me an intense but confused look on her face.

"Yeah?"

"I don't… That's not…" Pyrrha tried to say something but bowed her head and took a deep breath, shaking her head the whole time. "You've been listening to Blake too much."

" _Pffffft_ , as if I listen to _anyone_."

"That would also explain why you don't _exactly_ have the facts right."

"Eh, it's close enough."

"No, it's…it's not, Nora. You sound like you're trying to recruit people _for_ the White Fang."

"That would make me pretty noble, leading a civil rights movement…"

"Nora, they're the _terrorists_ that we are hunting _right now_! They—" Pyrrha cut off as she finally realized from the grin on my face that I was messing with her. "That's not funny! You've been spending way too much time with Jaune…"

"Not as much as you'd like to," I teased, before shifting us back on topic. "Continue."

"I…fine. Back to the story," Pyrrha gave in, her voice deflating a bit. "That was…that was about the part where we started to exchange…tense words."

"Uh, _yeah_ , you better have!" I reassured loudly, scanning around on the hopes that this Winter Schnee would show up for some reason so _I_ could give her a piece of the ole hammer. If she wanted to insult the leader of JNPR, she was insulting all of JNPR, but if she wanted to insult Jaune because he grew up on his own, she was _actually_ insulting 75% of the team. _See if you can talk shit about Team JNPR with an imprint of Magnhild across your face, frosty c—_

"Not so loud, Nora!" Pyrrha whispered aggressively while yanking on my arm. "We're still trying to find the White Fang."

"So, what'd you tell her?" I asked, ignoring Pyrrha's attempts to silence me. I did bring my tone down a little, just to be nice. "Tell me you socked her in the mouth and broke her knees!"

"I did _not_ ," Pyrrha berated in her 'mom' voice. "And _you_ won't when you see her, either."

"So what did you say?"

" _Got it?_ "

"Fiiiiiine…"

"I pointed out that we shouldn't hold Jaune's youth against him since he couldn't help being orphaned in the wilds," Pyrrha started, earning nods from me, since that would apply to Renny and me, too. "And I pointed out that this means that we have to help him, whereas she seemed to think that I should have cut him off so that he couldn't influence me."

There was a decent pause as I waited for her to continue on how she took down the old Schnee.

" _And?_ "

"And…uh…I also pointed out that Mr. Branwen was just like Jaune, and that's how _his_ team helped him."

"Really?"

"Yes," Pyrrha confirmed, earning a surprised _huh_ from me. Qrow just got a little cooler, non-building-destroying qualities notwithstanding. "Winter scoffed at the idea of Qrow being a good role model, and that's when I told her that everyone, including her sister, would rather see Jaune be a Qrow over a Winter."

" _What?!_ " I screeched, jaw almost hitting the floor. "YES! Score one for Team JNPR! _You actually said that_?!" I asked, stressing each word individually.

"Well, I… _implied_ that part about Weiss, but…yeah."

"Awesome! How'd she take it?!"

"I…don't know," Pyrrha answered quietly. "I kinda stormed off after that line."

"You did _what?!_ " I yelled, voraciously. Pyrrha flinched inwards on herself, probably thinking that she did something wrong, before I squashed any thoughts of such nonsense with a bone-crushing hug. "I'm so _proud of you_!"

"You…huh?" Pyrrha croaked as the air deflated from her lungs, which was my que that the hug should end soon.

"I mean, you _should_ have stayed there and really shoved it in her face, but I guess this is good progress for you…"

"So…you think I did the right thing?" Pyrrha asked, looking to me for confirmation or guidance. _Which is new, for anyone to look to_ me _for that…ever. I like it._

"Totally!" I exclaimed. Pyrrha let out a tense breath and relaxed a little, looking like she heard what she needed. "Now we just have to finish it!"

"We have to _what now_?" Pyrrha asked, her voice and expression flattening.

"Obviously, the best way to stick it to Winter is…" I trailed off, making a tumbling motion with my hands to try to get Pyrrha to fill in the rest.

She did not, and still looked lost.

"…to not 'lose the battle' in the first place!"

There was another tense moment of silence as Pyrrha stared at me intently, but still a little unsure. I didn't let that rain on my enthusiasm, nodding along excitedly to try to get Pyrrha to figure it out. _Jeez, it's not that hard._

"You want me to…date Jaune just to spite Winter?" Pyrrha asked slowly, only continuing with each word as I nodded her along furiously. "Nora, t-that seems like a silly reason to go out with someone."

"Oh, _I'm sorry_ ," I drawled extremely dramatically, realizing that being really extra was the only way to get this through to Pyrrha, "I seemed to be under the impression that you had _other_ reasons to go out with Jaune. You're right, though, if it's just for spite, you totally shouldn't do it."

Pyrrha opened her mouth to object but bit her tongue when she saw the grin I gave her, having caught my prey.

"That's what I thought. Just think of it as a bonus."

"I…don't know, Nora…"

"Don't know?" I repeated, sarcastically. "You _don't know_? What part about this don't you know?"

"It's not like I haven't…haven't tried to, you know—"

"Oh, so you've _told_ Jaune what you want?" I asked, crossing my arms. She didn't answer, and kinda just shuffled her feet. Really, she looked like a much taller version of Ruby. "That's what I thought."

"It's not…that easy for me, okay? It's not like _you_ are any better at it!"

"I'm sure I have _no_ idea what you're talking about," I responded, doing my best Weiss impersonation with the crossed arms and stuck-up attitude. "But if for _some_ crazy reason there _was_ anything to the totally-not-true thing you just tried to say, I would totally have to point out that there would be a _big_ difference between your lie about my situation, and your _very real_ situation."

"I…uh what?" Pyrrha asked, probably lost somewhere in my thorough denial of any and all allegations.

"I don't have any hypothetical rivals about to snatch away my non-existent goal."

"…are we still talking about Jaune and Re—"

"We were _never_ talking about Ren, _Pyrrha_ ," I grit out at her. This was about _her_ , not me. Silly girl. "But yes, we're talking about how _you_ don't have any time to waste, now that someone else is encroaching on your man."

"Shouldn't you be neutral in this?" Pyrrha asked nervously, trying to deflect my attention. "Like, as Jaune's friend, shouldn't you want what's best for him too?"

"If you wanted me neutral, you wouldn't have come to me for help." Pyrrha opened her mouth to respond to that, but closed it and looked to the ground guiltily. "Besides, I've got nothing against Yang, but things would be much better for Team JNPR if you hooked up with Jaune."

"R-Right," Pyrrha stuttered, a slight blush on her cheeks as she stood there awkwardly. She clearly didn't see it, but come _on_ , life would be so much smoother if Pyrrha wasn't staring at Jaune nervously all the time.

"That means you're going to have to be direct, otherwise Yang's going to beat you to the punch."

"I…I don't know, Nora," Pyrrha admitted quietly, looking back at the ground in her Ruby impersonation again. "If Yang's already closer to him, should I get in the way?"

"Did I just hear that right? Did _Pyrrha Nikos_ , undefeated champion and single most badass girl in Beacon history, just ask if it was _okay_ to compete?" Pyrrha wasn't exactly sure how to take that, but it got under her skin a little, which was exactly what I should do. _Seriously, I'm going to have to spell this out._ "All your life, if you wanted win a tournament, what did you have to do for it?"

"I…had to fight for it."

"RIGHT!" I growled in her face, making her flinch a little. "And if you wanted recognition, what did you do for it?"

"I had to fight for it."

"And if you wanted to show the world who Pyrrha Nikos is, what did you do for it?!"

"I had to fight for it!"

"So what are you gonna have to do to land Jaune?!"

"I'm…going to have to fight for it!" Pyrrha chanted along, a little bit of the fire returning to her eyes, and it was about freaking time. I was afraid I was going to have to write it on a sign or something. "Er… _him_ , I guess."

"Exactly! Yang may have the lead, but that's not going to stop you!"

"How do I…make up for it?" Pyrrha asked awkwardly. "This isn't exactly sparring we're talking about."

"Eh, it _could_ be…" I dismissed off-hand, but when Pyrrha looked to me to explain, I did. "Look, let me explain it for you this way. You're fighting in a timed match, and when the timer hits zero, the one with the least aura loses. Following in me so far?"

"Yes."

"Good. You've been pretty slow today, so I was just checking." She looked insulted, but I didn't care. Moving on. "You're at half aura, and your opponent has full aura. Thirty seconds left on the clock. What do you do?"

"Well, I wouldn't want to get _too_ desperate, but…"

"No. Totally get desperate. If you don't, _you lose anyways._ " I corrected harshly.

"O-Okay…I guess I have to attack with everything I have, without holding anything back, and hope that the risk pays off."

"Exactly."

"It's a big risk to take," Pyrrha added on, a little less confidently. "It's going to be pretty obvious what I'm trying to do."

" _EXACTLY!_ " I shouted at Pyrrha. "You have to _be obvious._ Seriously, girl, this isn't that hard." That advice probably _wasn't_ very good for a fight, but if it got the point through to the dense girl, it wouldn't matter.

"Oh? Is that why _you_ still haven't…?"

" _If_ I knew what you were talking about, I would say that I'm not sure I could _be_ any more obvious…"

Pyrrha started to respond, but flinched at something on her side. She pulled out her scroll, which was buzzing.

" _Miss Nikos, have you heard from Xiao Long or Arc?_ " Winter's voice came over the scroll, a little bit agitated. There might have been a little worry there, if she was capable of it. Something was off, at least.

"N-No," Pyrrha answered, doing a pretty awful job at not reacting to either name.

" _They've both gone silent. I don't want to jump to conclusions, but there's no good explanation for that. How far are you from their search areas?_ "

"I'm…I can be in Yang's area in a few minutes," Pyrrha answered, stiffening up a little bit now that things could be serious.

" _I'm calling in Qrow's group to rendezvous early, just in case. I will search Jaune's area in the meanwhile. If you see anything, report it immediately._ "

"Yes ma'am."

The communication ended just like that, only for Pyrrha to look up and find me staring at her.

"Yang and Jaune disappeared together, huh?"

"…shut up."

* * *

"Over here!" I waved, catching the eye of Qrow and Weiss from the distance. Ruby and Ren had already found us, and Winter said she was going to finish checking Jaune's area before meeting up with us.

"What is i— _oh_ ," Weiss called out as she approached us, only cutting herself off after the giant sinkhole in the ground behind us became too obvious to miss. "Do you think they fell in?"

I shrugged, but that _had_ been what Pyrrha and I talked about when we found it.

"We don't have any way to prove it," Pyrrha offered, "but…"

"Subterranean?" Qrow mumbled, thinking things over as he stared into the pit. "Hmm… Why does that sound familiar?"

"Hey, you're the Huntsman here," Ruby teased, though the stress in her voice made it hard to tell if she was being funny.

"Well, there's one way to check. Keep your scrolls handy; I'll try to call up if I find anything…"

"What do you mean if you—" Ruby started to ask, only to stop when her uncle just straight up dove into the hole. " _Huh._ "

"Can he…get out?" Weiss asked, finally verbalizing what we were all thinking after a few seconds of staring at the hole.

Everyone kinda just looked to Ruby, seeing as it was _her_ uncle, but she just shrugged and gave a noise that was somewhere between _I don't know_ and _uhhhh_.

We all kinda waited in silence, which was hands-down the worst part about today. No one wanted to talk, and I still couldn't destroy anything, though I was really hoping that they _had_ been kidnapped so I would finally have an excuse to do something.

"What's going on here?" Winter asked as she finally found us. We probably looked funny, a whole bunch of students standing in a circle around a hole in the ground, like some sort of summoning ritual. _Still probably a safer way to pass the time then throwing knives, even if that was way too much fun…_

"We found this hole," Ruby answered quickly.

"We think that Jaune and Yang may have caused a sinkhole to open up," Weiss elaborated a little, trying to preen in front of her sister. It didn't take a genius to see that Winter saw through it. "Mr. Branwen just…jumped in. He said he'd call us down if he found anything."

"I see."

…and more silence and waiting. _Perfect._

After a few years, or what certainly _felt_ like it, Ruby's scroll began buzz.

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby called out excitedly as she answered.

" _Ruby, shhhh! I'm trying to be sneaky here._ "

"What have you found?" Winter asked, taking the scroll from Ruby and nearly knocking Ruby into the hole in the process.

" _Oh, it's you. Didn't I call my niece?_ "

" _Qrow_ …" Winter growled, and I was starting to think that Ruby's uncle was pretty cool.

" _Found the White Fang, that's for certain. They're got some sort of…train operation that they're working on loading, and I don't like the looks of it. This is probably the line back to Vale, if I had to guess._ "

"That…that should be sealed!" Winter responded sharply, keeping her voice low.

" _Yeah,_ should _be. I don't think they'd build a train down here for nothing. In any case, I've spotted Yang so far—or at least, I saw her hair from a mile away—but I can't get close. They've taken her prisoner from the looks of it, which at least means that she's not dead._ "

"And Jaune?" Pyrrha called out into the speaker.

" _Nope, haven't seen him, but I didn't exactly get too close. I'm not as…subtle below ground as I am above it…"_ Qrow trailed off with a quiet laugh at that, as if appreciating his own joke. All of us (except Winter) exchanged weird looks, and not even Ruby knew what that meant. Weird. _"If they took one hostage, they'll have taken two, so they're probably just keeping them separate. Either way, there's only one thing to do._ "

"What would that be?"

There was a rumble deep in the ground beneath us, with what sounded kinda like thunder coming out of the hole. It was timed way too well to be an accident.

" _Attack._ "

" _YES!_ "

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

I let out a loud groan as I woke up to a dull, pounding headache in the back of my head. It was about as unpleasant as a bad hangover, but with some actual aching mixed in that made me feel like this wasn't from drinking; I got whacked hard, somehow. I didn't even bother opening my eyes, because I knew all that could do is make things worse for me. _This may not be a hangover, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't nurse it like one_. Instead, I focused on getting comfortable and letting this headache pass. I was sitting on something hard and had something hard behind my back, but I at least was leaned over on something softer, and warm.

The fact that it was _warm_ bothered me a little. Not enough to really do anything to upset my headache, but just enough for it to start eating away at me. Eventually, I got curious enough to risk cracking open one of my eyes, and since my head as angled down, the first thing I saw was the arm of the person I was leaning against.

" _Jaune_ ," I whispered, recognizing the armor on that arm to be his, and also not wanting to upset my own headache with noise. It didn't even occur to me that the area we were in was actually kinda noisy.

"Oh, hey, look who's awake," Jaune teased back through a whisper.

"Would you care to explain what we're doing, and how we got here?" I asked with just a bit of a threat behind it. Chances are, it was nothing, just the teams going out for some fun. I'm not exactly known for going overboard and completely forgetting what happened, but that's probably where Jaune factors in. _That, or maybe it was uncle Qrow's influence finally kicking in._

"Well, you fell down a hole, and I fell down with you," Jaune explained, pretending to miss the threat in my voice. "You got knocked out, you know, like a loser, and then the White Fang took us hostage, and then—"

"The _what_?!" I let out startled, my eyes shooting open. My head jerked off of Jaune's shoulder, and that turned out to be a bigger mistake, as the pounding in my skull spiked significantly. I let out another groan as I slow returned to my head to its spot on Jaune's shoulder.

"You remember now?" Jaune asked in a bemused voice that told me that he was smirking at me, and he knew that since I couldn't look up at him, he was getting away with it, too.

"Yeah," I answered. The memory of the mission to Mountain Glenn jogged the moment he mentioned the White Fang, and focusing on that reminded me of our conversation, all leading up to a hole in the street forming beneath me and everything going dark. _Probably where I got smacked, then._

"I take it you woke up with quite the headache?"

"What do you think, genius?" I growled back. "Don't you have a healing Semblance?"

"No, I have an Aura Semblance," Jaune corrected. "Since you were unconscious, I couldn't do a whole lot except boost your Aura reserves. Aura still heals you while unconscious, but it's a lot slower when it's not directed. Now that you're awake, we can have that discussion."

" _Discussion?_ " I asked pointedly. "What's there to discuss. I'm in pain, you can make me not in pain. Let's get this done."

"Compelling logic, sure, but we're still hostages. If we try to mount a break-out later, I might need all the Aura I can get…"

It was clear from Jaune's tone that he was messing with me, which would have been fun and all, but patience isn't exactly something I'm great at when I _don't_ have a massive headache.

"If you break-out, you're going to need me able to _stand_ ," I growled back at him.

"Hmm…" Jaune hummed, pretending to think it over. "That's a decent point. What else do you have?"

"Jaune, if you make me wait one more second, I swear to—" I was cut off as a weird sensation came over me. I knew _how_ Jaune's Semblance worked, but I haven't ever needed to be healed by it, so the feeling was still foreign to me. Jaune claims to have used it on me during our fight in Beacon's courtyard, but I don't remember it feeling like this. _Probably because I was focused on ripping his head off._

"Flex your aura," Jaune commanded, barely above a whisper. I did so and a few moments later, I could feel it working because my headache went from stifling to more of a background nuisance; it didn't go away, but it didn't really bother me anymore, which was good enough. The sensation itself was just…strangely pleasant. The healing itself felt cold and a little prickly, but that wasn't really a bad thing. It was barely noticeable next to the warm presence that I had to assume was Jaune's Aura. Blake had described it for us once, saying it felt like there was a guest soul in your body, and at the time I teased her for being so dramatic. _She really wasn't wrong about that._

It felt really nice, actually. If it weren't for that gnawing fact that we were hostages(?), the Aura mixed with the relief from the headache and how comfortable I was getting almost put me to sleep. It was the perfect recipe for a nap.

"How's that?"

"Better," I answered softly, still not having moved. "It's mostly gone. It shouldn't bother me anymore. Now, what was that you said about us being hostages?"

"Eh, technically we're hostages of the White Fang right now," Jaune explained nonchalantly, as if that was just a thing that happens regularly. _Maybe getting taken hostage by hostile groups does happen regularly to him._ Or maybe he's just used to growing up as a hostage.

 _Oh, great, and now I feel bad for him again…_

"Oh, that sounds fun," I mocked. "How did you let that happen?"

"Well, when you were too heavy for the street and opened up a sinkhole—"

" _Excuse me?_ "

"—and then got knocked out by gravity, it was just me against all the White Fang. And I would have won, if I didn't have to protect your sorry ass."

" _Excuse me?_ " I repeated, twice as venomously.

"So, yeah, I surrendered after…uh, 'dismembering' a few Fang, to put it nicely…"

"Dismembered?" I asked tentatively, feeling Jaune go a little tense under me.

"To put it nicely," he made sure to point out. "They deserved it, though, so I didn't break my rule. _This time_ ," he amended, calling back to our conversation before we fell down.

"Just because you _can_ kill them doesn't mean that's…it doesn't mean that you _should_."

"And what if it was Ruby unconscious that they were trying to kill?" Jaune asked back, already aware of the answer, so I didn't feel the need to answer out loud. _I would probably tear them limb from limb for even thinking about it._ Funny enough, that would count as dismemberment, too. "That's what I thought. I'm actually quite proud of how things turned out, when all's considered."

"What's our situation look like?" I asked, shifting to a more serious tone and trying to switch topics. Jaune and I had bigger problems to deal with than him killing a few terrorists to protect me, even if the thought of it wasn't exactly pleasant.

"Open your eyes and see for yourself," Jaune whispered back and I did. I moved my head a little, and while I did so and realized that it was held in place by Jaune's head, which was leaned against it, and I would have called him out for that…if I hadn't just now opened my eyes after trying to take a nap on his shoulder. _Neither of us mentioning this is fine by me._

The first thing I noticed was the low-light, which made sense as I remembered we were in a cave. There was a lot of White Fang activity surrounding us, centered around what looked to be a train that they were loading, and in a hurry, too.

"What's going on?" I whispered, continuing to scan the area in front of me.

"They're loading the train with explosives, dust, more Paladins, soldiers… It looks like a big troop transport, at least from what I've seen so far." I shook my head to get Jaune off me so I could lean forward and look around more, only for him to quickly discourage that. "Hey hey, don't do anything to show them you're awake. If you'll notice, we're not even tied up or anything; I surrendered because you were out cold and they knew that they'd be death otherwise, which is why they didn't feel scared enough to even secure us to anything. That, and the ones that took us in weren't coming within arms' reach of me."

"Well that's stupid of them."

"Yup, and I'm not going to correct them," Jaune added on pointedly. "With all the soldiers they have around here, they figured I wasn't going to do anything rash, which _was_ correct. Now that you're awake and fully functional, we've got an opportunity they weren't counting on."

"What's the plan, then?" I asked, slowly putting my head back on his shoulder and closing my eyes to play the part. _I swear, if he's making this up and that was just a ploy to get me to relax against him again, it'll be my turn for some dismembering._

"At some point, Qrow and the others are going to go looking for us and find that hole, which means that we only have to wait things out. Once the moment is right, we can split up before they even realize it."

"You want us to split up?" I asked, concerned. "That never works out well."

"In movies, maybe not," Jaune quipped back. "We need our weapons, and they were smart enough to separate _those_. I saw them take yours into some of the old buildings they're using as makeshift barracks, and since everyone is working on loading the train, you should have no problem getting them." For good measure, he lifted his other arm to subtly point out a direction, and I cracked one eye to follow it.

"And where are yours?"

"Torchwick took them," Jaune answered quietly.

" _He's here_?"

"Mmmm," Jaune confirmed. "Didn't seem too happy about Huntsmen finding him. That's why everyone's in such a hurry to load the train…" Jaune trailed off, not sounding too pleased about the situation. It was the first time since I had woken up that he seemed anything other than amused or teasing. "He's been busy dealing with White Fang this whole time. I doubt that he would let us just sit here unguarded and free to move around."

"You think we should split up _before_ you take on Torchwick to get your weapons back?" I asked, hoping how _stupid_ of a plan that was come through in my voice.

"I'm not going to do anything stupid," Jaune reassured. "That's why we're waiting for some sort of distraction. Roman's not going to lug three weapons around with him if he's under attack."

" _Roman_ , huh?" I asked teasingly. "I didn't realize you two were on a first name basis."

"What can I say, maybe I just have a thing for redheads. Don't be jealous."

"I still don't think we should split—"

An explosion in one of the empty buildings nearby cut me off, shaking everything around us. I thought being close to explosions was bad, but being _underground_ when buildings start blowing up and collapsing is infinitely worse. My stomach lurched as what was left of the shockwave gently washed over us, and all I could think of is how much bigger it needed to be to bring this whole cave down.

White Fang started to panic at the explosions, too, and scrambled even harder, with whoever was trying to run things shouting about getting the train moving.

I glanced up at Jaune, who was thinking the same thing as me.

"That sounds like a distraction to me," Jaune mumbled, before we both forced ourselves to our feet. "Once you get your weapons, check and see if you can't get our scrolls back. Try to get in touch with the team."

"Got it," I called back, already breaking off to go check the buildings Jaune had mentioned previously. "Same goes for you. Be careful!"

"Nah," Jaune called back.

BREAK

I snuck into what was probably the building with my weapons through a back door, going through what looked like it used to be an alleyway in order to avoid the White Fang. Really, though, given how panicked they all were, I could probably have walked straight through the middle of the street and been fine; it's not like they've been super smart up until now.

I pushed my way into a large room that had personal affects of the various Fang members strewn about, only to lock eyes with one lone White Fang soldier on the far side of the room. My eyes flicked to the table he was standing next to, where both parts of Ember Cilicia were laying.

The grunt saw my eyes go for my gauntlets and immediately picked them up, though it was clear that he didn't know what to do with them now that he had them. Even with them on, he would be severely out-matched.

"Hey, those are _my_ weapons," I called out, setting him up as I realized how one-sided this would be with him clearly having no clue how to fight with them.

"Weapons, huh?" he called back in what I'm sure he thought was a coy tone of voice. He quickly slid them on, and since they were already engaged for some reason—probably someone trying to take them apart in their spare time—he gave me an uncertain combat stance. "What do they do?"

"They shoot when you punch," I called out, cracking my knuckles as I walked towards him threateningly, leaving him no time to consider other options, like running for his life.

He was spooked enough to give it a try, throwing a punch in my general direction with not bad form for someone firing Ember Cilicia for their first time. Unfortunately for him, it would be his last time, as the gauntlet fired and he recoiled in pain immediately, with the gauntlet itself flying off his wrist and out towards me. I held my arm out and caught it, my hand slipping through the hole and my weapon sliding right into place.

He had put them on backwards.

Fortunately, it looked like he had aura, because it didn't blow his arm off; seeing someone lose an arm wasn't exactly something I wanted to see up close. He overcame his initial shock eventually, but by that time I was already up on him, delivering a swift kick to the side of the head to knock him out.

"It's a miracle you guys are even considered a threat," I mumbled to my unconscious opponent as I took my other gauntlet off him. "You seriously _upgraded_ by letting Roman Torchwick lead you…sheesh."

With that taken care of, I was about to leave before I remembered to look for our scrolls, but a quick glance around didn't reveal them. Or at least, it didn't reveal any spare scrolls lying around; most scrolls are identical and I would have to turn them on to see if they were ours or not. _Chances are good that they would have shut off our scrolls so they couldn't be tracked, but these are the same people who didn't even tie Jaune and I up, so…_

With that out of the way, I burst out the front of the building, only to be nearly cut down by sniperfire.

" _GAH! Yang!_ " Ruby shouted from up the street, mere moments before I was nearly knocked over by a hug while showered in rose petals. "You're okay!"  
"Did you almost shoot me?!" I (half)teased, returning Ruby's hug with my arms and scanning the scene around us. The rest of the teams plus Winter and Qrow were scattered around and making short work of what White Fang did try to stand in their way, but most seemed to be either on the train or boarding it.

"W-What? No…" Ruby lied badly as we broke the hug up. "Hey guys, I found Yang!"

"You what?" Nora called from somewhere.

"She found Yang!" Ren's voice answered.

"Secure Xiao Long!" Winter's voice boomed.

"Secure me? I'm fine!"

"Where's Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, taking care to talk over everyone else to stop the maddening chorus of things being yelled.

"We split up and he went off to get his weapons back, so he's probably—" I cut myself of as I realized that the train was already moving.

"You _split up?!_ " Winter asked, her tone making it obvious she thought me stupid for that.

"Focus, Yang!" Qrow called out, rushing up to me. "Where'd he go?"

" _The train,_ " I answered, not wanting to admit that I let him go rush off to find Roman Torchwick. Especially not after the lip Weiss' sister had just given me over it. "He's probably on board already."

" _Shit_ ," Qrow mumbled, following my eyes and seeing the train already moving. "Alright, everyone on the train! Move!"

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Is this really the first time I've done Nora's POV? Surely, with how much fun I've had sprinkling Nora into to this story, I would have tried it before. Or maybe, I was just smart enough not to ruin things by giving a window into the world of Nora.**

 **Either way, I still kinda regret not making Nora a Team Captain. N A P R. Team Napier? That's not a color, but it does kinda seem to fit. VAPR?**

 **And at last, my master plan for the pairings in this story is revealed, deduced by Nora of all people. _Kindergarten logic: you're mean to who you like._ Amplified by Aura and the fact they're all training to slay monsters, so _mean to_ means _causing significant bodily harm._ You know who else Jaune has caused bodily harm to?**

 **Raven.**

 **Neo.**

 **Junior.**

 **The Malachites.**

 **I guarantee no one has ever thrown all those ingredients into the same orgy.**

 **Back on a serious note, a rather important thing did happen in between Nora's...Nora-ness. Pyrrha has finally had her perspective adjusted after Nora points out that maybe she should see this as a more active competition for Jaune's attention. Pyrrha does have a nasty competitive streak, if her nearly killing Jaune was any indication. This should play out...nicely.**

 **Maybe she just needs to knock herself out so she can wake up on Jaune's shoulder. It takes her three whole volumes and the beginning of her death arc in the show to accomplish that.**

 **As for the White Fang, they _could_ be this incompetent, but Yang only has Jaune's word to go on as for why they're being 'held' the way they are. And I can see no connection between Jaune and Roman Torchwick's White Fang that could explain things... lol**

* * *

 **I don't really have anywhere else to stick this, so it'll go right here, but I have finished rewatching RWBY now. Overall, I got it done in under a week, and it was interesting to go back and see some things with a different perspective. As far as getting some more insight into Jaune, Yang, Qrow, and Raven, it was super successful, and that should while writing the story.**

 **My top three scenes/moments from all of RWBY:**

 **3)** _Pyrrha vs Cinder_ **: Man, when I first watched this, I remember thinking that Pyrrha was** _so close_ **to pulling off a monumental upset. Looking back? No, no she really didn't seem that close. The fight spoke to a** _lot_ **about Cinder and her personality, as she was super smug the whole time. There were several moments, however, where Cinder showed legitimate shock or surprise, and** _by the gods_ **was it delicious. It's made all the better because it's the same shock that Jaune gets when he nearly stabs her in the face.** _ **Oh, and this is by far my favorite fight choreography.**_ **It just...flows so well and really conveys that for the first time, RWBY has _real stakes_.**

 **2) _Yang confronts Raven_ : I'm talking about the confrontation standing in the Vault at the end of Volume 5, and this was just A-level drama and emotion pouring (surprisingly) out of both of them. It wasn't a one sided shouting match where the other character just melted away into tears ( _looking at you, Ilia_ ), but it goes back and forth several times. The fact that it _doesn't_ end in a neat bow was fantastic, and Yang finds she _can't_ change Raven. It boils down to action, and only one of them is brave enough to take that relic. **

**1) _Torchwick's Death Monologue_ : I'll extend this to the whole scene, starting with Neo and Roman versus Ruby because he's talking the whole time, but...just insert this whole scene straight into my veins. This whole scene starts out on a high note as we get a glimpse into Roman's motivation: "...it's that I can't afford to lose..." and "Like it or not, the people who hired me are going to change the world. You can't stop them, _I_ can't stop them..." **

**And then Ruby comes back with what's essentially her missions statement, with Lindsay's VA work blowing everything before completely out of the water with "BET ON THAT!"**

 **And then my favorite part of the show:**

 **"You got spirit, Red, but _this_ is the _real world!_ The real world is COLD! The real world doesn't _care_ about spirit! **

**" _You wanna be a hero? Then play the part and die like every other Huntsman in history!_"**

 **Chills, man.** and then he dies, so

 **I'm really interested what you guys have picked out as your favorite moments, so let me know in those comments. Or PM them to me, and we can fangirl together. I've got nothing better to do with my time, clearly, seeing as it took me a week to finish five seasons...**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _CjHoax_

"So.

When are Qrow and Winter hate-fucking."

 **I'm not convinced that they _haven't_ , even in the actual show. I feel like this is the obvious conclusion to make about them given their childish and passionate rivalry (one-sided as it is; Qrow's just stirring the pot, mostly). Qrow's, like at least a decade older than her, and she's a Schnee so daddy issues come built in... **

**I feel like everyone immediately assumed "oh, yeah, they totally did" before realizing that it was so blatantly obvious that it couldn't be true. Like, once V3 ended, everyone was _way_ too wary of jumping to easy conclusions because it blew up in our faces. In hindsight, we've all kinda moved on from 'yeah, totally' to 'would have been funny if they had.'**

 **But, like, sometimes things are obvious because they're supposed to be obvious. Winter doesn't seem like the type to do something like that _now_ , but she was clearly a rebellious child, given she went off to the military and was disowned (dis-inherited?) for it. Surely, that rebellious streak manifested itself during/after some high-stress missions, possibly while working with Ozpin's forces. Military types aren't known for chastity, methinks. **

**And then Qrow was so incredibly _awful_ at it that she forever swore off casual lays and stuck a stick up her butt to make up for Qrow's... _heh heh_...pecker. _Everyone that's met Winter since can confirm that said stick is still firmly lodged in place._ **

**If you'll excuse me, it's time to get blocked by Miles Luna on my back-up twitter...**

* * *

"Reverse shoulder pressed WF grunt has filled my belly." - _Turquoise Leaf_

 **I...**

 ***sigh***

 ***another, longer, more depressed sigh***

 **I should have been more put-off by this than I was. I should not have been _pleased_ by this, either. **

**Whatever. If deaths in the story keep me from dying, then for my safety V3-era events need to ramp up, _fast..._**

 **:D**


	35. Traintop Tussles

**Author's Note: Well, I have failed. A significant failure on my part. This story was intended to be completed before the release of Volume 6. We're just now reaching the end of V2-era events.**

 **And I can't really bring myself to feel bad about that.**

 **More importantly, on the note of spoilers from the show: I'm still deciding how to approach that. The show uploads an hour or two on Sunday's before I normally post a chapter, which means that _technically_ it is fair game for me to mention things in Closing Thoughts. For example, if a character from the show has a really emotional episode or new development that could change their character, I could discuss whether or not I'll try to work that into the remainder of the story or not. **

**I don't really want to spoil anything, but I also feel that if you are knee-deep into RWBY fanfiction, then you're probably going to be caught up on the show before you get caught up on my story. _I know I am_. **

**Let me know if you guys like that plan, or have any other ideas. I can go by a one-week delay for spoilers, or I could even bump back the release time of the story by a couple more hours to give everyone a fair chance to watch the show.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 33:** _"Not every issue should be solved by a show of force. Sometimes, perhaps just the opposite." – Ozpin_

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

"Another bomb here!" Ruby called out from two train cars ahead. That made four cars in a row with a bomb on it, plus the fifth one that had detached itself a few seconds ago.

"This doesn't make any sense!" Ren called out as we all regrouped on the roof of the car Ruby had just found a bomb in, the one furthest from the tail end of the train. "Why would they detach—"

Ren was cut off as the car that had previously detached exploded way off in the distance, and the next car detached itself. It was difficult to see that far, but the shadows seemed to _move_ after that.

" _Grimm,_ " Blake announced once the fireball had burned itself out, her eyes working the best in the dark.

"What? Why?" I asked, looking around for answers like the rest of the teams were. Qrow and Winter were silent, and exchanged a strained look. For once, it didn't seem like they were angry at each other, but looked more weighed down by whatever they were thinking of.

"Yang, you said they loaded more Paladins?" Qrow asked, it obvious from his voice he was just looking for confirmation and looking to remind everyone else of the fact.

"Yeah, I—" I cut myself off and reworded quickly, not that it mattered all that much. "They loaded Paladins, troops, whatever they could." Jaune was the one to see it, after all, not that it would have mattered here if I had said I saw them.

"If I was a betting man, I'd say this is the old line that goes straight to Vale," Qrow stated darkly, slowly pulling out his weapon once more from behind his back. "And the fact that we haven't smashed into any walls means they've been excavating the route."

"This train is going to Vale?" Weiss asked surprised. It was obvious from the concern in her voice that such a thing was _bad_ , not that we needed that pointed out.

"It's an assault," Winter announced angrily.

"That's not good," Ruby chimed in nervously.

"It's more than an assault," Qrow added agitatedly, seemingly upset that no one had pieced his logic out yet. "An assault seeks to take something over, or neutralize a tactical obstacle. You don't do that by _inviting_ a horde of Grimm."

As if to emphasize this, the second car exploded in the distance. Blake stared at it for a few moments, before nodding to indicate that more Grimm were pouring into the tunnel.

"This is a suicide mission," I commented, catching on to my uncle's reasoning.

"This is a desperate attempt to kill as many civilians as is physically possible," Qrow corrected darkly.

"That's really not good," Ruby amended.

"What do we do?" Ruby asked, her voice on the edge of cracking from stress or fear.

"Uncouple the bomb-cars early," Winter answered calmly, though with enough authority that no one was going to question it, not even Qrow. He seemed to agree. "If they're staggering explosions to get more Grimm, we can undercut their numbers by ensuring only one more explosion happens, even if its large."

"Will that stop the Grimm?" Pyrrha asked. Her voice suggested that she knew it wouldn't.

"Doesn't have to," Qrow answered. "This train's a lot faster than some Grimm. If we can neutralize the White Fang forces before we reach Vale, then we'll only have the Grimm to deal with. Even then, we'll just need to hold out a few minutes before reinforcements from Beacon or Atlas show up. Besides, this train has to punch a hole into Vale _somewhere_."

"Which means we'll have a bottleneck to contain them," Weiss added on, earning a grin from Qrow.

"Trying to fight them while trapped in here is suicide anyways, so there will be no stopping this train. We let the it crash and wipe out any resistance. Got it?"

"Got it," I answered for us, reading the mood of the group. It was a bit grim—pun absolutely intended—but we were prepared to claw our way through the White Fang.

With one shot from Crescent Rose and a metallic crunch, the couple between the non-explosive part of the train and the explosive part of the train was severed, forcing us all to hop across the gap or die in an explosion. There were a couple of glares shot at Ruby for doing that before we were ready, but everyone got over it fast. We had to. There was a White Fang welcoming party ahead of us. Several cars ahead of us, a Paladin was blocking the way forward, and before it could fire at all of us, Winter closed the distance in the blink of an eye, a glyph propelling her forward. Qrow followed, and with them charging, the rest of us began charging forwards, too.

" _Yang_ ," Pyrrha hissed, grabbing my arm and holding me back for a moment. "What about Jaune?"

"What about him?" I asked back gruffly. All things considered, I wasn't that concerned about Jaune right now. As dumb as his plan to steal his weapons back from Torchwick sounded, Jaune did say that he had already made an impression on the White Fang. If he was outnumbered, they'd take his surrender again and consider themselves lucky. _And really, compared to everything else Jaune's been through, Roman Torchwick really isn't that bad._ The concern on Pyrrha's face reminded me that she didn't know about any of that, though, and I felt bad for dismissing her so quickly. "Look, Pyrrha, either he's somewhere up ahead on the train, or he's still back in Mountain Glenn. Either way, we have to take out the White Fang here."

"But—the Grimm! They're—"

"Following _us_ , not him," I finished for her, placing a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. "And they'll continue to follow us as long as there's a lot of negative emotion here, so as long as we put the fear of god into the White Fang, Jaune will be okay."

Pyrrha's eyes shifted from me towards the fighting up ahead, and her shoulders pulled back a little.

"That's what I like to see," I reassured her as I saw her focus on what she needed to do. "Don't you control metal? Can't you just toss those Paladins off the train?"

"That…would require a lot of effort. I…I need to be closer to them to try."

"Well," I said, before firing a blast behind me and launching myself towards the fray, "let's get closer!"

It ended up being a moot point, at least for the first Paladin. Winter's speed had kept the Paladin on its back heel the whole time, and Weiss' liberal application of Ice Dust made it a sitting duck. Qrow charged in with his scythe before being launched at the thing by one of Weiss' glyphs. He shot just under the outstretched arm of the machine and hooked his scythe on it, spinning around and landing directly on the cockpit. With a quick mechashift, his scythe became a sword moments before it was stabbed straight through the cockpit door.

The Paladin threw its arms up above its head, mimicking its panicked pilot. Fortunately, it didn't seem like the blade hit him, but he was so distracted that Nora ran up and smacked the side of the Paladin, sending it tumbling off the side of the train. Qrow landed where the Paladin had just been, shooting a glare at Nora for nearly sending him flying too. Nora grinned innocently.

"What's the plan?" I asked as Pyrrha and I caught up to the rest of the group.

"Half of us go over the top and take out the Paladins, the other half go below and clear out the cars. Keep an eye out for Jaune while you're at it!" Ruby commanded, looking to Qrow for confirmation. He nodded and when Winter made no motion to disagree, everyone began to split up. "Let's—YANG!"

Ruby's cry startled me, but not as much as the bullet from Crescent Rose that landed just behind me. Glass shattered and I flinched, covering myself from the shards before looking at what Ruby was calling out.

"Yang, are you okay?" Ruby called out as she zipped up next to me, forming a defensive line against my short, stabby attacker.

"I—yeah, I'm fine," I muttered, shaking myself out of my shock. "You all go ahead. I've got this one."

"Yang, you don't have to—"

"Ruby, I'm fine," I cut her off, keeping my eyes on the girl who was unmistakably Neo, who watched curiously. She _had_ to be suicidal to attack a group of nine Huntsmen and Huntresses. "Go find Jaune."

Ruby took one last nervous look before deciding to trust me, and I could feel Qrow's eyes in the back of my neck.

"Kick her ass, Firecracker."

I watched Neo's eyes, and the way they shifted told me that they had all moved on to other parts of the train. Gunfire off in the distance behind me, peppered with occasional explosions, told me that the White Fang were putting up resistance.

"You're crazy, you know that?" I called out to Neo, who shrugged with an innocent smile, umbrella resting on her shoulder. She would have appeared every bit as unassuming and innocent as Ruby if I didn't know better. _That makes two times she's tried to ambush me, the first being in the forest with Jaune._

"What are you doing here?" I tried again when she wouldn't answer. She gave me a disappointed frown and tilted her head to the side slightly.

"You don't talk much, do you?" I asked sarcastically, to which she nodded semi-enthusiastically. At least it was an answer, but it did mean that getting info out of her would be difficult.

"Did Jaune bring you into this?" I asked cautiously. Neo pouted into a frown and shook her head lazily, giving off a sort of condescending vibe.

At the end, though, her eyes narrowed on me suspiciously, ever so slightly.

 _Jaune bringing her here wouldn't have made a ton of sense, but it would at least have been an easy explanation for why she was on the train with me right now_. She could have been here with the White Fang, and it's possible that she's hiding a Faunus trait somewhere; even Blake's ears could be disguised pretty well. If she were White Fang, though, she'd probably be dressed like them instead of dressed like an escaped sundae.

"Torchwick?" I asked against my better judgement. I felt like I already knew the answer, since Jaune did say that Neo was his connection to Vale's criminal underworld. I was willing to let him have that at the time because _hey, I had a connection to Vale's underworld too…_ before Junior got killed, that is. After I saw Raven and what Jaune is up against—what _we_ are up against, where he likes it or not—I was especially ready to let Jaune use whatever he could. If Neo was connected to Vale's underworld, then that meant she had to be here with Torchwick, which…

I don't know how I feel about that. I get that Jaune's kinda desperate here, but we're talking about the guy running the White Fang and organizing a terror strike on Vale! That's not just a line you can cross easily, or it _shouldn't_ be. That's—

My thoughts must have shown on my face, and Neo did _not_ like them, as I was broken out of them by the sound of her umbrella's blade popping out. She clearly recognized me from the other day and knew that Jaune trusted me, but apparently, she wasn't willing to take the risk that I was going to go back against him given this new information. That was the only reason I could think of for her attacking me, since there was no reason in holding off until now if she was just worried about herself and Torchwick being associated. The moment she showed up in front of the teams, that was thrown out.

She shot towards me blade first, before unfurling the umbrella and stopping right in front of me, obscuring her from my view. Rather than wait for her to strike from behind it, I unloaded a shotgun blast into the umbrella, knocking it back a bit. She had spun the umbrella up over and behind her to deflect the blow and then had ducked under and forward to stay concealed in the smoke, coming out of the duck to deliver a kick to the side of my face. In retaliation I launched a left hook and fired another round at her, but she turned the end of her kick into a spin where she dropped down into a crouch and brought her umbrella back up to rest on her shoulder; by the time my round got there, her back was facing me and the round deflected off the umbrella harmlessly.

She was still in sort of a crouched sitting position with her back to me, so I brought my right fist down on the ground just behind her and fired, the explosion of the round dispersing out as it hit the solid roof of the train. The little brat somehow did a half-backflip out of her crouch, coming down behind me and hooking her legs around my neck, so that as I stood back up her feet were crossed under my chin, her knees bent at my shoulder, and she was hanging upside-down with her back to mine.

The momentum from her flip nearly toppled me over backwards, and I would have recovered my balance if it weren't for a sharp slice to the back of my calves, unguarded by Aura because who on earth expects the munchkin they're fighting to dangle backwards off your shoulders and slice the back of your legs!?

I let out a yelp and fell flat on my back, with Neo having abandoned ship with just enough time not to be squished. The next thing I knew, I was looking up to find Neo standing next to my shoulder, about to stab me with her umbrella blade and grinning the whole time.

That wasn't very high on my to-do list—getting stabbed, that is—and I fired my right gauntlet from my right arm's position at my side. The shot itself was wasted, but it gave my arm the speed it needed to fly up and take out Neo's legs before she could start testing how good my Aura concentration was. If it felt good to see the look on her face as she started to fall, it felt better when my left fist came off the ground to deliver a blow to her gut, launching her away with a blast from my gauntlet there.

The train was narrow enough that such a hit would have knocked anyone else off the side of the train, but Neo was aware enough to use her umbrella as a drag chute to slow her speed. Even so, she only caught herself teetering on the edge of the train and flailing wildly to try to fall forwards instead of backwards.

I didn't really enjoy the look on her face as she realized that I had knocked her just an inch too far, eyes going wide as she realized she was starting to fall, but I absolutely enjoyed the shock on her face when I grabbed the blade of her umbrella and pulled her back to safety. I yanked her blade hard enough to pull it out of her hands and send it crashing across the top of the train car, but she had held on long enough to be thrown down onto the train too.

She didn't waste any time scrambling for her umbrella with a sense of panic that was new for her, but was surprised enough when I let her get it back that she looked up at me curiously.

"Look, we're on the same side here, okay?" I called out, making a show of disengaging my gauntlets. I took one step sideways away from the edge of the train, ignoring the stinging on the back of my calves from her earlier slice. If I was standing without any issue, then the slice was barely more than a scratch. "I'm not going to turn against Jaune just because of someone he works with. Can we both agree that we're at least allies here?"

I waited far longer for her to respond than I would have liked, but she eventually answered by sneering at me and sheathing her blade.

"Thank you, _sheesh_. I see why Jaune calls you 'stabby'…"

She scowled at me again and crossed her arms dramatically at me, giving the impression that she wasn't exactly the warmest of people. That she was willing to attack me for Jaune said a lot about how she viewed him, or it would if I didn't suspect that she enjoyed attacking people. _Doing so to protect her ally was probably as thin of an excuse as she needed._

To my surprise, Neo reached into her pocket and tossed me a folded-up scroll.

"What's this?" I asked, looking at the object in my hands curiously. Neo gave me the absolute most obnoxious flat stare I have ever received—and keep in mind who my teammates are—as if to ask how stupid I could be. _I swear, this girl is short and icy enough to be Weiss' daughter._ "Yes, I know it's a _scroll_. I meant, why'd you give it to me?"

Neo shook her head, without as much of the sass this time.

"You _didn't_ just give this to me?"

Neo threw her head back in despair, as if _I_ was somehow getting on _her_ nerves. And even then, she was being dramatic about it, sheesh.

"You didn't give it _for me_?" I asked again, to Neo's sudden delight and excitement. It was very clear that she was only excited because she thought I needed it made obvious that I was on the right track, which was insulting, but it was progress nonetheless. "It's for Jaune?"

Neo gave me big, enthusiastic and overly-dramatic nods for a few moments before stopping and rolling her eyes again. She turned to walk away, but I reached out and grabbed her by the shoulder.

"Hey wait, what's—" I cut myself off momentarily as my hand grabbed her shoulder and she shattered into the ground, revealing her to be gone. "—on the scroll?"

I stood there for a few moments, staring at the shards of glass as they disappeared before they stopped moving, before eventually snapping myself out of it. " _Riiight_. Disappearing Semblance," I said aloud, heard by no one but myself. It also reminded me of how Torchwick escaped from the White Fang rally when Atlas showed up, which just further proved who Jaune's 'contacts' in the underworld were. _He would go out and recruit literally the head of Vale's criminal underground, too_. Somehow, I feel like Raven would be strangely proud, even if it was to betray her.

Another explosion further up the train brought me back to focus, and I tucked the folded scroll away in my pocket. There would be time to give it to Jaune later, but that was only as long as he lived that long, and after how Winter berated me for letting him go after Torchwick unarmed, that's—

 _That son of a bitch._ If he's working with Torchwick, then he split us up on purpose so he wouldn't have to explain that to me! We literally just talked about how he was going to let me help him _directly before we fell down that hole_ , too.

And since I was unconscious, he probably set all of this up; not the operation, but how we were treated and how the Fang has responded to being under attack. _I thought it was weird that we were left untied or uncuffed, even for the White Fang._ It would be a lot less weird if Jaune was a silent ally of Torchwick's, though, and it would explain why our weapons were split up in the way that they were…and how Jaune knew where to point me for mine.

It goes without saying that Jaune is in for a rough time the next time I get my hands on him. What, did he think that this was somehow worse than everything he told me about him and my mom? I mean, it might be more significant to me that he works with Torchwick and the White Fang if I were _Blake_ — _and that's another thing we're going to have to have a chat about._

I forced myself to close my eyes and take a deep breath, then worked my hands out of the fists that they had balled into.

"Okay, maybe I can see why he'd hold off on some things," I mumbled to myself as I struggled to force myself to calm down. The muscles in my wrist cramped when I tried to massage them out of a fist, which was usually a sign that I was starting to get a little too heated. "He still has to explain himself before he gets a pass, though."

With that decided, I took off up the train to where the action was still going. I passed by the scattered pieces of what had to be six or seven Paladins on my way to where the remaining four were being dealt with by Qrow, Winter, Nora, and Pyrrha.

"Need any help?" I asked Nora as I approached. She was standing well out of melee range of the Paladins and was firing cover for Qrow, Winter, and Pyrrha with her grenade launcher.

"No, we've got a pretty good system going here," Nora called back, taking her eyes off her target and continuing to fire. "I'd hate for you to mess it up by jumping in."

I was going to respond to that, but after watching for a few moments, I noticed that they did have a pattern. Qrow, Winter, and Pyrrha were each too much for one Paladin to handle, with Winter and Pyrrha combining precision movements with their Semblances, and Qrow just straight-up out-damaging the rest with his scythe's huge blade. Each of them would begin to wear down one Paladin and Nora would rain grenades down on the fourth one to keep it pinned, before—

"RELOADING!" Nora yelled out, and as soon as she did so, all three swapped Paladins. Each one went after a new Paladin and continued to move on to another and another, keeping the Paladin pilots too confused to focus on a target, and by running between Paladins, they couldn't risk friendly fire. "RELOADED!"

It was almost like musical chairs, because as soon as Nora called out, they each stuck to the Paladin they were on and went back to tearing it apart. Qrow and Pyrrha both ended up on the same one with Pyrrha getting there first, and she picked him up by the metal of his weapon and threw him at a free Paladin with her Semblance. Incredibly, he didn't even seem annoyed, and took to his new target immediately.

"Okay, yeah, you guys look fine without me," I admitted. "Hey uncle! Where do you want me now?!"

"Uhhh—" Qrow responded, cutting himself off as he ducked under a swipe from a giant robotic arm, "—engine." He dove through the legs and swiped at one with his weapon in sword-mode. "See if you can't—"

"Slow this thing down!" Winter finished when Qrow got a little too busy to respond. "Don't stop it, but a little less—" Winter grunted here as she bounced off one of her glyphs and lunged through and past her Paladin target, "—velocity would be nice."

"Engine, slow us down; got it!" I called back. "Nora, a little help?"

"RELOADING!" Nora shouted, before turning to me with a grin. "Not really, but they don't need to know that. Hop on."

Nora held Magnhild out as a hammer and I didn't have any time to wonder if standing on a hammer to be launched over a robot fight on top of a moving train against the wind in an underground tunnel was a bad idea. I hopped on and braced into a low crouch so I could hold on with my hands as well, and Nora spun me twice before firing her hammer and sending me flying forwards.

To Nora's credit, she launched me exactly where she aimed. She aimed, however, directly at the farthest Paladin and if I hadn't low-key been expecting her to try something like that, I might not have reacted in time. Instead, I led with a blast from Ember Cilicia and the chassis was torn apart on impact, leaving a very startled pilot to fall out of the air. With a duck into a roll as I hit the train once again, I was past the last of the White Fang's resistance and only one car from the front of the train.

I hopped down to the doorway between the last and the second-to-last car, hesitating for a moment. I could rush forward to the front of the train, but I wasn't in any hurry; the White Fang wants the train to keep going, and at this point, so do we. The main reason I would push up ahead is to help Jaune out with Torchwick, but _that_ is unnecessary now. Instead, I decided to check the interior of the car behind me, mostly to see if any of our teams had made it in there and could use a hand.

And _oh boy_ did they ever. I opened the door to find Weiss being grabbed by a large White Fang grunt with a chainsaw, only to toss her into the air like a ragdoll. The look on Weiss' face as she watched herself about to be cut in half was terrifying, but the look on her face after I hit the guy in the face with a shotgun blast was incredibly funny. It helped that she was still falling and was so distracted that she landed with an awkward thud.

"We're you just going to let him do you like that?" I called out teasingly.

"I h-had everything under control," Weiss called back, her voice fraying a little. "What are you doing here?"

"They sent me to go take over the control room, but I decided to make a pit-stop," I answered. "Good thing, too, or else this woulda turned into a _Weiss_ -carving contest!"

Weiss gave me an extremely disappointed look, but knew that she couldn't say anything or else I'd just tease her for losing her fight even more.

"You head back and help the others," I suggested when it was clear Weiss was going to grit her teeth through my pun. "I'll go on ahead."

"Blake already went up there. Go help her out!" Weiss called out before nodding to me once and running off back into the rest of the train.

I didn't need to be told twice—okay, well, technically this _was_ the second time I was told to go up to the front of the train. Anyway, I ran back out the door I came in and burst into the last train car to immediately find myself in a tense situation.

Blake was the closest one to me, and as I walked up beside her, her ears twitched as she heard my footsteps but she didn't look my direction. Her eyes were locked dead ahead of her, where Torchwick was behind Jaune with an arm around his neck and his cane to Jaune's temple in what was a hostage standoff.

"Oh, goodie, yet _another_ one of you insufferable children!" Torchwick let out in frustration. "Alright Blondie, here's how this is gonna play out: you two stay over there, and your friend's brains don't go all over there!" He accentuated his point by nodding his head in the direction that his cane-gun was pointed, albeit through Jaune's head.

The standoff was clearly enough of a threat to keep Blake from trying anything, but it didn't really mean anything to me. _Hell, it was probably Jaune's idea to pretend to be a prisoner._ Jaune didn't look particularly scared; he looked pretty much as neutral as I've ever seen him; at the very least, I've seen him intimidated by Raven, and he did not look like that now. I'm not sure what Torchwick thinks he can accomplish with this routine, because at some point he's going to be surrounded by nine Huntsmen and Huntresses. Hostage or not, staged or not, at some point he's going to have to surrender.

Might as well burst his little bubble now.

"Hey kid, are you deaf or something?!" Torchwick called out as I casually walked towards him. Blake hissed my name and tried to grab my arm to hold me back but lost her grip when I pulled free. "I said I'm going to blow his head clean off if you don't stay back!"

I stopped for a moment and fixed Torchwick with the absolute flattest look I could possibly muster, tilting my head to the side as I did so. Jaune bowed his head a little and did a good job hiding a smile as Torchwick whispered something under his breath that included the word 'brat.'

I continued walking forward, much to Torchwick's dismay if his frown was anything to go by. By the time a was only eight feet away, he was forced to make a decision and quickly aimed his cane at me and fired. He missed wide because as soon as his cane moved from Jaune's head, Jaune's elbow was buried right into Torchwick's diaphragm. With one blast behind me from my gauntlet, I crossed the distance left between us and delivered a full-power blow to Torchwick's face, knocking him out cold and sending him crumbling to the floor.

"That was easy," I quipped, looking for the best one-liner I could come up with.

"Were you _trying_ to get me killed?" Jaune asked, pretending to be upset. In response, I gave Jaune the exact same flat look I had given Torchwick, keeping my back to Blake just in case.

"Seriously, Yang, that was reckless, even for _you_ ," Blake called out as she appeared next to me.

"Eh."

"Wow, quite the rescue party," Jaune drawled, earning a love-tap on the shoulder from me. I made sure to fix a glare at him on top of that, partially for the insult and partially because he was pretending as if he _wasn't_ working with the master criminal I had just knocked out. Jaune seemed to hesitate to break free from my stare, so I know that he at least knows that I'm holding something against him.

"For what it's worth, that's now _two_ people I've saved in the last five minutes, so _yes_ , it is quite the rescue party."

"Guys, focus," Blake cut in, fixing us both with annoyed stares.

"Right," I responded with a nod. "Uncle Qrow said we need to slow this train down."

"Well, that's going to be an issue…" Jaune called out as he led us into the control room at the end of the train car. He followed him in to find the levers for the throttle and break chopped off, and both of Jaune's swords sticking out of the control panels, causing sparks to fly occasionally.

"Hey Jaune?"

"Yeah?"

"I found your weapons."

"…thank you, Yang. Couldn't have done it without you."

"Jaune, what happened to you?" Blake asked with a little bit of horror in her voice.

"What do you mean?"

"Your back," Blake answered, pointing to the dried blood that covered him.

"Oh, yeah. That's not mine."

"It's not—?"

"Now what?" I cut in, giving Jaune an out and focusing us on the task in front of us.

"We're going to have to find another way to slow this thing down, and pretty quick, too," Jaune said, pointing up at the display on the roof that hadn't been destroyed. It was a simple old diagram to show how far the train was along the line, with a dot on one end for Mountain Glenn and one on the other end for Vale. The little train was almost touching the Vale dot. "I have an idea, but I need Weiss."

"I just saw her. This way!" I said as I led us back out the control room, before being surprised to find that the rest of the teams were already making their way into our train car. "Oh, hey guys. How'd it go?"

"The White Fang have been dealt with," Qrow answered. "What about slowing this bucket of bolts down?"

"Everyone out! Into the next car!" Jaune shouted, making a large shooing motion with his arms. Qrow and Winter gave him funny looks, but I jumped in to help since we were out of time.

"You heard the man, move guys!"

Confused but sensing the urgency in our voices, every began to push their way through the doorway and into the next car. Once everyone had arrived, they all looked to Jaune to see what his plan was. Jaune was a few seconds late in getting on the car, and the reason why was revealed when he showed up dragging Torchwick's unconscious body with him.

"Uh, Jaune?" Ruby asked, confused. In response, Jaune unceremoniously dumped Roman's body in the middle of the floor.

The next thing anyone knew, Jaune took Gambol Shroud off of Blake's back in a move that could have cost him his life if Blake wasn't so stunned by the sudden action, and in one motion stepped forward and severed the railcar connection, sending the engine surging forward without the weight of the train holding it down.

"That's your big plan?" Qrow asked sarcastically.

" _Weiss_ ," Jaune barked sharply, ignoring Qrow. "Do you have any glyphs that could slow us down?"

"Do I—I mean, yes, but I don't think I can stop a whole train!"

" _Try_ ," Jaune answered, putting a hand on her shoulder to steady her, and also to show off that both his hand and her shoulder were glowing with his Semblance.

"Winter?" Weiss asked hopefully, turning around to find her sister stepping up beside her with her shoulders pulled back, facing down the task ahead of her as sternly as ever. Jaune looked confused at the display, which Weiss picked up on. "Same Semblance. Can you boost us both?"

"I…yeah, I can. It'll just leave me a little…tired," Jaune answered quietly. "Everyone else, brace yourselves!"

" _Jaune!_ " Pyrrha called out, pushing her way to him. Something unspoken passed between them, as Jaune was nodding along a few seconds later.

"Right. _Right_. Yang?"

"Yeah?"

"I need to steal your Aura again. Yours _and_ Pyrrha's."

It took me a moment to realize what he meant, but in that time Jaune had positioned himself between Pyrrha and me and had thrown one arm around each of us to brace himself. He dropped down onto one knee and we went down with him.

In the distance ahead of us, the sound of a loud crash and an explosion was heard. We were out of time.

"Weiss, Winter… _now!_ "

I was unsure of what to do, so I bowed my head and tried to focus on flexing my Aura as if I was trying to protect myself from a blast, except I tried to hold it. Last time he stole it because I was using my Semblance and was tapping into my Aura that way, and he described it as basically piggybacking off of that. If I had more time, I could have gotten really angry and activated it again, but I both didn't have time and didn't want my flaming hair to burn Jaune while he was concentrating.

After a moment of flexing my Aura, I felt Jaune's Aura come over me, though it was more distant and colder this time. More than not just seeming as strong, this time it felt different in that I could sense what felt like more than just one Aura this time. I could feel my own Aura flowing out through the connection, but I could also feel another source of Aura flowing into Jaune through the connection. _Pyrrha,_ I had to tell myself.

And then, after a few moments of our Auras pooling in Jaune, I felt them begin to drain away in huge chunks from two new connections that had to be Weiss and Winter. I began to panic when the pool of Aura Pyrrha and I had just given Jaune was almost gone, but that went away as Jaune began pulling Aura from Pyrrha and I once more. Either he wouldn't or couldn't take Aura from us both and then give it to two more people at the same time, as he only did one or the other. Once his pool was replenished again, the connection stayed but again the Aura began to be consumed in chunks.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I realized that each time a chunk of Aura was taken, my body lurched forward as the train hit a barrier that slowed it down. I also realized that I was being braced from behind by someone so I didn't go flying forwards, probably Ruby. Could be any of them, really.

We never replenished Jaune's Aura a third time, as we still had a quarter of the pool left when the chunks just stopped being taken out. I lifted my head up slowly to see what was going on, only to realize that the train had come to a full stop, with several yards to spare before we reached the end of the track and the hole that the engine had made in the wall.

"Ah HA! Nice one Jaune!" Nora called out excitedly. "Take _that_ , Team 'RWBY.'"

"Nora, why did you use air quotes for their team?"

"Hey, all Jaune did was amplify what _Weiss_ was doing!" Ruby shot back at Nora. "If anything, that's a victory for our team, not yours!"

"Enough!" Winter shouted, not nearly as tired from the exertion as Weiss, who was visibly a little spent. "Everyone out! We've still got the Grimm on our tale and we need to use that breach as a choke point until we can get backup!"

No one needed to be told twice and not even uncle Qrow decided to test Winter. As soon as Pyrrha and I went to stand up, we found that Jaune was hanging limply by our arms.

"Jaune!"

"I'm fine," Jaune mumbled, failing to stand on his own power. "Just…dizzy."

"We'll just carry him," I called out, both to Pyrrha who I was counting on to help and to Winter, who had rushed over when Jaune nearly fell over as we stood up.

"What happened to you, Jaune?!" Ruby asked with panic and concern dripping from her voice as she just now realized his back was stained red. That and his current limp state did make for a scary scene.

"It's not his," I answered quickly, motioning for Ruby to go on ahead. She hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to think about that, before putting it out of her mind. _For now._

"Come on, Jaune," Pyrrha prodded as we both used the fact that his arms were around us to lift him up and walk him out of the cave.

"…isn't like I'm going…anywhere else…"

Ozpin's POV

"That would be check."

"Already?" James asked a bit glibly. "I thought you were going to let me win that time."

"Fret not, old friend. I've been playing chess since it was first invented. Frankly, my pride would be rather hurt should you manage to take a round," I answered back in good nature, though not without a slight smirk.

"Yeah, sure, rub it in," the general drawled. "It's incredible how in all that time you've never learned humility."

"Oh?" I asked coyly. "I assure you that there has never existed a soul that has been more humbled than I, but you'll have to forgive me if your very presence doesn't humble me, James."

"Now you really are rubbing it in," he accused, shaking his head and fighting off a smile.

"Am I? I would think that going out of my way to mention how I've raised armies larger than yours and united all of Remnant more than once would be rubbing it in…" I accentuated, taking a sip of coffee and hiding my expression behind my mug.

"And yet, the Grimm still spawn and we still die fighting them."

"Yes, well…I do believe I mentioned that I have been humbled more than any other," I answered with a bit of melancholy. James did not offer a response, other than to stare off at the board, lost in thought. _To his credit, his is certainly the most technologically-advanced army that Remnant has ever seen…just not the largest._ If you counted every one of Atlas' new robot toys, then the numbers would be about even; Remnant has never existed in a state where the population was anything to be proud of, after all. "Another match?"

"What, and discover new records for how fast I can lose?" He scoffed at the idea, but that scoff itself was half-laugh.

"When you're as old as I am, you've simply seen it all before," I offered.

"Yeah, well, I wish you'd apply that to other areas," James grumbled. "Or recognize that you can't take risks when something new comes around…"

"Still on about that, James?"

"Yes I'm still 'on about that!'" He cut back. "Part of Amber's power was stolen, Ozpin! You said it yourself that such a thing has _never_ happened before, which means you have no experience here to give us an advantage. Why not take every precaution with the Festival coming up?"

"Subtly has always played a deep part in _our_ war," I answered calmly, not referring to the man sitting across from me. James' outburst was neither shocking nor irritating, as the man had well established himself to be a fierce protector; his anger stemmed from his passion, which stemmed from his fear. "In this war there have always been two types of moves: subtle ones, and calamitous ones. _Covert_ and _overt_ , if you will. Look to history and you'll see several examples of catastrophic failure—of the _overt_ —but what you will not see is the string of subtle failures leading up to it—the _covert_. For every targeted catastrophe that Salem has wrought, there were several subtle battles that we failed to win beforehand. We have not yet let calamity strike, James, and it will not if we win what is covert."

"And why not prepare for both?"

"We are," I answered simply. "Despite your frustrations in not being able to mobilize half of your fleet to Vale, I have persuaded Vale's Council to permit several ships already. Atlas' presence in Vale is already felt, I can assure you, as I cannot look out my own window without seeing that abomination you call a flagship."

"You never did appreciate Atlesian style," James accused off-hand.

"As I recall, Mantle once banned _art itself_."

James yielded that point to me.

"In my experience, bringing an army in to secure things is a tacit admission that all other, subtler means of defense have _failed_. Despite this unique situation, _that_ experience is still valuable, and we are still in the covert, James."

"But why can't two Nevermore be killed with one stone?" James asked intensely, leaving it painfully clear that this argument was no more likely to put him at ease than all previous attempts had been.

"Have you ever actually _tried_ two hit two Nevermore with one stone?" I asked redundantly. "It's _incredibly_ unlikely. It requires that you sit and wait for them to align, all for a one-in-a-million shot. You'll waste much more time waiting for the two to pass by one another than it would have taken to hit each one individually."

James' greatest attribute—how fierce of a protector he is—can also be his downfall sometimes, no such examples more painfully obvious than this. Forgetting all the mentioned reasons not to bring a military presence, it simply was not wise military strategy on Atlas' part. It is one thing to commit your forces to the aid of an ally, because in that situation the ally takes control. After all, they are defending their territory, the land and city that they know best. Environmental factors, deployment times, population densities, common Grimm sources…all these things would be foreign to an invading army. Were Vale to call for Atlas' help, these would not be an issue, but if Atlas showed up as Ironwood wishes they would, that would technically constitute an invasion.

And they would be invading a foreign land without any knowledge of how best to defend it. _It would certainly be one of the most unique invasions, if only for the inversion of roles._ A small series of mistakes—a few mishandled incidents here, some public nervousness from all the battleships, an outburst there—and all of Vale's natural defenses could come back to bite us. No one in, no one out, as it were; a kill box for the Grimm.

My eyes trailed to the mountains in the distance, and my thoughts strayed momentarily to what might still lurk beneath one of them. _If it survived, gods forbid, then Vale would not be able to mount a defense._ All of Atlas' ships that were already here might be an even match for it, but any accompanying Grimm or Grimm that it spawns would tip the scales, and all of that wasn't even to mention the destruction of ships and dragons falling out of the sky.

"I just wish that you would let me help here," James admitted after a lull in our conversation. "Even on the White Fang lead I worked on, you denied my attempts to send a ship out."

"We've had this conversation, James. _Scouts, not ships_."

"Just consider it a really big scout, then," James cut back, a little humor returning to his voice. "One that magically turns into a fighting force when needed. Magic, you know. You should know about that, right?"

"Sarcasm does not befit you, General," I cut back cheekily. "Besides, I don't think that even you would consider the force we _did_ send to be lacking in any way."

"No," James said after a pause to think about it. "No, I suppose no—"

He was distracted by a beeping from his hip, and as he did so, my desk announced its own beep from across the room. We shared a glance and it was clear that neither of us are a fan of coincidences, so he reached for his scroll and I rose to investigate my computer.

"I've just been informed that Winter Schnee has ordered troop movements," Ironwood called out dispassionately, as if reading the words from a screen.

"Does she have the authority to do that?" I responded, still walking to my desk.

"In wartime, no, unless she has a unit assigned to her specifically. In peacetime, any officer can request troops provided that they're putting their asses on the line should something go wrong."

I nodded absently. It was better to have a fast response time in the event of an emergency, especially if the garrisons of troops stationed nearby have no official task.

"She has requested that they reinforce her position…inside the city of Vale."

I perked up at that, shooting James a look from my chair to confirm what I had heard. We both knew very well that their mission was for Mountain Glenn, so James' confirming nod was significant.

"Here she is now—Special Schnee, what is going on?"

On my computer, I opened the alert to find it was a perimeter breach for the walls of Vale—needless to say, bad news. I pulled up the full detail and found that the sensor tripped wasn't for any of the exterior walls, but a support wall that let out into the heart of Vale itself. No other sensors had gone off.

" _Sir, the White Fang have excavated the old rail line to Mountain Glenn and crashed a train into Vale._ "

Ah, that would do it.

" _We stole aboard and neutralized their forces, but they detonated the cavern behind them, releasing countless Grimm._ "

"I see. I've already confirmed your troop requests, Specialist. Ozpin?"

"Sirens in Vale are already going off and police are handling civilian evac. I'm issuing an order to all students and Huntsmen in the area to convene on the location now."

" _We'll be able to hold. We're carrying one but zero casualties, and we've managed to bottleneck the Grimm using the tunnel. We_ will _hold until help arrives._ "

Ironwood looked to me to explain the report, but I waved it off with a hand. I had lived the lives of military men in my lifetimes. It meant that they had one member who was down and being carried along by the group, but not injured or dead. Not good news, but certainly not bad news either. _Even if the best of that group were down, there were several there that were more than capable of holding off the Grimm._

"Reinforcement won't be long," Ironwood reassured Winter before killing the transmission.

"James, find Glynda and get her down there, if she's not already. Her Semblance should prove invaluable at sealing this breach."

"On it," he called, rising and hurrying off to the elevator. Precious seconds ticked away as he waited for it. The doors opened and James left me with one parting line. "This does not feel like we are in the covert anymore, Oz."

"No," I mumbled to myself as the doors closed, "perhaps it does not."

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Ah, Yang, such a smart girl. Granted, it takes Neo's appearance for her to put things together, but let's not hold that against her. She's not wrong that Jaune set up how they were to be 'held' by the Fang and that their weapons would be split up, but obviously she doesn't think that Jaune set up the _entire_ Mountain Glenn operation, though she'll certainly want to hear Jaune say it out loud. She'll be a little agitated that he wasn't planning on sharing that anytime soon, but that won't be nearly enough to get her to turn her back on Jaune. **

**As for Jaune, we won't see his conversation with Torchwick directly, mostly because it would mean next chapter starts off with Jaune's POV of things and then would run straight into events we've already seen. It could be done, but it feels awkward; I've got a scene planned that will give Jaune the chance to look back over the highlights of that conversation, so I'm not gonna put you in the dark there.**

* * *

 **[SPOILER] As for V6 Ep1: who absolutely freaking nailed the intricacies of Jaune's Semblance?! _That's right, this asshole!_ I get that it is not an unreasonable leap to assume that Aura Amplification would also amplify Semblances like Jaune did with Ren on the train, but still, I am stoked. That was the cherry on top of a very good intro episode for me, and the hype train has left the station. _Unlike every other train in RWBY, this one won't crash._ **

**Also, really dug that intro at the end. Everyone's going to go nuts over Roman's hat and _OMG IS NEO BACC_ and yeah, me too, but I'm dying to see the scene where Jaune throws _Oz_ car up against a wall. I have a crackpot theory about it, but...it also actually ties in with something planned for _this_ story, so I won't share it yet. :D**

 **We won't do this every week, since not even I am that desperate for reviews and reddit is a thing that exists, but what were your first reactions to the show this season?**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _Josh Spicer_

"Roman shouldn't have died. There I said it. I get why he did but considering we haven't seen hide nor hair of Neo since it kind of ruins the point of why he died in the first place.

V6 has a LOT of mistakes to remedy and a LOT of hype to live it up to. It's got a lot to tackle and I hope Rooster Teeth actually takes the time to do it instead of walking for a season from one place to another and having the last two or three episodes be The Big Fight (TM)."

 **Okay, this is a little unfair throwing you out here for a review written _before_ V6's premiere, so, like, yeah. Sorry on that front. lol**

 **So far, though, I would say that the first episode has done everything it needed to. Taking a train is a nice way to speed things along, although at least RWBY is going to have to walk for at least a little bit, so...**

 **I do think that it has set the show up to display its strengths. RWBY and JN_R are working together but separated, giving them some space. The Bees are back but not everything has been patched up overnight. They're leaving Sun and Ilia behind to focus on the Salem aspect of the show finally, although Adam is still lurking there, seeking revenge. The group clearly has trust issues with Ozpin and that's set up to play a larger role now.**

 **Somehow, when it comes to judging shows and movies, I'm quite an optimist, which is a complete reversal of me literally anywhere else; that said, I feel good about this season. _Do keep in mind that I also haven't found any season a 'bad' season yet._**

 **On the note of Roman... I mean, yeah, you probably could have worked him further into the show, but it would have been difficult. His motives were a lot like Raven's, but he didn't have the means of protecting himself with Maiden powers, so he was really under Cinder's boot. I could certainly see how they could have had Cinder force him into working as her liaison in Mistral, but that would have felt like they were keeping him around just for the heck of it.**

 **You gotta kill your darlings sometimes, and as sad as his death was, I think that it was the right move. It had some weight behind it. I just wish that _how_ he died had been better. For all intents and purposes, a random death via Grimm did not feel like the best end he could have met. His death could have been even more poignant if it was Cinder clearly responsible for it, tying up loose ends. Really hammer home that Roman was killed because he was small-time and that the scope of the show is so much bigger. **

**I don't remember Emerald and Mercury doing much during the Fall of Beacon. I would have loved to see Roman knock Ruby aside and her be forced to watch as Emerald and Mercury killed Torchwick for trying to escape Cinder's plans; I would do nothing to his famous speech (except let him finish it), let him establish that he represents regular crime and normal bad guys, and then have him snuffed out by the _real_ threat. **

**...maybe I should write a one-shot about that...**

 **In any case, here's to hoping that Neo does come back this season!**

* * *

 **Wow, no threats from** _Turquoise_ **in a while. Maybe killing characters really does placate him, even minor ones...**

 **Interesting...**


	36. Debriefing

**Author's Note: Oh my, V6 is taking no prisoners.**

 _"Oh, you want more answers from Ozpin? Okay, fine, why not?" - Miles Luna, probably_

 **Anyways, there's an important tl;dr down at the end of the Closing Thoughts I'd recommend you read if you're curious how this story will continue to handle Volume 6.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 34:** _"Things are in motion now, whether or not you or I like it. I've got a few plans of my own laid, and when shit hits the fan and you find yourself stranded, I could always use a right-hand man, someone to balance out Neo. You keep that in mind." – Roman Torchwick_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

The door to the room finally swung open and in walked General Ironwood, with a folder in one hand and both of my swords grasped by the middle of their blades in the other, with Crocea Mors sheathed in its shield.

"Am I being interrogated?" I asked pointedly as soon as he closed the door behind him. I had no qualms about letting my voice sound agitated.

"Interrogated?" Ironwood repeated back to me as he made his way to stand on the other side of the table from me. "Why would you think that?"

"Oh, I don't know," I answered back, agitation ramping up a little, for show. "The fact that this room is called ' _Interrogation #4_ ' might have given me that idea."

"No, you are not being interrogated," the general answered, a bit of annoyance in his voice, but more in response to my attitude than anything. "You are being debriefed."

"At least buy me dinner first."

Ironwood gave me an unreadable stare for a few moments and I returned it unwaveringly. "Qrow warned me you had a mouth on you," he dismissed offhand. "I asked you to meet me here because it is somewhere private where we can discuss the Breach and your mission to Mountain Glenn. If this were a real interrogation, the lights on those cameras would be on," he said, pointing to the security cameras in the corner. Sure enough, they were dead.

"If this were a real interrogation, I'm sure my human rights would have been violated by now, too."

"I also would not be bringing you back _these_ ," Ironwood stated by laying my sword on the edge of the table, while intentionally not rising to my comment or even acknowledging it.

"We couldn't have done this in, say, your office, or someplace less cold and depressing?"

"I am the head of both Atlas' combat school and military. What on Remnant leads you to believe that this _isn't_ less cold and depressing than my office?" the man asked slowly, the corners of his mouth curling up at his own joke. It put me at ease a little, but it very much felt like the sort of joke that Ozpin would make to attempt to lull you into a sense of comfort, but less subtle. _To his credit, it was also funnier than Ozpin's usual attempts._ It gave me sort of an impression that Ironwood was more rigid than Ozpin, but it didn't feel like that was a bad thing. "Do you know why you are here?"

"I'm betting that you're about to tell me anyways," I responded sarcastically, only to get a flat look from the man. "Fine, I'll go along. _Debriefing_ , just like you said."

"Correct, but not what I'm asking for," he countered. "Why are you _here_ , on my ship, in what is admittedly a poor choice of room for this meeting?"

I remained silent. I did know why, but he was setting up something specific, and it was always better not to be caught guessing at the motives of others.

"As a student of Beacon, you are legally considered a Huntsman from Vale and, as such, are not beholden to the requests of any nation's military, and yet you are here 'willingly.' Care to summarize why?"

To his slight frustration, I remained silent. He was setting up his authority quite deliberately, which was again a much less subtle tactic than Ozpin. It was brazen and brutish, but there was a transparency to it that I appreciated, which I suspected was his intention.

"Four days ago, a joint operation between Beacon Academy and the Atlas Military was initiated for search and destroy in Mountain Glenn, targeting White Fang activity. I know that I'm stating the obvious here, but bear with me; you were one of eight students sent on that mission and you are here for debriefing on that mission, despite the fact that it was led by Beacon, not Atlas. The operation crippled a White Fang attack on the city of Vale but resulted in a train crash that created a breach for Grimm to enter the heart of the city. This incident, the Breach, was contained by your teams until Atlas personal could arrive to reinforce the area; the Breach was promptly sealed not long after."

"Oh, this is going to be one of _those_ debriefings, okay," I grumbled, pretending to be upset, which was not hard at all. "I was there, general. I may have been a little out of it at the end, but I remember the chain of events well enough. Last I heard, there were zero casualties, though several injuries, so you can skip that part, too."

"Very well," he responded, seeming at the least pleased that I was a little more involved in the conversation. "I bring it up because in response to Atlas' rapid deployment, the Council of Vale has seen fit to officially hand over the investigation into the White Fang and the Breach, _and_ the security of the Vytal Festival, to Atlas, in an effort to promote efficiency and strengthen ties between the kingdoms."

I nodded to show that I was following along and also that this was new information to me, or at least, to let him think this was new information to me. And it was, technically; Roman had explained his intentions for the Breach after a few tense words between the two of us, and one of those was to ensure that Atlas would be sticking around for the Vytal Festival. One of _her_ plans, Roman called it disdainfully, with the pronoun pretty clearly referencing Cinder Fall. Overall, the plan was a shitty one from Roman's point of view—get captured by Atlas after a seemingly botched terror strike, and then…wait.

" _Trust me, kid, I don't like Cinder giving me up to be interrogated by Atlas, especially not after the trouble I've gone through to get away from Atlas, but I've got an idea what she wants me on that ship for, and I've got some ideas of my own, too."_

What worries me is the scale of Cinder's next move. After I chewed Roman out for dragging me into a terrorist attack, he seemed keen not to tell me exactly what is was he knew about Cinder's plan. He just indicated that he was required to stay aboard Atlas' flagship as a prisoner until the Vytal Festival, when Neo would be sent to free him, and then… _blank_. And then they'd be given further instructions, so he said. _And Roman clearly didn't like it, but the fact that he was allowing himself to be forced into doing it told me a lot about who Cinder Fall was._

We both know that there aren't a ton of reasons that you would want a man aboard an airship...

"You are the last to be debriefed, Mr. Arc—"

"Jaune is fine," I cut in, feigning friendliness, or at least non-hostility. "Mr. Arc was my father. I think."

Ironwood gave me a funny look for that line which made me smirk a little, at both his reaction and my own joke.

" _Jaune_ ," Ironwood corrected, pushing past it. "As I was saying, you are the last of the team sent to be debriefed. Do you know why?"

"You were too nervous to talk to me earlier," I cut back with a joke. "It's okay, I get it a lot. It's not every day you meet a famous porn star."

Ironwood, who had by now taken a seat opposite me, rubbed his forehead and eyebrows with one hand while taking a deep breath. "Remind me to recommend that you are never paired with Qrow Branwen ever again."

" _That's_ all it took to get me away from Qrow? Shoulda gone with that line sooner."

"The reason that you are the last to be debriefed," Ironwood cut in sharply, raising his voice slightly to drown mine out, "is that no one else on that mission was taken hostage by Roman Torchwick."

I went to point out that at least one other person was taken hostage by Torchwick, but bit my tongue at the last second. While I am certain that it is of no consequence, the only other person I could mention is Yang, and throwing her under the bus to deflect attention from me was not something I was willing to do. _She's already giving up too much to help me out; I will_ not _make her regret that more than she already should._ Especially not when I knew what Ironwood was getting at, and that it didn't apply to Yang the same way it did to me.

"Oh, so that's what this is," I answered finally, recomposing myself after the near-slip. "You want to know if I heard anything."

"I already know the details of every other part of the mission from at least one other member. The only areas I have no accounts for are when you and miss Xiao Long were taken hostage, and then when you split up after breaking free," Ironwood added on. "If you did hear anything critical from the White Fang, I trust that you would have reported that when your statement was taken. I'm more interested in piecing together a few things that I still don't understand."

I took a moment to weigh his words. His assumption wasn't wrong, and if I _had_ heard anything relevant, it would have gone into my statement. _That is, if I hadn't negotiated with the Fang and orchestrated how Yang and I would be treated that whole time._ If the White Fang had any more attacks like this planned that I was aware of, I would have found a way to tip off Atlas about it; I'm not leaving the Tribe to join one of the only groups worse than them. Roman figured out that pretty quickly, though, and was cautious not to tip me off about any other operations like this, if there were any.

Quite frankly, Ironwood has nothing on me; Roman and I were careful. He treated me like he would have treated any other hostile Huntsman in front of the White Fang, and in my original surrender, I did nothing wrong. If any of the White Fang grunts survived the tunnel and the crash, they wouldn't have been able to give any information on me that would reflect badly. And once Torchwick and I had a chance to speak… _candidly_ on the train, he made it clear that this was his last time running the White Fang.

"Let's get this over with, then. Ask away, general."

"Take me through what happened after you and miss Xiao Long fell through the hole into the under-city, up to when you boarded the train." Ironwood leaned back in his chair and brought a hand up to rub his chin idly, giving off a very calm and relaxed feeling. In all likelihood, he _was_ relaxed, and I did my best to mimic it, trying not to give away that I already saw where this was headed. I _had_ been allowed to keep my armor and clothes after the Breach despite how the back of my shirt was drenched in dried blood, but that didn't mean that it didn't at least raise suspicions.

Better to have to speak of it to Ironwood than Ozpin, I guess; doesn't mean that I have to make this easy for him.

"Sure, easy enough. The hole opened up under Yang and she fell in first, with me falling shortly after. I flexed my Aura and managed to not be completely knocked out by the fall, but I did take a nasty hit to the head; Yang was out cold when I found her. She still hadn't come to when the White Fang surrounded us." Ironwood listened patiently, nodding along slightly and occasionally glancing at his notes, but never for long enough that he was checking anything important. "Things were tense between the White Fang and me, and they were eventually… reasoned with, and agreed to take us both prisoner; I couldn't risk fighting them without Yang getting killed."

"How many would you say there were?" Ironwood interjected quickly, more looking for details than to trip me up.

"I don't remember…" I mumbled back. "Maybe twenty or so? I could have taken them if I wasn't worried about Yang's safety."

"Noted," he said, writing down the number in his notes. "Please continue."

I eyed him suspiciously for a few moments, before deciding to play along further. "They had me carry Yang—" _like I would have let anyone else touch her,_ "—to their encampment. When Torchwick found out, he realized that we had others in the area and ordered the trains to leave as soon as possible."

"So they weren't planning on striking when they did?" Ironwood cut in, focusing on a detail that I was all too happy to focus on.

"I doubt it. Doesn't seem like a very well-timed strike if it didn't kill anyone."

" _Ugh, you better have Atlas waiting at the damn breach point. Once Cinder realizes that this plan was compromised, she's…well, I'd take my chances with Atlas over her."_

That raised the question of _when_ , exactly, this strike was supposed to take place, which I'm confident Ironwood has already drawn a conclusion about. Roman always danced around the subject of Cinder's ultimate goals—as anyone smart man who knew _anything_ about it would—but it felt more and more like Cinder had dangerous intentions, and that Roman knew more about fairy tales than he liked. Cinder was undercover in Beacon and was trying to set up a terror-strike on Vale to keep in her back pocket, which could have served as a great distraction if we hadn't spoiled it.

"Is that so?" Ironwood asked, his voice a bit curious.

"Yeah, if they could have waited a few weeks, they would have hit during the Vytal Festival." As was their plan, which was the subject of a little shouting match between Torchwick and me. Roman was quick to blame Cinder on being the one who wanted a terror strike during the Vytal Festival, and I was quick to establish that I did _not_ join this enterprise to be accessory to mass murder. I'm sure that I could have done something to move civilians away from the target area if the plan had gone through, but that was only if they had filled me in on the plan beforehand; Cinder didn't strike me as the trusting type. I made it very clear to Roman that I wanted to know everything that they were up to, and Roman delivered on the spot, telling me about another of Cinder's schemes to distract Ozpin (in vague terms) and confirming to me that distracting Beacon was, indeed, the purpose. _I would have to be a fool to think he's told me everything, but at the very least, I know that he's not keen on what Cinder's trying to pull off._ "I assume that's why Torchwick was to angry about us being there."

"Interesting. It's much the same conclusion I've come to, that the attack would have been more successful during the Festival. Your teams performed admirably to foil this." His praise was genuine, if a little patronizing. "Continue."

"Torchwick ordered that we be tied up and put to the side and then left to oversee loading the train, taking both my swords with him. I convinced the grunt that was going to tie us up that he was wasting his time, since I wouldn't be going anywhere with Yang unconscious."

"He bought that?" the general asked, part surprised and maybe a little impressed.

"He sure did." _Not that hard to convince him when you have his boss order him to do it, though._ "Shortly after, Yang came to, and with a little bit of my Semblance we were both back in fighting shape."

"Healing, right?" he cut in to ask. "Your Semblance, that is."

"Healing?...yeah, close enough," I shrugged off. At this point, it wouldn't matter if that aspect was confirmed, especially if I didn't need to correct him and go into the finer details of Aura Amplification. "When things started exploding, we split up to search for our weapons, which is how I ended up on the train."

"The explosions were Qrow's doing," Ironwood explained for me, which I took with a nod. It felt like his style, or at least, it didn't feel like Winter's. "As he put it, it was a signal for the rest of the teams to find."

"Sounds effective."

"So you boarded the train," Ironwood stated, glancing down at his notes as he did so, "and the next record I have of you is Torchwick holding you hostage to keep miss Belladonna from attacking him—"

"That's correct, until Yang showed up and decided to call his bluff."

"Indeed, and how did you feel about that?" Ironwood asked in a voice that sounded far too much like he held that decision _against_ Yang for being reckless. I may not have been thrilled that Yang was throwing a wrench in Roman's and my plans, but I wouldn't hold it against her, and I _certainly_ wouldn't let anyone else use it to detract from her.

"Pretty pleased," I answered back with a grin, catching the general off-guard. "I didn't really like being a hostage anyways. Good on Yang for calling his bluff."

"You could have been hurt if he wasn't bluffing," Ironwood countered, a bit sternly but more like he was making sure that I knew the stakes. If anything, he wasn't sure how to react to me not wanting to implicate Yang.

" _If_."

He gave me a funny look for a few seconds, before shaking it free and noting something on his file. "Very well, then. How did you become a hostage again?" His voice was very loose and unassuming, but I knew that to be a front, if only because it was one of the few things he has no account of.

"Tried to get my weapons back from Torchwick without getting caught. One of his Fang members had better hearing than I anticipated and I got caught. Extra set of ears…" I kept my answer as simple and loose as his question had been, both in a show that there was nothing to hide and in a silent show that I could play his games too.

"Yes, well, I can see the advantages that having an extra set of ears would grant," he tacked on, finding no holes to poke in my answer. "Are you sure that's all that happened?"

"I did hit my head pretty good, but I'm pretty sure," I answered back, going out of my way to use that line about my head again, keeping the idea of a bad memory in his mind.

Ironwood looked me over for a good while and I returned the gaze, before he sat up a little in his chair and readjusted the folder on the table. "Jaune, I want you to know that there are no cameras or recorders of any kind in here, and whatever we discuss stays between us. Since I have been charged with this investigation _and_ the Festival's security, I am not required to share any of this with Headmaster Ozpin, and I happen believe that's important to you."

I tried really hard not to change my expression or look at him differently at that, but he had certainly changed things just in that one statement. In a way, it was a small victory, an omission that I had won the little game and he was the first to break the façade. On the other hand, it was easily possible that he was only feigning this to gain an upper hand in said game—sacrificing your queen, so to speak—which is why I watched him suspiciously while doing my best not to seem so.

"Ozpin and I aren't seeing eye to eye on things right now, so you have my word that anything we discuss stays between the two of us." He paused to give me a moment to think over this. It was unreasonable for me to expect that he meant that _anything_ would be kept from Ozpin; I have a feeling that telling him that Raven and I were planning on turning Ozpin's next Maiden would make its way to Ozpin within five minutes. He did, however, seem honest in his intentions, and depending on where he wants to lead this conversation, I am open to the possibility of giving him what he wants, given that it is minor. "With all that said, are you sure that there wasn't anything else that happened?"

That still doesn't mean I'll let it be this easy.

"I mean, I'm pretty sure."

I met Ironwood's eyes again, and he was watching me with a disappointed frown, making it clear that both of us knew I was lying. He looked like he wasn't certain what he wanted to do, or maybe just what he could do, and I certainly did nothing to make things easier on him with my denial.

"You know, these were recovered from the tangled wreck of the train engine," Ironwood shifted gears pointedly and tapped my swords. "I thought they'd be damaged, since most Huntsmen's weapons would have some internal contraptions in need of repair after a collision like that, so I took the liberty of having them inspected by our own weaponsmiths. They were completely fine, no defects or kinks whatsoever, I'm told."

"They're both pretty simple designs," I answered in explanation. "Nothing like a sword that morphs into a scythe or anything. Just one sword that morphs into smaller swords, and then a plain ole sword." Angau Glass had a little bit of mecha-shift to it, but there wasn't much more than blades sliding together and interlocking. It did actually shift and the blade would curve to form katanas or a nodachi, but even that was relatively tame for Huntsmen standards.

"Yes, well, they did find one thing wrong, just not with the weapons themselves…" he trailed off, looking to me for a reaction. I feigned surprise and waited for him to elaborate, with the charade becoming clear to us both. "Blood, Mr. Arc. I'm told the weapons were not thoroughly cleaned since the last time they spilled actual blood, not Grimm blood; it looked as if they blades were wiped off hastily."

"Oh?"

"In addition to that, Atlas has since sent teams to comb through the remains of the White Fang camp in Mountain Glenn. No actionable intelligence was found, but there were bodies of White Fang members found in more than one location."

"Oh, those poor terrorists," I commented, pretending to be heartbroken. "That's just so sad to hear that their days of murdering people were cut short." Ironwood gave me a flat look for that, before continuing.

"Obviously, no one is going to be disciplined for ending the life of a terrorist, least of all by me," Ironwood stated sharply, though it was meant to be somewhat reassuring. "We've already been able to attribute several of the casualties to Qrow Branwen—it seems that setting off bombs and fighting through hordes of White Fang while waiting for backup can get…messy. What we can't attribute to him are only a couple of White Fang, and since your weapons were bloodied, I figured I'd give you a chance to help me out on this."

"I don't know what to tell you," I deflected. He was making it obvious, but I would have him come right out and say it.

"One of them was beheaded," Ironwood added on.

I gave him a shrug.

"You're not in trouble here, Jaune. Why'd you hide it?"

"What makes you so certain it was me?"

"All of those details, the fact that you are the only unaccounted-for person, and that you were soaked in blood without having broken your aura," Ironwood answered back confidently. "And your team stated that you claimed said blood was not yours."

"Yeah, fine, it was me," I admitted with an eye roll. "You caught me."

"How'd it happen?"

"When Yang and I first fell, they weren't going to take us both alive, just me. When they made a move to shoot Yang while she was unconscious, I didn't _let_ them," I answered, emphasizing that last part. "I took out two shooters and drew them—and their fire—away from Yang. One headless swordsman later, they were scared enough of me that when I offered to surrender if we _both_ were taken alive, they accepted."

"I see. And why not lead with that?"

I shrugged. "Maybe I'm just too used to dealing with Ozpin. He tends to enjoy it when I hide things from him."

"So he does," Ironwood grumbled, nodding. "True to my word, this will remain between us. Truth be told, I did not expect to hear anything incriminating from you, nor have I; I'm sure if I were in your shoes, I could not have done better. You have my praise for your actions, Jaune."

"Am I free to go then?"

"Yes," he answered, and I was out of my seat as soon as the words left his mouth. "Although I'm sure your friends will have their own questions. Feel free to ensure them that my investigation has determined that you acted correctly in this matter."

"Will do," I answered, making a note of that in my head as I began strapping Crocea Mors and Angau Glass to me. I certainly have no plans to bring it up, but they did all see blood on my clothes, so I'm sure I'll get asked about it. Having Ironwood's approval might smooth things over for some of them.

"Mr. Arc?"

"Mmmm?"

"We inspected both of your swords _and_ your shield," Ironwood stated, stopping me from opening the door and leaving just yet. "They are in fine condition, the sword and shield combination especially; impressive, given its age."

"Thank you," I answered as evenly as I could as ice ran through my veins. No one has seen my shield yet, for the reason that I can't risk Ozpin confirming my identity through the symbol on the front. _Ironwood stared me down the first time he heard my last name, so it clearly wasn't lost on him either_.

"Such an elegant design, what with how the trim and the crest contrast the white shield. _Interesting,_ isn't it?"

His words hung in the air as proof that he had seen the symbol there, and his tone made it crystal clear that he knew _exactly_ what it meant. I looked up to find him watching over me intently, all too aware that the game between us had very significantly shifted back into his favor.

"It's all I have left of my family," I responded quietly, hoping the honesty there would be all that he needed to hear. "An heirloom."

"I take it you know how Ozpin would react if he saw that symbol?"

I nodded, all pretenses from being having evaporated. I didn't exactly know what he would do, but I knew that it was better to keep him in the dark as long as possible. _Dragging up the Arcs would mean dragging up my past, which is too complicated to risk Ozpin knowing right now._

"Very well, then," the general stated, waving a hand to dismiss the matter. "Should you ever want to know more about that symbol, the Headmaster would be the premiere source of knowledge, but that will be up to you. I gave you my word that he won't hear of this from me, after all."

"Why not?" I cut in, meeting the general's eyes and making it clear that we were speaking honestly now.

"Ozpin and I…aren't agreeing on a lot of things right now. There's a reason that I've pushed so hard to take control of security for the Festival. Ozpin already has…a lot on his plate right now; it's easier for this to stay between us. Why, did you have any problems with that?"

"No sir," I answered quickly.

"I thought not. Give your team my regards, Mr. Arc."

* * *

"Jaune!" Ruby shouted before bursting into a streak of red and shooting across Beacon's airfield, coming to an abrupt stop directly in front of me as I stepped off the ramp to the Bullhead. Rose petals scattered in the strong winds from the Bullheads. "Hi."

"Hi Ruby," I responded automatically, walking past her without so much as looking at her to get on her nerves. As I looked past her, I found the rest of her team and the rest of mine approaching as a collective unit. "Well, that can't be good. Did I do something wrong?"

"Other than walking right past me?" Ruby huffed at me.

"Hey guys," I called out as we approached, again ignoring Ruby. "How were classes?"

"Boring~~" Nora sang out without hesitation. "All we did was get our final grades back in each one. The day was so _slow_."

"Final grades, huh?" I repeated. "How'd you all do?"

"Weiss set the curve," Yang called out quickly, though grumbling 'again' under her breath, "Pyrrha, Ren, and I all did good. Blake still won't show us hers because she's stubborn—" Blake gave Yang a flat look but didn't object, "—Nora…passed, and Ruby did _just_ enough that I'm not gonna send a picture of her grades to our dad."

"Hey, I had to jump up two years!" Ruby protested.

"I know, which is why I'm letting them go…this time," Yang teased back, much to Ruby's frustration.

"Did anyone find out mine?" I asked curiously, not that I needed to be told how bad they were. Of the many things I'm balancing, grades were never even on the table.

"Uh…" Yang stalled, confirming my hunch.

"One might say they were…" Pyrrha tried to answer but looked away when I looked up at her.

" _Bad_ ," Nora finally called out.

"Your scores for Miss Goodwitch's class were tied for the top!" Ruby cut in, trying to keep me cheerful. _It didn't take a genius to guess who I was tied with, too._ Pyrrha was beaming a little, proud of either herself or her partner, but probably both.

"And your scores for everyone else's were almost at the bottom," Weiss tacked on, dragging down Ruby's cheer.

"Eh."

" _Eh?_ " Weiss repeated in shock. " _That's_ all you have to say?"

"I guess that's what happens when you grow up an orphan in the woods. Really, we're lucky that I can even read…" _Really_ lucky, actually, considering where I did grow up. Yang's eyes met mine and I could tell we were both thinking about what being taught to read would have been like for a child in Raven's Tribe, though thankfully she did pass the job off onto someone else. _'A is for apple, and B is for the blood of my enemies which you will have to spill someday._ '

C, as it stands, is for Raven herself…

"At least Beacon doesn't really fail students," I concluded with a shrug. Sure, you could get kicked out of Beacon for behavior, but according to Raven, there was hardly ever a talented fighter failed out of Beacon because they couldn't memorize facts very well; if anything, dull but dangerous students made for better pawns. "Enough about that. Why did you all come to collect me in the airfield?"

"Because we missed you, silly," Nora answered, not trying to hide how patronizing she sounded.

"We were bored," Blake answered flatly. "And they wanted to needle you for answers."

" _Blake!_ " Ruby chastised, more embarrassed at having been sold out. "Don't listen to her, Jaune. She's crazy."

"Oh, good. So you _don't_ have anything to ask me?"

"Well…" Weiss chimed in. "Now that we've all been debriefed…"

"You guys have seriously been waiting to ask me about the mission for over three days?" I asked, amused that they thought by asking me they'd somehow ruin Ironwood's investigation. Even Ironwood wasn't concerned about the investigation, since it was pretty open and shut: the Fang made a power play, and we shut it down. There wasn't much that we did that worried the head of Atlas' military. "You know what, fine, but can we do this somewhere other than the airfield?"

"Oh…yeah," Ruby responded as if remembering something. "Ask him."

"We were all heading into Vale to eat," Pyrrha explained when I looked around confused. "We were going to ask if you wanted to come with us?"

"Who all is 'we'?"

"All seven of us," Ruby answered. "Now that the mission is _officially_ over, we're going to celebrate."

"It sounds like I don't have a choice but to come with you," I pointed out with a roll of my eyes.

"You don't," Yang chimed in. Nora gave me an exaggerated (and somewhat threatening) nod to confirm this.

"Alright, I give. Let me at least go put my weapons and armor up."

"Do it quickly," Ren pleaded, sending a nervous glance at Nora; the message was clear. _Don't keep Nora waiting for food._

I nodded and jogged off towards the dorms, finding the hallways empty; everyone probably had the same idea we did—celebrating the semester ending instead of defeating terrorists, at least—and since they didn't have to wait for me to get back from general Ironwood's ship, they had already left.

I made it to our room easily and began unstrapping the holsters for my swords and all of my armor, made easier now that I only have wrist and shoulder armor. I just chunked them on top of my bed, not really having time to go put them in my locker, before stripping off my shirt and searching for a new one. My wardrobe isn't exactly abundant, so it was more a matter of just grabbing a new shirt at random; it would look decent enough with jeans no matter which one I took, since I didn't wear a lot else.

There was a knock on the door, and instead of calling out I just headed over and opened it straight away, since I was ready to leave anyways.

"Can I help you?" I asked Yang, who had been waiting with a semi-flat look.

"How'd your talk with Ironwood go?" Yang asked, cutting to the point and making it clear she wasn't in the mood to be messed with.

"Uh, good?" I answered automatically, earning a flatter look that told me she wasn't asking for the group. "Ironwood has no reason to know about the Tribe, or at least not my connections to them. He was just verifying that I was the one to take out the last few White Fang bodies they found." I made sure to keep my voice down, even though there wasn't anything wrong with what I did. I fully expect to be grilled about what my meeting was about (and why I was covered with blood during the mission) over dinner anyways, so I watched Yang to see how she'd react to the topic being brought back up. Maybe it would prepare me for how the others would take it, even if Yang already knows.

She didn't react to it at all.

"Oh, that's good to hear," Yang responded flatly. "So he didn't ask about you working with Torchwick?"

I froze at the name-drop and Yang continued to give me a flat, unimpressed look.

"…was it…that obvious?" I asked, suddenly concerned that I was no where near as subtle as I thought, and that maybe the general had been toying with me earlier.

"Fortunately for us, no," Yang answered back, giving me a little relief, even if I did not miss the pronoun used. She pulled out a scroll from her pocket and held it up like it was the key to everything.

"What's that?"

"The reason I know about Torchwick," Yang answered back, still giving me a bit of an agitated look that I now recognized as annoyance over not telling her about Roman myself. "Neo gave this to me to pass along to you. Once I saw her, everything sort of clicked…"

"Okay, I know it looks bad, but I—"

Yang cut me off by placing a finger over my lips, though the slight frown she wore kept it from feeling too affectionate.

"Are you working with him because you _want_ to, or you _need_ to?" Yang asked while keeping her voice low and taking her finger off my lips.

"Need to," I answered back honestly. "I—" Yang cut me off again the same way before I could begin to explain how Junior set me up with Torchwick in the first place, though with her expression softer this time.

"That's all I needed to hear. I've decided trust you, Jaune, and we're in this _together_ now. Got it?" I nodded after a few moments of meeting her eyes, and she removed her finger from my lips. "You're an idiot if you thought that _this_ , of all things, was where I was going to draw the line," Yang admonished with a little sarcasm.

"Can you blame me?"

"No," Yang answered after pausing to think about it. "No, but after seeing what you're up against, it's hard to hold much against you. We are _absolutely_ going to talk about all of this," Yang punctuated by jabbing a finger into my shoulder, "but not now. We should get going; they're still waiting on us. Here," Yang offered me the scroll she said came from Neo.

"Have you looked at it?" I asked, more curious than worried. The scroll _should_ have the files Roman was supposed to be getting to me about my family, but with Neo, there really was no telling what was on there.

"I did, yeah. I was…curious, and a little angry at you for hiding the whole Torchwick thing, so I read through some of it. It's…" Yang trailed off uncertainly, staring off at the ground while trying to find the right words. _I hope to dust that Neo loaded it with more of her 'photos' and that Yang had to go through_ that _._ "You'll want to take some time alone to read them," Yang stated softly, her eyes coming back up to meet mine just as soft as her voice had been. If it was about my family, it wasn't pretty, judging by Yang's expression.

Yang broke that off after a few seconds by walking down the hall and waving for me to follow. "Come on, if we keep them waiting any longer, they're going to jump to conclusions for why I tracked you down in your dorm…"

"It would be mean of us to let them think something that wasn't true," I called back, testing the boundaries like always. "We should do them a favor and just prove them right."

Yang stopped and turned back to cut one eye at me coyly, before continuing on without responding.

* * *

"Wait, so the four of you took out _how many_ Paladins?" I asked in disbelief.

"Uh, _all of them_ ," Nora boasted back, with even Pyrrha struggling to hide a satisfied smile. Roman had 13 to begin with, I think, lost one to Raven and one during the rally, and then more recently stored two of them in Vale without Cinder's knowledge, which left Nora, Pyrrha, Qrow, and Winter to take down nine Paladins without any difficulty. "Isn't that right, Yang?" Nora practically growled, challenging Yang to dispute her achievement.

"That's right," Yang admitted, throwing her hands up to indicate she wasn't encroaching on Nora's boast. "I saw it with my own eyes after I handled my end."

"Oooh, oooh," Ruby burst out, the sugar from her dessert already hitting her, "how did your fight go, Yang? With that girl who tried to stab you?"

The waiter for the restaurant we were at gave Ruby a funny look for being so excited about something as violent as an attempted-stabbing and subsequent fight, which gave me a brief glimpse into how strange a civilian life would be to me. The waitstaff had already seated us outside on the balcony, which except for us was empty, wisely keeping us separate from the civilian diners inside. We didn't mind; preferred it, actually, as it meant we could talk over things without worrying about anyone nearby overhearing. _And from the looks the waiter kept giving us, I have a feeling we won't see him again until we're ready to pay._

"She was frustrating, that's for sure!" Yang let out before taking a sip of her drink—a margarita rather than a strawberry sunrise, for the simple fact that this place didn't have a full-service bar. It was some sort of mix between a casual grill and a sit-down restaurant, meaning that Yang would have to make do with their limited selection. She had been a little annoyed that they didn't have her drink, and also that no one else ordered any alcohol, making her look like _that_ friend out of the group. _Even if she, well, kinda_ is _that friend out of the group._ "It felt like every time I did something, it only made things worse. If I ever see her again, I'm sicking Pyrrha on her…" Yang finished with a laugh, earning a couple from the group; Pyrrha was a little put off by the comment, but did a good job of ignoring it as she remembered it was all in jest.

"How'd you get away?" I cut in, giving Yang a knowing smirk. _Assuming this is Neo we're talking about, Yang might be understating things; frustrating doesn't begin to describe how it was fighting her with a polearm that one time…_

"Get away?" Yang repeated offended. "I'll have you know that _she_ was the one to run away, thank you very much!" Yang's response was exaggerated for effect, but she did meet my eyes momentarily, letting a silent message pass between us. _It was Neo, alright._

"Yeah, _Jaune,_ Team RWBY doesn't lose fights or get taken hostage!" Ruby cut in, sticking her tongue out to make a point.

"Except that time that Yang was knocked out earlier in the mission," Ren pointed out.

"Ren, no one asked you," Ruby cut back flatly, never taking her eyes off of me. I put my hands up to show Ruby I was conceding the point, only rolling my eyes after she looked away.

"I only landed one punch on her, but I nearly knocked her off the train with it," Yang cut back in, getting us back on track. "The look on her face when I pulled her back onto the train was priceless, too," Yang added on, subtly meeting my eyes briefly once more. "She ran off after that, and no one's seen her since."

"Why'd you pull her back up?" I asked, getting Yang's attention and meeting her eyes once more. I saw recognition there, and it was the last thing I needed to confirm that it was Neo she fought, and she knew what it meant when she saved her. _She knew what she was getting into, and that I probably didn't want her in it._ With that determined, I amended the question to distract the rest of the group. "I mean, if she was kicking your ass easily—"

" _Objection!_ " Ruby cried out.

"—then why risk that? It's not like the cave wasn't wide enough that she couldn't land next to the train safely." I threw in that last part just so I didn't sound _so_ flippant about causing someone's death, even if I kinda am. At least, when its warranted.

"Uh, the Grimm?" Yang answered back as if it were obvious, doing a better job than I had of hiding the subtext we had shared. "Knocking someone off the train pretty much meant they were gonna die."

"Not that there's anything… _wrong_ with that, per say," Weiss jumped in, her voice slow and a bit uncertain. "They were all terrorists, like _actual_ , trying-to-kill-innocent-people terrorists. Having to kill one of them wouldn't be…a bad thing," Weiss tried to expound, but didn't like how she was describing it, panicking a little when she caught Blake's eyes. She had worded things poorly, for sure. "You…you know what I'm trying to say, don't you?"

Blake took a deep breath with her eyes closed for a moment before answering. "I do, yes…and you're not wrong. I wish it didn't have to be this way, but they're the ones trying to hurt people. Anything that we had to do to stop them is their fault, not ours." Blake finally looked up and around the table, finding nothing but supportive faces. "That's not to say you did anything wrong by saving that girl, Yang."

"Of course not," Ren added on. "Just because it's justified doesn't make it any easier to take a life, nor should it. It shouldn't ever be easy."

Ren's words were met with absent nods and averted eyes from five of the other seven people at the table, everyone's thoughts no doubt trailing to how they would deal with that. The sixth of them, Yang, looked up to the seventh, me, eyes wide with concern. I met them for a moment before trailing my eyes down to stare off at the table instead, going over Ren's words in my head.

"Did any of us have to go through that?" I asked the group softly. Everyone was silent for a few moments more, before Ruby broke the silence.

"Uncle Qrow did, when he was waiting for the rest of us to find him." Ruby spoke with more confidence than I would have expected for a fifteen-year-old facing down the morality of killing someone, but it seemed she still had that spark in her eye. It wasn't that surprising, even if you didn't know that he was one of Ozpin's most trusted—and utilized—weapons. "He hardly counts, though; he's been a real Huntsman for years…"

"I-I did," Nora let out quietly, staring down at the table more dejected than I had ever seen her before. The demeanor did not fit her at all and immediately lent gravity to the situation that no one missed. "I didn't think about it before, but I…I knocked at least one guy off the train when we fought the Paladins."

The silence around the table shifted, a little tenser and more uncertain than before as everyone else looked around at each other, no one certain what to say or do.

"And no one is holding that against you, Nora," Ruby stated reassuringly, breaking the silence. "You did the right thing, and we're all here for you." I made sure to grunt my approval to Ruby's statement, and others did too.

"I know _that_ , silly," Nora answered, trying to sound like her normal self but coming up hollow. "It's just…a weird feeling," she trailed off quietly, still not looking up at us.

Subtly, Nora started to desaturate slowly, and less subtly, Ren's chair moved closer and his arm wrapped around Nora's shoulders. Nora looked up for the first time when she cut her eyes at Ren for deciding that suppressing her emotions was the best way to help her, but she allowed herself to be pulled into his side anyways.

Two things bothered me about this. Nora, of all people, struggling through the consequences of her actions was infuriating, because it felt wrong to see her hurting. She was our own, crazier Ruby, an endless supply of unshakable positivity and energy, and the biggest factor in our team cohesion so far. To see her like this was… It was weird. It was wrong, and it made me want to whatever possible to fix it.

And I could help her, too; I've been through that and I could guide her through it. But I would need my friends to accept that why I could help her, and that brought up the other thing bothered me.

"I don't think I agree with you, Ren," I called back to his previous statement after a few moments had passed, long enough that Nora wouldn't think I was talking about her anymore. "Because it _does_ get easier. After the first time, it still stays with you, but it doesn't haunt you as much. I hope you're not right, because I don't know what it means when it should matter to you and just…doesn't."

"How do you…?" Weiss asked nervously, not able to finish her question.

"I took three on that mission," I answered solemnly, keeping my eyes on the table. "And, no, they…weren't my first."

Another silence hung in the air as I stared off at the table, though unlike the last few times when everyone was staring off at something else, I could feel all their eyes on me.

"The others?" Pyrrha asked from next to me, her voice tense and too loaded to read easily.

"Morally ambiguous," I answered, hoping that it was honest enough. I forced myself to meet her eyes for a moment, and they were as unreadable and loaded as her voice had been, so I looked back down. "Not all of them were as noble as defending the innocent, but none of them were murder," I added on, probably lying about that last part. "All best left in the past, though."

The words hung in the air a bit. I forced myself to look up from the table once again, but I could only bring myself to look at Blake or Yang—the two people who already knew that I had killed people. The guilt I felt now that I was putting this out there was foreign; it is the first time in my life that I was surrounded by people who would _care_ that I killed anyone. Part of wanting to be better and surround myself with better people was having to acknowledge out loud that I didn't necessarily belong among them.

The mark that I was in the right place was that I didn't fear that they'd hold it against me.

"But you _are_ leaving them in the past, right?" Ruby asked leadingly, her eyes wide but the hope held there infectious.

"Yeah," I answered with a nod, meeting her eyes now. _That's the idea, anyways._

"Then those don't matter anymore," Ruby declared with a finality that I personally didn't feel about the subject. "You left that life behind you and are working hard to be a better person, and that more than makes up for it. Anyone who disagrees will have to take it up with us, right guys?"

No one said anything, but no one objected, either; everyone did at least nod in agreement, even if I did get a few looks. _If nothing else, I could trust that this would stay between us, and that they wouldn't hold it against me._ In short, I could trust them.

I did meet Yang's eyes, and I had to look away almost immediately out of guilt because of how worried for me she was. She too had caught onto how Ruby specified that I had left that life behind me, it seems.

"How did you do it?" Nora asked me directly after another pause. It wasn't a question of morals or right and wrong, though; she was reaching out to me to see how I got through it, and to see if that could help her, and I am more than willing to help her.

"Impaled one, stabbed the second in the throat, beheaded the third," I answered back, my voice a bit distant. I looked up to find wide eyes around the table, even from Yang who knew of them but not the details. I would be foolish to think that the details would make them change their mind on supporting me, especially when not doing so would also be to revoke support from Nora, but…the shock on their faces still hurt.

"And…it doesn't bother you anymore?" Nora asked, again reaching out for guidance here; she was the only one who hadn't been shocked by my first answer, too busy dealing with her own emotions to have room to judge. Or maybe she just had a different perspective now, one that the others couldn't appreciate without crossing that line themselves.

"I've seen what happens when I let someone who's trying to harm people live," I began to answer, thinking back to times where I refused to kill people and as a result, members of the Tribe had died. _Even if I hadn't been angry enough to find the motivation the next time, Raven made sure that I would be broken of that mentality after that._ "The guilt from failing to stop a killer is a lot worse than taking someone's life, and that was only protecting people I didn't know." I kept things light on details, but was still honest about it. "But in this case, no, it doesn't bother me at all."

"Why not?"

"Instead of protecting some faceless citizens I've never met, I killed those three guys to stop them from killing Yang while she was unconscious," I answered back firmly, keeping my eyes soft for Nora but making it clear that my convictions were unchanged. I had a feeling that's what she was looking for, and that it was what she needed. "Truth be told, it was one of the easiest things of my life. Try not to think about it as you killing him just because he was bad, but try to think about it as if it was any of us he was trying to hurt."

Nora's eyes met mine for a moment before they flicked around the table, before settling on Ren, who still had her pulled to him, although he wasn't using his Semblance any longer. Nora looked back up to me once and nodded, and I could see the gears turning there. She was strong; she would be fine. _Maybe better than fine._

I would make sure of it, too.

"Thanks for dinner, guys," I said towards Pyrrha and Weiss, who had already declared that their respective team's dinner was on them, as I stood up and pushed my chair in.

"You're leaving?" Ruby asked, eyes going wide and nearly freezing me to my spot. "You don't have to go, Jaune. We want you here."

Ruby's voice was nervous and on the edge, and it felt like she meant it about more than just this dinner.

"I know, Ruby," I answered with a chuckle as I tussled her hair, fighting not to roll my eyes at her display of emotion. "I'm not going to do anything drastic, jeez. I just need to clear my head."

"Are you sure?"

"Don't worry about me so much. I've just got some…old memories that this stirred up. Trust me, I just need some time to think," I answered, speaking loud enough that it was obvious I was addressing everyone. My eyes glanced to Nora, who almost imperceptivity was nodding along to what I said. "Nora will at some point, too, so be sure to let her. At some point, you just have to face things by yourself."

"Pffft, _think_ ," Nora commented, already beginning to sound a little bit like her normal self. "As if."

"That's the spirit," I called out with a roll of my eyes. "I'll see you guys back at Beacon."

I really did have to fight the urge to chuckle as I walked off, and I did fight it off, mostly because I do appreciate the gesture, even if it wasn't necessary. I just had to think over a few old memories and, if Neo's scroll in my pocket was any indication, some new information.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Well, we did it. We're officially through all of the Volume 2 events in this story. It literally only took longer than I thought this whole story was going to be, and lasted past when I wanted to wrap things up by, but _hey_ , that doesn't matter. I'm sure you guys like more story than less story, anyways.**

 **Things should pick up from here and V3 events won't take as long because there was a lot of set-up work to do here in the past twenty or so chapters. I have at least one chapter planned to take place in the 'break' between semesters, and it will probably stretch into two. There are two planned interactions that have been set up and have to take place before things get rolling again, but they wouldn't mesh well back-to-back, so I'll have to pad them with another scene or two, which is why this may become two. _It depends on how many words the fight scene will take up_...**

 **Also, in the actual show, things are moving along at breakneck speed in terms of getting more juicy backstory when compared to previous volumes. That's awesome, but it means that things are starting to change significantly; again, a good thing. However, it does make it less likely that I'll be able to carry this story in V6 territory. When I began this, it had a hard ending/culmination corresponding to the Attack on Haven in the show, and since this story was intended to be finished before V6 dropped, my plan was to end the story and move on. If V6 played _perfectly_ into how I ended this fic, then it was possible I extended the fic, assuming doing so wouldn't undermine the conclusion I planned out. That always seemed unlikely, and it does appear that we're treading into new waters in the show. **

**I'm trying to be very careful and hesitant about incorporating anything from V6 in this story, because until the season ends, things can change; hell, we didn't even know who the Spring Maiden really was until the second-to-last episode last season. There are already some questions raised this season that I've been obsessing over how I could fit them in (** _what was the first question asked to the Relic? is Neo back? who's the old lady?_ **) that I have to force myself not to incorporate yet.**

* * *

 **Tl;dr: This story is a Volumes 1-5 story, and will stay that way until completed, when I will re-examine if the story can be made _better_ by continuing. **

* * *

**Comment of the Week:** by _CirqueDeSolaire_

"Idk, 35 chapters in and Pyrrha and Jaune still just dont "click". Not to say that you wrote them badly, but the way that they're written makes a romance between them kinda stiff and akward. Pyrrah still doesnt know everything about Jaune and barely accepts the parts she does know about(though she tries to hide it), but still she idolizes and thirsts over him for what? Because he can give her a good fight? Because he doesn't idolize her back? At this point Yang or even Blake seem infinitely more compatible. Not saying you wrote the romance wrong because I understand it's not the main focus of the story but, maybe try to focus on them a bit to deepen the start of their relationship? The way things are now, with how overly intense her very obvious feelings are feels a tad shallow."

 **You sound more emotionally mature than Pyrrha, and have a better perspective than Pyrrha.**

 _ **Okay, that sounded mean, so I apologize for that, and I'll try to phrase it more precisely.**_

 **Yeah, Pyrrha and Jaune are an odd fit, and anyone who is not invested in the situation can see that. Ozpin certainly recognizes it, and it's been a little while but he _is_ placing his bets that Pyrrha's feelings for Jaune will lose out to her moral compass. He has a lot to gain from that bet, seeing as he is taking measures to ensure that Pyrrha's moral compass points to him. **

**The people who can't see that it's a bit of a doomed outing are those too close to it, who all also happen to be emotionally-immature/inexperienced teenagers: Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, etc.**

 **To Jaune's credit, he isn't actively seeking a romantic relationship, per say; he might could very easily parlay things into that (this is a love angle/triangle after all), but he has more...serious desires for Pyrrha. He still needs her trust and support if he's going to push her into being Ozpin's Maiden and then be able to control her. Jaune is smart enough to see the path of least resistance is getting close to Pyrrha in the way she wants, and as V3 gets going, look out for him to try that.**

 **Jaune is too close to the situation, too, and is at risk of overlooking how they might not fit together. That would be compounded if a proper love triangle _does_ develop...**

 **Poor Pyrrha, on the other hand, is going to have some soul-searching to do. Some part of her knows that Jaune isn't maybe what she needs, but the girl deserves some slack. She grew up on a pedestal and that clearly has hampered her emotional development, not being able to interact like a normal person should. All she feels knows is that Jaune treats her like she wants to be treated and that he does so while matching her strength and lighting a fire under her that she's never really experienced. I'd be curious, if not head over _heals_ , too. **  
somewhere in the distance, Barbara shed a tear for that awesome pun

 **If she follows Nora's advice, she'll very soon have to confront that who she wants Jaune to be and who he is don't line up perfectly. Their outlooks on the world, _their philosophies_ , are very different, and sooner or later that will come back around. When dating, it's paramount that you ensure that you and your partner share the same world view, or your relationship will hit an insurmountable roadblock at some point; teenagers are not exactly known for planning their relationships long-term. **

**The longer it takes Pyrrha to stop and think things through, the more shocking such a reveal to her would be.**

 **And Yang only complicates things for Pyrrha. From Pyrrha's perspective, Yang clearly is getting close to Jaune, and whatever she knows hasn't scared her off or dissuaded her. Pyrrha doesn't have the luxury of sitting back and really thinking over things here, because she's afraid that if she decides that Jaune _is_ worthwhile after doing so, it will have cost her the opportunity anyways. The fact that Yang is okay with things might force Pyrrha to overlook things. I mean, she handles things very poorly in Volume 3 of the show, displaying an emotional immaturity over not wanting to give up her crush for her perceived Destiny. **

**I'm not using immaturity as a bash here, either, but she simply wasn't as ready as Ozpin thought. Or maybe Ozpin did know, but accepted the risks. Either way, if she handles the severity of her situation in the show that poorly, imagine how much worse she might do if all of Jaune's past and current activities are also thrown on her shoulders at the same time.**

 **Yeah, these coming chapters are gonna be hella fun on my end.**

 **Long story short,** _Solaire_ **, you are correct that the Pyrrha-Jaune angle seems off, but I would ask for a little more faith here. The state of the love triangle right now is very much so intentional, and all three members have some difficult choices ahead.**

* * *

"Careful, [ _Turquoise Leaf_ ] may just come back...

I really love this fic thus far, and honestly I can't wait for Jaune to realize Raven isn't necessarily evil. Sure, by no means is she a good person, but maybe seeing Cinders ultimate throw down at Beacon will reveal that." - _Toombs_

 **Is it strange that I'm starting to miss the constant threats on my life and attempts to bully my readers into a revolution to depose me? Maybe that's his plan, and if so, it's working. He's letting me stew, working in the background.**

 **Or, he's watching V6 and is threatening Miles and Kerry for a change. Maybe that's why this volume has been so good so far...**

 **I kinda feel like in Tom & Jerry, where Tom finally catches Jerry but Jerry is depressed and welcomes death.  
1) I didn't realize that Jerry was a millennial and  
2) Man that sounds a lot darker than I remember cartoons as.  
**

 _"You know what I am? I'm a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught it. I just...do things._

 _"_ [Ike] _has plans. The_ [reviewers] _have plans._ [Coeur Al'Aran, God-King of RWBY Fanfiction] _'s got plans. They're schemers. Schemers trying to control their little worlds._

 _"I'm not a schemer; I try to show the schemers how...pathetic their attempts to control things really are. So when I say that_ [bringing Ike's house of cards down] _was nothing personal, you know that I'm telling the truth." - The Joker, who dances with the devil in the_ [turquoise] _moonlight._

 **Okay, that quote was all over the place, but you get my point. See you guys next week.**


	37. The Arc File

**Author's Note: In this chapter, there's a section in the middle that's formatted differently than anything else so far, so I thought it fair to warn you ahead of time. I've built up that Roman would finally be getting Jaune those files about his family, and _tah-dah_ , you get to read one of them!**

 **Anything that is written with several dashes - - - - - - - indicates that something has been redacted. FF won't let me upload any sort of punctuation in a row without spaces, as it just chops out all the extra ones so avoid people spamming the site.**

 **Example:  
** My sister read - - - - - - - - - - - - and thinks that I am - - - - - - .  
My sister read the outline for V3 and thinks that I am a sadist.

 **That's actually not a new development, though.**

 **On that note,**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 35:** _"Kaboom?" – Nora Valkyrie  
"Yes, Nora, Kaboom." – Jaune Arc_

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Pyrrha's POV

* * *

Once Jaune left dinner, no one was really all that talkative for a few minutes, not that we could be blamed for that. Things had gotten a bit heavy there for a while, and sorting out how I felt about things now wasn't a simple task; I have a feeling that everyone else felt much the same way.

Maybe it was inevitable that as Huntresses and Huntsmen, we would be forced to take someone's life, or at the very least, be confronted with the opportunity. All of us at least believe in what we're doing firmly, which is why there wasn't any doubt around the table that Nora did the right thing, nor was there any hesitation to support her. _But there's a difference between knowing you did the right thing and being okay with having to do it._ From the lingering silence around the table after Jaune left, it was pretty clear that everyone was thinking about it.

How would I handle it?

The rational part of me wants to say that I would not handle it well; after all, I did _nearly_ kill someone earlier this semester, and to say that I fumbled things following that would be…fair. _Just to make me more worried, I proved to everyone and to myself that I am_ capable _of killing someone during the heat of combat, which is not a good feeling._ That's only made worse because it was Jaune, my partner and decidedly _not_ someone that I wanted to kill. Since that day I've focused more on self-disciplining myself and keeping a level head at all times, which is never a bad thing, but it still unsettles me to think that there's a dangerous aspect to me.

But that's the rational side of me, the side that wants to overanalyze things. I have not let that part of me control my life, and I can't say that I regret it. After all, the rational thing to do with my life would have been to stay home and attend Haven, or forgo an Academy altogether and cultivate my fame from tournaments until I was one of Remnant's premiere celebrities. Everyone has always told me that I'm destined for greatness, and with what I already had, that was the obvious path forward. That was the _rational_ path.

 _I would rather pursue a different kind of greatness, though._ I'm much more idealistic than I am rational, at least in how I handle my life, and I accept that about myself. It was a shock to those who followed my career that I retired from tournament fighting to attend Beacon—though, I suppose the Vytal Festival throws a wrench in that—because I never let it slip what my goals were. When everyone told me that I was destined to be great, they meant as a duelist or a celebrity, a girl elevated on a pedestal too great to be among the people. _My_ idea of greatness, what I am really destined to do, is to help people, to protect them, and I can't do that if I'm elevated above them on a pedestal. I have to be in front of them, between them and danger, to be of any use.

 _And I'm going to be more than useful_. I've been blessed with incredible gifts, and I am going to make them count. I've never let myself just 'get by' on my talent or my Semblance, but instead worked to be so good that I don't need to use it. That way, when the day comes that more is required, more is needed to protect people, I'll be more than prepared; I'll have been waiting on my destiny.

It's _that_ side of me, the side that says that this is what I am meant to do, that thinks that I would handle the trauma of ending someone's life. I trust that if I did do that, then it was absolutely necessary to protect someone, and that I would find strength in that knowledge. Of course, having the experience of almost killing Jaune in a spar shook a lot of that faith in myself, but I won't let that happen again. If anything, perhaps it was good that it happened when it did, because it let me find a new weakness to fix before things really counted. I would be stronger—better—because of that.

I felt good about what I would do in Nora's situation, and honestly, she was already looking like she getting through it, though she might have just been taking advantage of having Ren hold her. _I guess_ I _can't fault her for that._

No, what bothered me wasn't what I would do, it was what Jaune _did_ do, and maybe what he's still doing.

I know that I shouldn't be hung up on that, too; Jaune has always been so avoidant and weary of sharing anything about himself, and the fact that he felt comfortable enough to do so for all of us is huge. And even more than that, he did it to help Nora, both by letting her know that he knows what she's going through and by distracting the rest of us from Nora. That's a huge improvement from the guy who we first met, and I want to say that it's the reason that I've been looking for him now. I want to tell myself that I'm looking for Jaune so that I can build upon this, and reinforce that behavior; that I want to show him that it's okay to trust us more by supporting him when he does.

And, I am going to do that, but deep down, I'm more worried about what he said—or what he _didn't_ say—that I let on to the others. _Morally ambiguous_ , Jaune had said, making me recall the chills the words had given me. If that weren't the two most loaded words I've ever heard, then I don't know what were. The way he seemed almost ashamed to say them, the dispassionate way he described the White Fang he killed… I don't know what it means, but it feels like it can't be good.

With all of that going through my head, I am not really sure what it was I expected to find him doing. It's been about two hours since he left dinner to go 'think'—and to give him the benefit of the doubt, I didn't decide to come look for him until after I had some time to think, too, so I can't hold it against him that I found him doing something other than clearing his head.

I just didn't expect to find him sparring with Team CRDL, of all people.

"I swear, it's like the three of you don't even understand how fights even work!" Jaune berated at Russel, Dove, and Sky—basically, everyone who wasn't Cardin. All three were picking themselves off the ground as I showed up, and it didn't take long to figure out that they had done poorly. I'm not sure how long they've been sparring, but everyone's Aura is being displayed on the wall, and Jaune is still in the low 90s.

"We've _won_ fights before, asshole," one of them—Russel, maybe?—growled at Jaune.

"No, you've won brawls before," Jaune dismissed, showing off a temper that was rare for him. If he was trying to blow off steam, then seeking out CRDL made more sense, though why they would accept such terms did not. "You've ganged up on people and beat them into submission, sure; it's what you're good at. That's a useful thing, even, since more often than not, that's how things go down. But you have not," Jaune emphasized, tapping Crocea Mors on the ground twice before pointing it towards Russel(?) in a fencer's salute, "won a fight."

"Oh yeah? Then what's the difference?" Cardin called out, uncrossing his arms and picking up his weapon as he stepped forward to challenge Jaune.

"If you can win based on nothing but brute strength, then it's a brawl," Jaune answered, shifting his stance towards Cardin as the two began to circle one another, silently accepting Cardin's challenge.

Without warning, Jaune charged forward, putting Cardin on the defensive by swinging for Cardin's left leg with his sword in his right hand. Cardin slammed the head of his mace on the floor in front of his foot, effectively blocking Jaune's sword, but Jaune's charge had been to Cardin's right side and the swipe with the sword had been a lazy one thrown to make Cardin think he was going for his left. Jaune used his momentum to leap into a cross-hook to Cardin's face with his free hand, disengaging and retreating to safety before Cardin knew what had happened.

Cardin took the blow much better that would be expected of him, wiping his jaw and rolling his neck to cope with the hit. "I don't know, that felt like brute force," he called out, his toning making it clear that he believed his own words.

Jaune was visually exasperated by Cardin's bad analysis, and I was right there with him. Cardin had somehow missed the cunning and strategy involved in the design of the attack and had only taken away that a punch was thrown, and clearly punch equal brutishness. If Jaune was going to try to beat Cardin on brute force, he would have just let loose a series of plain strikes thrown with all of his power behind them, not manipulated Cardin's (admittedly poor) defense into a free slug to the cheek.

"You guys are hopeless. I don't know why I try," Jaune let out, his frustrations obvious and unchecked in a way that I have never seen. He made a show of throwing his sword off to the side, Crocea Mors clanking on the ground unceremoniously. He pulled his sheath off his hip and attached it to his left forearm, before it suddenly expanded into a kite-shield that I had never seen before. "Let's make this simple. You have a giant mace, which is a weapon designed for blunt trauma; it's very existence screams 'brute force.' The purpose of such a weapon is to wreak havoc against armor and to make shields useless. As such, I will use _only_ a shield, and if brute force could win _any_ battle, it would be a massive mace versus a shield."

Cardin growled once, recognizing that Jaune was both dismissing and taunting him, and charged in with his mace. He swung it horizontally, forcing Jaune to backpedal to stay out of range, and Cardin gave chase and continued to swing the mace in horizontal arcs to keep Jaune on the defensive. Eventually, Jaune planted his back foot and leaned back to let Cardin's swing pass over him, before charging forward to crash into Cardin shield-first. He didn't have the momentum to knock Cardin down and would probably have been bowled over himself if he had hit straight on, but Jaune angled so that he slapped Cardin's chest with his shield and then bounced off to the side, forcing Cardin to carry past him. Cardin planted his heels and forced himself to come to a full stop, turning around just in time for Jaune to smack him across the face with the flat of the shield.

Enraged, Cardin shook off the blow and raised his mace over his head with one hand to smash at Jaune while he was still within measure, only for Jaune to punch Cardin in the gut with the top ridge of the shield as he did so. Cardin's blow lost momentum and Jaune was able to slip under Cardin's arm before it came down, getting back to back with Cardin before dropping his elbow into the man's lower back. Cardin swung his mace in a wide arc, aiming to get Jaune upside the head with the extra momentum from twisting around, but only for Jaune to be waiting for it, parrying the blow up and over him by swinging his shield to catch the underside of the mace and knocking it up. Jaune could have struck him with the shield again here, but instead settled for shoving Cardin in the back and knocking him down.

Cardin didn't stay down, slamming his mace on the ground in frustration as he picked himself back up. At this point, I wasn't even sure what Cardin's plan was, seeing how nothing else he did worked, but the man was nothing if not persistent. He rose off the ground and went straight into an overhead, two-handed smash, hoping the suddenness of his recovery and strike would catch Jaune off-guard.

The attack itself was so ill-advised that I winced as I saw it come out, and did so even more when Jaune punished it. Jaune drop-stepped his right foot to the left and spun his hips to the right, throwing up his shield to parry Cardin's blow much like he had just done. The shield impacted the mace from the side and then led it down to crash into the space that Jaune had just vacated, leaving the back of Jaune's shield-arm side facing Cardin. Jaune yanked his shield arm up as if he were going to elbow Cardin in the face, catching him right between the eyes with the pointy end of his shield.

Cardin dropped his mace entirely and yelled out in shock and pain, stumbling backwards and holding his face in his hands. In his stupor, he tripped over where Jaune had tossed Crocea Mors, stumbling to the ground in a heap of graceless flailing appendages.

"There," Jaune called out satisfied. "Does _that_ settle it?"

"Well, _I_ am certainly convinced," I called out, stepping out from the doorway that I hadn't fully walked through yet. I had been leaning against it this whole time, content to watch.

"I was wondering when you were going to say something," Jaune called out to me, confirming that he was hyperaware of his surroundings like always. _Especially during fighting._ "That looks like it's going to be it for me, boys. Thanks for the spars." Jaune made a show of waving to a set of grumbling Huntsmen-in-training as he gathered his weapons and walked over to me. "So, like anything you see?"

"I can't say I'm a fan of this whole Angry Jaune thing, but I did enjoy watching them get smacked around a little," I answered honestly, keeping my voice low enough to not be overheard. I hadn't easily forgotten what CRDL had done to that Faunus, Velvet, in the cafeteria. "Even if I'm a little confused why you'd go to them for anything."

"Why's that?" Jaune asked, leading the way out of the training room.

"You aren't exactly on 'friendly terms' with Team CRDL, if I recall," I answered back flatly. It would have been easier to just straight-up accuse him of bullying Cardin and his team, but it was more dramatic this way, and when Jaune and Nora are your teammates, you pick up a little flair for the dramatic.

"And that makes me _less_ likely to beat them up when I'm upset?" Jaune asked with a laugh as he lead us outside to Beacon's open grounds. It was dark, with only enough moonlight to see where we were walking, but as my eyes adjusted, things became clearer. "We're actually on better terms than we let on. That whole 'bullying' thing is just a cover…"

"Cover for _what_?"

"Me," Jaune answered simply. "You think I want people knowing that I'm friendly with CRDL?" Jaune asked with another laugh. I wasn't convinced because it still stuck out as odd to me, but I decided to let it go for now.

"But you were angry with them just now."

"I was frustrated with them," Jaune corrected, finding the edge of Beacon's grounds and leaning his back against the railing there, with Vale in the distance behind him.

"You were _angry_ , Jaune," I cut back forcefully, with maybe a bit of my own frustrations seeping through. Jaune's features hardened at my accusation. "I've seen you frustrated, and that was more than frustrated."

"Fine. You're right. I was angry," Jaune conceded, his voice a little colder and more distant now. "I was upset before I found them, and getting angry at them was a good distraction."

" _You_ were upset?" I asked, my voice hitching once as that uneasy feeling settled over my stomach once more. I knew I was overreacting, but how could this _not_ warrant that? "You're not the one whose partner just admitted to being a murderer over dinner! Do you know how hard that is for me?"

"No, I—" Jaune cut himself off with a shake of his head. "I never said that I murdered anyone, Pyrrha."

"You didn't say that you _didn't_ , either," I answered back, watching Jaune's reaction cautiously. He pushed off the railing with a huff, a little agitation showing as he bristled. He paced around for only a few seconds before returning to grip the railing and stare out into the distance, purposefully remaining silent the whole time.

"It's not that simple, Pyrrha," he finally said, his voice quiet. "Could we…please talk about this some other time? I'm too distracted to focus on this right now."

" _You're_ distracted?" I repeated incredulously. "My partner might be a murderer and won't talk to me about it! You do get that I'm worried about you, don't you? You've been suspicious the whole time you've been at Beacon and I've been worried about you this whole time, Jaune. I'm trying to help you, Jaune, and I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, but what am I supposed to do now?"

"Do you think that I wanted to do it?" Jaune asked lowly, keeping head bowed while he stared down at his hands.

"What?"

"You know me, Pyrrha. Do you think that I would _want_ to murder people?"

"I… _do_ I know you, Jaune?" I asked back, my voice fragile. I thought I did, sure, but that was before tonight at dinner. Maybe I always suspected that his 'dark past' meant having done _that_ , but I certainly haven't ever looked at him through that lens before.

"That's fair. That's fair," Jaune repeated with a low, dark chuckle, almost as if trying to convince himself, or as if I had said something he was familiar with and didn't like. It felt like he was trying to convince himself not to hold anything against me, and failing, which sent another lurch of panic through my stomach. "You _do_ know me, Pyrrha. I haven't changed anything about myself, and you've felt my _Aura_ , my soul. Do you really think that I am a bad person? Because if so, why are you even here?" Jaune trailed off, his demeanor growing cold and bitter.

I wanted to challenge him on that, to point out that Auras and souls have never been proven to be the same thing, but I _had_ felt his before and I understood his point. Jaune is protective, right down to his Aura and his Semblance, and it wasn't a stretch to imagine that being so could have gotten him into trouble. It wasn't an answer, but it was enough of a reminder that I _do_ need to trust Jaune enough for him to trust me, if I'm ever going to help him.

What really struck me was his last line, and the way he delivered it. After a few moments to calm myself down and look past my uncertainties, I recognized that I've never heard Jaune sound so bitter and cold before. He was pushing me away, and not like early in Beacon when he didn't want us to get close to him; this felt like he was reacting out of fear or confusion, curling up on himself. It took me a moment longer to realize that it sounded like he was hurting, and it took me so long to realize that because it was the first time I had ever seen him like this. _Even when he was physically in pain, he didn't show even a glimpse of this._

It was that sobering thought that overrode any other concerns I may have had beforehand, because _what could possibly have happened in the last two hours that would have hurt Jaune like this?_ There will be plenty of time to sort everything else out, but if Jaune is hurting and I fail to help him, then that could strain things between us. It could do more than that.

"Jaune, what's wrong?" I asked, my voice tense and fragile, doing my best to convey my concern and care.

"It's nothing," Jaune dismissed, still not looking up. I can't say that I blame him for not wanting to open up to me; I did just try to force answers out of him without stopping to realize something was wrong. _In hindsight, it should have been obvious from how Jaune was taking things out on CRDL that something was bothering him._

"It's not," I countered gently. After a few moments, it was made clear that that line wasn't going to work. "Jaune, something is clearly distracting you, and…I want you to be able to trust me. I want to know what it is I can do to help you."

Jaune looked up slightly, glancing at me out of the side of his eye for a few moments, his expression mixed.

"And what if it's more people I've _murdered_?" Jaune asked, with a hint of humor returning to his voice, just enough to tip me off that he was mocking me. Dark humor, but humor nonetheless.

"Well…trust is a two-way street," I answered, not taking his bait. It was his normal way of trying to deflect things by making you react to something else, and with a little determination, it could be ignored easily. "Maybe this is how we both start trusting one another. I'll trust you enough to accept that you had your reasons," I offered, my voice tense at how difficult the prospect would be for me, which he noticed, "if you can trust me with what's wrong."

Jaune looked up at me properly now, a bit of nervousness in his eyes that was so foreign to those blue orbs. He looked over me for a few moments, before dropping his head back down and shaking his head slightly, chuckling softly as he did so.

" _If_ , huh?" he asked with another glance towards me out of the corner of my eyes. "My own partner wants to blackmail me into trusting her…"

"Does that reflect more on me, or on you force making this necessary?" I asked back, finding it in me to tease him back now that he had initiated it.

"Fair enough."

"Besides, I like to think that this makes us a good fit as partners," I half-accused, crossing my arms and leaning against the railing.

"A normal life," Jaune mumbled while shaking his head and reaching into his pocket. "All I wanted was a normal life…"

"Yeah, well, that was ruled out when you landed Nora on your team."

Jaune laughed at that, which did wonders to melt away the nerves that had been building up. The fear of handling this wrong and saying the wrong thing had settled in without me noticing, and with it receding, I realized how tight I had been. I know Nora's strategy for me when talking to Jaune was to be bold and take risks, but that hardly meant that I wouldn't be practically shaking at the risks I have to take.

Jaune pulled a scroll out of his pocket, opening it up and scrolling down through long spaces of text, skimming through it before finding whatever he was looking for and handing it out to me.

"What is it?" I asked as I reached out and took the scroll.

"Information. Intelligence files, to be more accurate," Jaune answered. "And no," he cut me off as I opened my mouth, "you probably don't want to know where they came from."

" _Jaune…_ "

"Just…read, okay? We can discuss my _other_ shortcomings as a person later," Jaune reassured, and even though I knew it was a joke, it wasn't too reassuring.

"What are the files over?" I asked, giving in. As long as he wasn't afraid of sharing the information at another time, I could give him the benefit of the doubt. _I could_ trust _him…_

"My family."

* * *

 _Operator: James Ironwood_

 _Designation of Operator: Specialist; Atlas Academy Headmaster_

 _Report Type: Intelligence Compilation – CLOSED_

 _Subject: Arc_

 _Security Level: Atlas Academy Headmaster's Eyes Only_

 _Tags: Arc; Foreign Espionage Agents (FEA); Mistral; Haven; **\- - - - - -**_ _,_ **\- - - - - -** _; Grimm; Vale; Archived; Assassination; **\- - - - -** ; Great War, the; _

_Persons: Wit **\- - -** , the; Wiz **\- - -** , the; Lionheart, Leonardo; Arc, Julius; Arc, T **\- - - - - - - -** ; Arc, Kat **\- - - -** ; Arc, R **\- - - - - -** ; Arc, S **\- - - -** ; Arc, V **\- - - - - -** ; Arc, Jo **\- - - -** ; Arc, B **\- - - -** ; Arc, Kai **\- - - -** ; Arc, Ja **\- - - -** ; Unknown #1; Unknown #2; Unknown #3; Unknown #4; Unknown #5;_

 _This report is to serve as the sealing document for the entire topic of 'Arc,' in accordance with Atlas protocol. This document will be redacted heavily, as needed to protect sensitive information._

The first verified use of the term 'Arc' as a designation was around 200 years ago , although common theory speculates that the term is older than that. It is known that 'Arc' is a family line dating back to Vale's earliest protectors, to the time where knights served in roles occupied by Huntsmen today; it is speculated that the Arc - - - - - - - - - - - related - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - the Wiz- - -, though unconfirmed.

As knights were phased out of use, the Arc clan largely disappeared from the public eye, and strong intelligence suggests that this was to form Remnant's oldest active espionage society. This is speculated to have happened 60 to 70 years prior to the Great War, and seeing how very little is known about the Arcs from the inception of their espionage society until the Great War, it can be assumed that they were successful. Common speculation puts it that the Arcs were the greatest spy ring Remnant has ever seen, and that they worked as - - - - - - - - - the Wiz- - -.

During the Great War, one man with the name 'Arc' emerged into the public eye to play a significant role for Vale's forces: Julius Arc. Julius Arc's weapon has been the subject of much exaggeration, but most accounts of it confirm the double-crescent symbol used by the Arcs in the time of knights, providing the only definitive link between the Arc clan symbol and the descendant Arcs.

After the Great War, the Wiz- - - focused his energy on building four - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - across Remnant; during this time, early Mantle intelligence reports document a break between the Arcs and the Wiz- - -. The cause of this development is unknown, but from this point on, the Arcs refused to work with the Wiz- - -, and were then susceptible to - - - - - - - - the Wit- -.

In the 65 years since the erection of the Huntsmen Academies, Mantle and Atlas intelligence reports tracking the Arcs show a record of dwindling numbers, leading up to four years prior to this report. After that point, Atlas has no further record of any Arc activity. It was known that the Wit- -'s forces had increased their efforts to hunt down the remaining Arcs, and conventional wisdom suggested that the Arcs had gone completely underground in hiding.

At the time of their disappearance, nine Arcs remained in one family unit: T- - - - - - and Kat- - -, and their seven daughters, R- - - - -, S- - - -, V- - - - -, Jo- - - -, B- - - -, Kai- - - -, and Ja- - - -.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - their disappearance - - - - facilitated partially by - - - - - - - - Leonardo Lionhart - - - - - - - - - - - . Despite his connections - - - - Wiz- - -, Lionhart worked - - - - - - - - - - - - - disappearance of the Arcs alone. - - - - - suggest - - - - Lionheart's - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - V- - - - - Arc, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Lionheart's - - - - - - - - - keep his involvement with the Arcs hidden.

It is unknown at this point how the location of the Arcs came to be compromised.

On - - - - - - - - - of the year - - - -, Atlas was notified by - - - - - - - - - - - - the Wiz- - - that the Arcs - - - - - - located in - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mistral, and aid was requested - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - . On - - - - - - - - , two of - - - - -'s agents arrived on location to find a cabin burnt to ashes, with 13 corpses found in varying states:

The bodies of T- - - - - - - -, R- - - - -, and S- - - - were found on the ground surrounding the cabin; analysis of their wounds indicates death by impaling.

The body of Kat- - - - was found on the ground surrounding the cabin; cause of death is confirmed as beheading, with her leg and arm severed before this.

The bodies of three unknown persons, designated as Unknown #1, #Unknown 2, and Unknown #3, were found on the ground surrounding the cabin. #1 had been eviscerated, #2 had been impaled through the throat with his arm severed, and #3 had been cut in half at her waist.

Six sets of charred remains were recovered from the burnt cabin. Three are confirmed to be the youngest Arc girls by their small size, with two more assumed to be the middle Arc twins, V- - - - - and Jo- - - - Arc. The sixth set of remains is assumed to be a fourth assailant, designated as Unknown #4, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - still pinned upright against a stone fireplace by a - - - - - - - - - - - - blade, - - - - - - - - - - - - - -.

It is important to note that no DNA records of any Arc member exist, so verification of identities of the charred bodies is not possible. Neither V- - - - - nor Jo- - - - Arc are confirmed dead because it cannot be determined which body is which, though it is the opinion of this organization that they are. Unknown #4 did not match any records also.

The lack of survival of any Arc, in tandem with tracking evidence from the scene, suggests that at least one assailant survived, designated Unknown #5. It is possible that Unknown #5 could be more than one entity.

No evidence from Atlas or - - - - - - - - suggests that - - - - - - - - - - - - - - have been captured by the Wit- -; - - - - - - - - - - - believed to be random, - - - - - search across Mistral has been enacted - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - all Kingdoms.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - inordinate surplus of high-level Grimm were found within the area, - - - - - - - are suspected to have interfered in the attack, but any involved Grimm evaporated - - - - - - - - - - -.

 _It is the opinion of this agency that all members of the Arc family lineage have been killed. As such, this topic has been officially sealed as a closed matter, pending further redactions._

* * *

Jaune had remained silent while I read through the report, though I could feel the weight of his eyes on me a couple of times; mostly, he stared out in the distance patiently, painfully aware of what I was reading.

"That's…"

"It gets worse," Jaune called out without looking back at me. His voice was distant. "If you keep scrolling, you'll get very detailed coroner's reports on them."

I looked up at him concerned and his eyes never looked up from staring off over Vale. After a few moments, I looked back at the scroll in my hands and nervously began to scroll down, stopping as I came across the first coroner's report.

"Why are all their names redacted if Julius Arc wasn't?"

"I don't know," Jaune answered, his voice still distant and quiet. "This report was written by Atlas Academy's Headmaster and is only viewable by Atlas Academy's Headmaster for… _reasons_ ," Jaune said after a slight pause, making it clear that he suspected he knew those reasons, "and yet, it was _still_ heavily redacted. I don't know why they'd hide the names of dead people, especially when there's no one alive who cares to learn them."

"But you do," I pointed out gently.

"They didn't know I was alive when they wrote this report," Jaune countered back softly, taking care not to lash out at me. "My mother must have had me in that four-year gap where we were hidden."

"If that's true, when…when _it_ happened, you would have been—"

"Four."

"H-How…how did you…?"

"Escape?" He asked, finally looking up to meet my eyes, confirming that was what I was asking. Jaune broke eye contact and looked away before he could answer. "I guess there was an Unknown #6 that took me away."

Unsure what I should say, I let the words hang in the air as I thought about what sort of life Jaune would have had to have lead to survive this long, especially if there was something out there hunting him. Stakes like that could weigh down on someone's soul, especially if they grew up knowing nothing else. The fact that he was here at Beacon at all suddenly seemed like a small miracle, and the details of his past started to fall into place a little better.

With Jaune still staring out over Vale, I took a moment to appreciate him a little differently. He was still clearly hurting, but he gave off more of a hardened and tragic aura than he had before. Where I had come here confused and scared that he was a murderer, I now saw him as more of a victim, a survivor; someone who shouldn't be alive, and who should hate the world. And yet, he doesn't. _Sure, things were rough with him at the beginning of Beacon, but no one who's been through this_ should _be able to adjust to Beacon's lifestyle._ The fact that he's here, and he's trying, are much more remarkable that I gave him credit for.

"T. Arc?" I asked, finally breaking the silence by reading off the name on the first coroner's report. "What does the T stand for?"

Jaune looked back over at me again with a sad, almost ashamed, look, holding it for a few seconds before shrugging.

"You…don't know their names?"

"I _just_ learned their initials," Jaune answered, indicating that he learned them when he read through the same file. "I've narrowed down that T was my father, mostly because he was the only male. Couldn't tell you a single thing about any of them that isn't in those files…"

"You don't remember anything?" I asked, my voice on the edge of breaking.

"I was four," Jaune defended, his voice cracking slightly. He took a breath to steady himself. "Anything I might have remembered, I'm sure that I've repressed by now. My only memory was… I remember blonde hair. The files at least confirmed that all the bodies that weren't burnt were blond like me. We had a very distinct look."

Again, unsure of what to say, I decided on nothing, instead going back to the files on the scroll.

"These are…horrifying," I stated absently as I began reading through the first coroner's report, the one over Jaune's dad. The report indicated that his death was caused by being impaled through his upper spine by a curved spike, speculating that it was a pick-axe or the back of a war-hammer. His right lung had been collapsed by a combination of blunt force and spikes, likely a flail or spiked mace. The tendons in his left ankle were severed, his right thigh had a deep slice, his left eye had swollen shut, and chunks of hair had been ripped from his head. On top of all that, there had been a dust round fired into his forehead post-mortem, with the report stating that it was done likely to ensure death.

And the pictures included for documentation were _thorough_. It made Jaune after our spar look like he scraped his knee. They weren't something I could bear to look at for long.

"Yeah," Jaune mumbled, unsure of what else to say. "It's ordered by age, so the first few are rough because they were old enough to fight back. After that, it's not as…bad," Jaune trailed off awkwardly, likely aware of how strange it felt to consider being charred alive as a better death.

Jumping down a few pages revealed him to be correct, as those reports were much shorter, mostly because there was less to tell. Each of the burnt bodies were significantly smaller than the 'fighters' who had died outside the building, which made it even harder to read their reports. Any thought of a more merciful death was wiped out when I read that each of them had slices and notches in their ribcages, suggesting that they had been killed with a blade prior to being burnt. It seemed that burning the place down was just to confirm their deaths, much like what had been done to the ones outside.

"Why are these two reported together?" I asked Jaune, showing him the joint report for the twins, V and J-O Arc.

"As far as I can tell, they were both close enough in size that Atlas doesn't know which one was which," Jaune answered. "They were both around ten years old anyways, so I doubt it matters much."

"Except that one of them took their own life," I pointed out softly, reading through the file further. There were the remains of a dagger still in the torso of one of them, and the coroner commented that the upwards angle of the dagger indicated that it was self-inflicted. Given the chaos and pain surrounding her, it would be hard to hold such a choice against her. _It was possible she held out until it was clear that she was alone with her assailants._

Would I have had the resolve to do that?

"Yeah, it seems like I come by my stubbornness honestly," Jaune said darkly, chuckling at the end to signal that it was an attempt at humor. "Her death was on her terms…"

More than anything, the way Jaune trailed off scared me. It almost sounded like he was inspired by the idea.

Without even thinking about it, I walked over and wrapped myself around Jaune from behind, resting the side of my head at the base of his, with my arms wrapping underneath his, which were still gripping the railing in front of him. I wasn't sure if I was doing so to help him cope with how horrible those files had been, or to help me.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" I asked softly, deciding that I wasn't very good at saying comforting things, and was better off with this more direct route.

"No, I…" Jaune trailed off, and I could feel him chuckle softly to himself and drop his head down. "I think you're already doing it."

I was glad that I was wrapped around Jaune from behind, because it meant that he couldn't see me fighting not to get flustered. _That is, if he didn't notice me tighten my grip on him._

"You got this idea from Ren at dinner, didn't you?"

"…shut up."

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

"Alright Jaune, care to explain why you're bringing me into the forest, _alone_?" Nora asked loudly. "Or are you just going to keep saying that it's a 'surprise' for me?"

"Well, it _is_ a surprise for you, so don't see a problem," I answered back, leading us out of the tree line and into a clearing. It was the same clearing that Yang and I had met Raven in, but that was only because I knew how to find it easily. "We're here, by the way."

Nora walked on ahead and scanned the clearing, noticing that there was only one thing in the field of grass, and giving me a strangle look for it.

"A watermelon?"

"On a pike," I added on. It held the watermelon about six feet in the air, and looked as unassuming as a mounted watermelon could. "Go ahead, shoot it."

Nora gave me an extremely strange look, before cautiously shifting Magnhild into a grenade launcher and aiming at the 'target.'

"Wait!" I yelled out from right next to her, making Nora jump and nearly swing at me. "I forgot something."

Nora gave me a flat yet suspicious look as I pulled out my scroll and summoned my locker. We waited for about thirty seconds before it landed to our side. I strolled over and opened it, revealing a _lot_ of ammunition and explosives.

"Uh, where'd you get that?"

"Do you remember when we all stocked up in the supply room before our mission?" I asked leadingly.

"I remember Qrow and Winter having a hard time keeping you from taking everything," Nora answered back sharply, with a fair bit of sass. "Even though you don't even have a _gun_."

"Right, which meant they didn't really pay attention to Beacon's resident weaponsexual speedster…"

"…Ruby?"

"Bingo," I answered, giving Nora finger guns to accentuate the point. "We agreed to split the haul evenly."

"Should I ask _why_ you need dust, Mr. 'my swords turn into more swords'?"

"Well, I _was_ going to use it for pirate business," I drawled out, cutting my eyes at Nora, "but I decided this was just as good of a use for them. Here," I called out, tossing Nora an ice round for her grenade launcher. "Use that."

Nora caught the cannister and loaded it quickly, all the while giving me a suspicious look. Clearly, she was not used to someone _else_ being the spontaneous and reckless one.

With her weapon loaded, Nora took aim at the watermelon, closing one eye and tilting her head to line up the shot, before dropping her weapon back down to her side once more.

"Okay, what exactly are you trying to do?" Nora asked suspiciously, with maybe a hint of stress in her voice. "Is this about…what I said at dinner last night? I'm telling you guys, I'm okay. You were right, I just needed some time alone to think."

"And having Ren wrapped around you didn't hurt, either," I pointed out.

"Care to run that by me again?" Nora threatened teasingly while pointing her weapon at me, her cheeks just barely tinged red.

"I said, melting into Ren's tender touch was the antidote to all your problems," I responded, doubling down with a grin.

Nora yanked her weapon to aim at my head and pulled the trigger, causing me to flinch and throw my arms up, my Semblance activated to protect me. Nothing happened.

"Safety's on, idiot," Nora called out, her cheeks more flushed than before. "Is that really why we're out here, though?" She asked, a little disappointment in her expression.

"Nah, I've been meaning to find some excuse to hang out with you for some time now. I'd be a pretty crappy team leader if I only did things with Pyrrha and Ren, after all…"

"There are a lot more reasons that you could be a crappy team leader," Nora quipped.

I pushed on, letting her have that one for free.

"And I figured that everyone is probably stepping on eggshells around you, trying not to upset you after last night…"

"Yeah," Nora confirmed softly. "It's sweet, but it's—"

"Annoying."

" _Yes_."

"I figured that after last night, what you could really use is a distraction." _And for someone to treat you as if you were still the same person._ "If I'm right, then go ahead and shoot the watermelon."

"…and what's going to happen if I do?"

"You will be sufficiently distracted, that's for sure."

Nora gave me a sideways glance, but the ghost of a grin began to creep up on her face. She turned back towards the watermelon and aimed Magnhild, lining up her shot for a second and not hesitating to pull the trigger.

The dust grenade struck near-center, exploding in a cloud of ice that was immediately shattered and blown apart by the fire dust that I had completely filled the watermelon with—the back half of the watermelon had a hole and I had hollowed it out, filling it with a _lot_ of fire dust.

The resultant explosion was a massive display of fire that sent snowflakes shooting off in every direction. The flakes sparkled and shone as they reflected the explosion's light, creating one of the more photogenic explosions I've ever seen, with just a dash of watermelon bits thrown in for good measure.

"Okay, not bad."

"Just wait."

As the explosion winded down, the makeshift powder trail I had created leading down the pike and back into the trees ignited, and a few moments later, several smaller explosions spread throughout the tree line went off nearly simultaneously, with a mix of fire, ice, and lightning dust splintering over a dozen trees.

"Man, I sure hope that all that noise doesn't attract any Grimm," I drawled, tossing Nora a belt of grenades and shooting her a coy smile. "It sure would be unfortunate to have to slaughter some, huh?"

Nora caught both my meaning and the grenades, shifting her weapon into a hammer and her lips into a grin.

"Yeah. That sounds _awful_."

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Oh, I pulled a sneaky on ya! For the Atlas file, I actually wrote out the whole thing with real information that could very well contradict what Raven has told Jaune. Sadly for him, Ironwood saw fit to redact it, even if no one else was going to see it; he is a prudent man, after all, and quite thorough.**

 **This means that there does exist a copy of that file that is not redacted, and I'm thinking that if you guys are still interested by then, that I might release it as part of an epilogue once this story is concluded. We're still a ways off, but I already pretty much have my epilogue planned out; now if only I had everything between then and now...**

 **The names of some of the Arcs are semi-significant, or so I am contractually-obligated to tell you; I borrowed my sister's name for Jaune's mother, and she wants my readers to be made aware of that significance. To get back at her for this, I gave her a terrible, no-good, terrorist ('s name) for her Arc husband, and I even got to use a color as a name. _You won't need three guesses for that..._**

 **I _will_ give a key to the redactions for everything that Jaune would understand: **Wiz- - - **means Wizard (Ozpin's incarnations),** Wit- - - **is Witch (Salem). You can see why Ironwood would redact this information, even if no one outside of the Atlas military could potentially access it. Some of the other redactions aren't necessary from a spoiler perspective, per say, but from Ironwood's perspective. Example: the two agent's that come across the burnt building are "Beacon's agents," but Beacon is redacted because Ironwood wouldn't want to put on paper a link between the Wizard and Beacon; someone could figure out Ozpin's secret if that was leaked.**

 **This all assumes that Ironwood has been in the loop for at least 15 years or so (it's been 14 since Jaune's family died), which I think isn't a stretch. Ozpin calls him an 'old friend' often throughout the early volumes.**

 **Oh, and Pyrrha. So close. You _almost_ started asking the questions you need to, like 'am I too distracted to see that Jaune and I have different views on the world?' I can't blame her for that file distracting her; it was meant to be a shockingly dark thing, and seeing Jaune react that way for the first time would only have made things worse. **

**Also, that intro quote is 100% stolen from the Penguins of Madagascar Christmas short from the Madagascar DVD. I have no shame in alluding to great works of art.**

* * *

 **V6 has been bowling forward full steam ahead on the exposition and revealing _a lot_ of stuff about Ozpin and Salem. Fortunately, all of this is information that takes place so far in the past that, for the purposes of this story, not much is changed. The stakes in the show have not changed, just been given context, and none of my plans for this story have been compromised.**

 **Of course, if information in the show did end up contradicting how I've been building this story, that would be the point at which I would say "yeah, this is a Fanfic, we're going to continue as planned." Technically, _all_ fanfics are AU, so...**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _A reader_ (guest)

"Really like the plans within plans aspect of this story. Jaune is playing *so* many parties, ranging from authority figures like Oz and Ironwood, criminals like Roman, his friends, and of course, potential romantic partners.

And yeah, the whole situation with Pyrrha is messed up. I just get the feeling that Jaune tolerates her because he *has* to not because he *wants* to - especially after she tried to kill him back in the first spar. If Pyrrha wasn't a key component to his plans, Jaune wouldn't be so forgiving or at the very least, letting thing slide so easily. IIRC, in the reconciliation chapter, Jaune says in his internal monologue that whatever he's doing is ultimately for his freedom.

Going to be interested in how badly Jaune reacts when he finds out Pyrrha has been going behind his back."

 **My preferred analogy is that Jaune is trying to juggle balloons while riding a unicycle across a tight-rope, except beneath the tight-rope is an alligator, he's wearing pants made of steaks, the unicycle is on fire, the tight-rope has been greased, the balloons are actually filled with gasoline, and someone is shooting him with paintballs.**

 **I'll let you decide which one of those corresponds with which things Jaune is facing down. Personally, I think Raven would be the one shooting him with paintballs.**

 **As far as Jaune's feelings towards Pyrrha, I haven't been trying to make it feel as if he merely tolerates her. My goal was for Jaune to clearly build up an attachment for his friends during the first two volumes' events, that way he's grounded and has stakes going into V3. Being forced to beg your way back into Raven's service isn't _as_ bad if Jaune didn't care to leave Beacon anyways. As such, Jaune does like Pyrrha and wants to grow closer as partners, but he doesn't exactly see Pyrrha the way Pyrrha sees him. That in and of itself is an awkward situation, and the fact that Pyrrha is clearly the biggest holdout when it comes to his past is discouraging also. **

**He does recognize that if his plan to steal a Maiden is to work, he's going to have to change that.**

 **If the Jaune/Pyrrha angle still feels weird, then I've got some real estate with which to work on it in the near future. V3's events center around Jaune, Yang, and Pyrrha, with Yang and Pyrrha's plots related to Jaune, directly or indirectly.**

 **Also, I get a lot of questions asking if Jaune is going to find out that Pyrrha is going behind his back.**

 _ **Duh.**_ **  
I do realize that it's been building in the background for a while, but that's because I didn't expect V2 to last so long.  
 _Hell, Yang wasn't really supposed to find out about Jaune and Raven until, like, the ass-end of V3 at the earliest, but that had to go out the window because what we have now is so much better._ Sometimes, it just be that way when writing: all your careful planning isn't as interesting as half-baked idea that pops into your head.**

 **Anyhow, the real question is this: _how long_ will it take Jaune to find this out, _how_ will he find out, and _how much damage_ might be done by then?**

* * *

"T is for Turquoise Moonlight in the pale shade of dusk" - _Turquoise Leaf_

 **Oh, good. You're back. _Yay._**

* * *

 **Okay, so I just want you all to know, that the other day I made a _horrible_ discovery. **

**For some reason, I thought to myself, "I wonder what sort of team I could make out of** _Turquoise_ **?" After all, that** _is_ **a color, and it has some decently strong syllable breaks in there. It would be challenging, I thought, because of the _Q_ mudding things up.**

 **But we have a character whose name begins with Q: Qrow.**

 **Then I spelled it out.**

 **Turquoise.  
Tuh-err-Quio-se.  
TRQS.**

 **Taiyang. Raven. Qrow. Summer.**

 **FML.** _Turquoise_ **has the dream team coming for my ass. I hope Taiyang _Entire Team_ Xiao Long doesn't impregnate me. That would be weird, being a guy and all that...**


	38. An Actual Confessional

**Author's Note: This week was one of those weeks where, like, I was really motivated to write. I got this chapter done basically by Tuesday after starting it Sunday, and I spent Wednesday and Thursday planning out how the coming chapters are going to play out. There are a fairly large amount of things being juggled by Jaune here, and I now have two different types of outlines to keep track of what is going to happen and when.**

 **Also, due to popular demand of one person, I've also got a Discord server now. Why? Beats me, but it sounds fun and my ego does like the boost, so it was not difficult for me to be talked into it.**

 **In all seriousness, I don't really have any great plans for the Discord, so this is more of an experiment than anything. If we get enough people, we might try to get together a Cards Against Humanity game with the RWBY deck (Cards Against Remnant), or it might just be a place to hang out and complain about** **blue-greenish colors.**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter **g** ee_ ) ( _the letter **g** ee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

[ note: Discord under attack from radical Texans. Long story. May let it die and remake it; unclear as of 6/14/2019 ]

 **Join, if only for the seven minutes it took me to get that link past FF's nothing else, one of my buddies joined because he can't wait to see me try to handle interacting with people... xD**

 **Oh, and...**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 36:** _"I don't like it when you keep comparing me to Raven." – Yang Xiao Long  
"Trust me, I like it even less when you act like her." – Jaune Arc_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

Beacon, apparently, is not without its administrative quirks, not that I should be surprised when a centuries-old being is running a modern Academy; some things are bound to feel odd, old-timey even. The main quirk effecting me recently is the closure of dorms in between semesters. It seems to me that if you're going to require all your students to move into your own barracks—sorry, _apartments_ , because Ozpin certainly would never use children as soldiers—then you shouldn't also expect them to move out for two weeks. I understand that yes, _normal_ students would have families to go home and visit, and I technically do have _somewhere_ to go back to. Raven, in her just infinite wisdom, decided that she'd rather not have to pay to send me back to Beacon by train, and as such, it wasn't worth letting me crash back with the Tribe for two weeks. _And it's not like I could have told her that Yang would be okay with letting me be teleported to her when class starts back…_

Students with nowhere to go apparently aren't so uncommon that Beacon had no idea what to do with them; my team consists of 75% of such students, after all, plus Blake on Team RWBY. Normally, you would just petition the school for some sort of hardship scholarship, and they would pay to put you up in a hotel for the time being. The problem was that the beginning of the festivities of the Vytal Festival began one week before the dorms opened back up, so even if the tournament itself wasn't going, tourists were flocking to Vale by the thousands. All of Vale's hotels had already been booked in reserve for that second week of our break, meaning that Beacon could only find lodging for us for one week. For the second week, we—myself, Ren, Nora, Blake, and Weiss (who did not want to return to Atlas)—were on our own.

Some of us found solutions more easily than others. Weiss, for example, was rich enough to already just _have_ an apartment in Vale, in case of an emergency, I guess. Blake was fortunate enough to have a really rich teammate with an apartment and plenty of spare room. Even if they hadn't, they had two teammates who lived near Vale they could stay with.

Ren and Nora were going camping, a prospect which took a very long time to convince Pyrrha and Team RWBY was not just a cover for being homeless for a week. Ren had to remind everyone that they grew up moving around from place to place and weren't strangers to roughing it in the woods, plus they would be staying in a part of Vale's forests that were much safer than the Emerald Forest. In the end, Ren had to bust out all of their camping gear to show off that they really were used to camping, and honestly, it might be more comfortable than whatever sort of Atlesian-style apartment Weiss had. I threw my support behind their decision, being the supportive team leader that I am, and eventually everyone calmed down enough to be okay about them roughing it for a week.

What was I going to do? Well, I told everyone that I had petitioned to get put in the Transfer Students' dorm, and that I had guilted Miss Goodwitch into having me put up with a transfer team that hadn't had all their members arrive yet.

Oh yeah, there was the whole fact that _their_ dorms stayed open, because they were only here for the Vytal Festival, and things had been planned accordingly. That wasn't annoying, or anything, seeing that Beacon is just competent enough to realize that the Vytal Festival would affect some students, but not competent enough to see how it would affect _all_ the students.

In any matter, if any of my friends asked _who_ I had stayed with, I already had a good alibi ready to go. Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury still didn't have a fourth member at Beacon yet, and I could easily get them to support my alibi about staying with them when I hadn't. I need to go meet with Cinder and get a feel for her intentions anyways, so using that as an excuse would work nicely.

In all likelihood, I was just planning on Neo having access to whatever safehouses Roman still had active, and then just crashing at one of those. Probably my _most_ dangerous option, sleeping in the same zip code as the queen of the stabs herself, but we have a little work to do anyways. She probably won't kill me in my sleep, not when she would prefer to see the look in my eyes when she stabbed me. Either way, JN_R checked out of the hotel today, so I'll have to talk with her about it tonight.

With Ren and Nora out of town, the only teammate I would have to worry about is Pyrrha, or that is, I _would_ if she hadn't had to go back to Mistral. She tried to explain how she was still under contract to go do things for her sponsors and had to go back home over the break and deal with things, and I can't say that the prospect of dealing with corporate sponsors thrilled me all that much; by the time she assured us it was completely normal and just more of a hassle than anything, I was mostly tuned out. As was Nora.

Which leads me here: with my team all gone for this week and Raven not planning on me staying with the Tribe, I have seven days to accomplish as much unhindered progress towards my goals as I can, which first off involves meeting with Yang. There was much that I needed to properly explain and since I wouldn't ever get another chance quite like this, with both of our teams gone, there was no time like the present. All Yang had to do is feed Ruby and her dad a line about running into Vale to go shopping—for anything but weapons, so as to lose Ruby's interest—and she was free to meet up, following a short boat ride.

I was cautious, though, because I can't afford any more stupid mistakes. The four biggest threats with having Yang meet me are that we would be interrupted or spied on by Qrow, Tai, Ruby, or Raven. Yang took care of Ruby before she left and Tai wasn't likely to come but Yang had her scroll off so she couldn't be tracked, just in case. Qrow was a risk, but one that was mitigated by our meeting up in one of Vale's parks; there was no way to avoid being followed by a bird, but I sat us out in the middle of the grass, far enough away from any trees so as to not be overhead. I would have to notice him before he got within earshot, which was enough assurance for me.

For Raven, I…well, if I'm honest with myself, I was just banking on her not bothering to check in. She clearly wasn't poking in on me regularly with her Semblance, since she would have caught me doing something stupid at some point. That said, even if she _did_ create a portal to us suddenly, I had an emergency plan in my back pocket, with heavy emphasis on _emergency._ Raven is way too sharp for both Yang and I to come up with the same lie about why we were discussing plans alone without anyone else watching, but she does have a certain way of viewing how…interpersonal relationships work, which I would take advantage of.

Of my plans for each person, my plan for Raven was my worst one, as I'm not sure if suddenly making out with Yang was actually any safer for my health than getting caught red-handed by Raven. Assuming Yang's Semblance did not char everything within a five-foot radius and that she did _not_ overreact and kill me immediately, Raven would all to easily jump to the conclusion that, _yes_ , I was taking her 'advice,' even if it had been offered mostly to embarrass me. There was no telling how she would react if she actually did catch me making out with her daughter—another oversight in my emergency plan—but her flippant attitude and general permissiveness of promiscuousness makes me suspect she'd smirk and leave us to it.

 _Gods above, I really don't want Raven to show up for this._ It really would be a no-win scenario for me—or, I suppose it would be one win that I would pay _very_ dearly for—and it would be one that I would never hear the end of either Yang or Raven.

"That's…that's a lot to take in."

If that wasn't enough to be nervous about, there was what I had just got done explaining to Yang: a crash-course in all of the magic in Remnant that I knew of, and was caught up in. What _she_ was now caught up in, if she was still determined to play bait for Raven by pretending to be Ozpin's next candidate.

"Do you have any…questions?" I asked, cringing slightly as I did so for how stupid the question was. _Duh_ , she would have questions.

"Do I have any questions?" Yang asked incredulously, throwing the words back in my face. She had already stood up and was pacing around me in a circle, eyes staring off at the grass in front of her. It reminded me of Raven, not that anyone outside of Vernal or I ever got to see her that deep into her thoughts. She was always calm and collected in front of the Tribe, and it was still rare for us to see her so distracted, but on occasion when planning a heist or dealing with externalities, Raven would pace around while thinking. She usually did so in a much slower and calmer manner, but then again, she wasn't ever _this_ overwhelmed, either. "How do you know all of this is true? You had to have gotten it all from Raven; how do you know she's not making it up?"

"Well, I've _seen_ it with my own eyes. You have, too, even if you don't realize it; didn't you see the way her eyes lit up when you were watching our fight?" Not our spar, which she saw also, but the _fight_ at the end of that meeting. The one that left both sides bleeding, if momentarily.

"I…I don't remember that part, no," Yang answered, the question at least breaking her out of her pacing for a moment. It was getting dizzying following her from my seat on the ground, too. "I wasn't looking at her eyes as much as I was the ice you were trapped in or the blades you both used—" Yang cut herself off, looking at me pointedly as if she had figured something out. "You stabbed her, and…she seemed surprised that her Aura didn't stop it. You—"

"I'll stop you right there," I cut in, relaxing myself a little. "I don't have any magic, no."

"But I saw the knife glowing!"

"That was my Semblance," I dismissed with a hand wave, holding out my hand and projecting a blade as best I could. It was small, barely more than an inch and a half sticking out from my palm, but enough to show that it was nothing more than projected Aura that was reinforced by my Semblance.

"But it was red last time," Yang pointed out, her focus clearly taken up on the projection.

"Yeah, well, I was pretty angry last time, too," I responded. I closed my eyes for a moment and focused on a memory that would get me angry—appropriately, the memory of Raven encasing my limbs in ice and stabbing me—and used that to hone my projection. Doing so turned a short, fat projection into a longer, thin blade with fine edges and a sharp point. It also tinted the blade red, but the Aura in my hands remained white. "Ren says that emotion can help channel the projection, and I guess that also changes its color. It's not like I'm an Aura expert or anything."

"Yeah, well, you sure seem to be an expert about everything else," Yang cut back. "You're _sure_ that all of this is real?"

" _I_ may not have magic, but Raven really is the Spring Maiden. We've both seen her use it, too, not to mention that you saw her shift forms." I gave Yang a somewhat pointed look, and she averted her eyes to the ground again, conceding the point. Raven _had_ flown around to survey the area when we had met up, and her Semblance was known to _not_ be turning into a bird. "So magic is real, and if the Four Maidens are real, there's no reason to assume that the Relics aren't, or that the Wizard and the Witch aren't both real."

"How do you know she wasn't making that stuff up and hoping you'd assume that you would believe it if she could prove part of it?" Yang asked, showing a bit of her mother's cunning, if not her paranoia. It wasn't necessarily the worst quality to emulate; it would certainly be helpful now, and it wasn't maybe something I would have suspected Yang of having based off her loose-cannon personality and reputation.

"Because her actions show that she believed what she was saying," I answered calmly, deescalating what tension Yang was building up. "She knew that as the Spring Maiden, Headmaster Lionheart would try to acquire her at all costs, so she took steps to ensure that she never got on his radar. There were more than a few times where Raven left potential raids on the table because she didn't want to expose herself too much to Haven."

Yang looked over me for a few moments, eyes distant in a way that made it clear she was thinking over what I had said. She nodded absently a few times, not finding anything there she could object with.

"And Headmaster Ozpin?" Yang asked, her voice and the look she gave me both loaded with suspicion and nervousness.

"I…can't personally confirm that he's an immortal, reincarnating Wizard," I admitted slowly, "but Raven believes that he is. She's wary of Ozpin finding out about her much more than she is Lionheart; that's why she stays in Mistral, not Vale. The things she says about Ozpin, the emotion and conviction with which she spites his name…there's no way that she's lying about that."

"You don't sound like his biggest fan, either."

Yang's words were pointed, not in an antagonistic way, but very much so to point things out, and in that she was not wrong. My eyes met hers and held for a few moments before answering.

"I recognize that everything I know about the man comes from Raven, which is not an unbiased source. That said, _no_ , I am not his biggest fan. I'll concede that Ozpin is important, and that giving in to Salem's wishes is a path no one can afford, but I'll be damned before I get drawn into his war. Huntsmen die fighting the Grimm all the time, and they serve as protectors of the world, but Ozpin's little…secret society?!" I spat the words out, not finding any better ones to describe what was essentially a cult built around sustaining Ozpin's power and prestige across his lifetimes. "All they do is die to keep Ozpin's secrets safe from the world. They guard the Relics and the Maidens and they die because they can't use any outside help, they can't afford to let the world know about the real stakes! Even…even _Summer_ died because she was taking on the weight of the world in silence. Ozpin is a fool not to unite the world _against_ Salem, to march on the Grimmlands and end her once and for all. Until that happens—until there's a chance at he's _not_ content with an eternal war with no end in sight—I will be taking my chances elsewhere."

I had riled myself up while talking, and now that I had said my piece, I realized that I had gripped a fistful of grass from beside me. I forced myself to release the fist, letting the torn blades fall back down harmlessly, and as I did so, Yang walked over and took a seat right next to me.

"Okay. You don't need to convince me. I believe you, Jaune," Yang said softly, her words calming me down further. I hadn't looked back up yet, but I could feel that her eyes weren't on me, and were instead staring off into the distance. "You…you didn't have to bring my mom into it," she said even softer.

I looked up into her eyes, confused for just a moment and sobered by the frailty there and the way they flattened over at me moments later.

"My _real_ mom," she added on.

" _Oh_. I'm sorry," I mumbled, eyes trailing back to the ground. It was meant to apologize both for bringing Summer into this, and for conflating Raven with an actual, loving mother.

"It's… You're fine," Yang said, her voice getting a little of its volume and energy back. "So, what about your family, then?"

"What about them?" I asked, flippant and a little darkly.

"I told you that I read some of those…files that Neo gave you. How does that play into… _everything_?" Yang asked, gesturing vaguely towards a tree that stood between us and Beacon's general direction.

"That's a fantastic question, Yang," I announced, teasing her just a bit to soften the next part. "I don't have a clue."

"Really? Nothing?"

"You saw how we handled the topic last time Raven and I spoke. If it weren't for my Semblance, I'd have a nasty scar to show for it, too," I joked darkly, reminding her of what led to me stabbing Raven and her stabbing me back. "She knows more than she's told me, and the bi—" I cut myself off, a hint of doubt creeping through me; I had already insulted the memory of one of her mothers, and I knew that it wouldn't have bothered her, but I still hesitated at the thought of upsetting her twice.

" _Bitch_ ," Yang finished for me, grinning at my attempt to censure myself. "I'm a big girl. I can handle some mean words."

"She knows more than she's told me, and the _cunt_ doesn't—"

"Well, _that_ might be pushing it," Yang cut in, her grin only giving away that she was messing with me at the last second. I was actually ready to just auto-apologize for the same reason as before, too, and gave her an agitated frown. _Is this what it's like being around me all the time?_

"She doesn't even pretend like she's not hiding who my family was from me," I finished, trying to ignore the grin Yang was still sporting from our exchange. "Those files from Neo were the most I've learned about them by a wide margin, even if it was a bit…"

"Horrific?"

"I was going to say ' _thorough on the details_ ,' but yeah." I shut my eyes for a moment, picturing the scene as described by—of all people—Ironwood's report, or recalling the photos included. There were only a few with, well, intact faces, but were so lifeless and cold to look at that I almost wished that I _hadn't_ seen them, even if it was the closest to them I could ever get.

A hand on my shoulder shaking me back and forth knocked me out of that line of thinking before I could begin to dwell too deeply, and I mumbled my thanks to Yang for her help.

"All I got from that is they used to be a big family of knights, and then they became Ozpin's spies for a while, and then they broke ties with Ozpin after the Great War." Appropriate, then, that as the last Arc, I am of no mind to join up with Ozpin. _Hell, Raven might have only taken me in because she knew that the Arcs and her both didn't like working for the Wizard._ "Once they did that, Salem decided to hunt them down, until there was a last stand in the wilds of Mistral." A secret one, too, facilitated by Haven's Headmaster, who still served in the same position. Ironwood went out of his way to indicate (in what wasn't redacted, at least) that Leonardo Lionheart was an ally of Ozpin, yet kept his assistance to my family a secret from them. He would be an interesting man to have a conversation with for that, once I'm free of Raven and Ozpin.

 _If_ I'm free of Raven and Ozpin.

"Yes, where four-year-old Jaune held off the forces of the _Queen of the Grimm_ ," Yang emphasized that part more satirically than the rest, emphasizing the absurdity of the concept without denying its existence, "and escaped to be raised by my mother, despite her wanting nothing to do with Ozpin, Salem, _or_ Lionheart."

"What do you want me to say?" I asked defensively. "You think I don't wonder why? You're right, it doesn't make a lot of sense to take me in, but maybe it wasn't as risky as you think it was. She and Qrow—and Atlas—had a list of all the Arcs who were alive, and I wasn't on it; as far as she knew, _no one_ knew I existed, and that's held true. Besides, she clearly had the power to protect the Tribe if any large Grimm came looking for me."

Hell, she would have given me up pretty quickly if it meant keeping her powers and her Tribe safe from Salem's attention.

"Did she even _have_ the Maiden powers then?"

"I don't know, probably," I answered, a bit tired of trying to think things through before explaining them. It never hurt to have to think over things again, but that didn't mean it wasn't taxing. "All she said is the got them around the same time, and that getting the Maiden's powers were what emboldened her to finally leave Ozpin; that way, if Qrow, Tai, and Summer had come after her, she would have the strength to fight them off." And she left Yang to make them think her irredeemable, so that her theory wouldn't bet tested. Had she taken baby Yang with her, we might have learned whether Silver Eyes, bad luck, and cargo shorts were enough to take down a Maiden. "So yeah, I think she had the powers before she took me in."

"Okay, okay," Yang repeated softly, noticing that I was getting worked up again and doing her best to calm me back down gently. It was decently effective, giving me enough time to take a breath and settle back down. "So, magic is real, Ozpin leads a secret crusade against the Grimm's Queen, your family were spies that were caught up in the middle, and my mom is now one of Remnant's four most powerful humans. Did I miss anything?"

"She can teleport to me and kick my ass at any time she desires."

"There's that too," Yang acknowledged curtly, before cutting her eyes at me dangerously, "and there's whatever _advice_ about me she gave you."

"Ad…vice?" I asked, stuttering there in the middle as I remembered _exactly_ what advice Yang was talking about. I risked looking up to meet her eyes, still cut at me but dangerously flatly now. "Would it help if I told you she was mostly trying to tease me?"

" _Mostly?!_ "

"Well, yeah, she was trying to tease me, but if I _had_ followed her advice, she probably would have congratulated me." _Probably_. "She's not exactly the roll-model you'd expect a mother to be…"

"I'm well aware of _that_."

"Not that Team Fornicate—Team STRQ, I mean; slip of the tongue—were much better themselves…"

" _Yeah_ …" Yang mumbled, staring off in the distance as she thought over the logistics for how she and Ruby were half-sisters but only two years apart, with the added complication of Raven leaving, Tai rebounding so quickly, and Qrow getting left out of all the fun. I reached out and shook her shoulder, stopping her from thinking too deeply like she had for me. "Thanks. Just remember one thing though…"

"Huh?"

"If you ever _do_ want to try your luck," Yang stated slowly, her voice barely above a whisper as she leaned in a little closer into the gap between us, "just remember… _that you can't handle me_."

Yang finished this off by further subverting things between us by sticking her tongue out at me, her face close enough to mine that I could probably reach her tongue with mine if I tried. Chances are, that was one purpose, too, just for the added tease.

"You know, after fourteen years with your mother, I can very much so believe that."

That reply had its desired effect, Yang's expression contorting awkwardly as she tried to sort through whether that was an insult or a compliment, what exactly she should take away from it, and what sort of messed-up connotations I was throwing in her face.

I laughed at her confusion, pushing myself onto my feet and leaving her behind on the ground. Once upright, I held an arm out for Yang and she took it, letting me help her up to her feet.

"It's sorta late," I announced flatly, looking off at the setting sun in the distance. Yang's eyes followed mine and she hummed in agreement. "You hungry?"

"Always."

* * *

Yang had asked more than once where we were going to eat at on our walk to her bike, and I had intended to point out directions from my seat on the back of Bumblebee, but soon found one logistical hiccup making that impossible: even with a helmet, I wasn't going to be seeing anything through Yang's hair. Eventually, I gave up and told her to take us to the same diner that our teams had gone to after the docks. If Yang recognized that I _wanted_ us take into the seedier part of town, she didn't call it out, and a few minutes of blind terror clinging to Yang as she terrorized the streets of Vale later, we were (surprisingly) safely in the parking lot.

I'm almost certain Yang was _trying_ to make me fear for my life, too.

On a more positive note, there was a nice isolated booth open three tables from the nearest occupied table, and since we were rolling in at 7pm instead of the middle of the night, the ladies working were significantly less mean. _It may have helped that it was a completely different shift with different workers._

"Hi y'all, I'm Missy, and I'll be your waitress tonight. Can I get y'all something to drink?" our waitress asked with so much enthusiasm dripping from her that I was beginning to suspect that she stole it from the women who were here last time.

"A water," I answered curtly.

"I'll have a grape soda."

"Ooh, good choice. People like grape soda," the waitress hummed absentmindedly as she scribbled down our order. "Y'all need some time to look or do you know what you want?"

"We're ready," Yang answered for us, not even stopping to look up and realize that I was not on board.

"I'm not," I cut in, giving Yang a flat look.

"Oh, you're fine, it's not like the menu's that complex," Yang dismissed off-hand, before turning back to our waitress. "I'll do the breakfast platter special, extra toast."

"Alrighty, and you, hun?"

"I don't have a clue," I spat out in Yang's direction, flipping over the menu frantically. "It's not like I eat out much."

"Oh, fine, here," Yang drawled, rolling her eyes and she took the menu out of my hands and gave it to the waitress. I kept my hands in the same position and pretended to read over my now-stolen menu as a form of silent protest. "He'll have the breakfast platter also, with extra…" Yang trailed off, looking over me intently and silently judging me. "…bacon. Sorry for taking so long," Yang tossed in that last part to the waitress as a jab at me.

"Oh, you two are fine," she dismissed with a laugh. "My husband and I are just like you two. We're to the point where he won't even hand me a menu when we sit down somewhere; he knows he'll end up ordering for us both anyways." She jotted down the rest of our order on her note pad before turning back to us one last time. "Alright, I'll get those going. You two just sit tight and I'll get you your drinks!"

"You know she thinks we're on a date, right?" I cut in quietly once she had walked off.

" _And?_ " Yang asked pointedly. "Would you rather explain the real reason we met up?"

I bit my tongue and conceded that point to Yang, who smirked at me contently.

"Here you two are, one grape soda and one water," our waitress announced as she reappeared at the end of the table, setting the drinks down in front of us. "Anything else?"

"I think we're good, thanks," Yang answered, doing her best to match the server's enthusiasm and cheer. We both watched her walk off again, presumably for the last time until our food comes. "So, now that you've covered all of _that_ , what other secrets are you hiding?"

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"A little," Yang said with a grin, taking a sip of her drink for emphasis. It was a lot how Ozpin sips his mug purely for effect, except with a straw containing purple carbonated sugar water instead of a mug.

"Well, let's see… You know about Raven, and about magic," I said, dropping my voice a little lower. "What else do you want to know about?"

"Nuh uh," Yang cut in, setting her drink down hastily, "you're not getting out of this with a trick like that. _You_ are supposed to tell _me_ things, not make me guess around."

"Okay, fine. Sheesh," I backed down easily, rolling my eyes as I did so. "I was just trying to decide what to go with next, jeez."

"Torchwick, then," Yang cut in, cutting her eyes at me with a little suspicion. "I want to know everything, from the beginning."

"Fine. There's not as much to tell as you would suspect," I responded, taking a drink of my water to clear my throat. Yang waited patiently, making it clear to me that she wasn't planning on letting me out of this. "Actually, we met by coincidence, if you'd believe it."

"I might. Go on."

"You know the file that Neo just gave me? This all started with me trying to find someone in Vale who could get me information on my family. I actually got the idea from you, after hearing how you attacked Junior while looking for your mom. I figured, hell, Junior sounds like as good of a place as any to start looking."

"Wait wait wait, are you trying to say that it's somehow _my_ fault you ended up with Torchwick?"

"Well, now that you put it that way…" I teased, laughing a little to make it clear that I wasn't actually doing that. "Anyway, Junior knew one guy who was ex-Atlas intelligence, and offered to introduce us in exchange for some favors…"

" _Favors?_ " Yang asked concerned, clearly aware of what 'favors' usually mean in this sort of business.

"Nothing bad, I promise. Not yet. One of them was that I didn't blackmail him by telling Raven that he gave anything about her up to you—and yeah, he did know her, but not well enough to really help you at the time anyways. The real thing he wanted was for me to run an…operation for him."

"Operation? What does that mean?"

"Well, he had an employee who was running a side business, and he wanted that employee too scared to do that anymore. I found four willing Beacon students and we sorta dressed up as cops and scared him until he gave up on trying to run illegal weapons on the streets. I let the other students keep the illegal lien we seized from him, and I took this," I pulled out my ceramic dagger and laid in on the table, out of sight of the other patrons, "as a souvenir."

"Other Beacon students?" Yang asked, her demeanor a little more serious now.

"Team CRDL," I offered up freely. "That'll come into play more later, so if you're going to chastise me for crossing a line, wait till the end. It'll be easier then."

"Oh, that doesn't inspire confidence, Jaune," Yang said, chuckling darkly to herself and taking a drink to distract herself. "Let's get on with it, then."

"So, Junior sets up a meeting between me and his ex-Atlas source, and he sets it for the night before our raid on the White Fang rally—"

"Oh no," Yang mumbled, following along closely. "That's the meeting with Junior that didn't go well, isn't it?"

"Correct. Not the one where I trashed the place, but the one leading up to that," I confirmed solemnly. Yang's lips pulled into a tight frown as she waited to hear what exactly went down, though she had no idea just how bad it would be. "As it turns out, his source was Roman Torchwick, who had a bone to pick with me ever since we hijacked one of his dust heists."

Yang's look turned funny and she gave me a weirdly intense stare. It did not take long to figure out why.

"Oh, I forgot that part, didn't I? Yeah, earlier in the semester Raven had me help the Tribe steal a shipment of dust that the White Fang had stolen. In the process, I fought off Neo and earned Roman's ire. Come to think of it, that was the same heist at the docks where we found Blake…"

"It was _what?_ "

"Yeah, it was a complete coincidence that I was able to get there so quickly. Lucky for Blake, too."

"I…I don't even…" Yang fumbled her words, her eyes looking over me frantically before she calmed herself down. It looked more like she was just pushing the thoughts out of her mind for now, which was fine with me. "You stole dust from the White Fang, and you helped save Blake. _Okay._ I can be okay with that."

"Just wait."

"Would you _please_ stop doing that?" Yang asked, agitated.

I shrugged. "What can I say, I inherited Raven's flair for drama…"

"Well knock it off," Yang replied gruffly. "What happened when you went to the meeting?"

"Yeah, that's where it gets worse," I replied, earning (and ignoring) a glare from Yang for immediately going back to being dramatic. "Junior sold me out to Torchwick, and he forced me to bargain for my life…" Yang winced at the notion, showing just enough sympathy that I am confident she won't blow the next part out of proportion. I made it clear that I was pausing for her to put two and two together, and she did not miss the chance.

"Well, you clearly made him a good offer…" Yang stated slowly. My eyes trailed down to the table in front of me. "Since you're still alive, that is. And if you kept working with him afterwards, it must have been a _really_ good offer…"

I nodded and looked up somewhat guiltily and apologetically, half-expecting Yang to get on to me for acting dramatic yet again. Instead, he expression softened a little and concern shone in her eyes instead. She was clearly aware that I would have had to do something I wouldn't want to.

"I had some…information that was extremely valuable to him," I started off slowly, watching Yang nervously to see when she figured out my insinuation. "You see, he was holding a rally the next night, and there were these people that were going to bust it, and…"

" _No…_ "

"Yeah…"

"You tipped him off about the raid?" Yang asked in a whisper, her voice soft but disappointed, which did hurt a little.

"Tip him off?" I repeated, almost scoffing. "He wasn't exactly forgiving when he found out _I_ was the one who planned the raid on him. I did more than _just_ tip him off. I planned his entire damn getaway and brought Raven in to sneak the Paladins out unnoticed."

"YOU—" Yang cut herself off quickly as she realized how loud she was being, leaning over the table and hissing at me instead. "You _what!?_ " Yang's eyes flashed to red as she bore them down on me. "How could you do that to Blake!? She _trusts_ you, Jaune, more than anyone else I've seen! You just…undermined everything she was working towards and helped the _White Fang_ keep their giant death machines!?"

"And you think I _liked_ doing any of that?" I hissed back sharply, cutting away at the base of her anger. I reached out with my Semblance and opened up a connection, both to let the sensation distract her and let her feel that I was being genuine. From it, I could feel that her anger was more of a sharp one then a blind rage, which was probably good. "Do you think that I would bring _Raven_ into a meeting intended to get me information that she was hiding from me…do you think I'd do that unless I absolutely _had_ to?"

Yang's eyes switched back over to lavender and her energy was sapped away as she leaned back down into her seat, recognition taking over her eyes and letting me know that my goal of snapping her out of her anger had succeeded.

"It wasn't lost on me at the time that I was actively undoing all the good that my friends were doing. That was just the icing on top of a _very_ bad few days for me…"

"Which is why you took it out on Junior," Yang pointed out, her voice a little uncertain and looking for verification.

"More or less. Torchwick decided that he wanted my 'operations' with Team CRDL working for him, so he offered up Neo's help to take out Junior as a peace offering."

"She's the one who killed him, isn't she?" Yang asked, her voice dangerously soft. "You know what, no, that doesn't matter. We left Junior alive; whatever they were going to do, it would have happened whether you helped or not."

"That's…awfully generous thinking on your part," I pointed out tentatively. "Shouldn't you still get on to me about working with murders and thieves?"

"Given who my mother is, I think _that_ would be a dumb angle to argue…"

I shrugged. The girl had a point.

"What did Raven think when you had to bring her in?"

"She…well, she got to keep one of the Paladins, so she came out better than before," I started off, noting Yang's eyes go wide with surprise at the mention of the Paladin. "She did _not_ appreciate that I had called her to save me, nor that I was going behind her back in the first place. I definitely got chewed out for that." Yang opened her mouth with a confused expression on her face, and I cut her off before she could ask why that was _all_ Raven did. "You remember the _last_ chewing-out I got from her…" I said, tapping the spot on my stomach I had been stabbed for good measure.

"Oh."

"Yeah, well, working with Torchwick isn't exactly ideal, but it has its perks. I've met some…possibly important people that could be useful allies—and I mean big-picture useful, as in _magical_ ly useful." _Not that Yang needs to be introduced to Cinder and her crew_. If my hunch is right and Cinder _is_ gunning for Fall's power, or was the one to steal part of it in the first place, then identifying Yang as one of Ozpin's potential candidates would put a target on her back that I'm not sure I could protect her from. _The only ones who_ could _protect her from that would be Ozpin or Raven, two people whose protection I do_ not _want to force Yang into._ "Neo runs all of CRDL's operations, so I'm not even involved in that anymore, except—"

"Except for what?"

"I…have one thing to take care of, tonight actually. It's the reason I wanted us to eat in this part of town, so that I don't have far to walk once you leave," I admitted, trusting Yang wasn't a risk to rat on me now. I could have just as easily held on to this information, but if I _could_ trust Yang, why wouldn't I? _It's nice to have someone willing to bear your burdens with you, even if you'd prefer that they didn't have to._

"What is it?"

"The Malachites—Junior's two enforcers, the twins—have been going after CRDL ever since Junior died. So far they've only roughed them up, but they're clearly sending a message, and if they know that hitting CRDL is a way to get back at _me_ , then they know too much to be my enemies. It's too dangerous." If they could link me to Neo and CRDL, then they had the potential to put me on the radar of people that I did _not_ need looking into me.

"…and what are you going to do?"

"Part of the file Neo gave me was info she and Roman dug up on the Malachites. They found their hideout, and I was going to go find Neo and…pay them a visit."

"I got _that_ part, Jaune," Yang cut back. "I meant, what are you going to _do_ about them?" Yang asked, her voice stern and judgmental but her eyes giving away her concern for me.

I shrugged, but it was a weak response, and we both could tell. In all honestly, I was planning to go there and let Neo do to them what Neo pleased. If I felt bad, I might put the girls out of their misery, since death by Neo is likely not something they deserved. Either way, I was fully aware that I was going there to kill them, but I have already had a day or two to convince myself that it's necessary. They represent a threat to me, my freedom, everything I'm working towards… and they're forcing my hand. As far as Yang is concerned, I told her once that I draw the line at killing people who don't deserve it; they aren't innocent in any of this, so I'm not compromising myself…much.

"That's what I expected," Yang let out sadly, disappointedly. Her eyes trailed down to the table, only to jump up quickly in surprise. I followed them to find our waitress standing there, holding two plates in her hands.

"Alrighty, here we are, one with extra toast and one with extra bacon," she announced cheerily, setting our plates down in front of us. "Do you two need anything else?"

"I don't."

"No, I think we're good," Yang answered back, putting on a convincing smile until the waitress walked away. Once she was gone, Yang's disappointed look came back as she looked over me, mixed with some level of sadness and maybe even pity. I struggled to hold her gaze and instead bowed my head, picking up my fork to start eating by nibbling on my bacon.

Yang picked hers up two and we started to eat in silence, though it didn't even last long enough for me to get through one of my sides.

"I'm coming with you," Yang announced with such finality that I wasn't completely sure if she was talking to me or to her scrambled eggs.

"What?"

"I'm coming with you," she repeated with just as much finality. "To hell with it, my dad probably thinks I'm going to stay out late partying anyways. I'm coming with you when you confront the Malachites."

" _Yang…_ "

"Don't you _Yang_ me," she cut back forcefully, her eyes bearing down on me until I looked up at them. They were solidly set, but not confrontational. They were determined, and they cared not if I agreed. "I'm coming with you in case it's a trap, and I'm staying to make sure you don't do something stupid."

"Like killing them?"

"That would be stupid, yeah," Yang cut back dryly. "I've kicked both their asses before. You _stabbed_ one of them last time, and don't think I've forgotten about _that_ ," she gave me another flat glare, to which I could only shrug. She had me there, too. "We'll do it again and make it clear to them what would happen if they think about crossing you again. We could even run them out of town."

"Blackmail and intimidation? Where did _you_ learn all these valuable skills?" I teased, notably _not_ disagree with her plan.

"Apparently, it's in my blood," Yang drawled back, her voice unimpressed. "I'm a natural, I guess."

"Great, now I've got two Ravens breathing down my neck," I drawled, rolling my eyes at Yang to further antagonize her. "One from each side. A devil and an angel on each shoulder."

"Aww, did you just call me an angel ?"

"Sure. You've got the ass for it."

I grinned as I accepted and waited for whatever punishment Yang deemed appropriate for that, which came in the form of a glass of grape soda being unceremoniously thrown in my face.

"Was that _really_ necessary?" I asked, not having moved and purple soda still dripping off me. My flat look was met with a genuine smile from Yang.

"Actually, I'm worried that it won't be enough to deter you in the future," Yang said, feigning fear and concern as she stared off into the distance smugly. "You _are_ a serial gropist, after all. A girl could get nervous being alone with you."

"Nervous, or excited?" I asked cheekily, getting nothing but a flat glare from Yang. "You know, you could clear up that whole groping incident."

"By what, telling everyone it didn't happen? That's not going to stop any rumors, Jaune."

"True. I guess that the only way to restore my honor is to cop a handful, then…"

Yang closed her eyes for effect. "I absolutely fucking _dare_ you to try it," she growled at me, opening her red eyes at the peak of her emphasis to accentuate the threat.

Only problem was, she never got angry enough to get her eyes to turn red.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Oh, oh my, what's this? Yang. and Jaune. flirting? in _my_ fanfiction?**

 **Heh. A very violent version of flirting, maybe, with threats and mommy-issues (on both sides) baked in, but still better than anything I've managed. _You can't be accused of projecting yourself and you experiences onto Jaune if you put Jaune into a love triangle with two 11/10s..._**

 **For what it's worth, I have the next scene where they actually do go and confront the Malachites done, but I felt like it altered the pacing weirdly. Having a fast-paced scene at the end kinda disrupts the rhythm of this chapter, and I happen to really like the pacing of the next chapter with that scene opening it, so you get it next week. And, to make up for it, next week's chapter is gonna be longer because of it; I have 2/3 of it written already (I told you I've been in a writing mood), and it's already at 7500 words. Yay.**

 **Also, Jaune's motive for disliking Ozpin's war hinged on a pretty important line there, where he said that he hates how Ozpin is content to sit back and wage an eternal stalemate instead of taking the fight to Salem. Clearly, he does not know that Salem cannot be killed. Everything Jaune knows comes from Raven, and since Qrow didn't know about Ozma and Salem, I'm betting that neither Qrow nor Raven knew that Salem was immune to death. Hence, Jaune's misunderstanding of the situation. _Really, everyone's misunderstanding of the situation because of Ozma/Ozpin's secrets._ **

**For anyone curious how I'm handling planning V3, as far as my two outlines go:**

 **I've got a basic scene outline, that lists every planned scene in the general order I want them to happen. This is mostly only plot-related scenes, and I have about 9-10 chapters for V3 based off those alone. This should balloon as this outline doesn't account for the length of fight scenes, nor does it actually include the fights from the tournament. My rule on those is that if there's no real important changes to how it happens in the show, it won't be shown or heavily focused on here. There are plenty of more important fights planned outside of the ring than inside, so don't worry if it feels like I'm skipping those...**

 **My other outline is less comprehensive and more detailed around specific events. This outline is actually split into three, one for Jaune, Pyrrha, and Yang, the three driving factors of the plot to come (if that wasn't obvious from the love triangle). As such, I have a comprehensive plan of what all will happen with regards to each character, what this means for them, and what they're going to do in response.**

 **This is going to be a _lot_ of fun, at least from my end. **

**Oh, and surprisingly (to me), the love triangle actually somewhat resolves itself early in the coming arc. All the stakes being built are _not_ just for who gets Jaune in the end. **

**Or, well, when you consider Ozpin and Raven, I guess this whole story is _technically_ is about who gets Jaune in the end...**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _Avidlag_

"So I haven't gotten to do this for a while, but the time has come! To get theories off my chest.

So first off we have Raven. For a lot of this story her goals have been questionable. I don't just mean in morals either, but legitimate confusion. But I think I cracked the code, actually been sitting on this one a while, but I was concerned that if it was true it would be very spoilery. But it's just too much fun! So first off we have her contradicting nature. She lets Jaune get away with her version of a slap on the wrist where anyone else would be cut down. Then we have her obsession with Jaune seeing Ozpin/ Beacon in a negative light, him not leaving the tribe, and finally wanting him to knock up... just about any women who catches her interest honestly. We have her not wanting him distracted by his family history. I has another one, but can't recall atm. So where does that leave us in terms of her goals? For Raven it seems like everything is about her and her tribe. So based on her desire and these facts I think it's safe to assume that Raven is grooming Jaune to be the next leader of the tribe. She can't off her her heir, but making him anger does motivate him to get stronger and smarter, hence why she beats him. She can't have him leaving or distracted, so she dissuades things like him forming friends outside the tribe or searching for his family. And as for the getting girls pregnant thing, that's a toss up of trying to get an heir for her replacement or having a hostage given Jaune's family issues. Could be both honestly.

Next time I'll do the V3 arc Theory. Also story is Ren x Existance."

 **Ah, good ole** _Avidlag_ **, always just a few chapters ahead of me. Raven and her motives will come into play strongly here soon, so this is a good time to go ahead and clear the air of any misconceptions about them really quick.**

 **Okay, first of all, I must admit that the whole '** _knocking Yang/girls up_ **' thing was a throw-away joke at the time, inspired by both the essence of Taiyang and how easy it would be to embarrass Jaune with it. It became a little bit of a reoccurring joke when Raven brought it back up with Yang secretly watching, just because** _yeah_ **, it was still funny then too. I do actually kinda like the excuse of Raven trying to use Jaune's potential kid as a hostage, but no, there wasn't anything so deep as that. If she gets Jaune back into the fold and trusts that he's buying into her way of life, then she might go for getting him to have an heir for himself, but she clearly wouldn't be doing it to preserve his lineage when she's hidden it herself.**

 **As for her wanting Jaune as an heir, I won't outright say if that's wrong or right as it is actually specified in my outline for Raven to clear things up to - - - - -, but I will say that you're not far off. I've been working on breaking down Raven's motives on my end for a while so that I could get this story written, and the lens through which I've been looking is this: Raven and Qrow were raised by the Tribe. Outside of Beacon, that's all they know, so the fact that Qrow is well-adjusted and has normal relationships with people is the _exception_. **

**Raven is different. Raven was born a bandit, and went back to being a bandit. Raven's view of what family is is not the same as Qrow's or Taiyang's, which is why understanding her actions are not easy. I would also say that Vernal's confusion about Raven's intentions (though it has been a while) should also suggest that maybe Raven herself is not 100% sure of how to go about getting what she wants here, or maybe she isn't 100% sure what that is. She reacted strongly to Jaune attacking her but once she retaliated she seemed to have regretted that she ever let things get that far out of hand.**

 **So, yeah. Jaune knocking girls up was a joke that Raven teased Jaune with, and her intentions are paramount to the coming plot.**

 **Also, if anyone thinks, _wow, really, a discord server? you write fanfics. seriously?_ Blame **_Avidlag_ **for putting the idea in my head... :P**

* * *

"Jaune, my son, come sit on daddy's lap" - _Turquoise Leaf_

 ***knock knock knock***

 ***door is kicked in***

 ***windows are shattered as agents in black repel through them***

 ***flashbangs and tear-gas are tossed in***

 **"FBI, OPEN UP!"**

* * *

 **For anyone who didn't get it, I named Jaune's father _Turquoise Arc_ and his mother _Kathryn Arc_ , after **_Turquoise Leaf_ **and my sister. This way, they are both punished by having this connection between them forever. It was the worst thing I could to do my nemesis...**

 **Also,** _Turquoise_ **, thank you for serving as an unwitting distraction in that chapter...**

 **With that cryptic note, see you guys next week.**


	39. Setting up dominoes

**Author's Note: Here we are, and here we go. This chapter is a little long (over 10k before Author's Notes and such), but that's not a terrible thing, is it?**

 **Each POV takes place at a different time, and they're not strictly in chronological order. This first scene picks up from last week, the second scene actually takes place a few days earlier, and the last scene takes place a day after this first scene. Clear as mud, right?**

 **Also, shoutout to the Discord for basically having turned into _Turquoise Leaf Recruits My Readers Against Me, the Server_. Link for anyone who wants to come hang out:**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter **g** ee_ ) ( _the letter **g** ee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

[ note: Discord under attack from radical Texans. Long story. May let it die and remake it; unclear as of 6/14/2019 ]

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 37:** _"Chess? Nah, I'm more of a fan of setting up dominoes and watching them fall in a line before knocking over a drink onto Qrow while he's taking a nap." – Taiyang Xiao Long_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

"This feels like a trap," Yang whispered from next to me as we surveyed the address Neo's file had listed. It was not a large warehouse by any stretch of the imagination, really more the size of a car mechanic's shop, and its location in one of Vale's old, rundown service districts played that angle up, too. It might have had old decals on the side of the building, but it was too dark out now to see, which was another reason this felt off. There wasn't a light on in the building, and Neo's information indicated that this place saw heavy activity, meaning that lights and movement would have been expected.

"It does. They might have seen us coming."

"What's our plan?"

"I'll go in, spring the trap," I decided, drawing Crocea Mors from its sheath and then unfolding its shield as well. Angau Glas had been to bulky to take into Vale for a casual meet-up, and wouldn't be much use in protecting myself anyways. "Once they're overcommitted, feel free to drop on by." I used my sword to point to the line of windows that went around the top of the warehouse walls, maybe only ten feet up. There were already some old crates stacked next to the wall, so all Yang would have to do is climb up and wait.

"You sure about that?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"You've fought them before, and they're setting a trap for _you_ ," Yang pointed out, her concern poorly masked. "If they'd had any time to prepare, they might have something up their sleeve."

"Then it'll be even," I called back to her, walking off to stand just in front of the door. "Last time, I didn't even have a weapon, so _I_ have something up my sleeve, too."

With that, I turned around and kicked in the door, subtlety be damned. As I did so, flood lights from inside blinded me and I ducked my head behind my shield to protect my eyes. This turned out to be fortunate, because soon _several_ machine guns opened fired in the general direction of the doorway, with nearly all of the bullets bouncing off my shield and threatening to knock me over backwards.

I recovered my wits in time to dodge roll backwards, using the momentum from blocking so many shots to make the move faster and get me out of the line of fire, using the building wall as a shield. It wouldn't do anything to stop a bullet, but it would force them to fire at me blindly. After my roll, I remained crouched down behind my shield, making myself as small as I could, just in case they did decide to fire at the wall.

I looked up to find Yang giving me a huge, shit-eating grin, and mustered my best frown that I could at the moment. _Alright, points to the Malachites for figuring out that I didn't have any ranged counters or, at least, I_ normally _wouldn't have any._ I pointed my sword at Yang and then flicked it up at the glass windows, and Yang rolled her eyes but ran over and started hopping up boxes.

Just as Yang reached the top box, I picked myself off my feet and approached the side of the door. As soon as I heard Ember Cilicia, I spun around the doorframe and charged in, shield up to my nose as I surveyed the scene and charged in. Maybe three or four rounds were fired at me because Yang crashing through the glass windows drew their eyes away, giving me enough time to charge where the machine guns had been set up. There were five on tripods sitting on tables, all of them belt-fed and military grade, and by the time their users had realized that we had intentionally split their focus, I had already reached the one on the far left and knocked the barrel away from me with the tip of Crocea Mors.

" _Shit!_ "

That first gunner didn't stand a chance, and even though it seemed like he had Aura, he slumped to the ground after I punched him with my shield arm while still in a dead sprint at him, the top point of the shield catching him right in the forehead. The other gunners backed away from me frantically, none of them having any other weapons than the machine guns on the table in front of them, so I made a show of kicking that table over and scattering their weapons. They would be too tangled in their own belts to be used quickly now.

Those four gunners backed themselves away from me and right into Yang, who the crowd of non-gunner thugs had wisely avoided as she crashed to the ground. The closest two to her were knocked out cold, Ember Cilicia ensuring that their dreams would not be pleasant. The other two still took just as hard of hits, as Yang was already in a groove and was ducking and delivering blows to these guys like training dummies; it didn't help that they basically didn't get a chance to move away from Yang before she was on them, too. The second two had _slightly_ more time to react than the first two, and that was only enough time to flex their Auras enough so as to not be knocked out.

Yang and I paused and surveyed the scene around us. There was a ring forming, with about twenty-five to thirty thugs still wearing Junior's old outfit surrounding us, likely all that was left of his loyalists. No crazy dust weapons that could be seen, and outside of handguns, very few guns, either. Junior apparently had never been that serious about taking over turf, or just was a total cheapskate when it came to arming his men. _That, or since his death, they've been undersupplied._

"Spring the trap, huh?" Yang asked, shooting me another devious grin. "How's that going for you?"

"Follow my lead," I whispered, ignoring her taunt as I folded up my shield. It was still attached to my forearm, just now in sheath mode, giving me the ability to grasp things with my left hand.

"Follow your—?" Yang cut herself off as I reached out with that left hand and took her hand in mine, followed by immediately spinning and yanking on her arm, leveraging myself as much as I could to _launch_ Yang at the ring of enemies around us. Several shots rang out as startled thugs tried to shoot Yang out of the air, for all the good it did them. Yang crashed into their lines with a blast from Ember Cilicia, and the distraction bought me enough time to charge the other side of the circle without being shot at.

The first thug I met struck vertically at my head with a baton, which I easily parried to my right with Crocea Mors, delivering a punch to his face with my left hand. I had intended to hit him with my shield, but it was still in sheath mode, so using my fist would have to do. I switched my sheath back into a shield and drop-stepped back and to my right, swiping at the feet of the closet thug behind me. With their numbers advantage, they were rushing, meaning that I would always have someone closing in on me from somewhere. This particular thug was caught off-guard and I swept him off his feet with Crocea Mors, forcing him to land roughly on his shoulder and smack his head on the concrete.

As I popped up out of my drop-step sweep, I was greeted with another thug rushing my face. I caught his baton on the flat of my shield above my head, leaving his torso exposed. I didn't have the time to risk Crocea Mors getting stick between his ribs so I went with a heavy slash from my left to his stomach instead of sinking the point into his lungs, but he staggered backwards nonetheless. His Aura held, though not easily.

Another one coming from my right, and I continued my slash and extended Crocea Mors out to knock his baton out of his hand, sending it clattering across the floor. He froze when he realized he was unarmed, and that left me enough time to bring the swipe back down on his left thigh.

Heavy footsteps behind me tipped me off, and I ducked and forced one thug to whiff his swing and trip over me. I stood up part-way through, flipping his legs out from under him and causing him to flip over more rapidly, forcing an awkward landing on his head. I gave that head a good kick to the side once he was on the ground, for good measure.

None of my senses screamed that I was in immediate danger, and a quick glance around showed that they were all hesitant to attack. I used this break to look over and see how Yang was doing, a little bit of worry seeping into me. I should have known better than to be worried about Yang, crowd control expert of RWBYJNPR, fighting a crowd of thugs. She was a boxer and fought with shotguns; street brawls were almost invented for her. She was more than thriving in the environment and had around twice as many knocked-out or downed thugs as I currently did, and was certainly having more fun. Part of me briefly wondered if this was Yang's idea of an ideal date, and if it wasn't, what out there could possibly suit her more than this.

The nervous expressions of the thugs staring at me changed, and it sent my instincts into overdrive. Their eyes all shifted to look just over my shoulder, and as soon as I recognized that I turned shield-first and braced in that direction. Sure enough, a pair of claws bounced off the metal moments later and a pair of heels tried to slash at my ankles, only being stopped as Crocea Mors was stabbed down to intercept them.

"Well?" the red Malachite drawled agitatedly, glaring at her remaining men.

"Don't just stand there," her sister picked up for her, "get him!"

I twirled my sword in the air absentmindedly, surveying the new threat. I knew that the Malachites remembered what happened the last time we fought, so I knew that they were planning on attacking with their remaining men, whose numbers were dwindling as more and more had to go over and keep Yang busy. If they let Yang and I reunite, they knew that they were toast; divide and conquer was their best shot. Even if I hadn't known the Malachites were planning on striking while I was occupied, the way that they began to stalk around me gave away their intentions further.

A thug charged from in front with a baton, a second following closely to his left. I parried his vertical baton swipe with Crocea Mors to my right and stepped past him, keeping his body between the second thug and me. I shoved him in his back with my shield and forced him into his charging partner to buy myself time to move on to someone else. Melanie appeared to my side, and with a spin Crocea Mors was brought around in time to catch her heel coming for my waist. I put my weight behind my blade and knocked her off-balance, forgoing an attack to check to my right. Miltia was swiping for my ribs, and with a drop-step with my right foot, I was able to contort and get my shield between her claws and me; in the same motion, my instincts and sword-forms with Crocea kicked in and I brought Crocea Mors to peak out over the top of the shield, and once her claws were blocked, she looked up to find the tip of my sword pointed directly between her eyes.

Miltia threw her hands up in a flinch and I used the opening to bring my shield to my left side and backhand a down-diagonal swipe at her side, the blade cutting into her Aura before I disengaged and turned my head again. As I did so, I shifted my shield back into a sheath and disconnected it from my forearm, grabbing it and wielding it as a quasi-sword.

Two more thugs charged once again, one leading with his shoulder trying to barrel me over. I stepped to the left and delivered a quasi-pommel strike with my sheath to his head, while crossing my right arm over and down to block a baton going for my thigh from the second thug. I brought my left arm back around to deliver a blunt blow to the second thug's hip and then sliced up with Crocea Mors backhanded, catching the man across the side of his face and drawing blood as he never saw the slice coming. He stumbled to the ground screaming in pain, clutching his face, leaving me with one less foe to worry about. I spun around and smacked the thug who tried to shoulder charge me across the face with my sheath, catching him as he had just stopped his momentum and turned around to face me.

Sharp footsteps approached from behind me, which I recognized as heels on the concrete ground, immediately ducking to half my height as Melanie's heels passed overhead. I spun as I popped back up and sliced the underside of Melanie's thigh as she tried to flip backwards to escape, not doing so quickly enough. I decided to press this attack, catching Melanie off-guard as she was expecting me to continue to play defense; her eyes went wide with fear and her movements stiffened up as she overcommitted to defending herself too easily. _She clearly hasn't forgotten me stabbing her through the back._

A probing slice thrown was ducked under completely, and a follow-up overhead feint was bit on hard and allowed me a free slice from the side as she tried to dodge the overhead blow. She flinched hard and didn't even see me reverse the blow and land a second one across her thigh, but once that one landed, she jumped backwards and tried to get out of range completely. I charged after her and tossed my sheath at her, letting it fly at her head and forcing her to duck under it. I had caught up to her with my sword raised by the time she had popped back up, and she threw her arms above her to block any blow. She also blocked her vision, and allowed me to reach out and grab her by her top to yank her into me.

"Gaaaah!" Melanie let out startled as I spun her around until her back was pressed into my side and my arm wrapped around her shoulder. I released my grip on her top and brought the crook up my elbow up under her throat, then lifted her off the ground and held her about a foot off the ground, cutting off her airways.

I looked up to find Miltia's eyes wide as she realized my intentions and she rushed in, letting loose a barrage of swipes with her claws at my right side in a desperate attempt to stop me before Melanie was unconscious, or worse. I blocked her first swipe from my outside by turning Crocea Mors down and stepped back to let her follow-up swipe at my middle pass by me, swiping down to cut across her arm as it missed me. She ignored the pain and lunged for my head, but stopped and awkwardly pulled herself away when I spun to put her sister's head in front of mine, Melanie desperately trying to pull down my arm and fight for any room to breathe. I continued the spin into a full arc and put all that momentum into Crocea Mors, which I brought down in a diagonal to smack Miltia right across the side of her head. Her Aura held—I could tell, because the sword smacked her instead of sliced her skull in half—and Miltia was knocked across the floor, rolling to a stop face-down on the concrete.

I walked over and put a foot in Miltia's back, stopping her from getting up, should she somehow have found it in her to do so. I released Melanie and she fell hard to the ground next to her sister, coughing violently for air.

The fight with Miltia hadn't even been long enough for her to be knocked out. One of their thugs thought about trying to save them and stepped towards me once threateningly, to which I casually swiped the tip of Crocea Mors to scrape the concrete, tracing Miltia's body with barely an inch to spare. The thug backed down quickly, my threat being made clearly. With one Malachite beneath my heel and the other just lucky to be breathing, the rest of the men showed no resolve left to fight.

"Your weapons," I called out to the handful of thugs remaining by me, "drop them."

All of them complied, with the sound of batons clattering to the floor ringing out around me. I checked over my shoulder to see if I needed to make Yang's opponents surrender, only to find her walking over to check on me, with the unconscious or groaning forms of twenty or so thugs in her wake.

"I take it you know why we're here," I asked the Malachites, making eye contact with Melanie as she stopped choking for air. Her face was still red and there was a little bit of hatred for me in her eyes.

"Fuck you!" Melanie spat out, looking the farthest thing from menacing laid out on the floor next to her sister, who's back my foot was still firmly planted on.

"That's what you're going with?" I asked flatly, giving Melanie an equally-flat look. She put up her hardest look that she could muster, and I shrugged, content to do things her way.

I dug my foot further into Miltia's back and leaned into it, earning a mix of a groan and a squeal from the girl, before raising Crocea Mors and chopping down at the girl's head. Melanie screamed something and I felt Miltia go tense under me as she waited for death, only for Crocea Mors to cut into the concrete just beside Miltia's ear, lopping off a decent amount of her hair.

Melanie's scream for her sister and wide eyes afterwards ruined her attempted 'hard' look she had tried to give me, and I was pretty sure from the convulsions beneath my foot that Miltia was crying.

"Was that really necessary?" Yang hissed at me and she shot over and grabbed my wrist to keep me from trying something like that again. I looked up at Yang, then back down at a terrified and no-longer-resistant Melanie, then back up to Yang, then back to Melanie.

"Yes," I answered honestly, looking back up to Yang and holding the look this time. Neither of us were willing to back down, so I did what I could to push the problem aside. "I'm bad cop. Go be good cop now."

Yang gave my wrist a squeeze for good measure before letting it go, backing away while maintaining eye contact with me for a moment longer. Eventually, she turned to Melanie, who was less scared of Yang, but still not feeling too hot.

"Look, I'm going to be honest with you, the only reason you're alive right now is because I came along," Yang said, squatting down to get closer to Melanie's level while also shooting me a quick frown at that last part. "The next time this happens, Jaune's not going to bring his _nice_ friend with him. He'll bring Neo. I take it you know who that is?"

Melanie did her best to look angry at the name, but the tears welling in the corners of her eyes undermined that. "She's the one who killed Junior. They both did."

Yang didn't react to the information other than to nod her head absently. I was about to point out that _I_ wasn't there when Junior was killed, but Yang answered before I could.

"And?" Yang asked, surprising both Melanie and me. "Junior tried to kill him first when he betrayed Jaune to Torchwick. If you keep fighting, all that will happen is you'll both die, and it'll suck the whole time you're dying. Is that what you want?"

"He'll be coming after us anyways," Melanie choked out, shooting me a nervous glance before turning back to Yang. Yang's angle was clear to me—use me as the boogeyman and make Melanie think she was on her side—but that didn't mean that, _hey, Yang could at least pretend to defend me a little bit._ "What are we supposed to do?"

"Leave Vale," I cut in sternly. "I just need you gone. That could mean out of town, or out of breath."

Melanie's eyes shifted nervously from me to Yang, looking to her to see if I was offering a legitimate chance for their escape. Yang nodded reassuringly.

"He'll leave you alone if you're out of town. I'll make sure of it." Yang's eyes shifted to me sternly for a moment, completely unwarranted, I might add. She knew damn well that I wasn't planning on leaving Vale to go hunt down the Malachites, so I don't know why she felt the need to glare at me again. "Do we have a deal?"

Melanie's eyes flicked nervously from Yang to me for a few moments as the offer hung in the air, but her sister beat her to the punch and answered for them. "DEAL!" Miltia yelled, face still pushed against the ground and facing the opposite direction as Yang and Melanie.

"Well, that wasn't so hard, was it?" I asked, taking a step back and releasing my foot from Miltia's back, who immediately rolled over grimaced, trying to massage her back. I met Yang's eyes briefly and we both decided that now was a good time to leave, gathering our things and walking out slowly and collectedly.

We were a full block away before Yang suddenly slammed me to a wall, pinning me with her forearm against my throat. "What the _hell_ was that?"

"What was _what_?" I asked back calmly, if a little confused.

" _That_! What you were doing to the Malachites!"

"That was what we came here to do, wasn't it? To scare them into fleeing with their lives?"

"We didn't come here to torture them!" Yang hissed, her face inches from mine and her eyes trying to bear down on me. "And don't try to tell me that you weren't going to if I hadn't stopped you…"

"You can't prove that," I mumbled, taunting her a little bit.

"Oh, so you _weren't_ going to try stabbing one of them again?" Yang drawled, her voice supremely unimpressed with me.

"…it would have been a _light_ stabbing…"

Despite her anger, Yang had to suppress a small and dark laugh at that, failing to do so and blowing air out of her nose. She released me from being pinned and backed away a few steps, shaking her head and looking to her feet. "A _light_ stabbing… Gods above, I don't know why I try with you…" Yang mumbled to herself, equally disappointed in me for making and herself for laughing at my 'joke.'

"Oh, you just wanted a reason to pin me to a wall," I teased back, massaging my throat absentmindedly.

"What I _want_ is a reason to rip your head off..."

"Ki—"

"Don't you _fucking_ say it!"

"—nky."

* * *

Ozpin's POV

* * *

Normally, traditions are something I enjoy, or at the very least, make an effort to encourage. They serve as large cultural moments to pull people together, which has always been valuable when fighting to keep humanity from splintering, and there are very few majors traditions around that I was not around to see begin. The ones I wasn't involved in only escaped me because they started somewhere I was not, not some _time_ I was not around for.

The Vytal Festival, however, had to be one of my least favorite, even if it currently was the most significant. The benefits of huddling tens of thousands of people together to cheer together are important, but the headaches of trying to protect that many defenseless soft targets were numerous. The split of the crowds between Amity and the greater Vale area just meant that Salem had all the options in the world if she wanted to strike, and for as many headaches that James' decision to park his army at our doorstep has caused, there is at least some comfort in not having to worry about being spread too thinly.

But honestly, Atlas' presence was only making things more difficult for me. James taking over security at the decision of Vale's Council was disappointing, as it meant that as one of Vale's prominent political players, I would be expected to pick up the slack on non-security-related organization and logistics. _Not that there weren't other, more important ideological and practical flaws in his heavy-handed approach._ With the Festival starting after the end of this all-too-short weekend, there were things piling up that simply needed to be handled. With Glynda busy trying to handle all arrangements for arriving transfers and competitors, I have no good excuse to ignore the paperwork thrust upon me.

That is, until an alert from my elevator provided a wonderful distraction. My duties as a Headmaster do come before all others, do they not?

"Miss Nikos," I called out warmly as the doors opened. The girl in question walked forward, not nearly as nervously as our previous meetings here, but still not in a way that could be described as confidently. "How can I help you today?"

"It's about Jaune," she called out before she had even made it to the seat I offered with gesture of my hand. She walked up to the chair and gripped it with her hand, but didn't quite take the seat yet.

"Not to be rude, but I suspected as much," I responded warmly, smiling to make sure that I didn't come off as some mean old man.

"He needs protection," she blurt out, showing an anxiousness that certainly had not been present in our previous talks. Nervousness and indecision, sure, but never outright anxiousness.

"May I ask, from what does Mr. Arc need protection?" I asked slowly, allowing a little bit of surprise and bemusement to show.

"There are…people after him," she answered, her tone slowing down considerably as she considered her words more carefully. "Dangerous people. They'll kill him if they find him."

I waited before responding, forcing Ms. Nikos to meet my eyes. She did so, both nervousness and anxiousness shining through them, but there was no deceit nor doubt there. There was conviction to them, maybe even some desperation too. My interest was certainly piqued, if not from what she told me through her demeanor, then certainly through her words.

"Right now? At this very moment?" I asked, a hint of urgency in my voice to encourage her to streamline her answer if her partner was indeed in a life-or-death situation right now. I highly doubted that if that were the case, she would be coming here for my help instead of rushing to his aide directly, but it was important to be certain when lives hung in the balance. _A lesson that was not learned second-hand. Nor only once._

"He—no, not…not _right now_ ," Pyrrha admitted with a stutter, a flash of guilt washing over her quickly as she realized that she might be behaving overly-dramatic.

"Then, please, have a seat," I bade warmly, smiling and nodding towards the seat she was gripping. She did so, quickly and silently taking the to the chair. "Now, can I interest you in anything to drink?"

My tone was warm but patronizing, making it obvious to Ms. Nikos that I was trying to calm her down without making the mistake of directly telling her to do so. She got the hint and took a breath to re-center herself before answering.

"No, I'm fine," she answered curtly after releasing her breath. "Thank you, though."

"Very well, then. It doesn't take much to tell that something is on your mind. Please, start from the beginning."

Had this been the first time we had spoken in confidence, she might not have been so easy to get to open up. That said, we have enough of a rapport that I did not feel I was going to stress her by being so direct. It certainly helped that all of our other talks had also been about how best to handle her teammate, and the fact that there _had_ been more than one of those meetings told me that we've established a mutual intention to see Mr. Arc brought further into the light.

"It happened last night," she began, pausing for quick moment. In those four words, she had already given away that there was a singular event to have caused this change in her, and that she had a full day to dwell on it and was only now coming to me. "There was a discussion over dinner about…how to handle casualties in the line of duty."

"Ah. Indeed, it is a harsh reality, but not everyone can be saved sometimes," I answered solemnly, knowing what she _really_ meant, but forcing her into a position to have to correct me and verbalize it.

"Not losing lives, but… _taking_ them," she pressed on, though notably having more trouble with that sentence than all her others so far today. "During the mission, both Jaune and Nora had to take the lives of White Fang members. Over dinner, Jaune admitted that he coped with it so well because it…wasn't—"

She cut herself off, doubt creeping over her as she was likely reminded of the power indifference between us, and more importantly the authority over my students I am responsible for.

"It wasn't his first time dealing with such things," I finished for her, aware of the severity she placed on the subject immediately. "While unfortunate, I will assure you that this does not come as a surprise, nor do I or anyone else have any desire to investigate any such matters." _For practical purposes, of course._ Any such convictions would rely _solely_ on a confession as evidence for events that happen in Grimm-infested wilds simply would not exist anymore, and I am not inclined to see my own students prosecuted by their own words unless I am beyond _certain_ that there is no hope for their redemption. "Again, I'd bring up Qrow as another example of my willingness to help bury the past."

She relaxed visibly, but still held a tension to herself that indicated that there was more to this story.

"We split up after dinner and I didn't find him until a few hours later, when he was sparing with Team CRDL."

I perked up at that, genuinely surprised at the development. Any such spar between them was likely to be heated, making it surprising that none of their Auras had fallen into the red. A benefit of providing scrolls to all students was the ability to set up alerts for anytime a student's Aura fell below 15%, which were both sent to one of my side monitors and collected in a report for my first log-on of the morning each day. There had been no developments since I retired last night, hence my slight surprise.

"An interesting development. How bad did things get?"

"They didn't get that bad," she answered defensively, almost reflexively protecting her partner. I acquiesced and made it clear that I was not contesting that point, as that defensiveness was an interaction I actively want cultivated in my students. "He and CRDL aren't even on bad terms, so it wasn't anything like that. Jaune says that he just pretends to dislike them to distance himself from their reputation."

I hid my reaction and remained neutral, feigning a smile and a chuckle. "I can understand why one wouldn't want to associate with them, given their reputation." I allowed her to continue, although I certainly made sure to study her features and ensure that she was certain about it. She gave me no reason to doubt her.

 _Winter had CRDL singled out at the biggest cause for concern after her investigation into Beacon and Atlas' freshman classes, and in her absence, I took it upon myself to open an investigation of sorts._ Early returns suggested that the four of them were involved in something, with the first of the times that their scrolls were all off seeming to coincide with the timeframe that Qrow's anti-intelligence troubles began. So far, nothing has suggested that they were connected to _anyone_ in Beacon on even friendly terms, and while being on stable terms with Mr. Arc wasn't itself a crime, that he would want such a connection hidden was at least suspicious, and worth checking into. A good excuse to take a closer look into Mr. Arc while investigating CRDL, if nothing else.

"He was upset, just not at CRDL. After that, he showed me a file that… it's why I'm worried."

"A file?" I asked, eager to move away from CRDL for the moment and grateful for a question that I could safely express my surprise about.

"Y-Yes, it was an…an Atlas file, written by General Ironwood over fourteen years ago." Her words were more nervous now than they were anxious, and although she spoke carefully, she never spoke confidently, like she didn't like any of the words she was carefully choosing to say. "I-It was redacted, though, but the parts that weren't were…graphic."

 _That_ stood out to me, not the last comment about the nature of the material, but the nature of the file itself. James would have only been Atlas Academy's Headmaster then, though the integrated nature of the school into the military meant that he would have been at minimum a Commander. He also would have has his hand in running the Specialists, if my math on the years is correct; after a while, times and dates began to blur a bit, a perfectly reasonable issue when you reach _my_ age. Any file that James wrote could contain _very_ sensitive information about things better left out of the public eye, so hearing that this file was redacted was a dangerous clue as to its contents.

"An Atlas file?" I asked, repeating her words carefully. "If my memory serves correctly, Atlas protocol restricts the use of redaction to classified materials only. How would a student of mine come across such highly-protected information?" I was sure to keep an air of playfulness or bemusement to my voice, though it was clear to us both that my question was a legitimate one.

The panic of Ms. Nikos' face was as instant as it was telling. "I-I don't know. I didn't…press him on it." Her backtrack was expected, though I had gotten what I needed. She clearly had an idea of where it came from, and if she wasn't willing to share her suspicions, then it's safe to say it isn't something she'd want Mr. Arc to have to answer for. _Something illegal, then, or at the very least, unethical._ Acquiring a _redacted_ file, even if it once held valuable secrets, wasn't worse than her partner's suspect past anyways, though it would be a waste to interrupt the progress being made to point that out now. "He did have a meeting with General Ironwood yesterday. M-Maybe—"

"Perhaps he was gifted the file?" I finished for her, the idea taking me by surprise. The thought that James would so blatantly go behind my back was laughable on the surface, though there is the recent example of his maneuvering to take over Festival security. Despite that, James' intentions have never been in question, and he wouldn't jeopardize things by giving sensitive information away to a student. Even if he did give Jaune the file, I doubt that anything significant would have slipped through the redactions. Regardless, Ms. Nikos does not seem to believe that was how the file was acquired. "I'm not so interested in how the file was acquired, Ms. Nikos. Given it seems to be the reason you are here, I'm much more concerned with its content."

The words calmed the girl down once more, the tension in her shoulders visibly lessening. It pleased her that her partner would be kept out of trouble, or at least that she would not be its architect, which has been the main theme of placating her through our talks.

"It was about his family. You…you know about them, don't you?" Her words weren't entirely accusatory, though there was that element to it; she was more trying to establish what information I already knew, and was being no where near as subtle as I normally am. _Nor as subtle as her partner is._

"I can't say that I ever met any of his parents or siblings, no," I answered carefully. She didn't realize just how wide of a net she had cast with her question, nor how deep the answer ran. _Depending on what sort of file James had been keeping, though, she just might have a decent idea._

"That makes sense, I guess. But you did…know _of_ them, right? About who the Arcs were?"

I did not show it, but I bristled at being put on the spot like this. Not that I was concerned that Ms. Nikos was engaging in bad faith, or that she was necessarily aware of the greater stakes here, but the question was still loaded. The easiest factor in dismissing it was that, outside of potentially Jaune, no more Arcs existed; there was only so much harm speaking of the dead could cause, after all.

"Tangentially. I have heard stories about spies, and as an avid historical scholar—" _in the laziest way possible_ , "—I have certainly heard the name tossed around in a few legends. It's my understanding that the last of their descendants died in battle."

"Fourteen years ago?" Ms. Nikos asked pointedly. I noted that this was the same number used when referencing the age of the file, suggesting heavily the contents of that file.

"Yes, actually. That sounds about right."

"Then you know that they are being hunted, and that Jaune is all that is left of them." This time, she sounded accusatory over both points, and with a little patience on my end I decided to defuse the situation and direct it away from me.

"Unfortunately, that is _not_ something that I was aware of," I responded, choosing those specific words to coax her out of her anger. "Beacon was not made aware of their very existence until it was too late to be of any help. As for Mr. Arc, I will admit that a good deal of the attention I have payed him is due to my own curiosity, as so far I have been unable to confirm if he _is_ a part of that bloodline."

Her outburst, as small as it had been, collapsed in on itself as she realized that by bringing this up, she had gone and confirmed it to me. I made the decision to keep her on the defensive for now, ensuring that I could direct the conversation so that it would not reflect back to me.

"Until now, I haven't been sure if that last name is coincidence or not. I certainly haven't gotten anything out of him, though he does seem averse to telling me anything, if he can avoid it." She further retreated in on herself, so with the topic safely away from me, I pivoted to give her an out and show that I wasn't interested in pinning any blame on her. _Or gloating over having gotten information out of her._ "You said he is being hunted?"

"Y-Yes. The file…it's a report on how his family was killed. They were…hunted down by several people, and it was deliberate. General Ironwood's report said that at least one attacker escaped, meaning that—"

"That the threat might yet persist," I cut in for her, "if they knew that Jaune survived." _That she is not_ certain _the threat persists means that she did not learn of Salem from this file, at least not by name._

"That's what Jaune needs protection from," Pyrrha concluded, a genuine fear for her partner coming over her eyes. "I…I saw the pictures Atlas took. Read the…coroner's report. Jaune can't protect himself from _that_ alone."

No indeed, he could not. Turquoise, Kathryn, and their elder daughters were a powerful force, to put things lightly, and with Lionheart's discrete backing, they shouldn't have been so thoroughly wiped out in one move. Doing so required Salem to mount a significant attack force, costing her several lieutenants as well as high-value Grimm. Even then, she only narrowly managed to have them all killed, loosing all but a male insurgent, if Lionheart's assessment is to be believed. _It is certainly for the best that Salem was not able to capture the Arc girls and force them into her service._

To get back to Ms. Nikos' point, if Salem could mount a force to take down his family, then Jaune Arc certainly would not be able to stand alone.

"I can't help but agree, Ms. Nikos, but I'm afraid that there is little I can do at the moment." Her eyes went wide, shock or panic showing, and she made to quickly object before I cut her off. "Beacon is not only a training grounds for hundreds of future Huntsmen and Huntresses, but is often a hub for former graduates. I can assure you that as Headmaster, ensuring the safety of my students is a top priority; so long as Jaune is at Beacon, he is more than safe."

"And when he's not?" Pyrrha asked. Whether she was alluding to when he left campus, or what he would do upon graduation, I wasn't sure, and I'm not sure if it would matter.

"There are certainly things I could do that would keep him safe, but I'm afraid that would involve a level of trust from him that I simply have failed to elicit." And certainly not for a lack of trying. The easiest way to keep him safe would be to bring him far enough into the fold that he could be trusted with information on Salem, and the role his family once played. Knowing who was after him was the first line of defense for his survival, but that isn't something that I can risk sharing without further knowing where he stands. "That's not to assign blame, either. It is understandable given his background, but Mr. Arc has shown a general aversion towards authority."

"It probably doesn't help that Mistral's Headmaster tried to help and failed," Ms. Nikos pointed out, bringing up a valid point. Lionheart's confusing decisions to keep important details from me has certainly cost us dearly, and if it serves as a barrier to enlisting Jaune Arc, then it would be the gift that keeps on taking. _Not that any one Arc boy is as costly of a loss as Leo's Maiden was._ In any case, earning that trust might now be even harder than it had been before.

"As of right now, there is nothing I can do. Not…yet," I trailed off, bringing my hands together and resting the fingertips of each hand against each other in front of my face, striking a thinker's pose. "I do have some ideas, but I need to think over them more. If he has made it this far, then he is likely the safest he has ever been, and we have until he graduates to form a more definitive plan."

"Are you certain?"

"I am, Ms. Nikos," I lied, not that answering truthfully would have done any good. "Thank you for sharing this with me, Ms. Nikos. I believe your judgement to come to me has been more than vindicated, and my decision to trust your judgement has been all the more validated because of it. If there's nothing else…?"

"There's not," she answered, understanding the subtext and rising out of her chair immediately. Her anxiousness had certainly been assuaged, even if it was clearly not completely gone. She didn't seem to regret having asked for my help, likely because she wasn't aware of just how many important details she had filled me in on. "Thank you, Headmaster."

"It's no trouble," I dismissed with a wave and a smile that didn't reach my eyes, pressing a button on my keyboard and causing the elevator doors to open with a chime. She walked in readily, and a few moments after the doors closed, I pulled out my keyboard and mouse and began sorting through all of Beacon's security footage from the previous night, starting back at the afternoon. After a few minutes of scrubbing through several different windows of footage, I spotted Team CRDL training with themselves, and then about thirty minutes into their session, I found where Jaune Arc entered the equation.

Their session together was a little difficult to get a read on without any sound, this just being security footage; the training rooms have the capability of recording fights with better visual quality and audio, but have to be manually assigned by the students using them. Mr. Arc's demeanor did not strike me as hateful towards CRDL, which would seem to verify Ms. Nikos' claim that they were all secretly much closer than they let on, although given the brutality and severity of his strikes, it was hard to be certain. He fought angry, but held that in check when not fighting.

What was most interesting was the last fight performed before Mr. Arc left with Ms. Nikos, where Mr. Arc unfolded his sheath into a shield that I had never seen before, in this life or another. It unmistakably held the crest of the Arcs, and it is not impossible for the weapon to have been crafted after our falling out. _It's even possible that the sword itself has been around since my time as Julius Arc, and that the shield-sheath was something knew added to it._ If there were any doubts to the validity of Jaune Arc's heritage after Ms. Nikos' visit, this all but erased it.

 _To think that I would never have thought to check CRDL's sparring records to find this proof if it weren't pointed out to me._ I pushed myself out of my seat and walked over to stare out the window at the sunset, in strong need to clear my head and think over some things.

 _So, Mr. Arc needs to be reigned in, for his own sake now, and quickly._ Certainly not an easy task, and complicated further by the evidence that Ms. Nikos hadn't even realized she had surrendered. His moral status has always been up in the air, but now it's fair to wonder if he's not losing that battle altogether. His connection to CRDL might could be played off, as I am only just now getting more definitive proof that CRDL is up to something, but when combined with however he acquired James' classified file? Too much smoke for no fire. Past activity is one thing, but an inability to leave such things in the past is troubling.

That he went searching for such information as he did is also telling, because it means that he did _not_ know it before now. He _did_ seem keenly aware that there was _something_ significant about it, and he was willing to engage in a battle of words with me from the very start, but a desire to seek out this information indicates that he does not work for someone who would have told him about his family to manipulate him. _At the very least, that makes it unlikely that he's in the employ of Salem._ She would have at least twisted his ear with partial truths, and that is only even she decided to allow him to live in the first place. While not crazy to think that he could be tangentially involved in her machinations, it now feels unlikely that he would have any sort of larger role; _he could still be being used as an unwitting distraction, though._

"The difficult path, then, if not the opportunistic one," I spoke to no one in particular, laying out my own option before me. Sometimes I wished for the voice in my head to come back, even if I'm not sure if that extra voice would be that of Ozpin or Ozma, or if I could even consider us separate anymore. Our merging having completed years ago, it was no longer possible to draw a line between us, and it's never been a pleasant thought to note that I'm not sure which I am more of anymore. _At best, it feels like I am an Ozpin-flavored version of Ozma, with weird a weird combination of instincts from both ruling my head simultaneously._ It is certainly for the better that we did merge and there aren't two different souls fighting for control, but still, there are times like now when I missed having a like-minded voice in my head to bounce ideas off of.

 _If nothing else, someone to discuss minutia with so that I could feel more certain of the path to take._ There was one way forward that, when carefully taken, would net me the trust and loyalty of both Jaune and Pyrrha. Such a pairing would be a potent one, their combined potential the first to eclipse the Branwens since Raven left, and if the decision for Ms. Nikos as the next Maiden is finalized, they would be all the more powerful for it. The particular path with this result wasn't something I could perfectly see, though I have certainly begun to get a feel for all the obstacles and pit-falls that will need to be avoided, as well as a few of the advantages I might have.

Mr. Arc will have to be brought to heel without feeling as if he is being trapped, and Ms. Nikos will have to be the one to do this without losing her conviction. I have knowledge of his family that Jaune would be interested in, and the moral compass of Pyrrha to guide them both to me.

"Who even needs to play chess, anyways?" I asked the silence around me, taking a sip and waiting on the off-chance there would be an answer. There was not.

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

The waiting is always the worst part, and I'm certain Raven does it just to get under my skin. She could teleport at any time, and even if she was finishing up something, she didn't have to drag it out for several minutes. It wasn't as if she had just confirmed our meet over text or anything…

After a wait of six minutes, a human-sized portal opened up, remaining that way for maybe another fifteen seconds before Raven walked out of it, mask on and her hand on her weapon. She barely registered me, focusing on scanning the room to make sure this wasn't a trap; probably a warranted fear given how our last meeting played out, even if I wasn't nearly ready to try fighting her yet.

She took in our surroundings and found no ambush waiting, and her hand released from her weapon. We were in a now-abandoned warehouse, the same one that Yang and I had attacked the Malachites in two days ago, mostly because coming here beforehand gave me a chance to confirm that they were gone.

"Jaune."

"Raven," I answered as neutrally as she had initiated. She made no move to remove her mask. "You're a bit on edge, aren't you?"

"I'm simply curious to see if you have the balls to try something," Raven answered, her voice coming off as calm and collected, trying to downplay her paranoia. "You should be proud that I would even consider you a threat."

"Wow, yes, that really _does_ make my day," I drawled back.

"Was there a point to this meeting," Raven asked, a bit of an edge to her voice warning me not to push things, "or did you just miss me?"

I had the audacity to snort at that, which Raven responded to by brushing her hand up against her weapon's pommel.

"There is, actually. You can go ahead and remove the mask." Raven made no move to do so, remaining completely still and staring me down. "I've got a peace offering."

Her head cocked sideways slightly, intrigued at the very least, and she brought her hands up to take her mask off, shaking her hair free and clipping it to her waist.

"A peace offering, huh?" Raven asked with a slight smirk, eyes settling on me with amusement. "What's the occasion?"

"After… _last time_ , I feel like things are choppy between us, and I'm smart enough to realize that's worse for me than it is for you."

Raven didn't respond to my answer, instead observing me for a few moments. It was obvious that my answer was practiced from how highly it spoke of her, meaning she wouldn't be fooled into thinking that I held some new-found admiration for her. It was, however, truthful, and spoke of a healthy mix of fear and respect I held for our power imbalance.

"Last time?" She asked, feigning ignorance. "I thought we agreed to forget anything happened last time…"

"And I would be an idiot to actually do that," I countered harshly, impressing her enough to get away with it. It was very much _her_ line of thinking, which I knew would satisfy her.

"I'll accept your peace offering," Raven announced after conceding that point to me, "if you'll answer a question."

"You want my offering _and_ an answer?" I asked sarcastically, earning a short but sharp glare from Raven. "Sure, why not."

"You found information on your family. _How_ , and what _specifically,_ did you learn?"

Raven's eyes bore down on me, a sternness there warning me not to play games with my answer. It also stood as a strong reminder not to let this discussion about my family go the same way our last one had, and the way her left hand lazily rested atop her pommel reinforced that threat.

"Torchwick," I answered simply, seeing no reason to try to lie my way out of this one. "That's the reason I ended up helping him in the first place. He's got a connection that got me copies of classified Atlas files."

Raven took my words slowly, making it obvious that she was judging their truthfulness. She was also determining what all I knew, and how she felt about that.

"Atlas, huh? I bet those files were pretty boring…"

"Boring? Try graphic," I answered back a bit gruffly, my mind wandering back over the precise descriptions and documentative photos in the coroner's reports.

Raven conceded that point with a shrug of her shoulder, presumably having seen the carnage first-hand.

"And what did you learn?" she asked, that edge coming back to her voice, contrasting the relaxed posture she displayed.

"Not a lot," I answered, both because it was true and because it was the safest thing to tell her. "There were a lot of redactions. I could figure out that Salem was hunting my family, but that's about it, and it's not like I didn't know that part already. I still don't even know their names." I threw in that last part because it demonstrated to her that I was still lacking anything significant, and also because she _has_ to know at least a few of their names, given the fact the she and Qrow were sent after them.

"Oh me, are you telling me that I _actually_ gave you good information?" Raven asked mockingly.

"I never doubted your account. I'm just aware that you haven't told me all of it yet."

"Well, I'm sure that you could always ask Ozpin about it," Raven chimed back, shooting me a knowing look and a slight grin. "Who knows, he might even be in the mood to answer truthfully…"

"Yeah, and it would only cost me my soul," I scoffed back sarcastically, making it clear what I thought of that option.

"To hear you tell it, I'm demanding that from you anyways."

She shot me a look and I returned it with a flat one of my own, only holding it for a few moments before looking away. I felt her eyes staring at me for a few moments after that.

"What is it, then? Your peace offering, that is," Raven said finally, letting me out of having to respond to that accusation.

"It's…Yang."

Raven's surprise was not as concealed as she would have liked, and enough intrigue shone there to legitimately concern me for Yang. I was in too far to back out now, though, and Yang would kill me if I ruined her biggest chance to help me on purpose.

Raven did not answer, holding her silence and her stare at me in a way that I knew meant that I was to continue.

"With where she stands on Ozpin's list, I know that you're interested in…talking to her." To what ends, I'm not yet sure. The naïve, hopeful part of me wants to believe that she just wants a chance to play devil's advocate against joining Ozpin's crusade, to want to protect her daughter by telling her things that Ozpin and Qrow might hide or downplay. Every other part of me wondered if Raven wasn't curious if Yang could be manipulated against Ozpin, or if her abandonment complex couldn't be used to earn her loyalty (read: subservience). Given that I got to Yang first and she's on my side, I know that she wouldn't fall for it, but I don't know how Raven would handle that rejection. "Now—before the Vytal Festival—would be the best time."

"And why is that?" Raven asked slowly, measuring her words and disguising any tone or inflexion therein.

"She's not at Beacon, for starters. Half her team are staying in Vale, and she's staying in Patch with Taiyang and Ruby. Getting her somewhere alone would be easiest now, and every day that passes is a chance for Qrow or Ozpin to speak to her first," I finished, emphasizing that last part. First impressions mattered, and with all of Raven's skill and experience in manipulation, she readily knew the value of the first word.

"An opportune time, maybe," Raven agreed, her voice more of a mumble as she mulled it over. "Wasted time, I fear. All showing myself to her now would earn me is an earful from Tai or Qrow when they found out. Or worse, if Oz catches on that I'm meddling with his Maiden."

"That's…where my gift comes in," I cut in leadingly, grabbing her full attention. "I can set Yang up to be alone in Vale, and I can…guarantee that she's in the right state of mind for a visit."

I measured my words carefully and made no attempt to hide that I was doing so. Technically, there was no lie there; she _is_ in the right state of mind for a visit since she's in on it with me. Drawing on that technicality helped steady myself and keep it from being obvious that I was lying.

"And _how_ can you do that?" Raven asked, her tone a bit harsh, the way she spoke when she wanted to assert her dominance to ensure truthful and forthcoming answers. I doubt she even realized that she was doing it, instead just used to asserting herself and assuming that anyone who knew her would cower and tell the truth.

"Yang and I are…close," I answered, again technically truthful, though certainly not in the way that Raven would suspect given the way I framed my answer. Her eyes narrowed at me suspiciously and the ghost of a grin tugged at her lips—a smug, 'I was right' sort of grin that meant that she was as distracted as intended. "And no, she doesn't…know anything about _this_." That time it was a lie, though one I could get away with as Raven was more focused on reexamining me with that first revelation I had fed her. "But she's…distracted right now. She's upset with Qrow and her dad for trying to keep her from finding out about you. We bonded over—" I cut myself off before I made the mistake of saying that _we bonded over having our family hidden from us_ , "—growing up without a parent; two, in my case."

"Interesting," Raven mumbled, a bit of humor in her eyes that she snuffed out after a few moments, refocusing herself. "Interesting. You're saying that not only is she Oz's first choice, but she feels disenfranchised at the same time?"

"Yes," I answered, doing my best not to seem overly-eager to lead Raven down this line of thinking. She did not seem to notice. I had a little bit of information from Yang to better sell it, things told in confidence with the exception (and expectation) for telling them to Raven for this purpose. "She said when she was little, she packed up Ruby and went off searching the woods for you. Despite almost dying then, she hasn't stopped since, going so far as to rough up one of Vale's information dealers looking to get a beat on your location."

"Attacking a lowlife in Vale over words? Sloppy. She _is_ Tai's daughter, I suppose."

"She grabbed him by the dick and squeezed until she got what she wanted," I countered back flatly, making it obvious which of her parents I suspected she inherited _that_ from.

"Don't sound so jealous," Raven cooed smugly. I went to respond to that, point out that it was her own daughter she was talking about like that, before remembering what good it would do and who I was talking to. "No, I've got a better one: did he at least buy her dinner first?"

"Gods above, and I thought _I_ was bad," I grumbled, shaking my head and pinching the bridge of my nose. "Are you interested in meeting or not?"

"What business is it of _yours_?" Raven rebuked sharply.

"I'm the one setting it up," I answered firmly. "I'm the one she's close to, remember? I can get her to come to Vale to meet me, then cancel and ditch at the last minute, leaving her waiting alone in a remote part of Vale away from Ruby, Tai, and her team."

"What sort of meeting with you would Yang agree to that guaranteed that she would come alone, discretely?"

Raven gave me another knowing, shit-eating smirk, and I gave her a slight frown and stared off into the distance in a look that made it clear that I was not answering that question. _Better to let her fill those gaps in, especially when the answer was a meeting to plan espionage against Raven._

"When?"

"Tomorrow, ideally," I answered. "Or the day after, depending on when she's available."

"So sudden?" Raven asked, beginning to pace around slowly and stare at the ground, lost in thought.

"These are all new developments, and this isn't an opportunity that will last, either."

Raven accepted the information with an absent nod, continuing her slow paces around the floor.

"Do it. Keep me updated on the timeframe," Raven said, stopping her pacing to look back at me, before cutting open a portal with a draw of her sword. "I need to think."

"What are your plans for her?" I called out, my tone making clear that I wanted to cut through any pretense. Whether or not Yang was in on this with me, sending her into Raven's clutches was one of the last things I would ever want to do to any random soul, much less someone that I actually cared about. By leading Raven to think that Yang was going to be a Maiden, I was making Yang a prize to be won or a power to be stolen, ensuring that Raven was going to put some real effort into acquiring her, _one way or another._

"Don't you worry yourself, Jaune. I'm not looking to replace you," Raven called out, stopping just before she got to her portal to look back at me over her shoulder. That didn't help me at all, and the smirk Raven gave me told me that she knew this, making it all the harder for me to judge what she was trying to imply, if anything. "If I did, who would bring me such wonderful opportunities like this?"

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Ah, things move ever closer to a very interesting culmination. Ozpin has his machinations. Jaune has his machinations. Raven has her machinations. There are others around who have machinations, and we'll see more of their and Raven's machinations next week.**

 **This is just gonna be so much fun to see who wins.**

 **Sadly, unless something happens to really sober Pyrrha up and force her to sharpen up, it does not appear that the winner will be Pyrrha. In a world of scheming and manipulation, she is just an innocent soul not cut out for this. She's trying here, and her intentions for her meeting with Ozpin here are much less detrimental to Jaune than perhaps her previous meetings were. Jaune just revealed that he's one man hiding from a force that wiped his family out with extreme prejudice; that's going to bother you, especially if themes of espionage and murder and** _not_ **something you grow up with like Jaune. _Or have a direct familial connection to that makes you reconsider things, like Yang._ **

**Unfortunately, Pyrrha seems to have given Ozpin just enough information to ensure that Jaune is not about to have things easy. The goal for Ozpin would be to wind up with both Jaune and Pyrrha at his side, and that's not going to be an easy or gentle process to arrive there.**

 **Jaune's plans we already know more about, but next week he'll have a quick chat with Yang before sending her to meet her mother that will let things be spelled out a little more clearly, in case a summary is needed. This will be followed by him immediately working towards those plans, so it will be both show _and_ tell.**

 **Raven's plans are a little more fuzzy to us, since we mostly have seen Raven through Jaune's eyes. Jaune's view of Raven has some blind spots and some confirmation biases, so you can't be sure what she _really_ wants versus what Jaune thinks she wants. Seeing thing through Yang's eyes might help this, but then again, Raven might put a show on for Yang, with a new Maiden on the line...**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:**

"*strikes match*burns stupid, fake-blue/green leaf*

I want a divorce..." - _K. Arc_

 **Okay, after all the fun (horrifying) discourse about** _Turquoise Leaf_ **and my sister last week, I immediately had suspicions when I saw this comment. I have since verified that my gut-instinct was correct and that this comment was, indeed, left by my sister.**

 _ **No, this isn't Nepotism by giving her top comment. Well. Maybe. It was funny, though.**_

 **What makes this even funnier is that she is not even close to current on the story (thanks for that, sis, by the way!). I was sending her the highlights from the Discord discussion over whether it was weird or not to have Jaune's parents named after her and my arch nemesis, and she realized that I had mentioned her a couple of times throughout the story.**

 **Over the next half-hour, she proceeded to read through every Author's Note, Closing Thought, and Comment of the Week checking to see what I was saying about her. Every five minutes or so, I would get a text with a chapter number and a frowny-face, followed by a description of how unfairly I had categorized her.**

 **All because I originally sent her a screen shot where someone in the Discord called her a nice person based off what they had seen.**

 _ **She's going to kill me for giving her Top Comment now... :D**_

* * *

"Killing a (both) malachites will satiate my belly" - _Turquoise Leaf_

"Turquoise no!" - _Tero7323_

 **This has pretty much summed up everyone's reaction to Jaune's semi-murderous tendencies. There was actually a surprising (to me) amount of support _for_ Jaune straight-up icing the Malachites, despite the fact that Yang just forced Jaune to accept her help to prevent that. **

**No such luck here. You'll have to starve,** _Turquoise_ **. T** **here will be a time for feasting at Jaune's hands, but 'tis not this day.**


	40. Hi mom, pt 1

**Author's Note: Ah, finals approach. What could go wrong?**

 **As of now, my schedule breaks my finals up pretty nicely. One Thursday, two (maybe only one) the following Monday, and the hardest one the following Wednesday. That _shouldn't_ prevent me from writing too much, so I don't expect to miss a week. The possibility is there, though, and I felt it's better to warn you all just in case.**

 **Also, we broke 500 reviews this week (had more comments on last chapter than any other), and this chapter breaks 400,000 words total. Neat.**

 **Warning, there's a _very_ long Comment of the Week down below. Like 2.5k words or so. **

**Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 38:** _"..." – Neopolitan_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

I barely registered a mass settle down next to me on the park bench I was sitting on, but I didn't need to turn to know that it was Yang; my entire periphery was yellow, which was evidence enough for me. I had arrived earlier than she had to the same park we had met in two days ago to discuss, well, everything, and had found some relief in getting off my feet and staring out blankly at the small pond in front of me.

"Hey," Yang finally called out softly when I never made to acknowledge her presence. She lost her patience and leaned over, waving her arm in front of me. "Remnant to Jaune, you there?"

"Someone needs attention," I mumbled back, shutting my eyes briefly to break off my blank stare before turning to Yang.

"And you better not forget it," Yang teased, lightly pretending to be angry, before switching out of it quickly. "You okay?"

"Physically? Sure," I answered, making a show and a point of not answering further. "I should be asking you the same question. Are you _sure_ that you want to do this?"

"You mean, am I sure that I want to finally meet my mother after searching for her for most my life?" Yang asked back, only a small amount of sarcasm in her voice.

"This is more than just that, Yang," I answered back, the weight of the situation making my voice overly serious. There was a lot at stake here, especially for me, and Yang's easy-going response hadn't put me at ease. It didn't help to recognize that in her place, I probably would have answered the same way. "You're not just…meeting your mom for tea or something. You're meeting with Raven Branwen, and you're posing as a future Maiden. Mother or not, you're entering a really dangerous world, and I've made it clear that I don't want you forced into this. Are you _sure_ that you want this?"

" _Want_ it? No, not really," Yang answered honestly, turning towards me and jabbing a finger into my chest, "but if you think I'm just going to let you do this alone, then you haven't been listening to me. I am _going_ to help you, and you are _going_ to get out of this. If I have to face down my mother and spit in her face, then I'll make sure I flip her off while I'm at it."

"Please don't piss her off," I whined, taking the piss from Yang. It wasn't bad advice, either, even if hypocritical coming from me. "Seriously, I wish I had your confidence about this."

"Yeah, I wish you had my confidence, too," Yang responded, flicking me in the side of the head for good measure. "Any advice for me on handling her?"

"You _do_ remember us stabbing each other?" I asked back dramatically.

"I figured out not to do that part," Yang answered flatly. "Are there any other tricks you've learned in over a decade with her?"

"Well, she wants to be in control at all times. Normally, that just means that she has to remind you that she's more dangerous than whoever she's speaking with, but she can't do that here with you. She's probably going to feel you out and get a sense for where your head is at."

"She can't do it because…?"

"Well, she _can_ do it, but she won't risk it; not yet, anyway. If she thinks that you're about to become a Maiden, she'll probably spend this whole meeting laying the foundation of a working relationship. If she can't flip you entirely, then she'll settle for talking you out of joining Ozpin. If she can't talk you out of accepting the Maidenhood, then she'll settle for giving you the truth behind Ozpin. If she can't convince you to follow her, then she'll settle for convincing you she's not a terrible person. She'll do what she can to come out better than she started."

"That doesn't sound so bad," Yang mumbled, looking up and staring out over the pond.

"I wouldn't expect it to be, not for this first meeting, at least," I answered back reassuringly, or as best I could manage. "I told her that you've been searching for her for a while. She thinks that she has a chance to win you over, so she's going to play things carefully. If I know her, she'll already have planned out exactly how this talk is going to go."

"How could she know that?"

"She's good at it. _Really_ good at it. She plans out what she wants to say, how she wants to play things up, and what she wants you to end up believing, and from there she steers things along. You might ask her a question about one thing, but she'll deflect her answer and let 'slip' something that she really wants you to focus on. She knows just how use honesty and reveal details in order control how you come out feeling about it all."

It was something that didn't come naturally to Raven, by her own admission. Interpersonal communication was something she learned growing up in the Tribe, but only a very blunt version of it; how to intimidate, to tell if someone is lying, to get away with lying… At Beacon, though, such things weren't as useful as the ability to play nice. Really, at Beacon, she should have learned how to _be_ nice—Qrow, more or less, had done so. What Raven realized quickly was that it was a chance for her to grow her skillset, to learn how to manipulate in an entirely different way. It wouldn't work on her team, since they had watched her work on it for years and even used it to their own benefit before, but for anyone without years of experience with Raven…

"So how do I win?" Yang asked, a little bit of fight in her voice. "How do I break it?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure you need to." _And if I was, then we'd be in trouble; beating Raven at her own game wasn't something I could accomplish often._ Yang gave me a funny look, and I returned her gaze, shifting myself to explain things more easily. "I don't know what exactly she's trying to do, whether its steal you away entirely or just turn you against Ozpin. Whatever it is, she's going to have to lay the foundation for it tonight. I say let her feel like she's getting things her way, and pay attention to how she leads things along. As long as you know that she's manipulating you and play along, you can figure out what her goals are."

Yang nodded along absently, mulling things over in her head as we both stared back out over the pond in silence. It wasn't the sexiest of plans, but it was simple enough that it had little risk of going wrong. We were using Raven's ambition against her here, plain and simple, and it wasn't as if our plan was complicated. Let Yang pretend to be vulnerable, have Raven show up, and then figure out what Raven wanted to use Vulnerable Yang for. Yang had suggested trying to wear a wire or record the conversation with her phone, but I didn't like the risk there. If Raven saw through our play, she'd be pissed, which was bad, but still provided some wiggle room for Yang and me to talk her down. _If Raven found us trying to record her, she'd break the world record for quickest decapitation, and then probably desecrate my body for good measure._

"This is really about to happen, isn't it?" Yang asked herself more than anyone else quietly, as if the weight of the world had finally hit her. Motion in the slight space between us caught my eye and I looked down to find her fingers twitching and half-curled, differently from the way her fist would shake when she was really angry. "S-Sorry. It's just nerves… I never actually thought this moment would come," Yang explained weakly as she followed my eyes down to her hand.

"Here." I reached out and took her hand in both of mine, massaging the back of her hand with my thumbs in long arcs along the twitching muscles. After a few moments, the twitching subsided, but I made sure to extend the massage in duration and in scope. "It's the least I can do. You're…I won't lie to you, Yang, what you're about to do is dangerous. It's also…"

I trailed off momentarily, the words dying in my throat. I continued to stare at her hand as I massaged it to avoid looking up.

"It's also maybe the first real break that I've had go my way. I can't explain how significant that is to me, so…thank you." I forced myself to look her in the eyes as I said that last part, finding them wide and fragile and ducking my head again the moment I had finished. The last thing I thought I needed was to try to guess what sort of emotions I saw there, and if it had been pity it might have crushed me.

Yang pulled her hand away from me suddenly, using it to push herself off the bench and into a standing position, before offering that hand out to me. I accepted it and she pulled me to my feet, and then directly into a hug that I had not seen coming—a very tight hug that felt like she was gripping onto me more than she was hugging onto me. I made sure to return it, wrapping one arm around her neck and one around her back.

"No pressure, huh?" Yang mumbled with a nervous laugh, her forehead shaking slightly from its position pushed up against me.

"None whatsoever," I lied back cheekily, with Yang letting go and pushing away softly to end the hug.

"I thought you were done lying to me?"

"If I lie so badly that you know it's a lie, is it still a lie?" I asked, grinning stupidly before she socked me in the arm. "Ow, okay, fine. Have it your way. You've got all the pressure of my life on your shoulders, and one wrong move could mean a painful death for me. _Happy?_ "

Yang shut her eyes and forced out a quick breath, frowning all the while before opening her eyes to stare at me, her having taken the chance to clear her mind.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" Yang asked, her voice dropping low in agitation. I did, too, as I am planning on using Yang to distract Raven while I go work on establishing connections with Cinder and her crew, hoping to hedge my bets should I fail to get Pyrrha the Maidenhood. _I've got a decent way of figuring out if Cinder is the Fall Maiden's attacker, too_. I didn't want to leave Yang yet, though; there was something about her that was clearly off, and that she made little effort to hide it meant that she trusted me enough to be vulnerable. _It very well could just be because I have shared no shortage of my vulnerabilities and secrets with her, but regardless it is something that I don't want to overlook._ A favor returned, even if I would hope I would do it without feeling like I have to.

"Yang, are you okay with this?"

"Am I…am I _okay_ with this?" Yang repeated back incredulously, the weight of the situation finally cracking her façade and cutting through the flippant attitude she had been trying to put on. "No, I'm not okay with this. I'm not okay with _any_ of this." She looked to me tenderly, nervousness and uncertainty shining through her eyes, before she steeled herself and got a grip. "But that's why I'm going to do it. I'm not going to let her walk all over me, either. I may not know what I'm doing, but I'm going to _do_ something, dammit."

"Are you sure we're not related?" I asked with a chuckle, backing off the topic now that Yang's determination was made clear. "That sounds just like me, right down to the stubbornness." _Really, it could have been my mission statement._ Or the caption on my gravestone.

"And the not knowing what to do," Yang added on with a roll of her eyes. "Go on, get out of here. Don't drag this out or we might talk each other out of it."

"I'll text Raven that you're clear and available once I'm far enough away. From there, it's a waiting game," I said as I turned half-way away from her, waiting for her to nod in affirmation before I walked away. "Good luck, Yang."

"Yeah…" she answered absentmindedly, "yeah, you too."

* * *

If I didn't have something important to occupy my thoughts, then I would have already gone crazy, knowing that Raven was meeting Yang and I had no way of knowing how it went until one of them told me afterwards. _Fingers crossed that it's Yang who gets to me first, maybe with a nice text saying 'you're not going to die tonight;' that would be comforting._ Hell, if things go too badly, I could have a portal open up next to me at any time. Given where and with who I'll be with, it's hard to see that playing over well no matter which way it went down.

I certainly understand why Raven likes controlling everything so much. Having to trust this to work out without being involved at all was already fraying my nerves, and I only just sent Raven the text.

The first of the tasks I forced myself to hyper-focus on was _getting_ to Beacon, preferably undetected. I had to bite the bullet and take a Bullhead, no way around that, being forced to scan my Beacon scroll in order to board. I'm sure Ozpin has access to a master list of all uses of Beacon's scrolls for entry to anything around Beacon, and it wouldn't surprise me if he had an alert set up to track the movements of specific students, which I have no doubts I am one of. _If Raven hadn't told be the best way to get into Beacon was to catch Ozpin's eye, things would be a lot easier for me right now._ It wasn't as if it was all that rare for Huntsmen-quality applicants to show up without formal school records; Nora, Ren, and Blake were three such examples that got in _without_ having to wave a neon sign in front of the Headmaster that said ' _I'm mysterious, look at me_.'

If I hadn't listened to Raven's advice there, I'd be feeling a lot less pressure right about now, and I would really only have to focus on my plans as far as Raven was concerned. _It's possible—likely, even—that Raven was counting on Ozpin's attention keeping me from being able to move freely against her._ Vernal had pretty much said outright that Raven's 'advice' about avoiding connections was intentional BS, and it's not like anything should be put past her at this point. She was nearly unrivaled when it came to scheming, manipulating, and plotting, possibly even rivaling both Salem and Ozpin in those areas—on her best of days, at least. Naturally, being ever the sadist, I'm now trying to out-scheme two of those three people for my freedom. _And if Cinder is as connected as I suspect, I might just be able to make it a perfect three for three._

It was hard to be too mad at how clever Raven's scheme to trick me into making escaping her harder was, and how flawlessly it had played me; hard to be mad at, sure, but certainly not impossible, and momma ain't raise no quitter.

' _Momma' ain't raise much of anything._

Once on Beacon's grounds, my next task was to go as undetected as possible while finding my targets. Normally, this would be easy, as I am more than familiar with the locations of most every security camera in Beacon's halls, taking note of the daily as I walk by. However, the transfer students' dormitory was not something I had a ton of familiarity with, so all I could really hope to do is keep my face hidden with a hood and avoid meeting people at all turns.

Finding the correct room was easier than I had expected; while the regular dorms only had numbers by the doors, the transfer dorms had a list with the names of the students taped underneath, an obviously last-minute addition to help sort out any confusion, with the added bonus of helping me rule out rooms.

After about five minutes of walking around, I found the appropriate room and knocked twice, sharp but soft so as to not make too much noise. I had heard voices on the other side of the door and they fell silent, with no footsteps approaching the door anytime soon. They were waiting out to see if whoever it was would go away on their own. _Nope._

I knocked again, sharper and deliberately slower this time to convey a little agitation. After a few moments, a slight flicker of light in the peephole told me that someone was checking who was at the door, so I made sure to give my most agitated, flat look.

The door cracked open ever so slightly. "What do _you_ want?" Emerald hissed, barely more than an eye peering out from behind the door.

"Above your paygrade, sweetie," I answered back condescendingly. Somewhere behind Emerald, there was a chuckle at her expense. "I'm here to speak with your boss."

"She's not here," she answered, spitting the words out as payback for the 'sweetie' comment.

"That's okay. I'll wait," I responded, shrugging my shoulders and crossing my hands in front of me, taking a stance that very much resembled a bouncer or bodyguard, except that I was standing a foot from their door and staring directly at it blankly. "I'm sure no one will think this is suspicious."

Emerald glared out at me for a few seconds, before finally giving in, opening the door with an agitated huff. I made no effort to hide my smugness at having won our little spat, and Mercury seemed to revel in her defeat as well.

I walked in and let Emerald close the door behind me, taking a quick glance around before plopping down on the unused bed in the room, the one for their so-far non-existent fourth member.

"Sure, just make yourself at home," Emerald grumbled, shooting me a glare.

"I did. Are you blind or something?" Mercury sniggered at that and if I had to guess, Emerald's blood-pressure had risen to unhealthy levels. "So, what's Cinder up to that's so important she had to leave you two here?"

"If you think I'm going to tell _you_ anything about—"

"She's registering our fourth member with the dorms," Mercury cut in, threatening to cause the top to be blown off of Mt. Sustrai. He merely shrugged his shoulders when his partner tried to gauge his eyes out with the daggers she was shooting him. "What? It's not like it anything important. He'd have figured it out when they came back anyways."

"That's _not_ the point."

"Oh, so you _do_ have a fourth?" I answered with a curious edge to my voice that only seemed to piss Emerald off further. For a moment, I had to consider if that was going to put a wrench in the official reason I was here: to get Cinder to corroborate any claims that I stayed with them over the break. With a fourth member, there was no longer any way I could say that Beacon put me up with them, but I can always say that they offered a spot on the floor. It would tie us closer, sure, but only if I actually _needed_ to use that excuse with my friends.

"We do now," Mercury responded flippantly, immune to the way that Emerald very clearly wanted to strangle him. Suddenly, Mercury flinched and about jumped out of his spot lounging on his bed, scrambling frantically as if trying to avoid something, before catching himself and glaring straight at Emerald. "Don't _do_ that!"

Emerald flipped him off with both hands, and the fact that Mercury didn't react negatively to this in any way lead me to believe that she was still feeding him an illusion. _I wouldn't be surprised if she made him think that she actually did throw a knife at him._

Before either of them noticed, I took my hand off Crocea Mors and relaxed myself. When Mercury had jumped suddenly, I was about a second away from drawing and going for a disabling shot on Emerald to even the playing field. Appearing relaxed did not mean that I wasn't prepared for both of them to suddenly attack me, even if I couldn't predict the reason behind such an attack. I was in hostile territory. To relax would be to die.

Things settled down after that, with us all pretty much waiting in silence, passing the time by playing on our scrolls and taking distrusting glances at the others.

After about ten minutes, the door swung open and in walked Cinder Fall, along with…Neo? _Yeah, that's Neo alright, though somewhat disguised._ There's only so much you can do to hide a girl that short with the glint of murder in her eyes at all times, after all. Cinder froze momentarily as her eyes scanned over me, surprise and anger flashing over her for a fraction of a second before carrying on like normal. Neo began to walk over towards me, and I only realized after I noticed Mercury and Emerald were watching nervously and excitedly that I was on Neo's bed, firmly occupying her place. Those two were no doubt waiting for me to get stabbed.

"Hi Neo," I called out innocently, waving a hand to her without a care in the world. Neo promptly walked over and tossed her luggage down on me, all one bag of it, before waving back just as innocently. I could almost taste the disappointment and confusion from the peanut gallery. "Nice…uh, outfit?"

 _Ridiculous_ , more like. It was as if someone explained what an edgy teenager was, but had only ever heard of children as a concept, and then designed a look to match that. She had the dark dress part right, but the jet-black hair done up in _pigtails_ ruined any chance she had of being taken seriously.

She seemed self-aware enough to know that her disguise was bad, and used her Semblance to transform herself into her normal outfit, before shifting back to her disguise. It left me wondering which set is the real set, and how exactly her glass Semblance let her modify clothing like that. _Given that she only has one bag and it's not particularly heavy, are_ either _sets of clothes real, or does she just create whatever she needs out of her Semblance?_ If I brought her Aura down to 0, would she suddenly be naked?

I was broken from my thoughts as Neo stared at me flatly, forcing me to ponder if she could also read my thoughts. I decided no, since she hasn't tried stabbing me. _Yet._

"Would someone care to explain to me why we seem to have a _visitor_?" Cinder asked, feigning impartiality to hide a venom to her voice directed at Emerald and Mercury.

"I tried to warn you with a text. He says he wants to speak with you," Emerald answered immediately, her demeanor cowed.

"Does he now?" Cinder asked, an edge in her voice thrown at Emerald, asking how I was allowed into their room.

"That's right. Since we're allies now, I had a favor to run by you," I answered, placing Neo's bag on the ground and standing up, staying firm and showing that I wasn't intimidated.

"I'm not sure you quite understand the nature of our relationship," she cooed, her voice dropping slightly in a subtle threat. With a plethora of experience dealing with dangerous and angry women, picking up on this was practically second-nature. "You are in no position to demand favors."

"Well, the last time I checked, your reputation in Beacon is linked to me, ever since I introduced you to people at the dance," I answered calmly, not breaking eye contact with Cinder. "It seems to me in your best interest that _my_ reputation stays clean, especially when it would cost you nothing to do so."

She did not respond. She was clearly unhappy, both with my presence here and the fact that she could not refute what I had to say. The fact that she remained silent meant that she recognized my point.

"Neo is putting me up over the break in one of Roman's old safehouses. Naturally, I can't tell anyone that I'm living in a criminal hideaway. I'm just here to warn you that my alibi is that I stayed in the dorm with you guys over the break."

Cinder's eyes remained fixed on me, and it was becoming more and more obvious around the room that her mood was worsening. She clearly liked control, and depriving her of that felt therapeutic, even if she wasn't quite the woman I wanted to do that do. The way Emerald and Mercury seemed to cower away from her told me that this would likely be taken out on them later. Neo was loving every second of it.

"Very well," Cinder responded simply, either unwilling or unable to say more without harming someone. Rather than be smug, I used this as my opportunity to push things to the topic I _really_ was here to discuss.

"I can see that you're angry. Why don't we talk some business to lighten the mood?"

Her anger did not lessen, but one eyebrow did arch up (twitch might be a better word), indicating enough surprise for me to feel safe continuing.

"I took out the Malachites earlier this week, so our normal operations will continue unmolested," I announced, mainly for Cinder's sake. Neo already knew the information, as I had contacted her about a place to stay just after Yang and I cleared that warehouse. She was none to pleased that we decided to let them live, but that's Neo for you. "I trust that they have proven valuable to you?"

"They have had their uses," Cinder answered calmly, forcing her anger down and reacting with a cool head once she realized the angle I was implying. _Roman_ had been the one paying for Team CRDL's crusades. With Roman now behind bars, there was no reason for them to continue, unless someone new was going to pick up the check. _Not that Roman ever paid CRDL; they took the ill-gotten lien from their targets._ Cinder didn't know the particulars of our arrangement, though, given the cautious way in which she answered. She was expecting this to be a negotiation. "This set-back with the Malachites has been unfortunate."

"It hasn't affected how efficient the whole scheme has been," I countered, recognizing that she was trying to undermine the value to lower the price. "Malachites or no, you have to admit that no one dares to flip on the White Fang, or any other of Roman's activities. That sort of peace of mind is the sort of thing you can't put a price on." On that, I was prepared to call bullshit if she had tried to undermine me. Raven would literally have killed people to get her hands on a scheme like this. Its value was self-evident.

"So _that's_ what you're here for," Cinder called out slowly, doing her best to regain control over the conversation. "You're worried that you won't be getting checks anymore."

"Nope," I answered, hiding most of my smugness. "Actually, I'm here to offer their continued services to you, out of my own pocket." Technically, I _would_ be paying their zero-lien fee. "Think of it as a token of good will."

The shocked faces of Emerald, Mercury, and even Neo made it really hard to manage my smirk. Neo knew that CRDL wasn't being paid directly, but still didn't expect me to give up a gift like that so freely.

"What is it that you're really after?" Cinder asked, her voice dropping low, making it clear she was tired of playing games.

"You know, I got to speak with Roman at Mountain Glenn, before he got locked away. If he knew any specifics, he didn't share them, but he did indicate that the Breach was your doing, as is the increased White Fang activity." I took note of how calm Cinder remained, with nothing but her eyes giving away how much she wished she could just kill me to shut me up. "All of that, Roman said, just to distract Ozpin, of all things. _I want to help._ "

"You _what?_ " Cinder hissed out, before forcing herself back into a calm. "Why? What do you get out it?"

"Lot's of things. First and foremost, I _like_ it when Ozpin is distracted, just as a general rule. It makes life easier for both of us." I paused a moment to see if she would push back on this. She didn't. "But I don't like that your plan was to strike at Vale's civilian population to do it. The more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that you don't do something _that big_ unless you not only need Ozpin distracted, but you need him _moved._ "

I kept my words slow and deliberate, and Cinder's lack of absolutely _any_ reaction was, in and of itself, a significant reaction. You didn't get raised at Raven's side without watching people in tense negotiations, meaning that I'm familiar with people who are very good at hiding their reactions. When you're good at it, you don't realize sometimes that having absolutely _no_ reaction is suspicious; it means that you're trying your hardest not to react. _That you would need to means that I'm on the right track, if a dangerous one._ It also means that my assumption at the end is correct.

"I'm offering my help in that regard. I take it you would be interested?" The offer, along with anything else I had planned on saying, was intentionally designed to be reminiscent of Hazel Rainart. He was the only person that Raven knew of that was working for Salem, as his betrayal had been one of the earliest events to really shake Raven's remaining faith in Ozpin, as well as putting the idea of leaving in her head. As far as Raven knew, he never involved civilians in his attacks, acting more as a scalpel than a hammer or bomb. If Cinder was associated with Salem, then reminding her of Hazel might put her at ease, or make her more likely to accept my motives.

The room was dead silent, with Emerald and Mercury seemingly holding their breath as Cinder's expression changed, her eyes taking me in curiously now.

"If nothing else, Roman does have an eye for talent," Cinder stated slowly, her expression slowly warming as she cut her eyes coyly in Neo's direction, then back to me. "What did you have in mind?"

"I'll make it clear up front that I'm not interested in harming innocents. My aim is to make it easier for you to get what you want _without_ having to drop as many bodies. With that said, _I_ can be the distraction you need."

"Is that so?"

"You need Ozpin out of his office and his attention occupied. I happen to be one of his favorite obsessions, a puzzle that he just can't ever fit together. Old man or not, he _is_ still a Huntsman, and if he got an invitation to spar with me in private…? Well, he'd be suspicious as hell…of _me._ And he's arrogant enough to go for it, if just to find out what my angle is. Once he sees it's a legitimate spar request, he'll certainly use it as a chance to find out anything he can about me, from the limits of my abilities to anything he can get me to say. All I have to do is request it one night when he's working late and most everyone else has left, and you'll have free reign to break into his office."

Cinder took her time to think over the plan, and I waited anxiously for her response. While there's no such thing as a perfect plan, this was a damn good one that was dropped in her lap for free. If she was worried about my intentions, she had Neo to confirm my trustworthiness and that steering harm away from innocents is something that I _would_ do this for. I was offering to stick my neck out for her, for free, so that she could break into Oz's office, and I had even thrown in CRDL's continued support. She would have to be a fool not to exploit me for this.

There is only one reason that she would _ever_ turn this down: Ozpin's office did not hold her main goal.

"A good plan, if a little unfair to you. You can't very well enjoy having Ozpin distracted if _you_ are the distraction, now, can you?" Cinder asked, a smirk on her face to play off that she wasn't interested in the plan for a different reason.

 _Bullshit. Turning it down because it's unfair to_ meThat's as good as confirmation that she's after something in Beacon's vault. No prizes for guessing what magical powers that means.

It also means that she's likely the one who attacked the Fall Maiden and stole part of her power. Should she be the one to come out on top of this, having a working relationship with her would go far in keeping Raven at bay.

"Yeah, maybe I hadn't thought that part through as much," I acquiesced. "If you can think of anything I could do that would help streamline the process, I'd be willing to help things run smoothly."

"As of now, we're planning on laying low," Cinder answered coyly, very clearly avoiding discussing her plans with me so quickly. "If you're truly interested in keeping things 'flowing smoothly,' as you put it, then we'll be in touch. With the Vytal Festival approaching, there are many opportunities for things to go wrong…"

She gave me a coy look, which was all I needed to get the hint. Both hints, actually, one being that she had plans for using the Festival as a distraction, and one being that she was ready for me to leave.

"Anything I can do in the meantime?" I asked, making it clear that I understood that I was to leave, and soon. Frankly, I can't say I hate the idea of getting out of here, now that I've all but confirmed I came in here threatening a (half)Maiden.

"Just…ensure that your team does not get eliminated from the tournament; that lets me keep my options open. I'm sure _that_ won't be an issue for you…"

"No. It will not," I confirmed, nodding once. "Is that all?"

"It is," she answered, stepping to the side to make a path to the door. "You may go. I'll be in touch."

I was half-way out the door before her voice rang out again, sending a chill down my spine.

"I am curious, why does Ozpin focus on you? You've got to have one hell of a secret if he can't figure it out after a semester."

I froze, knowing better than to let that go unaddressed. A downside I doubt Raven predicted when she encouraged me to keep my surname during enrollment was that any agents of Salem's within the school would notice my name. So far, Raven's Tribe has never had any issues with Salem's people coming back to finish the job because they didn't know that I had escaped. Cinder's tone told me that she very much so recognized my voice, and that she already knew the answer to her question.

"It's the name," I answered calmly, flippantly. "He still hasn't figured out my real one. Hell, he may not have even figured out that Jaune Arc _isn't_ my real name."

Cinder and I made eye contact, holding it as we both tested the other. I didn't need her to completely believe me; I just needed to cause her to doubt herself enough that she wouldn't be confident reporting it to Salem.

"What is, then?"

I shrugged. "Branwen, I guess. Or maybe just Jaune." It was an easy enough answer, falling back on technicality to avoid even needing to lie. Branwen was the name of the Tribe, first and foremost; Qrow and Raven's birth surname was probably lost to time. They had each taken the title Branwen from the Tribe they grew up in and redefined it; it would stand to reason that I could theoretically do the same.

Cinder looked over me as she mulled over my answer, before eventually nodding. That was all the cue I needed to get the hell out of there.

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

I am not a patient person under any circumstances, so having to wait for Jaune to get far enough away to make the call was nerve-wracking. Having to wait another five minutes for Raven to show up _after_ that felt like an eternity.

There were a million thoughts running in different directions in my head, and there was no way that I was going to be able to sit still on that park bench while I waited, so I started aimlessly wandering around the pond. There was a bridge that went across the pond with a gazebo in the middle, all built for no other reason than to look nice and give people somewhere to go while in the park, and I sort of ended up in the gazebo in the middle, starting out over the railing at the water.

A strange, foreign noise appeared behind me, familiar to me just enough from the one time I had heard it before to recognize it as Raven's portals. I forced myself not to react, instead continuing to stare straight ahead. It was dark enough out that no one would really notice the portal from a distance, and that almost meant it was late enough out for no tourists to be visiting Vale's parks.

After a few moments, Raven's boots slowly and deliberately stepped out onto wood, stopping only after stepping out of her portal, which closed behind her just afterwards.

"Yang."

 _Steady, Yang._ I spun around casually, going from leaning forwards against the rails to leaning against them with my back. I did my best not to tense up or show my nerves, forcing everything to remain slack and loose. Standing not five feet from me was the woman who had abandoned me years ago, with no warning or explanation, who I could barely remember, but who I had searched for for years. And unlike last time, I wasn't hidden away and stealing a glance at her; she was here, with me, standing _right there_ , staring at me.

"You don't seem all that surprised to see me," she remarked dryly as she removed her helmet, her voice becoming clearer as it was taken off. Her words snapped me out of the shell-shock I had been slipping into, reminding me of what was at stake here, and what I needed to do.

I shrugged. "You don't seem all that choked up to see your daughter for the first time in a decade," I cut back equally as dry. "You tell me what's more surprising."

"Hmmm." Raven looked over me curiously for a moment, judging my words. "I was concerned that someone might have warned you I wanted to speak with you. You do seem to recognize me." She paused for a moment to see if I reacted to that, which I didn't. She was testing if Jaune had gone behind her back, trying to see if he had told me information ahead of time. If I didn't know about him, then she assumed I would think she was speaking about Qrow or dad. That would also be my best excuse for recognizing her, since it wasn't as if they didn't have photos. Honestly, not asking who she is was a slip on my part. "If you think this is the first time I've seen you since I left, then you clearly aren't in the loop."

"And what's _that_ supposed to mean?" I asked, finding it easy to get angry and not having to fake it.

"I can create portals, if you didn't notice. I've been checking in on you occasionally."

"You've _what?_ "

"Oh, calm down. I only do it when you're out on a mission, which means not very often. It's not like I'm stalking you," Raven answered calmly, looking as relaxed as I had been trying to present myself as.

"Why? Why are you checking in on me? Why haven't you ever done this before?" I asked, gesturing openly with my hand to our meeting.

"I'm sure you've had your father or your uncle fill your head with all sorts of ideas of who I am…" Raven trailed off for a moment, offering me the chance to speak and confirm those ideas. She probably expected that I would say that she's a hard-ass, or cruel, or obsessed with power.

"You're a cunt."

Raven's composure was broken momentarily, but it was long enough to earn a satisfied smirk from me. She had not been expecting _that_.

"You spend to much time with your uncle, brat," Raven cut back upon regaining her composure. "Despite what they may have told you about me, I _do_ value family, just…differently than they do."

"What is _that_ supposed to mean?"

"I was checking in on you during missions because I will save anyone that I care about…once."

"Wow. That's—" I cut myself off, unable to find the words to express myself. "That's—you have got to be just the shittiest leader in bandit history. You'll just save someone _once_?!"

"I don't think you quite understand how significant that is to me," Raven responded, her voice low and a bit of an edge to it, warning me to back off and calm down.

"Oh, then please, go right ahead. I can't _wait_ to hear this explained."

"I live my life based on one simple principle—"

"Power over all," I cut in for her.

" _Strength_ over all," Raven corrected, smirking a bit when I tilted my head to the side, silently asking what the difference was. "There are lots of people who are powerful, Yang. They can run fast or hit hard or own things, but at the end of the day, they can't protect what's theirs. Someone always comes along who can run faster or hit harder or can take their things. It doesn't matter to me how powerful you are. If you can be coerced, stolen from, beaten, or cucked, then you're weak."

" _Cucked_ , huh?" I asked, an edge to my voice as I stressed that word. I hated to bring dad and Summer into this, and it wasn't fair to them to do so, but the opportunity was too good.

"Don't speak of situations you are unfamiliar with," Raven hissed, showing for a brief moment a flash of anger for the first time. "My point being," Raven pressed on, calming down from her slight outburst, "that I protect what is _mine_. _My_ Tribe. _My_ friends. _My_ belongings. _My_ camp. You are…not mine." Her voice was soft, clearly meaning that I wasn't a part of her world, not that I wasn't her daughter. It hurt to hear either way. "That I would go out of my way to protect you, even once, is no small sacrifice to me."

"Oh, I'm just choked up," I drawled, upsetting her by not being lulled by her speech. Jaune words about how she could use honesty and emotion to manipulate you rung in my head. "You know, if you hadn't left our family, I _would_ be yours. You wouldn't even have to feel _guilty_ about protecting me then."

Raven didn't react harshly to my outburst, instead closing her eyes and taking a breath to calm herself down.

"We were…not a great family, Yang. I can't say I blame Tai for not telling you," she mumbled to no one in particular, before looking up to me with a serious expression. There was maybe even a bit of sadness or regret there, too. "I abandoned my family once. I had a place I belonged, surrounded by others like me. A place I understood, that I grew up in, that molded me. Qrow did, too, but we both left it behind to stay with Team STRQ. Qrow…he didn't fit well in the Tribe growing up, not with his Semblance. It never surprised me that he chose Summer and Tai. What did surprise me was that _I_ chose them, too."

She had my full attention now, and I didn't think that she was lying about any of it. I decided not to interrupt with a question, instead remembering the strategy Jaune had discussed: _let her say what she thinks she needs to, and we'll figure out what she's after from there._

"I don't do anything half-way, either. Tai and I had you, and I honestly tried everything I could to make it work. I _wanted_ it to work."

"But…?"

"I was never cut out for the new life I tried to choose. Tai wanted us to split our time where one of us worked in the field and the other stayed home with you; we tried swapping off cooking meals, enlisting our teammates as babysitters…"

"I take it that it didn't work out well…"

"No, it worked. The bastard loved every moment of being a part-time Huntsman and a full-time dad," Raven answered, with a soft but dark chuckle at her own words.

"But you didn't?"

"Of course I didn't!" Raven answered back, showing a bit of exasperation. "I wasn't cut out to raise a kid, to stay home and sit around! My idea of a great childhood was running free out in the forests. My idea of a family was a tough group of outlaws that watched each other's backs, not a Huntress and Huntsman switching off between killing Grimm and making sure an infant didn't die. It took less than a year for us to realize that it wasn't going to work, but it was the most miserable time of my life; I've never felt emptier."

I…did not know how to respond to that. I stared at her wide-eyed, unsure if I should be insulted by any of that, or concerned for how distant her voice sounded.

"We both realized that we wanted different things…that we couldn't give each other what the other wanted. It hurt me more than I realized at the time, but Summer _could_ give him that, and be happy while doing it. And she did. I threw myself into my work from there, but it wasn't long before I had to leave that for…other reasons."

Raven looked up at me and took in my surprise with another dark, soft chuckle.

"What, didn't expect me to actually be human?"

"I…" _Not really, no._ "I don't know what I expected from the mother who abandoned me."

"There's that word again," Raven singled out with a disdain that was aimed precisely at the word itself. " _Abandoned._ I abandoned Team STRQ. I abandoned Ozpin. I…did not abandon you, though. I left you off better than when I…found you." Raven fumbled her words there at the end, not finding the expression a very good one. She cut me off before I made to cut in. "Are you going to try to tell me that Summer _wasn't_ a better mother than I would have been?"

I swallowed my words. _Nothing_ would ever come close to Summer. The fact that I would _never_ suspected that she wasn't my biological mom if I wasn't told was one of many reasons. "What about after she died? Why not come back then?"

"What, abandon the family I belong with to be a miserable replacement for Summer, ruining both our lives in the process?" Raven scoffed. "Where's the sense in that? I added to your life by staying away. Your dad _agrees_ with that, by the way."

"Okay, then why didn't you save Summer?" I asked, shifting gears a little and venting some pent-up frustration by raising my voice slightly. "If you thought having her around was so good for me, then why did she die?! Did she not qualify for your one-time deal?!"

"What event do you think _caused_ me to start wanting to protect people, huh?" Raven asked sharply in response to my outburst. Her question took the fire right out of me. "Do you think that I've always been so generous, or is it possible that I once lost someone that I cared for more than I should have, and felt guilty for it?"

I had no words again, staring at her wide-eyed once more. This was not at all like I had expected it to go.

"You never even considered that, huh?" Raven remarked, unsure how to take the revelation. "I have to say that I'm confused, Yang. You clearly think pretty lowly of me, and yet, I hear that you've been searching for me for a long time now. Why?"

"I…didn't know much about you," I answered honestly, before preparing to spin things a little to protect Jaune. "It wasn't until recently that uncle Qrow told me things that dad never would. All I knew back then was that you were my mother, and since I had just lost one, I was determined to get one back."

"Well, here I am," she announced, making a show of looking around us, highlighting how there was nothing else here but her and me. "Now what?"

"Why _are_ you here?" I asked, honing in on her proclamation. "We've established why I'm here. We've established that _maybe_ you're not a complete cunt." Raven's expression still flattened at this, but that only ensured that line isn't getting dropped any time soon. "Why now? What are you here for?"

"I suspect you already know," Raven answered, crossing her arms and leaning against one of the supports to the gazebo's roof. I purposefully mimicked her posture and threw in a bit of a sneer to make it clear that I wasn't going to let her get away with me guessing. She rolled her eyes, but accepted it. "Ozpin…has his eye on you."

"I'm aware," I answered curtly, keeping my eyes locked on her and not giving away anything else. Raven gave me a frustrated huff at my short answer, and pressed on again.

"Ozpin manipulates you, Yang, plain and simple. There's always something that he's hiding from you."

"You mean kinda how there's something you're hiding from me right now? Namely, _why you're here?_ " I cut back dryly. "I know a little bit about what he wants. Something about protecting people, responsibility," I listed things off, watching her reaction as I jumped to my next one, "magic."

Raven's eyebrows gave away her surprise, and she made no attempt to hide it after that.

"I didn't expect Oz to move so quickly, even if he should be. He already told you _his_ story about the four seasons?"

"He didn't, no. I've been filled in on a few of the details, but not by Ozpin."

Raven looked over me carefully for a bit, before finally settling on a word to explain what I was getting at. "Qrow."

I neither confirmed nor denied this, though did so in a smug manner that would make her feel like she was right and I just didn't want to admit it.

"I know that's it's magic, and that it transfers weirdly, and that keeping it away from bad people is important." Those were the lines that I had been practicing for a while now. It was enough for her to believe that Qrow would have gone behind Ozpin's back to warn me ahead of time, and to that note it clearly lacked a lot of details too.

"There's more to it than that, Yang. So much more to it. What Oz won't tell you is that by accepting his 'gift,' you're signing yourself up to die in his service. You might survive long enough to reach Qrow's age, but you're going to live with a target on your back. The last Fall Maiden nearly died, and her attackers are out there. I'd be surprised if you live to see your next birthday if you accept." There was actual scorn to her voice, though it wasn't aimed at me at all. "When Ozpin asks, say no."

"Why?" I cut back harshly. "What do you get by me saying no?"

"Is it so hard for you to believe that I'm not doing this for me?" Raven asked, angered that I so obviously distrusted her. "Knowing what I know about Ozpin, if _I_ were in your position, I would tell that old man to fuck off and trick some other child into dying for him. I wouldn't waste my life just so he can keep his secrets. I wouldn't want that for you, either."

Raven's frustration was showing all over her face, enough so that I flinched when she reached for her sword. She drew it and summoned a portal behind her, sheathing it again afterwards.

"I've done nothing to you to earn _this_ sort of ire, but if that's how you feel about me, then it's safe to say that we're done here." Raven turned and started walking to her portal, grumbling and shaking her head as she did so. "Honestly, I don't know who put such thoughts in your head…"

" _Jaune_." Subtly be damned. I knew that we had spoken about letting her doing the talking and seeing where she wanted to take this, but _I_ have somewhere that _I_ want to take this. To hell with playing defense, and to hell with letting Raven dictate how this was going to go. That's been going badly enough for Jaune as it is.

Raven froze with her back still to me, inches away from her portal. Her head slowly turned all the way to the side, one eye staring out at me through her periphery.

"You should hear the stories he has to tell, too. That whole line about not becoming a Maiden is real rich _coming from you_."

Raven's head remained turned to the side, though she lowered it to stare at the ground.

"I am _so_ going to kill him," she spat out angrily.

"No," I called out confidently, maybe even arrogantly. When she did not challenge me, I continued. "You're not going to do _anything_ to him. Close the portal, _mom_ ; we're going to have our _real_ talk now."

Raven turned to face me and stared me down harshly, eyes meeting mine as her hand lay firmly on the hilt of her weapon. Seconds passed with nothing changing, neither of us budging an inch. Eventually, the edges of her lips curled upwards just a bit, and one singular bemused chuckle followed. The portal behind her shrunk, closing altogether after a few seconds, followed by her taking her hands off of her weapon, slowly crossing them and leaning back up against the support to the gazebo. Although her expression had changed to show a smugness and an amusement, mine had not.

"Alright. I'm listening."

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: And now, there is yet another party in the mix, though this time added because their inclusion is _good_ for Jaune, at least for now. So far we have Yang who is on Jaune's side, Pyrrha who is...up in the air, but currently has done far more against him than for him, Ozpin who wants Jaune on his side, Raven who also wants Jaune on her side, and now Cinder, who Jaune added to the mix himself. He's in a tough spot, but he's certainly making contingencies. He's got Raven's daughter on his side, and has the opportunity to ingratiate himself in both Maiden Candidates. **

**That's progress, but Raven and Oz are still breathing down his neck. Getting one of them to back off or at least lose interest for a bit would go a _long_ way.**

 **As for Yang, well, her scene was supposed to be longer, encompassing their whole talk and not cutting off after Yang's reveal. Instead of forcing it, I decided to take my time; this story's already long, so what's a few thousand more words going to do? I approached it with a very defined goal of what Raven is trying to accomplish, how Yang would perceive this, and at what point would Yang get overwhelmed and begin reacting emotionally instead of rationally. The scene as it exists wrote itself from there.**

 **And now we have Yang going behind Jaune's back a little bit, although Yang very obviously knows what she's doing and has some sort of plan, as opposed to Pyrrha, who has only been played so far. As far a parallels go, this could certainly be one. All that Pyrrha has done so far is get used, make things worse for Jaune, and confused herself in the process; will Yang fare better?**

 _ **Is there anyway that Yang could even fare** **worse?**_

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _AvantGuarde_

 **I haven't spotlighted criticisms in a while, and I wasn't planning to do so here originally. There was an issue early on in the week were an anon left a review about unfollowing the story, but was nice enough about it that I shrugged it off. People get tired off/fed-up with stories all the time, and in this case it was over the pairing looking less and less like Arkos. That's okay with me, as I am personally a _super_ picky reader when it comes to the fics I read. I've stopped reading stuff for much less significant reasons than disliking a pairing. **

**The problem was that one of MoNT's fans left their own anon review calling out the first anon review. While I was tickled by the dedication, I don't want you guys starting fights in my reviews, especially over something that I didn't find distasteful. If there's ever just a straight-up bad, hateful, or trollish anon, I'll just delete the review. I haven't had to do that yet (outside of those spam bots a few weeks ago), and I don't like the idea of having to do it. I even went and left my own review warning you guys not to pick on other anons for silly reasons.**

 **Naturally, that review I left myself was the 500th review of the story. _Great._ I ruined that for myself. So, I decided that I wasn't gonna spotlight **_Avant_ **because there was already a bit of a chippy feeling in the air after that first anon incident, and because I couldn't really address a lot of the issues pointed out without spoiling the upcoming plot.**

 **But, several other users directly** **echoed** _Avant_ **'s post, to the point where I feel like it would be avoiding the issue.**

* * *

 **As such, this Comment of the Week comes with a SPOILER WARNING. There is no way that I feel I can respond to the points listed without delving into future events or planned pay-offs. I'll do my best not to give specifics, but some general ideas of where the story is going may be given away below. I'll respond to the three points listed in order to save time and space.**

 **If you didn't read** _Avant_ **'s review, or don't agree with it, or don't care, then you'll get absolutely nothing out of the extremely long section below. Feel free to skip down to the** _Turquoise Leaf_ **section, or just move on with your life.**

* * *

"1. Jaune's Questionable Judgement:

"Chapter 1 establishes Jaune's motivations and personality for entering Beacon as someone who wants to escape the murderous Branwen Tribe for the sake of his innate morals. Jaune is consistently portrayed in this story from Chapter 1 to be analytical and self-aware. Hence, I fail to understand why Jaune suddenly decides to antagonize and draw the attention of the powerful authority figures – most notably Goodwitch.

It is emphasized that Jaune wants to avoid being in the spotlight by trying to escape being the leader. Within days, Jaune decides to antagonize Goodwitch and makes a pattern over the weeks. The best examples would be the overly dramatic method of DQ'ing himself in the spar against Ruby when better options are available, playing the fool at Forever Fall, and then again at the Food Fight scene. I understand that the story is already cemented, but I fail to see Jaune's logic in doing this, knowing that it would cause massive problems, which it did in later chapters."

 **Ah, a lot of this comes from way back in the earlier chapters when Glynda's presence was a constant thing. The problem here is that, yeah, some of this was caused by me writing while looking too far ahead and letting the needs of the plot dictate what must happen. That's not all that happened, though; some of this _is_ intentional. **

**As you'll recall, Jaune was given direct advice on how to get into Beacon by Raven, and then on how to best carry himself while in Beacon. It was the first part that's still causing him problems: draw Ozpin's attention and he'll give you preferential treatment, as long as he is curious. The second part pertained to not forming personal attachments. Vernal herself undermined Raven when she told Jaune that** _they never expected him to follow Raven's advice_ **. It would have been nice, sure, as it would have kept Jaune isolated from forming attachments and it would have kept the pressure of Ozpin's attention on him, keeping him from being able to get away with much. Both of these create favorable conditions for Raven, because it keeps Jaune from branching out and getting help against her, and from being able to maneuver against her easily.**

 **The problem was that there has been a massive inflation between when this set up happened, and when it was supposed to pay off. Since this disconnect is causing problems, I went ahead and had Jaune think through some of it earlier when he was on his way to Cinder, but ideally we would have learned this in the coming chapters as Raven interacts more.**

 **That massive inflation? Yeah, I know what caused it, too. In my original outline, Yang didn't find out about Jaune and Raven until nigh on V4-era events, possibly even early V5. Yang discovering Jaune's secret just fit itself way too perfectly into how the story was evolving, and what we have going now is way better than my original outline, which didn't really have _any_ sort of romantic connection. Now it has two competing(ish) ones. **

**That pushed the pay-off for Raven's intentionally bad advice back, which exaggerated this problem. I can't say with confidence that looking back, it will _all_ look like a stroke of genius on my part, but it will not nearly stick out so badly.**

 **And to be completely honest, some of the Glynda teasing was just me being a jackass and finding it funny, which I felt at the time was justified, because Jaune is also a bit of a jackass, and as a jackass, sometimes we do boneheaded things despite knowing better. _I did one such thing recently._**

"2. The Plot's Pyrrha Bias:

Something I observed when reading Pyrrha's segments is that the story/plot conveniently bends to ensure she avoids any negative consequences. There are numerous examples of this. Pyrrha does not have to give a secret in Nora's trust bonding exercise when everyone else in her team has given a deep secret. Again, when JNPR is sharing their Semblances which are personal, secret matters given as a show of trust, the plot ensures Pyrrha is exempt.

Then there's the big one where Pyrrha tries to manslaughter Jaune in a fit of rage. No one talks about it, Jaune forgives her within a conversation, and JNPR and RWBY don't care at all. The Beacon students don't treat Pyrrha any differently, the video recording doesn't cause any backlash internationally, and Pyrrha's secret Semblance being revealed has no effect. Contrast this to how everyone reacts after Jaune dislocates Ruby's ankle which, while bad, is magnitudes lighter than what Pyrrha tried to do.

Currently, we have Pyrrha spying on Jaune for someone that Jaune has stated he is wary of and spilling massive secrets like the Arc Family File which rational people would assume is a trusted secret with no remorse and no intention of stopping. Like many other reviewers, I hope that Pyrrha can finally receive justice when her long term betrayal of trust comes to light.

Also, there is a gem where Pyrrha has the feat of defeating 3 professional Huntsmen without falling into the yellow. It just begs the question if Pyrrha is so above everyone at everything that matters, what is she even doing in Beacon. IMO, Professor Arc: Student of Vacuo had a great fanon for Pyrrha's history where the Mistral Tournament was divided up into age brackets. Consequently, that story has Pyrrha depicted as a top tier duelist for her age.

I'm not sure whether this is subconscious bias from the author who said Pyrrha is one of their favourite characters."

 **"the author" lol. My friends call me Ike, ya know, as well as my enemies (looking dead at you,** _Turquoise_ **). Feel free to throw my name in there. It sounds more personal that way.**

 **As for this point... I will be honest, this one _confounds_ me. Honestly, it confounds me, but I think I've narrowed it down to partially suffering from the same issue as above, where the build-up has not had a chance to be resolved and it has been a while. I've mentioned somewhere that the longer Pyrrha goes behind Jaune's back without being discovered, the worse it will be when she is discovered. **

**Are you ready for the real SPOILER part? It really confused me that everyone agreed that the plot favors Pyrrha, because I know _exactly_ what is going to happen in this plot, and I honestly was worried it would be anti-Pyrrha when it's all said and done. I've tried to let her have some favorable characterizations and given her the benefit of the doubt, because it gets rough to be Pyrrha Nikos in the end. This story is not Arkos. It's Dragonslayer, in case that hasn't been increasingly obvious over the past two weeks. **

**You hope for justice for Pyrrha. Justice is a great ideal. Justice is also boring. Justice is a rational response to a situation, and quite frankly, irrational responses, actions driven by emotion, passion, and impulse, are a lot more interesting.**

 **It probably didn't help that, yeah, looking back there are a lot of small things that added up in Pyrrha's favor. Pyrrha didn't have to tell everyone her secret Semblance during the Semblance discussion because I wanted to highlight that Jaune did _not_ know her Semblance, because in the fight the next day, he would deduce it and then come up with a counter on the fly. That wasn't done for Pyrrha's benefit. Likewise, there haven't been any consequences to her Semblance being exposed yet, but that saves Cinder and her team a step in their original plan of exploiting Pyrrha.**

 **Some of the other things had planned payoffs, but the Yang Inflation has pushed them back. Pyrrha being forgiven for nearly killing Jaune, for example, was supposed to have a quicker payoff because the V3 Arc was supposed to be finished by now.**

 **There was a bit of me going soft on her, but it was somewhat intentional. That has a definite end point.**

"3. Ozpin and Goodwitch:

A similar point could be said about Goodwitch about escaping negative consequences, which has been noted by other reviewers.

However, there is the dramatic irony that the readers know that the Ozluminati are corrupt, are filled with nepotism and live by For The Greater Good, so Goodwitch getting away is to be expected.

If the dramatic irony was deliberate, this would be something to praise the story for."

 **Okay, now you're actually making me think here. _Was that intentional?_ I'm tempted to say yes, but I'm also tempted to accept any and all praise whatsoever, so I'm hesitant to trust myself here.**

 **Glynda was, quite frankly, almost absent from the initial outline of the story, if I remember correctly. Most of her role in the story was not planned out, and instead let her serve as a flexible role, sort of a combination of what needed to happen to progress the plot and what I felt her character would do in her situations.**

 **From Ozpin's perspective, of course Glynda shouldn't have been punished. She was far too valuable to Ozpin to actually get rid of, and since those events happened, we've seen that Ozpin is willing to overlook your shortcomings and focus on the good you did (see his reaction to Lionheart in V6). I didn't know that at the time, but to Ozpin (through my pen), the notion that Glynda should be punished for making Ozpin's work in the long-run easier is foolish.**

 **Glynda's actions and gut-level instincts lead to a situation where Pyrrha was emotionally unstable and manipulable and where Jaune was forced to realize that he needed to reach out to his team better. Both are positive outcomes to Ozpin. If the natural result of keeping Glynda around is _that_ , then on a pragmatic level, Ozpin should have rewarded her. **

**So...I think that means that it was intentional. I don't think that at the time, I would have articulated it so precisely, and even now this took me longer to wrap my head around than I would care to admit. If what I described is what you were getting at, then it came about not from foresight and design, but because I wrote it off a gut-level understanding of how Glynda and Ozpin's dynamic work.**

 **That said, Ozpin's machinations throughout the rest of the story are planned ahead of time. It was just this one spot with Glynda that wasn't.**

"In summary, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story. There are some quibbles outside of my 3 main critques, but they are either ignorable or trivial. For the most part, the story is good quality, has a decent protagonist and a reasonably compelling plot."

 **Welcome to the story. Glad to have ya!**

* * *

"Join the server and sign my petition for revolt. You may even become my apprentice." - _Turquoise Leaf_

 **He's not kidding. At one point, at least half of the Discord had joined his Militia (although I suspect they didn't even realize it), and he's had several apprentices. He casts off the old one when he picks a new one, strictly observing the Rule of Two.**

 **Right now, his apprentice is... no one. _It could be you, sign up now at:_**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter **g** ee_ ) ( _the letter **g** ee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

[ note: Discord under attack from radical Texans. Long story. May let it die and remake it; unclear as of 6/14/2019 ]

* * *

"what if ikedawg23 IS turquoise leaf omg I hadn't thought about it before. can't trust anyone at this point" - _Boerhae_

 **First of all, it's Ikedawg 43. Get it right.  
Second, this was a legitimate discussion/concern we had on Discord: what if Ike is just having a mental breakdown and is developing split personalities? **

**We decided that:**

 _Turquoise_ **is my self-hatred  
My sister is my effeminate side  
** _Avidlag_ **is my something or other, probably self-love idk sorry bro you weren't memorable  
** _Mr. Dicko_ **is my british psyche(?)  
** _Urban Something_ **is the mommy side of my psyche(?)**

 **Things got weird, y'all.**

 **Yeah, not a great theory, but hey, join now and we might discover which of my split personalities _you_ are.**

 **xD see y'all next week**

* * *

 **EDIT:** _Avidlag_ **wanted it noted that he was the first one to think about Neo's Semblance and the implications that she could be naked. That lead to a healthy debate on the possibilities of her Semblance on the Discord, but it is true that he was the first to be thinking about Neo naked... :P**


	41. Lessons to be learned

**Stealth Edit: This chapter is alternatively titled _Hi mom, part 2_. That is all.**

* * *

 **Author's Note: Well, one of three finals down. Monday's final will be easy, since it is open-book and the textbook is online-only. That adds up to an open-computer final, and it's my easy class anyways. The one on Wednesday will not be so forgiving, nor so easy. yay.**

 **Not much else to report. Come join the Discord if you enjoy weird internet discourse mixed with arguing between 'brits and yanks.'**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter **g** ee_ ) ( _the letter **g** ee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 39:** _"Family should be chosen, not assigned by whoever you happen to be born with." – Raven Branwen_

* * *

Raven's POV

* * *

"How long have you known?" I asked Yang gruffly, fixing her with a stare as I tried to think over our previous conversation with this new information in mind.

"Not very long. Maybe a week or two," she answered back just as coldly as I had asked. Her posture was much like mine, pretending to be slack and relaxed by folding her arms, but being tense and rigid within that form. I was currently leaned against the roof's support beam, but to say that I looked relaxed would be a lie.

"That must have been quite the fun revelation," I pointed out with a slight smirk, imagining how that conversation had to have played itself out. By Qrow's account, Yang certainly grew into quite the temper, which she comes by naturally. Having a Semblance tied into it would just encourage recklessness, hotheadedness, and a short fuse, to the point where confronting her with something she would _not_ want to hear would be a recipe for disaster. "Then again, if you're here on his behalf now, then maybe it went better than I would have expected."

"I _was_ here on his behalf," Yang corrected dramatically. "Our plan was for me to hear you out, and then leave _without_ you finding out that I know. I had…something else in mind. Jaune doesn't need to know for now."

"Oh, I'm sure he'll hear it from me soon enough," I drawled, my voice low and my lips pulled into an agitated frown. One of the great advantages of creating portals was being able to confront people immediately, giving them no time to think of an excuse ahead of time. By springing her knowledge of Jaune onto me, Yang had actually done a decent job herself of throwing a wrench into what I had prepared to say. _Of course, intimidation provides a lot more pressure, and Yang can't really intimidate me all that well._ No where near the fear I can put into Jaune when properly motivated.

"No, he won't. This chat is going to be our secret. You're not going to do a thing to Jaune for bringing me into this." Yang had given up on pretending to be relaxed, letting her arms fall down to her sides and standing up straight, staring at me with a stern glare and resolve in her eyes.

"I hate to break it to you, but there's not a lot that can be done to stop me," I responded, speaking down at Yang as if she were a child to irritate her. She didn't rise to the bait, though, leaving me with perhaps even more evidence that she is not what I was led to believe she was. _She's surpassing expectations easily, so far; maybe there really is a reason that she's Oz's pick._

"There's not a lot that _Jaune_ can do to stop you," Yang corrected, an arrogant or cocky edge to her voice that I would recognize anywhere. It sounded just like me, about to spring a trap on someone. "Jaune doesn't have anywhere else to turn. He's ruled Ozpin out as an option, meaning he doesn't have much to use against you. _I_ have no such problems."

My expression hardened as Yang met my eyes, a confidence there that bordered on smugness, confirmed once again that she was _my_ offspring, assuredly.

"If you're getting in bed with Ozpin, then clearly you're not as close to Jaune as you insinuate," I stated, again trying to speak down at Yang to keep control over the atmosphere of the conversation.

"Or I'm just doing what I can to get stronger before ditching," Yang countered, throwing the words in my face smugly. "I have a legacy to uphold, after all."

My face flattened and I growled my displeasure at her insult, but she continued before I could come up with a good beratement.

"It wouldn't matter if I'm working with Ozpin or not. Jaune doesn't realize the leverage he _does_ have against you, since he has to go to Ozpin to use it. Let's just say that, should you do _anything_ to Jaune, Ozpin will found out that you're the Spring Maiden, that you tried to steal _his_ Maiden, and that you're planning to strike Haven for its Relic." She spit her words out coldly but smugly, confident that they would be enough. While we both knew that she was making that last part up, it was believable enough when taken in context with the other points; manipulative, for certain, and easily enough to mobilize Beacon against me. "Hell, I may throw in a line about you being the one to attack the Fall Maiden, just to be safe."

"You would do all of that to the only mother you have left?" I asked, putting on an imitation of broken-heartedness and committing it to distract Yang from her point. Her threat wasn't an insignificant one and did provide a solid counter that would make me striking against Jaune more difficult, if I had any intention of killing one of my protegees. Still, I couldn't let her feel like she was winning this conversation, even if we both know that she's had the upper-hand since dropping Jaune's name on me.

"You'd be doing it to yourself," she spat back, a sharp frown the only rise I got out of bringing up Summer.

Silence fell between us as we stared each other down for a few moments, Yang not budging an inch and really staring much more harshly at me that I was at her. I let my expression soften and my curiosity show as I looked over Yang with a fresh appreciation for her. Where I had come here thinking her hot-headed, short-tempered, and short-sighted from Qrow's descriptions and emotional with abandonment issues from Jaune's briefing, I was met now with a fiercely determined young woman with a chip on her shoulder and an iron resolve, who glared at me like I was the Queen of the Grimm. _That last part is no doubt Jaune's influence, but the rest of it?_ Well, she was coming out guns-blazing and letting me know that she had a penchant for manipulation, as well as a much deeper appreciation for how things worked than Taiyang's daughter should have. Whether or not that was Jaune's influence or a trait inherited from me, it was certainly endearing.

"I'll admit, I am impressed," I spoke with a smirk, raising my hands a bit and showing them to be empty to calm things between us down. "You came here, fooled me once by hiding what you knew, and then backed me into a corner while you had the element of surprise. Not bad at all."

"You think I need your praise?" Yang grumbled at me.

"No, I'm beginning to suspect that you're more than I anticipated. I would doubt that my opinion matters to you in the slightest." Yang forced herself to relax a bit, and I used the lull in the conversation to roll and stretch my neck before continuing. "Well, here we are. We've agreed to a truce, and nothing that's spoken here will make it back to Jaune…not from me, at least. Why are we here, Yang?"

"You know why we're here."

"No," I cut back sharply, "I really don't." I made it clear with those words that I wasn't dodging her accusation or trying to get out of admitting something, but that whatever she was after was not as clear as she thought it to be. "You're going to have to be more direct."

"We're here because of Jaune," Yang said, the drawl in her voice making it clear that she expected this to be obvious, or suspected me of playing dumb.

"Yes," I added on slowly, watching her reaction curiously. "Even more so than I originally suspected, it would seem." Her statement would have been technically correct even if she hadn't revealed just how much she actually knew to me; Jaune _was_ the reason we were meeting, though I thought that he was keeping secrets about me from Yang, not the other way around.

"And you're _not_ going to take that out on him," Yang cut in with an edge as she caught my meaning there.

"Yes," I responded slowly again, dragging my words out. "You're made it clear that you're prepared for things to get messy. So long as this talk goes somewhere, I'm fine with keeping this secret." There was too much going on here that I didn't quite have figured out, but the early returns were _ever_ so interesting.

"Why do you hate him?"

I frowned at the question, not because of its implication, but because it was such a blatant set-up question. Did she really think that she could get me to loosen up by asking easy questions to get me talking? That was such a basic tool for manipulating people that I was actually insulted that she thought it would be that easy, so I decided to give her such a curt and flat answer that she wouldn't get anything out of it.

"I don't."

Except…from the way she stared at me, the way she didn't acknowledge my response, and the intense yet frail look in her eye, it became obvious to me that this _wasn't_ a poor set-up tactic. _That was an actual, honest question._

I let out a surprised and bemused chuff, catching myself before out-right laughing at her.

"You're serious?" I asked incredulously, only to be met by more of the same look from Yang. The tension in the air broke as I looked away from Yang to drop my head down, shaking my head and stifling my laughter as best I could. "Is that what all of this is about?"

Yang's expression remained, though flattened in irritation over being laughed at.

"If I had my doubts that Jaune filled you in, they're _certainly_ gone now. Everything you know about me comes from him, doesn't it?" Yang's face belied her uncertainty now, and her silence confirmed my question. _Fucking hilarious, she doesn't realize it either._ "No wonder you look at me like I'm about to drown a kitten. I can only image what sort of nonsense Jaune's filled your head with."

"What is _that_ supposed to mean?" Yang asked defensively, upset at my characterization of Jaune, which did not slip my notice.

"Tell me, what stories about me has Jaune told you?"

"He's told me what you do," Yang answered back with some hostility. "That you're a thief, a killer, a bandit who prays on innocents and only looks out for herself."

She didn't realize it, but her very words sounded _so_ dramatic that there was almost no way she wasn't repeating Jaune verbatim, or if she wasn't, then she didn't even realize that she was channeling him.

"Oh, so he never told you how he learned to read? He never told you who taught him how to fight, or how to hunt? He never mentioned who went out of their way to attack a fucking mattress store just so everyone could sleep better after _he_ kept complaining about it?" I asked, a bit of an edge to my voice but enough bemusement there to drown it out. It was honestly hard to laugh at seeing Jaune reflected so obviously on Yang. There was clear hesitance on her face, though, as this was clearly the first time that anyone had actually challenged these things in front of her. "That figures. Jaune has a blind-spot for me the size of Atlas. He conveniently only sees what he wants to see, and he only wants to see reasons to hate me. I'd call it a teenage rebellion phase, but he's far too dramatic for it to be just that."

"Can you blame him?" Yang asked pointedly, kicking herself out of her stupor. "I think I would overlook a few nice things you did for me too! You have him fighting for his life!"

"Do I?" I asked with a cocky grin that just kept spreading.

"Yes!"

"And tell me, daughter, _who_ told you that?"

Yang's mouth opened for a split-second, before closing again as the gears started turning in her head.

" _Jaune_ did, of course," I answered for her, reveling in this moment. "And I've already told you that he only sees the worst in everything I do. It would make sense that he only attributes the worst motives to me, would it not?"

Yang's tense silence spoke volumes. She had evidently taken the stakes Jaune was so convinced of at face value.

"That's just adorable," I drawled sarcastically. "You two must be really close to start sharing the same flawed outlook on life…"

"I-I… We're…" Yang's surprise at my insinuation was evident on her face, if the way she fumbled her words wasn't a dead giveaway. It was pretty similar to how Jaune would act whenever I would tease him about trying to hit up the girls at Beacon—Yang, usually, since she's one of two whose names I know, and because it elicited such a great response from him. Now, though, it was actually looking like he might have actually taken my advice there. _That would put him 3-for-3 on taking advice that I expected him to do the opposite of out of spite._ "We're…close, yes. We had to be in order to discuss all of…this."

"Well, I have to say, I'm not sure that it's normal for your mother to be the subject of your pillow talk, but hey, whatever gets you two off…" I threw one hand up nonchalantly, making a show of how much I didn't care just to exaggerate things further.

Against her will, her cheeks heated up in embarrassment, despite the angry look she tried to give me to hide it. _Adorable. I'll be a grandmother before I'm 45._

"I don't know what you're talking about," Yang responded, trying to put my insinuation beneath her. "We haven't done anything like that."

"What, you two _haven't_ banged yet?... Actually, that figures." I made a show of rolling my eyes and looking disinterested in the conversation by examining my nails. "If you did, then maybe the both of you wouldn't be wound up so tightly."

" _Excuse me?!_ "

"Like that," I called out suddenly, putting Yang on the back foot as I gestured over her loosely. "If you two would hook up, it would make dealing with both of you _so_ much easier."

"Can we _please_ get back to the real conversation here?" Yang asked, her frustration finally cracking her put-on calm as her eyes finally flashed red.

"I would, but you still won't tell me what this conversation is even _about_ , so I've had to fill things in on my own," I answered back sharply, dropping my teasing tone and staring Yang down. She tensed up as she realized what had happened and that I had outmaneuvered her pretty easily once I got her flustered. "Now, are you going to stop beating around the bush, or are you going to keep accusing me of ridiculous plots against one of my own people?"

"Ridiculous?" Yang repeated, half-scoffing the word, before trying to focus in on what I had said. It was too little, too late, though. "So you're confirming that you're _not_ planning on killing him?"

"I'm not answering that again," I responded flatly, crossing my arms and giving Yang a flat look. She waited for me to say something, so I made it clear from my silence that the only way the conversation she wanted would go forward is if she pushed it that way.

"What…" Yang trailed off, taking a sharp breath and biting her lip before finally settling on the question she wanted to ask. "What are your… _intentions_ for Jaune?"

It wasn't a terrible question to ask…if I was a genie that was required to answer. It _would_ have given her all the insight she needed to figure things out, but that would be _way_ too easy and I have no guarantee that this wouldn't make it back to Jaune anyways. Besides, just giving her the answer wouldn't be nearly as alluring as letting her try to piece together my intentions over the coming days. The longer it takes her, the more time I spend on her mind, and as long as she's realizing that my intentions are not nearly as evil as Jaune likes to describe them as, then that can only be good for me in the long run.

Minds aren't changed overnight, and neither are hearts won over that way.

"What does _he_ think they are? Honestly," I added on that last part as Yang started to object to me dodging the question. I was, but I made it clear that I really did need to know what Jaune thought in order to answer, meaning I would be coming away with better information than Jaune would ever have dared to reveal.

"He…" she trailed off nearly immediately, biting her lip and giving me a nervous, uncertain look.

"Speak freely," I coaxed, fighting the urge to roll my eyes. "I already said this stays between us."

"He feels trapped, cornered. He refuses to go to Ozpin even if it could save him from you." I nodded absently to show I was following along. _It would appear that at least_ one _of the actual lessons that I wanted him to learn stuck with him._ "He's afraid of what you're going to do to him, when— _if_ —he…fails you."

"Betrays," I cut in, saying the word she had clearly tried to avoid. Her eyes went wide in panic for a moment, before I waved off her concerns with my hand. "What, you think I don't know? You think he doesn't know that I know? You can relax, Yang; you didn't tell me anything new. _Of course_ he's going to try his luck. It's what _I_ 'd do in his position."

"He…it's really life or death to him. If you don't explain your intentions to him, he's…going to do something drastic."

"Stupid, more like," I commented off-hand, and while Yang didn't look comfortable with my appraisal, she did not disagree. "No. No, I'm not going to explain this to him. That would be too easy. He would learn nothing."

"But—"

"I sent him to Beacon for a reason," I cut Yang off harshly, harsher than most other times tonight. Yang took the hint and shut up, waiting silently for me to continue. "He may think it was random, or that it was to keep tensions low, or that I wanted to use him as a spy, or even that I just wanted to punish him by forcing him onto Ozpin; I honestly doubt that he realizes how intentional it really was, but there was a _reason_ , Yang. _We_ , the Tribe, raised that boy for fourteen years. Whatever minor arguments we may have, I would not jeopardize that on a whim."

"Then what's the reason?"

"There is a lesson he needs to learn, about—" _about himself,_ "—well, he needs to figure that out, too. He can't see it because he refuses too, has _always_ refused to. Beacon was a more drastic measure to try to get him to see it, which hasn't yet paid off. If holding his feet to the fire is what it takes to get it through his thick skull, then so be it. At this point, the irony of the lesson is so damn thick that I'm afraid he might choke to death on it without ever realizing it." A concern that was figurative, sure, but given how desperate he may be acting, could very well end up prophetic.

"Then _what_ is the lesson?!"

Despite her frustration, I took a few second to look over Yang a little longer, before confirming to myself that this was the right play.

"You know, when I came here, I was convinced that I was coming to meet Tai's brat," I deflected a bit, earning a suspicious (and agitated) look from Yang. "Qrow's told me before about your Semblance and behavior, and Jaune's little briefing did an excellent job of playing that up. I fully expected to have me fears confirmed; that you were a loud-mouthed, short-tempered, soft-hearted, weak-willed peon happy to do what you were told as long as they told you it was for a good cause. And don't get me wrong, I can absolutely see flashes of it in you…"

" _But?_ "

"I see something else, too. Something…better, stronger. Coming into this, I never would have thought that Jaune's lesson could be useful for you too, but it seems I was mistaken."

"What does that mean?"

"Well, that's the game, isn't it?" I asked, letting a cheeky grin slip free. "The lesson only helps you if you figure it out on your own, but maybe you can help each other. You go back to Jaune, tell him that your plan worked and that you think that I'll back off if he doesn't provoke me. I, in turn, won't do anything irreparable to him, but I'll still be there, passively pressuring him until one of you finally puts it all together."

"And when that happens?" Yang asked, her head cocked to the side as she very clearly tried to decide whether to trust me or not.

I shrugged, turning my palms up and tilting my head to the side in my normal, cocky, slow manner, making it seem like I didn't have a long-term plan. She fell for it.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there. Do we have a deal?"

I walked forward slowly until I was within hand-shaking distance, offering my hand out and waiting with a coy smile. Yang stared down at it as if my fingers might turn into snakes or a blade might shoot out of my palm, before looking back up at me and studying my face for any hint of deceit. Even if I _was_ lying to her about my larger intentions, she wouldn't have found any evidence of it in my expression.

Her hand shot out suddenly, gripping mine tensely.

"Deal."

* * *

Ozpin's POV

* * *

If the sound of the elevator doors opening and someone walking forward did not alert me to Winter Schnee's arrival, then the force with which Qrow's eyes rolled at the sight of his… _rival_ most certainly did. I greeted her without ever looking up from my computer, with Winter returning the greeting. Qrow and Winter greeted each other as civilly as could be expected, which meant that they both made eye contact for a moment and probably thought something degrading about the other.

"You asked to see me, sir?" Winter asked after she had arrived to stand in front of my desk. Qrow had already turned around and walked off to go stand around by the window, resigning himself to waiting for this to be done.

"I did. I'll be quick about this, too," I added on, letting her know not to bother taking a chair. "This is about your assignment here at Beacon, the research into our freshman class. You're being reassigned."

"I'm—" she cut herself off sharply as she forced composure back onto herself. "Excuse me?"

"That was poorly phrased," I said gently to dispel any notions of failure. It was more to keep Qrow from finding an excuse to jump in and antagonize than anything else. "As you're aware, Atlas is in charge of the security of the Vytal Festival, and right now, James could certainly use all the help he can get. Having one of his top specialists on loan to me is making things more difficult than they need to be." _Although I would be lying to say that after the way in which James lobbied to take control of security from me, that seeing him stressed doesn't please me little._

"I understand."

"He won't put in an official order until tomorrow morning as a courtesy to me, and as a chance for you to pass off what you have."

Winter nodded once. "Of course. Who will I be handing off to?"

I cut my eyes towards Qrow in an obvious manner, and Winter followed suit, although she cut her eyes much more flatly than I did. Qrow, for what it was worth, remained leaned against the wall and staring out the window, almost as if he was posing on purpose. _He's certainly dramatic enough to do so._

"While I'm sure that you're fond of the idea of Qrow being stuck behind a desk, sorting through papers all day, I believe the body of work you've completed is sufficient for us to move on to studying certain cases more closely."

"I wouldn't say that the work was anything bad," Winter cut in politely, though a bit awkwardly.

"Nonsense," I answered, dismissing the thought with a wave of my hand. "The task you had was important, but utterly tedious and mind-numbing. You have all of Beacon's gratitude for taking that on." I smirked a bit at my own exaggeration, even if as Headmaster I had the authority to make such encompassing claims for the school. "I know that I personally am thankful that I didn't have to do it."

"I—it was nothing. I'm glad to have been of use," Winter answered awkwardly, a bit put off by my light-hearted exaggeration and also a bit embarrassed by the attention. Fortunately, Qrow still had not deigned to look towards us, otherwise a world war was liable to begin if he were to comment on Winter's embarrassment.

"If you don't mind saving me a little time catching up on where things stand now, are there any more students that you believe need to be watched more closely?"

"No additional students since we last spoke of it, no," Winter answered back. "It could not hurt to do an additional check on all students who did not come from formal training academies, but the only case I found truly of note was that of Team CRDL." _And Mr. Arc, of course, though that's more just assumed at this point._

"Disappointing that there wasn't anything else to have justified the time you spent on this, but I do suppose it is for the best that the students of Beacon and Atlas are _not_ criminals." Winter gave a small nod to show that she had to agree with that point, although she was not making a huge effort to hide that it _had_ been a large project. "You should be proud of how quickly you progressed through this. Shade Academy sent word that they're half-way done with their end, and I've yet to even _hear_ back from Mistral."

"Can't say I'm surprised," Qrow cut in finally, though still staring out the window. "Leonardo doesn't exactly have a history of punctuality."

Winter's eyes shot to me curiously as she picked up on the grudge held in Qrow's tone.

"He's just upset that Headmaster Lionheart once forgot about a meeting and wasted a whole day of Qrow's time," I explained with a small grin. "Do you have anything to contribute, Qrow, or are you just going to insult my colleagues and stare longingly into the distance?"

"No, that's about it."

"Is that all?" Winter asked, cutting in over Qrow and getting us back on track.

"It is, yes. I'll send Qrow down to you in a moment so you can brief him over everything you have, but I need to have a word with him first." I gave Winter a brief nod, which she returned. "You're dismissed, Specialist."

Winter wasted no time in getting into the elevator, leaving us alone.

"Team CRDL, huh?" Qrow asked, finally leaning up from his spot on the wall and approaching me. "I'm going to go on a limb here and say that they somehow connect back to your little pet project."

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean," I lied with a smirk, though I hid it with a sip from my mug.

"You know what, fine. Don't tell me, but don't play dumb. I know this ties back to the Arc kid somehow."

"If you say so."

"What do you want me to do about them? CRDL, I mean."

"I got a chance to look at the data for CRDL's scroll usage by time and location while you and Winter were out on mission. They're not…subtle," I said, not really finding the best way to describe CRDL's methods. They were clearly cautious enough not to take their scrolls with them, but also clearly out of their depth. "A couple of nights each week, all four of their scrolls are turned off completely, then all come back on at roughly the same time."

"They don't want to be tracked?"

"Indeed." They could at least leave a couple of the scrolls on and sitting in their dorm room, but the fact that they didn't indicates that they're not master criminals or particularly good at this sort of thing, which again is technically good. "I've gone ahead and written an alert to let me know the next time that all four of their scrolls go offline."

"And you want me to tail them, huh?"

I nodded in confirmation then took a sip of coffee.

"Alright, easy enough. If they usually move at night, it should only make being spotted harder. Black feathers tend to blend in pretty well. What do you suspect I'll find?"

"Confirmation, at the very least," I answered plainly. "If they are the ones who have been causing your sources to run dry, then you might just get a chance to see them in action. With that confirmed, I'll go ahead and interview their leader and see if he can be leveraged."

" _Leveraged_ , huh?" Qrow asked, giving me a half-lidded look. "No prizes for guessing who you're using him against. What about the Maiden?"

"What about it?"

"Have you at least picked a candidate?" Qrow asked flatly.

"I…believe I might have found a preferable outcome, yes," I answered carefully. Telling Qrow my plans wouldn't diminish them in any way, but it was still something I wanted to play close to the chest. Qrow recognized this, and while it may frustrate him, he's always trusted my decisions. "It's all about taking the steps to push everything to that outcome."

"…why do I feel like that somehow includes Jaune Arc?"

I took a sip of coffee to essentially confirm that I was about to lie.

"I have no idea."

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

It's not that I didn't have faith in Yang. At this point, I had at the very least put my freedom in her hands, if not my whole life should Raven be in a bad mood. Doing that required a tremendous amount of trust and faith in Yang, even if I didn't have any other good options.

But just because I had faith in Yang, that doesn't mean that my nerves weren't fraying further with each second that I heard from neither her nor Raven. When I left Beacon after meeting with Cinder, I still hadn't heard anything, which meant that their talk was lasting over an hour at that point. Even though my meeting with Cinder had been brief, travel time to Beacon plus waiting on Cinder to arrive had added up.

Once down in Vale, I had to decide where to make my stand, should the worst come to pass. I wanted to go back to the safehouse Neo was letting me stay in and just start boobytrapping the thing, maybe even setting up a dead-man's switch sort of thing, where if Raven tried to kill me then she would doom herself. It wasn't a _great_ idea, since I would die and since I can't live the rest of my life surrounded by enough explosives to keep Raven from ever trying something; her portals complicated that. _All that would do is buy me a day for her to cool off, so that hopefully she would decide against trying again._

There were easier ways to buy me a day or so, with the one I picked being to stay in public. Raven certainly wouldn't be squeamish about killing someone in public, but to do so in a highly populated area carried with it externalities that she would _not_ like. For one, she couldn't risk using her Maiden powers with that many witnesses, evening the playing field somewhat, even if not completely. There was also the risk that she would be caught murdering a student of Beacon on camera, which would not be something that Ozpin would let go. Staying in public also had the added benefit of not having to worry about keeping my scroll off for fear of it being tracked to Neo's safehouse, which was important as I was waiting for an all-clear text from Yang.

It was dark out, which meant that it was socially acceptable to get a drink to calm my nerves, even if drinking alone wasn't exactly the most uplifting thing in the world. I was worried about finding a bar with enough activity to be considered too crowded for Raven to try anything, but soon came to find that the influx of citizens for the Vytal Festival alleviated those worries. The first sports bar I tried was plenty populated, and I found a booth in the back that was private enough for me to have a nervous breakdown, should things go that far. _It is important to plan for such things, after all; what can go wrong not only will, but will go wrong so severely and spectacularly that you'll wonder for months on end how things ever got that bad._

My order arrived a bit after that, but still before any word from Yang. I wasn't in the mood to eat, but having food in front of me to occupy myself with was better than doing so with alcohol, especially after the fiasco at Junior's. I ordered some entrée that ended up just being fries covered with a suspicious amount of cheese and jalapeños, with a side of some sort of house dipping sauce. I also got two shots of vodka and a beer, all of them the cheapest variety they had. Somewhere in my head I was convinced that the vodka would help calm me down, so as soon as the waitress left, I slammed them both down.

I don't know why I thought cheap vodka would cure more problems than they would cause. The stuff was awful.

Of all the things to distract me, though, the most successful one was one that was unexpected. I received a link texted to me from a random number, which took me to an encrypted webpage with a message reading:

 _Vytal Festival Round 1 matchup for Team JNPR will be against Team BRNZ. See to it that JNPR is victorious.  
-C_

"That was quick," I mumbled to myself as a stared at the screen, before dragging my attention away to dip a fry into the sauce and eat it. It was okay, I guess. I'm a little too distracted to care how it tastes, though.

 _There are a couple of interesting points to take from this._ The strangest was that Cinder seemed so certain of the matchup despite that the Vytal Festival, as far as I was aware, used randomly selected the fights at the time of the fight. This implied she had some way to control the matchups or at least predict them, which implied that maybe they _weren't_ random. With Atlas running the Festival, maybe Ironwood or a team of fight specialists structured brackets so as to ensure the best fights possible. The best handful of fighters would likely make it to the end regardless of what order they fought in, so maybe they just wanted to ensure that all the filler fights were competitive. It was probably more lucrative that way. In any case, I'm not inclined to believe that Cinder _doesn't_ know how the fights will play out.

Less significant was that she wanted JNPR to advance, since she had said as much earlier. With my cooperation offered, having me in the tournament increased the options she had before her, and nothing done here undermined that notion.

Further below that message were text and video files that had been linked below. I opened the first one to find that it contained the Vacuo Academy applications for the four members of Team BRNZ that, while a year or two old at this point, would still give me a solid foundation to understanding my opponents. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the other files were probably footage of their previous fights. _If Cinder could get copies of their applications, then there was no telling what else she had, on them or anyone else; lucky that my application was BS anyways._

I didn't get a chance to open one of the files yet, as my scroll buzzed in my hand and the screen changed to a picture of Yang. Despite having received calls in my life before, I was still so on edge that the sudden vibration caused me to jump and bang my knee on the underside of the table. The bar was loud enough that no one noticed and my Semblance soothed any pain from the action, but calming myself down after that took a few moments.

I answered the call, remaining silent as it connected. In my mind, I was nervous that Raven had figured it all out and was calling me from Yang's scroll to rub it in before she came after me. She's just dramatic enough to do it, too.

" _Hey Jaune—uh, where are you at?"_ Yang asked as the call connected and she appeared on the screen. Relief washed over me and I let myself relax for what felt like the first time in ages.

"Me? I'm at a bar right now. Sorry if it's loud."

" _You're at a bar?"_ she asked flatly. _"You_ do _remember what happened last time you went to a bar, right?"_

"I remember you interrupting a perfectly good assassination, _yeah_ ," I shot back sassily.

" _He still died, didn't he?"_ Yang asked in a voice flatter than, well, Weiss.

"Enough about that," I dismissed, not willing to concede that point, although Yang's satisfied grin told me that she knew she won. "I take it from the fact that I haven't been hunted down yet that everything went well?"

" _It... yeah, it did. We can discuss it later, but I think that maybe things aren't as desperate as they seem."_

"What do you mean?"

" _I know that you warned me that she would have a speech prepared to manipulate me, but I really think that if we let her cool down and don't provoke her, then she won't do anything to you—or us."_

I wasn't convinced immediately, though it did sound really promising _not_ to have to worry about Raven pressuring me as much, and my doubt showed on my face pretty plainly.

" _I get that it sounds unlikely, but I really think it's possible. She spent most of her time trying to explain and…humanize herself."_

"Do you think she was lying?"

" _I_ know _that she was trying to manipulate me, if that's what you're worried about, but I don't think she said anything that wasn't true. And she…she said a lot more than I ever expected to hear, too."_

"Are you okay with how it went?" I asked, focusing in on the vulnerability in her voice there at the end. I lowered my voice and brought the scroll a little closer to my face, as if to hide the question from anyone around.

" _I'm…yeah, I'm fine. It's just a lot to think about for now."_

"You know you don't have to do that alone," I cut in gently, making my offer plain and clear. We would need to discuss how it went eventually, but if she needed it, I could meet her to talk things over now. _Hell, I doubt Neo would care if I had company over, though if she knew it was Yang, she might swing by to try to stab her for old times' sake._

" _I know,"_ she answered gently and graciously, _"but I want a chance to think about them alone first. We'll talk about it tomorrow. Sound good?"_

"Yeah, sounds good." I had some film to study in the meantime anyways, which would be a lot easier now that I wouldn't be trying to distract myself with it. "Oh, hey, Yang?"

" _Hmm?"_ Yang hummed surprised, me catching her attention just before she ended the call.

"Thanks. For all of this."

She did her best to roll her eyes, and it could have been my screen playing tricks on me, but it sure looked like her cheeks reddened just a little.

" _Don't go getting all soft on me now,"_ she drawled, doing her best to shrug it off. _"Yeah, yeah, you're welcome. Don't get into any_ new _trouble while I'm gone."_

"Wouldn't think of it," I lied with a dopey grin, which was returned with a similar one to let me know she knew it was a lie. "Bye, Yang."

" _Bye, Jaune."_

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Ah, so here we go. The table is mostly set now. There are a lot more dominoes set up here than in the show, where it's really only Cinder who has machinations in the works, unless you count Oz trying to preserve his Fall Maiden. Here, Ozpin has plans for his Maidenhood, but everything is a means to a desired end, which clearly involves reeling Jaune in somehow. Neither Jaune nor Cinder will make that easy.**

 **And then there's Raven, who's motives aren't yet perfectly stated, but we got our most honest glimpse into it here. Well, Yang may not have gotten the _most_ honest glimpse, but we as the readers got some context she didn't. Like Oz, she too has a desired outcome, and while Yang's power move here caught her off-guard and made her go off-script, all her actions are to meet that end goal. This stretches all the way back to sending Jaune to Beacon in the first place. _Hell, it stretches back to giving him a new weapon in her color scheme._ **

**We'll get to see more of her goals soon.**

 **If Raven _is_ willing to back off her threats to 'kill' Jaune, which would change pretty much nothing for her since that's mainly Jaune's perception of her, then that would make things much easier on him here. Certainly removes his greatest source of pressure, just in time for a new one to take it's place.**

 **Ozpin, though, does appear to be closing in. We'll have to see how things play out.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by guest

"Sweet, Dragonslayer confirmed. A bit of an odd, not to mention rare Jaune pairing. College Fool's fic was what convinced me to take it as a serious pairing. One Night Brand also, come to think about it.

Avant's suggestion about including a Dragonslayer tag in the summary has some merit. Your choice though, since some authors prefer to keep pairings secret and only reveal them during the story for "organic" flow."

 **Yeah, so that was my original intention, to reveal it as it happened through the story, mostly because I knew it took place decently well along in the story. I didn't want to tag it as YangxJaune and then go, like, 100k words without that being set up. Apparently, that was a good idea, because it's going to take just north of 400k. _Whoops_. **

**If you're talking about College Fool's fic based around Jaune and Yang telling each other pick-up lines as they get drunk, _yes_ , that's a good one. That's probably the earliest Dragonslayer fic I can remember reading. I would definitely recommend it. It's not an extremely long fic, but does a good job accomplishing what it needs in a quick pace. **

**Once the pairing happens, I'll probably add it to the tags and in a note at the beginning of the first chapter. Should be soon.**


	42. Pizza Time!

**Author's Note: Well, this was fun to write.**

 **Oh, and to the troll who wished me bad luck on my finals for revealing a pairing he didn't like:  
1) That's actually a really powerful curse to put on someone. Bravo  
2) It didn't work. Sorry. **

**blah blah Discord server blah blah here's the link if you're interested:**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter **g** ee_ ) ( _the letter **g** ee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 _( note: there's an omake at the bottom. Read, uh, at your own peril. I'm not legally liable for you wanting to gouge your eyes out or for any slips due to liquid-related messes made as a result of reading it... :P )_

* * *

 **Chapter 40:** _"Qrow, you're a former student of Beacon. Do you have any suggestions to improve the living conditions of our students?" – Ozpin"Soundproof the dorm walls." - Qrow Branwen_

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

"You know, this…is not what I expected."

"What _did_ you expect?" Jaune asked back, bemused.

"I don't know. When you said that Neo was letting you stay at a safe house for the week, I didn't envision a place that was…"

" _Normal?_ "

"There aren't nearly as many torture devices laying around," I joked, pointedly not denying his observation. The place was, for all intents and purposes, a normal apartment in a much quieter part of town than I expected. It was a little barren, with a few pieces of plain furniture set up in a way that tried to downplay how empty the place was. A few character pieces that looked right off the shelf placed in places that would help trick the eye into thinking the place was more lived-in. "And before you say it, not the kinky kind, either." Jaune, who had been opening his mouth to speak, shut it disappointedly.

"I wouldn't put it past her either way," he mumbled, continuing on before I could comment on _that_ thought, "but technically, this isn't Neo's apartment. She's just the only one who could get me in here. I'm sure her living-quarters are…unique." Whether that meant her room was as pink as she was or was something straight out of a horror story, I'm not sure. _Do Iron Maidens come in pink?_

"Oh, yeah, how could I forget that it's not just Neo that you're in league with, but _Roman Torchwick_ ," I drawled, fixing Jaune with a flat glare. "How do you plan on explaining that one to your team?"

"The same way I plan on explaining my past to Ozpin," Jaune responded neutrally. "I don't."

"That's the same plan you had for explaining Raven to me, if I recall."

"And that worked out pretty damn well, now, didn't it?" Jaune joked, earning nothing more than an eye-roll from me.

"Sooner or later, you're going to have to reveal it to one of them, if not _all_ of them. _I'll help_ ," I rushed to blurt that last part out to cut Jaune off from objecting before I was finished. "I'll be sure to help smooth things over with the group, but you need to decide how to break it to them."

"Are you _sure_ I can't just ignore it?" Jaune asked, half-playfully and half-pleadingly.

"It's only going to make things worse when they _do_ find out." Jaune's silence and the frown he gave me told me that he was keenly aware of that. "You need to tell Pyrrha soon, if you still think she can help… _this,_ " I said, gesturing loosely to the two of us and more generally to Jaune's plans. "Or at least Blake. She deserves to know _why_ she hasn't been able to stop Vale's White Fang."

"Yeah, that's totally going to happen," Jaune shot back sarcastically. "The last thing I need is _another_ member of Team RWBY pissed at me for a secret connection I hold to their past."

"Jaune, this is Blake we're talking about," I pleaded, ignoring his attempt to deflect and rile me up. "She's not nearly as difficult to handle as I am."

Jaune was actually caught off-guard by that, looking at me as if curious if I had actually just said that about myself.

"What, you think _I_ don't know how hard it can be to deal with me?" I asked rhetorically, giving Jaune a half-lidden look. "Look, Blake isn't as stubborn as—well, as _us_. She'll understand, Jaune. Hell, she only barely trusts me more than you, and I've been her partner this whole time. Honestly, it's a little irritating how well you two got on."

"Aww, _someone_ 's jealous."

" _Someone_ wishes," I cut back cheekily and shooting Jaune a put-on grin. Jaune held my gaze and for a few moments we stared each other down tensely, before Jaune could no longer hold a straight face, looking away and cracking a smile. My grin became genuine as I reveled in the small victory.

"Feel free to make yourself comfortable," Jaune announced, deflecting the topic and gesturing with his arms to the apartment. "I ordered pizza for us, but this place doesn't exactly have a great track record getting here on time." He pointed towards a couple empty pizza boxes stacked by the trash can, which were probably most of his meals for this week. "I figure we can discuss things now and then take a break from all the serious stuff while we eat."

"Sounds good to me," I answered, plopping down on the sofa and doing my best to not imagine what its previous owners had used it for. Chances are, it wasn't used much at all if this place sat empty, but… "Where do you wanna start?"

"How's our cover?" Jaune asked, jumping straight into it so directly that it was pretty obvious he'd be waiting for this. I did make him wait a night so I could clear my head, too, which probably didn't help.

"It worked," I answered calmly, which when combined with my answered put Jaune at ease, if the way he let his shoulders drop was any indication. He hadn't taken a seat, and was instead leaning up against a wall. "She even said that she was concerned that I might have been expecting her, but dismissed that."

"Why?"

"I didn't know she had been checking in on me," I answered simply. "Apparently, whoever would have warned me about her _did_ know about that."

I gave Jaune a flat look for not filling me in on that, which he shrugged off.

"That makes sense. I know and Qrow knows. Tai might. That's everyone who would have told you."

"What, nothing to say about _not_ telling me she was spying on me?"

"There were more important things to tell you," Jaune answered with another shrug. It wasn't a great point, but it was good enough that I didn't feel like pressing the issue. "It seems that things worked out in the end. How did she approach you?"

"With a portal."

"No, not—" Jaune cut himself off when he caught the grin on my face and realized he'd been got. " _Hilarious_ , Yang. Your timing is impeccable."

"It _is_ , isn't it?" I hummed back obnoxiously.

"You know what I meant. What did she say? What do you think she wanted you to take away from the meeting? What's her angle?"

"I'm…not sure, yet. I think she just wanted to see what my opinion of her was, and maybe try to change a little of it," I answered back honestly. That _had_ been what the conversation had felt like at first, but that changed once I decided to change the angles. Since it had worked out, I had spent last night thinking about telling Jaune how the talk _really_ went, but decided against it for now. Something about Raven's challenge stuck with me, how she said she wanted Jaune to see it on his own. It may be nothing, but _if_ it's the reason she agreed to back the pressure off a little, then it's worth keeping things secret for now. On top of that, there was something to Raven's theory that Jaune couldn't be objective about her. I had thrown Raven for a loop with the stunt I pulled and got a chance to see what she was like when she _didn't_ have a plan for what to say, and maybe it's best to try to figure out what that meant without Jaune's help for now. "That part worked, I guess, but only because I had only met her once that I remember, and you two stabbed each other then."

"I…yeah, I guess I see how there was room for improvement there," Jaune added on awkwardly. "Do you think that it might have helped her believe that her plan was working?"

"What, that because she really did change my opinion a little, that she might think she changed it a lot?" I asked back curiously, summarizing what I thought he was getting at as best as I could. He nodded once, as if I had said it as good as it needed to be said. "That's…possible, yeah. There were some tense moments, but overall, she spent more time feeling me out and trying to tell me stories about herself that would make me like her more…or at least feel bad for her.

"She tried explaining how her world works, and she went out of her way to…to tell me why she felt she had to leave."

"I'm sorry," Jaune mumbled, averting his eyes and staring at his feet, before continuing when he didn't feel like his apology made sense, "that you had to relive that in front of her."

"It's fine, Jaune. I don't blame you for her leaving, even if I technically _could_ ," I dismissed lightly, intentionally throwing my voice to make that last part obviously a tease. "My mom left behind a blonde firecracker and picked up a blond asshole. _Hell_ of a coincidence."

"Hey, don't be upset that she traded in for a new model," Jaune teased back, picking up on my tone and settling into our normal routine easily.

" _Newer model?_ " I asked indignantly. "We're the same age! If anything, I've got _more_ features than you!"

"Yes, you _certainly_ do," Jaune drawled, making a show of tilting his neck down and staring at my chest. At least, until I launched the throw-pillow from the couch at his face. When he had the audacity to dodge sideways without ever breaking eye-contact—er, of sorts—I gave him a frown and grumbled my displeasure at him. It was as close to me letting him win this as he was going to get.

Then he rubbed it in by sticking his tongue out at me, and in an instant I was on my feet, couch cushion in hand and ready to teach him a lesson. My first strike struck him across the face before he had time to react to me getting off the couch, making a satisfying _thwop_ as it landed. I reared back and struck him in the side, forcing him to flinch and retreat as I continued to smack him around with the couch cushion, taunting him the whole time.

"How's _that_ for a funbag, _huh_?!" I let out, satisfied with both my ongoing enactment of justice and the pun to go with it.

Until in a moment, all fun stopped as I realized that I had overswung—or rather, Jaune had stepped into my swing. My right forearm hit his side instead of the pillow in my hand, and I realized as I failed to tug that hand away that Jaune was pinning it to his side with his arm. I looked up wide-eyed at him just in time for him to smirk back at me, before spinning and pinning me up against the wall. _And I mean_ pinning _me there_.

Somewhere along the way I had dropped the pillow. I'm not sure when or where, though. I had a million other thoughts going through my head, and none of them were getting anywhere anyways, not with what was going on outside of my mind.

My eyes were still just as wide, and while Jaune's smirk was still there, there was a little bit of surprise at his own actions in his eyes; from only inches away, I had a very intimate look into them, which went both ways. His cheeks had also started to redden a little bit, and when I realized that was because his body was firmly pressed against mine to pin me to the wall, mine did the same. Somewhere in my head I thought that I should try to push back or resist being pinned, but when I focused on that thought, I couldn't figure out for the life of me _why_ I would do that. The thought came up blank every time.

A wave of panic shot through my increasingly-useless brain as I realized that there weren't many things that happened next once you're in this position. I _should_ beat the hell out of him for thinking he can get away with this, and my hands were already in position to do so, or close enough—although I felt my cheeks burn even more when I realized that was only because my hands had settled idly on his hips, and that the traitorous things had not done so for any malicious purposes whatsoever. _Or worse, there_ were _malicious purposes, just not the violent kinds._

It was around this time that I realized I hadn't dared breathe the whole time, either. If anyone asked, I would say it was because I couldn't breathe with him pressed up against me, which was _technically_ true. Just not from a lack of ability to breathe.

Then he started to lean in, just a tiny bit, and my already-massive panic exploded again. All I could do was shut my thoughts off and act purely on instinct, so I did, despite how destructive that always ends up. I turned myself over completely to instinct, hoping that they would do what my brain had failed to do and fight back.

My instinct was to close my eyes.

And wait.

And wait.

And I waited until I finally had to take a breath, which was the clue that something was going wrong. There was no way in hell he could have got lost on the few inches it took to get from his lips to mine, and I could still very much feel that he was still right there, so it wasn't as if he had disappeared or something. With a lot more disappointment than I would admit to even myself, I gave up on waiting and opened my eyes to see what was going on.

When I opened my eyes, he had actually pulled away a little since first leaning in. His eyes were a mix of surprised and amused, and the dopey smile on his face only built on that. There was an expression of disbelief, shock, and uncertainty on his face that he was trying to hide with that stupid look he was giving me. It only took me a second to realize that he was surprised and amused that I was ready to let him have his way with me, and if I wasn't red before then I _certainly_ turned so now, but not just in my cheeks anymore.

"What the _hell_?!" I yelled, shoving him off me and knocking him onto the floor. "You're an asshole, you know that?" I hissed at him venomously, somehow too angry to get loud and shout at this moment.

"Y-Yang—"

"No, what the _hell_ were you doing there, huh?! Were you—were you trying to make a point?! Huh?! Was that it?!" I yelled, pacing in front of his spot on the floor. "Did you do that to embarrass me?! Pin me to the fucking wall and get me all worked up just to show that you could!? Was that some sort of power move?!"

If he thought I was going to beat the hell out of him with that pillow, then he better pray I cool off before I get my hands on anything harder.

"N-No, Yang, it's nothing like that, I swear! I-I—"

"Oh, sure, you weren't flexing on me. Is _that_ right?"

"It is! I'm— _I_ wouldn't even do that!" Jaune pleaded, trying to make it sound as if it was some foreign possibility and not something I had just been under—had just _gone through_ , I mean. _Even my own fucking thoughts aren't working right anymore._ I bore down into Jaune's eyes, hoping that a laser would shoot out of mine, or failing that, that he would look into them and realized how pissed I was, maybe have to go through some of the panic that he just put me through. It had the unfortunate side-effect of forcing me to see that he was being honest—he _was_ panicked as all hell and still hadn't gotten off the ground, but he was being honest with his words. _He's too scared to do anything other than be honest._ It was that emotion—actual, honest _fear_ —that began to break down my rage, because it's not something I had truly seen before. Not when discussing the many ways he was screwed, not when getting stabbed, not when I threatened to expose him. He had always shown how concerned he was, but always seemed to accept those realities.

But now? Now he was actually scared of losing something, and with that thought in mind, all his own surprise and confusion might mean that he didn't realize that he was scared of losing. _Damn him, now it's even hard to stay angry when there's only one thing here he'd be scared of losing now._

"I promise I wasn't trying to humiliate you, Yang," he assured me, and listening for it made his panic more obvious. Now I was inclined to believe him that he wasn't doing it to be mean, if only because he seemed genuinely desperate that I do so, even if I'd rather wring his neck either way.

"Then why'd you stop?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper as my anger left me and took my energy with it. There was a lot more disappointment and maybe even longing in my voice than I had intended, but at this point, there wasn't anything that could happen that would be more embarrassing for either of us, _so fuck it. Maybe there's something to this whole thing._

"Honestly?"

"If you want to live then you'd better not fucking lie _now_ ," I drawled, doing my best to ignore a confusing swell of emotions that my outburst had kicked out. I hadn't even realized that my Semblance went off until now, but it combined with the confusing response from Jaune had kicked up all sorts of stray feelings and thoughts.

"I-I didn't think you would let me, uh…go through with it," he answered nervously, doing his best to meet my eyes despite being embarrassed by his answer. Any remaining rage I had at the idea that he might have been lying was put out for good with that answer, since I couldn't find anything dishonest in his still panicked expression. _That makes two of us that didn't think I would._ "Handling people and… _friends_ ," he said, unable to say what he meant but leaving it obvious what _type_ of friends he was talking about, "is not something I have much experience in. Violence is just sorta how you handle most things where I'm from. I…I thought that you'd knock me out of I tried anything on you."

"Then why did you lean in?!"

"I said I thought you'd knock me out. I was using my Semblance to protect myself the whole time," Jaune answered embarrassed, though I'm sure I'm still significantly redder than he is. I still haven't even caught my breath yet. He picked himself off the ground slowly, nervously watching to make sure I wasn't going to attack him for getting up. "I was going to be one step ahead of you. I panicked when…" he trailed off, his cheeks heating up again as his eyes trailed off to the side in embarrassment, which of course made _me_ blush again. The tiny smile that worked its way across his lips as he thought over the memory sent a strange flutter down me and only worked to make my flustering worse. "I just…thought it was all part of our little game. I didn't realize that the game had changed…"

" _Fine,_ I'll spare you this time, since you're an idiot," I teased, trying to return things to normal, though it didn't help much. "You don't get to make me feel bad enough to let you have a do-over, though," I warned, wagging a finger at him and giving him a flat, knowing look before turning around to walk off to the apartment's kitchen, mostly to give myself a chance to cool off and wind down after…well, after _that_. My body still remembers how it felt being pressed up against and I haven't had enough time to convince myself that I shouldn't enjoy that feeling, or to convince myself that I shouldn't try to get even with him.

" _Yang_ …"

"Don't think that you didn't just blow your shot," I called back without turning around so I could hide that my cheeks were still warm. "We'll see if I _ever_ let you pin me up against a wall again."

"So you're saying that if I _did_ pin you to the wall again, you would let me…?" he asked in a way that made it obvious what he was starting to get at. The question sent another chill and a flutter down my spine.

"Well, I did the first time, didn't I?" I asked back coyly, fighting down a small smile at the memory. "It's too bad I'm not going to let that happen."

I froze when I heard Jaune's footsteps following in my direction, my fists tightening as my adrenaline started to come back.

"Is that so?"

A chill ran down my spine—or maybe it was a thrill. I'm not sure. My adrenaline started to spike, and I was hit with that tingly sensation you get right before a fight, except it was a lot stronger than usual. It's not every day that you really aren't sure if you would rather win or lose a fight. With Jaune approaching, my time to choose what I wanted was running out, and after what had happened so far, I feel like I can be forgiven for being just a little confused. Part of me wanted to fight back and another part of me wanted to stay still and let whatever happens happen.

I decided to turn myself over to my instincts again, for better or worse, giving up control and letting my body work almost on its own. My arm shot out to the side and grabbed a frying pan as I spun around to swing it blindly at Jaune.

 _He's going to have to work for it this time._

* * *

Vernal's POV

* * *

Raven hadn't allowed any visitors to her tent since she got back from her visit with her daughter last night, which didn't come across as suspicious or worrying to the men or women of the Tribe, at least not the ones who've been around for a bit. Raven had this place whipped, and this wasn't the first time she had refused anyone to see her; most recognized it as her needing to think. Those who had been around the longest saw this as a good thing, as when Raven decided something needed this much focus from her, it usually meant a large heist or raid was being planned out.

No one else knew what Raven's meeting was about, who it was with, or even that she _had_ left for a meeting. I did, though, and as Raven's second in command, it wasn't strange that I decided to go ahead and enter her tent.

Immediately, I noticed the state of her things in the tent. Her scabbard that held all her spare blades was propped up against the wooden table in the center, and it looked like just about every dust blade she had in the thing was laid out across the table, organized neatly to completely cover the thing. Picking one from the edge up, I found that it was freshly sharpened, and from the fine powder on the table in the spot the blade had been, it looked like a _lot_ of sharpening had been done. It was one of a few things she did to clear her head that didn't involve the use of magic.

"Sharp enough?" Raven called out from a chair in the far corner of the tent. She was sprawled out over it and was lazily and idly polishing her armor, probably because she had ran out of blades to sharpen.

I pressed the blade into the tip of my finger, pulling back on my aura and drawing blood easily, then holding it up for Raven to see. "You know, with how thin these blades already are, there's no need to sharpen them," I called out before licking the blood off my finger and letting my aura kick back in to clot the bleeding.

"Yeah, well, it was either I sharpen them or kill people with them to clear my head, and I figured that we didn't need to lose any men today," Raven called back, forgetting or not caring that I was one of the few people who saw through or ignored her exaggerations. The men outside would have taken her words at face value, and hell, even Jaune might have.

"Well, aren't you just in a great mood?" I asked snarkily, trying to get a rise out of her to get her back to her normal self, or at least close enough to it that I didn't have to deal with her moodiness. _She has a flair for the dramatic normally, but also has the penchant to just_ be _dramatic too._ "Let me guess, your meeting with Yang went horribly, she ratted you out to Taiyang and Qrow, and you're having to deal with the fallout now?"

"No," Raven answered simply, eyes still stuck on the cloth in her hand and the wrist bracer that she was slowly polishing.

Neither of us made any effort to speak for a few moments, so I decided to wait it out until she was annoyed enough of me watching her to keep speaking.

"It did not go as expected," Raven said finally. "Not even close."

"Well, that's not good, then," I added on idly, probing her to go on.

"Actually—" she cut herself off, but her point was made and my curiosity was now piqued. "It's quite possible that it went better than I could have hoped for."

"Better than trying to convince the Fall Maiden to join us?" I asked leadingly, not bothering to hide my doubt.

"She was never going to join us after one meeting," Raven dismissed idly. "I'd be more worried if she _did_. No, this first meeting wasn't about trying to get her to join. It was just about testing the waters, and if that went well, beginning to set up a relationship. Convincing her to join would never happen quickly."

"Then what _did_ happen that was so good? Is the Maidenhood even on the table?"

"The possibility of stealing Ozpin's Maiden interests me least out of everything, so much so that I may instruct Jaune to subtly talk Yang out of accepting it. Or maybe I'll tell him that I _want_ her to be the Maiden, and he'll immediately make sure she rejects it," Raven answered back dismissively. "It would be nice to have two, sure, but it would bring so many more problems with it. Qrow already knows we have Spring, and Oz won't be distracted by the Vytal Festival forever; as long as we remain neutral, they'll have no reason to try to drag you to Mistral in chains." Raven shot me a coy look, likely trying to imagine what that scene would look like, and how funny it would be once they realized they had the wrong person. "But we'll definitely be on the radar after that. We'll have to tone down the raiding and actually do some protection work to generate funds."

" _You_ would be fine with working as a glorified security force?" I asked incredulously, only to have my question shrugged off.

"Why not? We're already basically a paramilitary group anyways. Either we get paid big money by settlements for protection against bandits and Grimm, or we find out which settlements aren't protected well. If we start that now, everyone will soon figure out it's better to pay us, and we won't _have_ to raid anyone once Oz starts watching."

 _Oh._ That _sort of protection work._

"Still, you're fine with that?"

She shrugged again. "One way or another, it was going to happen eventually. Hell, if we work it properly, we might be taking away more money than beforehand. Think of it as getting paid to go out and crush rival groups. If their stolen goods happen to go missing in the process?" Raven shrugged again, this time with a smirk. "Besides, it should help smooth things over with my other protegees."

"Protegee _s_?" I asked, stressing the plurality. "You really think you can get Jaune _and_ Yang to come here willingly? Jaune's not exactly enticed by your normal recruitment pitch, you know, and I get a feeling your daughter wouldn't be either…"

"I don't need him to want to join the Tribe; I just need him to realize that he _doesn't_ want what Beacon has to offer. He doesn't fit in there, any more than I ever did."

"I know _that_ much," I offered. I was well aware with how Jaune thought and what he was like. Raven had me keeping an eye on him for years growing up. "He sees himself as the wrong Branwen twin."

Raven didn't object to the analogy.

"He's scheming against me, alright. The irony goes right over his head, but he'll see it in time. Nothing has changed as far as Jaune is concerned. It's Yang that I've been…thinking about," she said, gesturing loosely with her hand to the blades she had sharpened to clear her head. "I did not expect to see so much of myself in her, but I _like_ what I saw there."

"You would," I responded dryly. Raven's eyes flicked up to me in agitation for a moment before rolling them and shrugging my words off.

"For a time, she outright outplayed me in our conversation," Raven said off-handedly, earning a surprised stare from me to make sure I had heard that correctly. Both Raven being outplayed and Raven _admitting_ such was…unusual. "She and Jaune are in cahoots, and probably each other's pants—or I'd bet good lien they soon will be. There's no way that two teenage Huntsmen students are that close _without_ some hormone- and stress-fueled fucking, not unless teenagers have fundamentally changed since I graduated." Raven rolled her eyes again, and I joined in this time. The members of the Tribe were always looking to mess around, but coming back after a fight was the single most lucrative time of the year for any local 'working' girls, and that's only from the guys left over after the women of the Tribe had their pick. Something tells me training to hunt Grimm was a similarly-stressful lifestyle, and Raven's point about them being hormonal kids just added to that.

"You actually think _Jaune_ is putting the moves on _anyone_ , let alone _your kid?_ "

"I would be surprised if he even knew _how_ ," Raven snorted back, amused by the thought. "In that respect, he really _does_ take after Qrow." She shook her head once and stifled a small laugh. "All it takes is one time to stop thinking and act on instinct, and they'll be off like rabbits before you know it."

"The more you talk about it like that, the more I'm beginning to realize why Jaune never showed an interest in anyone while he was here," I stated with a half-hearted shake of my head. "He already embarrasses pretty easy. I'm not sure he would actually have survived it if he had come to you for advice."

Rather than be insulted, Raven wore my comment as a badge of honor and grinned, before finally dismissing the topic.

"In _any_ case, not only did Jaune fill Yang in about everything, but he did that and managed to get her to side with him. I get the feeling that no one else knows, either. I would have killed to watch that conversation…"

 _That_ certainly was surprising, to say the least—not Raven's comment at the end, but that Jaune had brought Yang up to speed and she sided with him. _Maybe she's not wrong about how 'close' they are._ Still seems weird that Jaune of all people would make the mistake of picking Raven's offspring; feels awfully Oedipus-like, and it's not like Jaune has a super-high opinion of Raven anyways.

"You said she almost got the drop on you?" I asked leadingly, though we both knew I meant it in a verbal way and not a physical way.

"She and Jaune crafted a plan to use her as bait to try to figure out 'my plans'," Raven explained with a roll of her eyes at the end. "Jaune's opinion of me might suffer, but his respect is adequate, if not somehow _too_ high. He wanted to use Yang to feel me out, but Yang had other plans, which reminds me: Jaune is _not_ to know that Yang gave up their secret."

She looked to me semi-sternly and I shrugged. It wasn't like I was in contact with Jaune much anyways. If he were here, we'd probably talk some, but I always felt he saw me as someone to gripe about Raven to rather than a friend or older-sister figure. If Raven was keeping a secret, it wouldn't cost me anything to play along.

"And that's how she played you?"

"She let me say my bit and then only revealed that afterwards, forcing me to have to change how I handled everything on the fly and boxing me in with what I had said. It was well done," she said, staring off idly into the shine of the armor in her hands. It was around this time that I finally decided that she had no intention of actually sharing what was said or what she was thinking, only that she was thinking about it and needed a sounding board. "I didn't think it possible, but she might turn out more like me than like Tai. Getting her to join us has gone from an amusing prospect to an actual goal. I've been thinking over everything that was said between us all day, and I…I think we just might be in business here."

"You really think you can lure her away from the rest of her family?"

"I think that she and Jaune might just be isolated from everyone else, or they might very easily end up that way," Raven said, shooting me a coy glance that meant that she would not be leaving those circumstances to chance. "I think we can get them both in one fell swoop, provided we play everything just right.

"In any matter, go prep the men. We're going raiding, _now_."

"What about your plans to shift things?" I pointed out, a bit confused. "You know, start building up rep as a mercenary group instead of a bandit group?"

"What, you think the members we already have won't miss raiding?" Raven asked with a bemused, dark tone. "We had better get it out of their system now."

* * *

Cody's POV

* * *

"Ayyyo, Freckles!" I shouted as I shoved my way through the back door of the pizza shop, tossing the empty pizza warmer onto the stack of them by the door. "I'm back. Where's my next delivery?"

"Are you ever going to stop calling me that, Cody?" Jake—a certified ginger with enough freckles to make the night sky jealous, hence the nickname—called back with an agitated voice from the prep station while probably crafting another monstrosity of a pizza with pineapple on it. "You do realize I'm your boss now."

"Keep telling yourself that, mister assistant to the manager," I called back as I started searching for my next delivery's address.

" _Assistant Manager_ ," he grumbled back. "I could dock your pay if I really wanted to."

"Go for it," I taunted, grinning. "Not going to do you much good anyways."

"Why, did that guy order pizza _again?_ "

"And he tipped big again too," I finished with a grin. "That's like the fourth time this week." Freckles could pay me nothing for this job and I'd still be making more than him this week because of it. I've got no clue what a dude my age is doing tipping like double or triple the bill, but I'm sure as hell not gonna stop him. _He tips like he doesn't_ want _his lien._ "He had to this time. It was super awkward."

" _Oh shit_ ," Freckles mumbled slowly. "You interrupted him jacking off?"

"No, I interrupted him sticking his tongue down his girl's throat," I answered. It wasn't a terrible guess on his part, so I let it go.

" _Huh?_ "

"Yeah, that's what I fucking thought! This dude's been living off our pizza for like a week—total bachelor move. There was no way I ever thought he'd have a girlfriend."

Freckles stared down at the pizza dough he was working with a confused expression for a few moments, trying to reason through that.

"Maybe she was out of town and he had to survive on his own…?"

"Maybe. I don't know and I don't care. All I _do_ know is I got tipped like fucking 900 lien to hand him the pizza and fuck off as fast as possible."

"No way! 900?!" he repeated, almost choking on the words. "Dude, you _totally_ just interrupted them fucking."

"No, not _yet_ , I don't think," I answered back carefully. "They opened the door and had clothes on too quickly for that. _Trust me_ , I've been delivering pizzas for this place long enough to have seen some weirder shit than that."

Freckles snorted, probably remembering something weird he'd seen back when he started as a delivery boy. "Yeah, I'd believe that. How you know they were even doing anything then?"

"Uh, they were both as red as that fuckin' pizza sauce, for starters," I answered with a laugh. "And they were both _really_ out of breath, and her hair was all over the place, man. They were up to something."

"She any hot?"

"I got tipped 900 lien to hand over the pizza and turn around; you think I was _trying_ to look?"

"Yeah…"

"Well I did!" I exclaimed dramatically, undercut by him not believing I wouldn't have. "Seriously though, where's the next order at?"

"Shelf," he grunted, pointing to the shelves behind me. "So, _was she hot?_ "

"Dude, if I was him, I woulda killed me for interrupting! She was a once-in-a-lifetime type of opportunity!"

"She had better be if he practically threw money at you to go away," Freckles commented while sprinkling cheese on top of his work in progress. He had the other ingredients out, and I didn't see pineapple, which meant that this pizza was going to a person who deserved to eat pizza.

"Guy looked like he was doing everything he possibly could to take advantage of it, too. That place was trashed, and I mean _trashed._ I think I even saw a sword and a shield lying on the ground." Freckles looked up at me confused and I made a big show of nodding to emphasize my point. "Yeah, whatever was going on in there was getting weird. It's a good thing I got there when I did…"

"I dunno. If she was really that hot, maybe you should have gotten there later," he called out, making some point that he would have to explain. I shot him a funny look, since as _assistant manager_ he should be getting on to me for already being late every time anyways, and he continued. "Maybe she woulda been naked."

"Aren't you supposed to be the mature one here?" I asked flatly, since he liked to play the angle of being the 'boss' up despite only being two years older than me. In a huff, I grabbed the next order of pizza and stuffed it into a carrier while writing down the address. "I don't want some dude answering the door with his dong out _again._ "

"I haven't heard you deny that you would have been late on purpose if you'd known."

"I'm off for my next delivery!" I shouted back as I slammed the door behind me, making sure not to answer the question. I'm no liar, after all, and I sure am going to start taking my time getting to places now, just in case.

* * *

Blake's POV

* * *

It was a small miracle that I shuffled my feet all the way to the kitchen without fully opening my eyes or tripping over anything. Chances are, I was just following the smell of coffee. Okay, that's exactly what I was doing, but apparently it was compelling enough to guide me safely.

"Here," Weiss called out as she handed me a glass. "I could hear you moaning from down the hallway. I made it the same way you asked for it yesterday."

I took the coffee and immediately started drinking it. A life of living in tents and camps meant that you didn't really have a reason to get up early, especially not when you were decently important—important enough not to have to keep watch. If there is anything weird about staying with Weiss Schnee for a week considering that past life, I'm currently no where near alive enough to realize it.

"I even cooled it off with some ice," Weiss added on proudly, for some reason that I couldn't quite figure out. It wasn't really important at the moment. "I figured you'd just try to drink it without checking if it was hot." _Oh, okay. That makes sense._

"Thanks," I mumbled once I finally put down the cup, after downing half of its contents in one go.

"So, any plans for today?" Weiss asked curiously but friendly. She had been pretty laid-back as a host so far, letting me run off and do things if I wanted to be alone. I had gone for a walk to clear my head once or twice, but I was just as foreign to Vale as she was, so most of the week had been just hanging around Vale together. It was, well, nice, having a friend who wasn't a terrorist. _And weird that it took the most extreme opposite of a White Fang terrorist for that to happen to me._

"Not—"

I was cut off suddenly by the blaring of my scroll, which was an uncomfortably-loud noise considering I was only just now starting to really wake up.

"Can I help you, Yang?" I drawled as I answered the call, putting my most agitated ' _it's too early for this_ ' face on.

" _Blake! Thank you! Good, yeah, now—is Weiss there? I need you both_ now."

"I'm here, Yang," Weiss answered with worry in her voice at Yang's panic as she stepped into the frame. "What's wrong?"

" _Oh, nothing too terrible, don't…uh, don't worry about anything like_ that"Yang explained, calming us down a little. " _I…I just need a_ huuuuuge _favor from both of you._ "

Weiss and I shared a suspicious look for a moment before turning our attention back to Yang. I was certainly waking up now, and we both began to notice what state Yang was in. Her hair was a mess, and so was mine since it's early, but the difference is Yang is the sort of person who would have fixed their hair before ever calling unless they were actually desperate. Add to that the fact that I didn't recognize the room she was in, but it looked like a living room of some sorts, and that there had been some sort of struggle there. The place was a mess, with furniture either crooked or turned over entirely.

"What is it?"

" _No, like, I need to understand that this is a HUGE, life-saving sort of favor we're talking about,_ " Yang reiterated, making it clear that she really wanted something and wasn't taking any chances. " _Like, you can name whatever you want if you help me out here._ "

"You didn't _kill_ someone, did you?" Weiss asked, a fair bit of horror and resignation in her voice.

" _What?! NO! Kinda the oppo—never mind, it's safer if you don't actually know what happened._ "

"Safer?" I asked surprised.

"You're not going to tell us _why_ you need our help?"

" _Nope. Do we have a deal?_ "

I reached down and put the scroll on mute, then held the camera away from us so Weiss and I could share a wary look. Neither of us were confident about this, but this _was_ Yang, so there was no telling what this was; chances are, it was something we'd feel bad for abandoning her over, even if we didn't like getting roped in.

"Fine. What do you need?" I asked once the call was resumed.

" _I spent the night with you two after we all went out shopping in Vale last night,_ " Yang declared.

"You did?" Weiss asked in a way that I wasn't sure if she was taking the piss out of Yang or not.

" _If anyone asks, we_ absolutely _did,_ " Yang responded, a little bit of desperation showing. " _And if_ Ruby or my dad _ask, you had better 1000% sell that alibi, too._ "

"Why would we have gone shopping without Ruby?" I asked flatly.

" _Fine, we'll say we all went out clubbing and to get some drinks, then you two dragged me back to Weiss' apartment because you're boring. That's believable enough, isn't it?_ "

"…yeah," Weiss admitted, neither of us happy to be painted as the party-pooper, but neither of us able to deny it.

" _Good. I'm not kidding that I'll do pretty much anything to make up for this._ "

"Yang, why are we doing this?" I asked, letting my flat, agitated tone let Yang know I wanted to cut through any bullshit.

" _Look, I snuck off to Vale last night and didn't make it home, and my dad would_ kill _me if he found out,_ " Yang answered while walking through the scattered remains of a living room to a pizza box that was laying on the floor. She opened it up to reveal an entire pizza, untouched, and grabbed a slice for an impromptu breakfast. Weiss and I were getting suspicious that Yang had gone back to some of her party-girl roots for a night. " _I promise it wasn't anything…bad. I just stayed out too late partying, if you couldn't tell._ "

She panned the camera around quickly to show off the state of the room, as if she didn't realize we could see it behind her earlier. Weiss and I's eyes caught on an object behind her once she returned the camera to herself.

" _My dad would_ kill _me if he found out, and Ruby_ can't _keep a secret. This just needs to be the three of us, okay? I really need an alibi here, guys._ "

"U-Uh, yeah, we'll do it, Yang," Weiss stammered a bit, but recovered well.

" _Blake?_ "

"Yeah," I answered with a resigned sigh. "Sure, I'll do it."

" _Thanks! You guys rock!_ "

The call ended and I turned to Weiss, who was already looking at me flat-lidden.

"You saw it too, didn't you?" she asked flatly.

"Mmhmm."

"I didn't recognize the shield, but the sword…was that…?"

"Jaune's? _Yes_ , I think so."

We shared a flat-lidden look for a few moments. Neither of us really needed _that_ explained to us.

Weiss frowned tightly and pulled out her scroll, dialing it immediately.

" _Huh—wah? Weiss?_ " Ruby groaned, clearly having been woken up. " _Is it not enough that you wake me up early when we have classes? Does your evil wake-up-early-ness know no bounds?_ "

"Shut up, Ruby," Weiss called out commandingly. "Do you know where Yang is?"

" _Uhhhhh…no?_ " Ruby asked back, uncertain of what was going on. " _Dad was—_ " Ruby was cut off as a big yawn took over her, "— _pretty angry that she didn't come back last night, or even text us… Why?"_

Weiss and I shared another knowing look.

"No worries," I cut in. "She went out with us."

" _And you didn't invite me?_ "

"We all went clubbing and got drinks," Weiss added on flatly, spitting the words out. If she wasn't just waking up and she wasn't _Ruby_ , then Ruby would have seen pretty easily how rehearsed and dishonest Weiss' voice was. As such, it went over easily.

" _Oh. That makes sense,_ " Ruby mumbled, though it wouldn't if she were a little more awake. " _Where is she now?_ "

"Shower," I answered. "She went a little overboard. We just figured she didn't text you so we thought we'd update you."

" _Oh, okay. I'm sure dad will be glad to know she didn't destroy another club._ "

"Weren't you supposed to keep that secret?" Weiss asked.

" _Gotta go, bye!_ "

The call ended and Weiss and I were left staring at each other flatly once more, now that Yang's story had been somewhat verified.

"You don't think that she…?"

"Weiss, I _completely_ believe that she did."

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Man, it would have been really convenient if Neo _did_ have some 'equipment' lying around, huh? Even just some handcuffs or something...**

 **Also, just because Jaune was raised by killers and thieves doesn't necessarily mean he's going to be _significantly_ better at reading romantic cues. He has just enough sense to notice that Pyrrha was eyeing him, but that is an awfully low bar to achieve. To figure out how that scene would play out, I basically asked myself "okay, let's say that I'm Jaune and I have someone pinned to a wall and they haven't immediately killed me. How do I possibly screw that up?" The only difference is that Jaune has the benefit of getting it right the second time, even if it did require some...effort to pin Yang down again. **

**Not shockingly, Raven's little theory that teenagers training for high-stress jobs are much more likely to give in to hormones before figuring out that they've got feeling for one another. We're starting to see more and more of what Raven's angle is, at least in that we know that she wants to get Jaune and Yang without necessarily forcing them into it, although she wouldn't be above manipulating things so they felt forced by _circumstance._ **

**Blake and Weiss are now privy to Yang and Jaune's little secret. That's not likely to be brought up literally the next time both teams are together, now, is it? :D**

 **Moral of the story: if you invite someone over for a strategy session, don't order pizza, just in case.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by guest _requisitioned_

"Definitely one of the most in-depth characterizations of Raven I've seen on FF looking at the previous chapter and this one. Curious to see how people view her though; apparently pillaging and sacking settlements then leaving them to the tender mercies of the Grimm is considered fine. I guess in fiction people are only evil characters if they are genocidal or kill main characters?"

 **You're not the only one curious to see how people view Raven. That is one of the hard things about building up a powerful villain or even anti-hero, that sometime you need to show their power but in the process not bash them for a legitimately evil deed. In V4 of the show, Qrow implies that Raven sacked the village the RNJR comes across and she doesn't deny it; you know, the village where the defending Huntsman died and his last words blamed the attack on bandits, not Grimm...**

 **Yet, by the time we get to V5, we've kinda forgotten that Raven straight-up had a village burnt down. We're too focused on Weiss being a prisoner and Yang getting (y)angry, and then on the story Raven has to tell about magic.**

 **Raven has been a lot of fun to jump into the head of for this story, but it is hard to balance the fact that's she's done some bad shit. A lot the story recently has pointed out Jaune has a tendency to see Raven's actions only in the worst light, and Yang seems to be coming around to the idea that Jaune's not objective about Raven, but that purposefully ignores the fact that Jaune has _reason_ to see Raven as evil. She _is_ , to some degree, an evil person. She's just smart enough to maneuver herself into a position where she can get away with being evil and no one can say anything about it.**

 **Raven's subtle changes here are what makes everything all the more interesting. She's aware that more moral people are going to see her as evil and hate that. It's the main reason for the rift between her and Jaune that, even if she plays it off or hides it, bothers her enough that she's trying to teach him some lesson by going to Beacon. She knows that Yang probably holds stronger convictions since she was raised with them. Her talk about shifting the Tribe into some legitimate work so as to keep Ozpin from deciding to mount a force against her holds some merit, but there's only one reason she would start that so soon...**

 **She wants to be able to claim that she's 'doing better,' from a moral standpoint, because that could be a final sticking point when it comes to convincing Yang and Jaune.**

 **Anyways, thanks for the love** _requisitioned_ , **and for an awesome excuse to ramble on about Raven!**

* * *

 **One-Off Omake**

* * *

Jaune and Yang had been 'sparring' for ten minutes now. What began as innocent—okay, certainly not _innocent_ , per say—fun as a light, physical form of flirting soon grew more aggressive as they both became more invested in it. Jaune was determined to get a second shot at pinning Yang to a wall and seeing what would happen when he got things right, and while Yang was certainly not going to be disappointed when that happened, she was having far too much fun teasing Jaune by resisting.

They started by throwing soft objects, like pillows. That turned into light boxing. That turned into heavier boxing. That turned into Jaune using his sheath. That turned into Jaune _throwing_ his sheath for a distraction. That turned into them both throwing whatever they could get their hands on. That turned into knocking whatever was in their way over. That turned into intentionally knocking furniture over to trip the other. Neo would not take the state of the apartment lightly whenever she found out, but neither seemed to care.

Jaune finally got his chance. His shield unfolded when Yang stepped on it, causing her to lose balance and give him an opening. He did not miss it, charging in under her guard and grabbing each of her wrists, forcing her backwards and pinning her to the wall once more.

He had this planned out this time, knowing exactly what he should do and how he would do it. He'd pin her arms above her head and push up against her, leaving her helpless but to melt into him. He'd pause for a moment as each of them panted softly for breath, staring into each other's eyes. Something unspoken would pass between them, a coy and questioning look from him that would be one last chance for Yang to say no if she really wanted to. She wouldn't, of course, if she hadn't the first time, and would look at him tauntingly, as if to say _come and get me, if you dare._ And he _would_ dare to do so, much sooner than Yang would be expecting. It would shock her, which was good because he was expecting the experience to be just as shocking for him, too. He'd release her arms part way through and they'd slowly come down to lock around his neck, hanging there gently as they tested the limits of human survival without taking a breath.

None of those things happened. Jaune was so focused on how he had planned it out that he didn't notice the wall they'd slammed into was moving, spinning around in one-hundred-eighty degrees, releasing them on the opposite side of the wall they had just been on. Both the delayed reaction, the spinning motion, and the shock of the room they found themselves in caused Jaune to go into a moment of stupor. Yang had, too, but recovered slightly more quickly.

The room was littered with all sorts of devices that sane men would never dare go near, with two seemingly contradictory purposes being served by the equipment: pain, and pleasure. Not 'pain and pleasure' like your run-of-the-mill sadist or masochist, not necessarily devices to cause _sexual_ pain—although there were numerous such devices, with whips and leather and spikes all over the place—but devices designed to break a man. There was a giant saw with a table that seemed strangely suited to chaining a human down so that they'd be cut in half, as well as a wall of drills, spikes, knives, and power saws situated next to a set of iron shackles on a wall. There seemed to be a guillotine, but the hole for the victim's head was not large enough for any man's neck, instead only just bigger than a golf ball; Jaune shuttered to think that it might be designed to chop of the _other_ head, and the fact it was elevated waist high only helped to drain the blood from his face. Whatever blood flow being pressed up against Yang's body had started was now completely reversed, out of pure fear.

Of course, there _were_ those devices designed for less bloody and more kinky forms of punishment, equal in number and creativity to the torture devices. Makeshift gloryholes, iron shackles that did _not_ have knives next to them, the aforementioned whips and leathers, an entire wall covered with every basic type of dildo, plus _several_ shapes that did not immediately seem like they should even work in that capacity, along with several rounds of dust ammunition to power them for some extreme function, a fact that alone confused the hell out of Jaune and both scared and titillated Yang.

Off in the corner, there was an industrial-sized 55-gallon barrel of lube—edible, water-based, and slightly scented like strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla. It had a clear strip on the side to gauge how much liquid remained. About an entire third of the stuff was already gone, somehow.

"W-What the hell has Neo been up do?" Jaune warbled out to Yang, who he had almost forgot was still pressed up to him. He'd had his neck craned to the side to view as much of the room as he could.

Oh, and he knew it was Neo's torture room. The fact that _every_ inch of this room was either pink, brown, or white—down to the label on the lube, the blade on the _deshaftinator_ , and the security canera's blinking light—was a solid indicator.

Yang looked to Jaune nervously, and he returned the look. She then looked over his shoulder, then back to him. Jaune did not see the gears beginning to turn in her head. She looked back over her shoulder, and had the idea to exact her revenge on him for getting her all worked up and wet earlier only to embarrass her. She wouldn't even tease by holding back like he had; she would show him how it was done. She looked back to him with a coy grin on her face, and Jaune began to catch on.

Too little, too late.

With Jaune's back to most the room, she shoved forward and backed him into a queen-sized bed against the wall in the middle of the room. Before Jaune could even realize what was going on, shackles snapped in place around his hands, which Yang had spread out as they fell onto the mattress. Fortunately, they weren't iron shackles.

Just fuzzy pink handcuffs.

The weird part was that the blanket on the bed was a giant picture of Neo in a bunny suit that would fluster Velvet for its raciness and racistness, but Yang figured that she could get used to that.

* * *

 **Alright, looking forward to how many hundreds of you unfollow the story now! xD**

 **On the bright side, I finally did something to earn that M rating. Too bad it's non-canon...**


	43. So did they or didnt they?

**Author's Note: Nothing really to report here. You guys know the drill: link to the Discord down below, leave me reviews praising my unending genius, don't ever dare to take up arms against me, yada yada yada.**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter **g** ee_ ) ( _the letter **g** ee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **There were some questions as to just what, exactly, went on in that apartment between Jaune and Yang last week. Fortunately, there are two characters in the story who also want to know this...**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 41:** _"I...could get used to this." – Jaune Arc_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

As average as Beacon's cafeteria food is, there was something comforting about it, as it signaled a return to normalcy…sort of. _As normal as my life can be, I guess._ It's Sunday—the first day of week two of the Vytal Festival—and Beacon's dorms opened back up this morning. I'm at a table eating lunch with my team and Team RWBY. Back to normal. No more dieting on only pizza and no more staying in Neo's spare apartment, just a dorm with my friends and a lunch table with more of my friends. The table was surprisingly quiet so far, which was fine with me.

My eyes glanced around the table, sticking on Yang. _Okay, so things aren't_ completely _normal._ By chance, Yang happened to look up and catch my eyes being stuck on her, so she gave me a slightly inquisitive look as she tried to figure out what I was thinking about while also trying to remain subtle. Playfully, she winked at me once as she decided what I must have been thinking about, and I gave her the satisfaction of having to look away. Trying to keep… _things_ secret would be hard if I started blushing every time I met eyes with Yang, or vice versa; the fact that we're both equally as teasing in nature is going to make that difficult.

 _I still can't believe I paid 900 lien for that pizza._

Although, given the way that night turned out, I can't help but feel like I got a bargain.

When I decided I had purged enough thoughts and had successfully staved off any hint of a blush, I looked back up from my food and resumed scanning my eyes around the table, purposefully jumping past Yang as I did so. Fortunately, Blake had caught Yang's eyes and was giving her a flat-eared and half-lidded glare, and Yang stuck her tongue out at Blake antagonistically. That interaction wasn't too surprising, given that Yang had explained her 'genius' plan to keep her dad from finding out she had spent the night with me—which was just having her teammates lie on her behalf. _I realize that I am not exactly the poster child for honesty among teammates, but even I would agree that it was a flawed plan._

It was certainly better than risking Taiyang Xiao Long finding out that his daughter and I had…well… _made Raven proud_ , to say the least. _Kept those Team STRQ traditions going strong, though something tells me Taiyang would not appreciate that analogy._

Oh gods, I'm not sure which of Yang's parents that I'd least like to find out. Taiyang would kill me, and Raven would probably tease me about it till I wish I'm dead.

I flicked my eyes away from Blake to distract myself from thinking about either of those outcomes, only to find Weiss giving a similar look as Blake, except directed at me. Her expression was a little different, with less flat kitty ears and more of her trademarked "I am Weiss Schnee and I am judging you to be inadequate about something" face.

 _Does she know?_

Without breaking eye contact with me, she reached down and grabbed her glass of soda—a drink that none of us had ever seen her order before—and held it out to her side towards Ruby.

"Ruby, could you get me a refill, please?" Weiss asked, putting shockingly little effort into not sounding upset or cross.

"Uh…do you not know where the fountain drinks are?" Ruby asked, oblivious to the subtext going on with Weiss glaring at me. "I mean, that's okay, since you don't normally drink soda, but you had to fill your drink the first time, so, like…"

Ruby slowly got quieter and more nervous as Weiss' neck slowly turned her way, aiming her glare at someone other than me.

"I think I see Professor Port," Weiss stated slowly and methodically. "Maybe I should go tell him who has been doing half of your homework for the past semester…"

"Sheesh, okay. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today," Ruby relented, a little wide-eyed at Weiss' apparent 'bad mood.'

"While you at it, could you take my tray?" Weiss asked as Ruby stood up, using the most commanding form of a question she possibly could in a manner that would make Raven proud. Ruby eyed Weiss nervously and quickly caved, deciding that she wanted no part in setting _that_ off.

"Since you're already going…" Blake called out leadingly, already handing her empty tray and soda up to Ruby. It was suspicious that the only two people who were already done eating were Blake and Weiss, and that they _both_ got fountain drinks for the first time.

 _They definitely know._ This is about to be some sort of subtle interrogation while everyone else watches on confused, isn't it?

"Ugh, sure. Does anyone _else_ want a refill?" Ruby asked dramatically, trying to make fun of Blake and Weiss. It backfired, as immediately me, Ren, and Nora all held up our drinks. Pyrrha's was empty, but she didn't offer it to be polite, and Yang still had most of her drink.

Weiss eyed Ruby intensely as she organized which drinks got what drink and who they belonged to, before watching her as she walked away, waiting for Ruby to get out of earshot. Yang didn't realize what was happening, but I sure did, and I made a point of leaning over my tray and focusing intently on my food. She would need to gauge my reactions if she wanted to remain subtle, and keeping my head down would deprive her of that; if she tried to get me to look up at her, that would throw subtly out the window.

"So Yang and Jaune are having sex."

My spoon-hand froze half-way on its way to my mouth, which was probably the least pronounced reaction at the table. Yang and Nora choked on their drink and their food respectively, and although I was doing a great job of staring at my food and pretending to be oblivious, I'm pretty sure that Ren and Pyrrha's eyes were wide enough to land a bullhead on.

The table went silent, and I could feel eyes going back and forth from me to Yang. After a few moments for Yang to recover from her spit-take, I looked up to find her cheeks starting to heat up, which tanked any possibility of us convincingly denying it. She was withering under the surprise attack from her teammates and the shocked and curious looks from my team, and settled with looking at me pleadingly, as if I somehow had a way out of this. Slowly, all the eyes at the table followed her to me.

"Really? Huh. Sorry, Yang," I called out, feigning some embarrassment and throwing my voice enough to make it clear I was mocking Weiss, "if I had known, I would have put my mashed potatoes down."

Weiss' frustration grew, which was plenty enough satisfaction to get me through this, and I could see some of the others were amused too, but not nearly enough to override the awkwardness that had just happened. Yang was both relieved that I was willing to take Weiss' ire onto me and disappointed that I didn't have some sort of magic comeback that would undermine Weiss' whole statement.

" _Not right now_ ," Weiss hissed, leaving it ambiguous if she missed the joke or just was that angry over it anyways. "Wednesday night."

 _Wow, has it really only been three full days?_ Those first 36 hours after she left Thursday morning were some of the most nerve-rackingly slow of my life. It wasn't as awkward as it probably should have been that morning, which was a good sign; that doesn't mean that waking up to unexpectedly find a sea of yellow hair nuzzle into your chest _wasn't_ awkward, but I could certainly get used to seeing Yang covered up by her hair and nothing else, especially when my hands had a mind of their own and ended up in _wonderful_ positions during the night. Not to mention the view when she got up and stretched, putting on a show just because she could—

 _Way to go, Jaune, now you're being interrogated by this at the lunch table_ and _you can't stand up anymore…_

"Wednesday night?" I asked back, playing dumb at the risk of Weiss' increasingly frustrated temperament. "I mean, I ordered pizza Wednesday night…"

"We know," Blake chimed in, not nearly as angry as Weiss, but she was clearly upset about something, probably that we went from frenemies to spending the night in the span of… _fast_. "You didn't eat any of it Wednesday night, though."

My confusion and surprise at how she knew that slipped through on my face. I couldn't deny it after that slip, and by not denying it, it was becoming more obvious to the rest of the table that they were right.

"What can I say, I guess I had other things to eat…" I answered with a straight face, which would have made it at least a decent comeback if Yang's face hadn't gone from marginally pink to as red as humanly possible as her eyes went wide. Nora's jaw hit the floor and she stared at Yang curiously, and everyone else blushed a little at the implication. Hell, it was my own joke and I even heated up slightly, which wasn't helped by my previous thoughts and _other_ blood flow problems.

"So you're not even going to deny it?" Weiss asked, doing her best to ignore my comments. She failed, if the way she involuntarily shuttered and cut her eyes at Yang nervously was any indication. "Blake and I saw his sword when you called us Thursday morning. Don't try and act like you didn't spend the night at his place."

There was some whispering among my teammates, and I knew that it meant that my alibi about staying with Cinder's team over the break was going to get questioned sometime after this.

"O-Okay, _that_ might have happened," Yang stammered, shying away from me slightly now that we knew exactly who it was who blew the secret. "But we didn't have sex! T-Technically," she added on with a stutter as Weiss stared her down flatly.

"Oh, then what _did_ you do?" Weiss challenged, apparently completely fine with whatever descriptions that would take. It might have been a bluff, but it isn't one I would have been brave enough to call, not with how determined Weiss has been up to now.

"Uh, W-Weiss?" Yang stammered awkwardly, looking around as it to demonstrate that this was not the sort of place to discuss details, even if Ruby was still out of earshot. My team looked just as uncomfortable with the idea of Yang having to give details, but Weiss was unmoved. "This isn't…uh…"

"Prove that you didn't have sex by telling us what you _did_ do, or I'll be so loud that the whole cafeteria will know what's going on between you two."

Yang looked like a deer caught in the headlights and looked to me for any help. I shrugged my shoulders. Telling her wasn't going to do anything to make things worse, just more embarrassing for a bit.

"We had a makeshift… _sparring_ session," Yang finally admitted, her voice slow and low. I nodded along, pleasant memories of our game of _pin the Yang to the wall_ coming back to me. "And that lead to…uh…making out…"

"Scarred some poor pizza man for life," I added on, smirking a bit at the memory even if I had been prepared to fight him if he hadn't gotten out of there as quickly as possible. There were some curious reactions to that line, which makes me think that it is best left up to their imaginations.

"And then that got out of hand—" Yang cut herself off and tried to take back her words, realizing the pun she had said. No one would have thought anything of it if she hadn't gone red again, but they certainly reacted awkwardly when they saw that. "—it led to… _other_ things, just not… _you know_."

"How far did it go?" Blake asked in a tone that made it clear that she was not nearly as outraged or surprised as Weiss had been. Hell, she sounded like she would rather _not_ know, but knew that Weiss wouldn't be stopped and was just making things easier on everyone.

"A-At least third base," Yang admitted sheepishly. _Both ways, too._

" _Third base?!_ " Nora exclaimed, some strange mix of shock, disappointment, and pride exaggeration by the fact that she was Nora.

" _At least_ ," I emphasized, earning a quick glare from Yang for not being helpful.

"How are things…between you two now?" Ren asked, cutting off Nora from getting too wild while addressing each of us. He trailed off in the middle, awkwardly realizing the double entendre of his poor phrasing but not finding it easier to ask it any other way. "Have you even spoken about it, or is this just making it even more awkward?"

Ren shot a glare at Weiss, who for the first time had been coming down from her frustration and actually looked guilty at the idea that she might be making things worse by not considering if we had actually worked things out.

"No, I think we're in a good place," I answered reassuringly, though I did pause to look to Yang for confirmation. She nodded genuinely, which was a relief because she had the opportunity to mess with me and by pretending to disagree. "We had lunch Saturday—" and it had _not_ been pizza again, "—and, uh…yeah. We both agreed we enjoyed…uh, _it_."

And the wait from Thursday to Saturday had been comparably stressful to everything else I had done since being at Beacon _combined_. Yang and I had parted on good terms Thursday morning after we had cleaned up—where I learned that showers are a lot more fun with someone to share them with, which alone was a big indicator that Yang wasn't going to freak out or regret anything once she left. Add to that the fact that, honestly, we'd already been through a bigger strain on our relationship than a one-night stand and the fact that we had kept in touch via text over the next two days, and there should have been no reason to suspect that this would have come between us. Despite all the rational reasons not to panic, I was still a nervous wreck. After all, even if she'd said she'd enjoyed it, it wasn't as if there was any way that I had been good at any of it on my first try; she wasn't going to be coming back to have me nervously and cluelessly fumble around again, even if she didn't have any more experience going that far than I did. She said that she couldn't just sneak off to Vale _again_ , not after she hadn't come back home the previous night; Taiyang would get suspicious, if he wasn't already. That was a good reason not to meet up again for two days, but reasoning through things has not been my specialty here recently.

It wasn't until she met me for lunch Saturday that I was able to relax. This whole thing might have completely blindsided me, but even _I_ could figure out that being that irrationally nervous meant _something_ significant. _There feels like an off-hand chance that Yang's willingness to participate might mean something significant on her end too…_

Okay, not even I am dense enough not to realize that there was something between us now.

"So, you've had a _date_ since then?" Ren asked in summary, testing the word 'date' to see if we would react to it.

"I…uh, I don't think that we called it that…at the time," I fumbled, since Yang and I actually _hadn't_ discussed how to officially describe things. We had lunch, talked about what we did, both seemed to agree that we liked it, went back and had round two—okay, so maybe it was safe to assume it given that last part, but I still didn't want to ruin something by jumping to conclusions we hadn't reached together. Yang seemed similarly hesitant.

"I…guess it fits…?" Yang stated tentatively, looking to me to see if I had any objections. I shrugged and nodded once.

"This is almost painful to watch," Blake groaned, putting her head in her hand.

" _A date_ ," Weiss let out, some relief in her voice. "Is there going to be another one?"

Yang and I looked at each other for a moment, before shrugging in unison. "Sure."

Weiss let out a long huff to calm herself down, finally forcing herself out of her mood she'd been in. " _Dates_. That means your actually dating. Which means Yang _didn't_ have a one-night stand."

"Excuse me?" Yang asked, zeroing in on the palpable relief in Weiss' voice.

"Here I was worried that Yang would had her first one before we even got to the second semester…"

" _Excuse me?!_ "

"Could we…drop the subject?" I asked. "Or maybe move on for now?"

Weiss eyed me suspiciously, though with a great deal less anger now that she was satisfied that Yang and I were dating and not just randomly sleeping together, even if she had been the driving force behind us officializing things. _Wait, did…Weiss just get me a girlfriend?_

"So you two didn't _actually_ have sex?" Weiss asked one last time, much to everyone's annoyance. Things were going to be awkward for a while, and I was really beginning to get jealous of Ruby for being absent from this conversation, even if Weiss orchestrated that.

" _No_ ," Yang and I answered simultaneously.

Weiss was satisfied with that, though she still eyed me a little bit. Fortunately, Ruby came back with the drinks and started distributing them, offering a perfect distraction. She was none the wiser that anything had happened since she left, probably thinking that we were just as quiet as we had been when she was here.

"Well…" I drawled, drawing Weiss' attention. "Not until Saturday."

"Ugh," Weiss exclaimed, throwing her hands up dramatically before spinning around in her seat and walking off in protest. Yang caught my eye and gave me a furious frown as she tilted her head to the side, letting me know just how much she appreciated me revealing that now that we had finally wormed our way out of Weiss' ire. _She's acting like that's my fault, too, as if_ I _am the one who showed up to Saturday's lunch with condoms_.

Plural.

Yeah, in hindsight, making this thing official should have been much more obvious.

The rest of the table saw this as an absolutely fantastic reason to leave as well, with only Ruby, Yang, and me staying at the table. Blake flicked Yang in the side of the head, just for good measure. Ren looked a little awkward still, but other than that seemed happy enough for us. Nora wore a strange frown—which is better than her excitedly demanding vivid details or for us to reenact for her—and it confused me. Pyrrha, though, the look on her face was fragile, and I couldn't help feeling a little guilty there, even if I couldn't necessarily help how things turned out. I would definitely have to have a difficult talk with her soon, and I'm going to have to find a way to 'thank' Weiss for dumping that problem in my lap now.

"Uhhh, what was that about?" Ruby asked, looking around confused as over half the team left the table.

"Weiss thinks I fucked your sister."

" _Eh?_ "

* * *

 _Me: well  
_ _Me: that could have gone worse  
_ _Wanna Yang;)?: It could have gone better too  
_ _Wanna Yang;)?: How'd your team take it?_

I'm partially lucky that Weiss and Blake found out through Yang's sloppiness, because something tells me what I have her saved in my scroll as would have given it away, too.

 _Me: havent found them yet. hoping to get them all at the same time  
_ _Me: but  
_ _Me: i gotta find them first  
_ _Me: howd it go with you?  
_ _Wanna Yang;)?: Uh  
_ _Me: you havent found them either?  
_ _Wanna Yang;)?: No, I found them.  
_ _Wanna Yang;)?: I'm just waiting outside the dorm  
_ _Me: waiting for what?  
_ _Wanna Yang;)?: The courage to go in  
_ _Me: :/_

I went ahead and closed my messages app after that, since responding to Yang would only help her put it off. She was at least fortunate enough that we had dealt with the brunt of Blake and Weiss' curiosity/anger/awkwardness during lunch, and all she had left to do was get Ruby on board. _Ruby would be the most dangerous one, since it was all but guaranteed that Ruby would be the one to tell their dad; my little stunt there at the end of lunch might not have helped things._ Still, most of the groundwork to smooth things over with RWB was done, and Yang would probably just have to start answering embarrassing questions now.

 _My_ work, on the other hand, was cut out for me, seeing how my team had only just found out, and not in any sort of tactful way. They didn't seem as upset by the idea that Yang and I had had a one-night stand as Weiss or Blake, but that probably says more about Yang than it does about me. Still, Ren gave us a gift by insinuating that we went on a date—or pointing it out that that's what it was—and Weiss latching on to that idea had pretty much cemented it. Maybe not exactly how I would have envisioned this process was supposed to go, but then again, _nothing_ about Yang and mine's situation was remotely normal. Maybe this was just fitting.

Still, that didn't mean that fielding a barrage of questions about it from my team would be any less awkward, especially not from Pyrrha. Part of me wanted to talk with her separately, and maybe I should still do that afterwards, but letting them 'group up' on me would basically let Nora do all the asking and save Ren or Pyrrha the effort or embarrassment.

The downside was that I was about to subject myself to Nora interrogating me over my love life in front of a small audience.

By the time I rounded the corner to the dorm hallway, Yang was already gone, presumably inside dealing with her teammates. I hadn't lied when I said I didn't know where my team was, because I didn't know for sure where they were, but I also hadn't actually started looking for them yet. By the time I got to the door, I could already hear Nora's voice, confirming that I had found them; it felt unlikely that they would have split up. Or at least, it felt unlikely that Ren and Nora would have let Pyrrha run off alone after the look she had on her face at lunch.

Despite the fact that it was my room too, I knocked on the door and waited for a response.

"Who is it~?" Nora sang out.

"Professor Port," I drawled. "Who do you think it is, Nora?"

After a few seconds, the door slid open, revealing Nora with a slight, agitated frown.

"What, did you lock yourself out?" She asked sarcastically. I held my scroll up to show that I could have come in if I wanted to, trying to express that I was being polite. Her frown grew a little as she took it as me being an ass.

I scanned the dorm over Nora's shoulder for a brief moment. Ren was there, sitting with a book face-down on his lap as if he had set it down and had been doing other things. Pyrrha was there, too, but had headphones on that plugged into her scroll, staring at it and likely not a part of whatever conversation was being had between Ren and Nora; despite this, her fingers never moved to touch the screen of her scroll, making it look like Pyrrha was spaced out and staring blankly at the screen. She may not even have music playing, though there's no way to tell.

"Is there a reason you made me let you in?" Nora asked as I stood in the doorway. She was agitated, and it did not feel like it was because I made her let me in. The only obvious reason would be that she was upset about what had happened at lunch, but I can't really figure out why. _Maybe she's just upset that Pyrrha is upset, or maybe she secretly had the hots for me and was just pretending to want Ren as a cover._ As funny as that would be, I _really_ don't need any more people getting involved; life is already stressful enough as it is.

"Well, I was going to see if you all wanted to go do some training, since the Vytal Festival starts tomorrow…" I kept my voice as neutral and unimposing as possible, not wanting them to feel like I was throwing around my Team Leader status to force us all to do something, even if I really did want them all to comply. The excuse wasn't a bad one, either; the Festival itself didn't start tomorrow, but everyone knew that I meant that the tournament did, since that was all Beacon students really care about. After watching the film Cinder had sent me on our first opponent, I wasn't really that worried, since in a pinch Pyrrha and I could probably take them. Still, the excuse was a useful one.

Nora looked at me with unhidden suspicion, clearly suspecting I was up to something. She might have thought I was trying to put them at ease or show them that I wasn't afraid of them cornering and questioning me by letting them have their weapons, but the opposite of that would be truer: I would feel a lot _more_ comfortable if I was armed, even if they were too. Three-on-one was a disadvantage here, but all I would have to do is knock Ren and Nora out of any potential fight, leaving me in a one-on-one with Pyrrha; I have about a 50-50 shot there, when all things are equal. _As long as I don't lose much Aura knocking those two out, I would have a fighting chance._

Of course, it would be better if my team decided _not_ to attack me.

"That is probably a wise idea," Ren answered for the group, setting his book aside and rising to his feet. Pyrrha silently did the same with her headphones, all but confirming that she wasn't listening to them anyways.

* * *

It was obvious from the start that our training session was just an avenue for us to discuss the whole 'Yang' situation, and that was only magnified once I chose for us to train outside rather than in the training facilities. The facilities would be more useful, but it being the day before the Festival begins, it would no doubt be crowded, and going outside provided us some privacy.

Nora broke through any semblance of subtly that we were clinging to outside by flatly demanding that I "spill it, buster," and I gave them a generic version of what had happened: Yang and I went through a rough patch as friends (which had been obvious to everyone), we eventually worked to move on and patch things up, and that we had apparently done a little too good of a job patching things up between us. I had tried my best to keep my eyes on Ren or Nora, not sure how the hell to handle Pyrrha or what was going through her head as I explained things. It was clear from her face that she was a little hurt and confused by everything, and she was doing her best to put on a brave face, but she wasn't very good at it.

Now came the questions.

"What are her boobs like?" Nora asked, a wild look in her eye juxtaposed by a very keen one that made me suspicious that this wasn't just Nora being Nora, but Nora being Dangerous Nora, although that could easily be Nora playing me. In any case, it was the first of Nora's rapid-fire questions.

"I'm not answering that."

"Are they bigger than mine?" Nora asked quickly, undeterred by my rejection.

"Yes."

"How do you know?"

"I've seen them."

"But you haven't seen _mine_ , so you can't know," Nora cut back, before giving me a flat look. "You _haven't_ seen mine, right?"

"I haven't."

"Then how do you know for _sure_?"

"I guess I don't," I answered, before turning to Ren and Pyrrha for help. "Do either of you have any better questions?"

"Why were you going to hide it from us?" Nora asked, raising her voice in an obvious response to me trying to ignore her. Ren and Pyrrha actually seemed to like her question and silently deferred to it, leaving me on the hook to answer it.

"Um…it wasn't any of your business?" I answered weakly, not even definitely answering and giving more of a half-question. No one, myself included, was impressed by the answer. "I mean, I guess we just wanted to avoid making things awkward. _Like this_ ," I said, gesturing with a flat palm upturned to indicate the current situation we were all in. "Especially since things took an…awkward route between Yang and I."

That answer they took better, with Nora weighing over the words long enough to let the others jump in when they wanted to.

"So, you and Yang's relationship was a by-product of you repairing your friendship?" Ren asked, trying to summarize the situation and make sure he grasped it correctly.

I nodded. "As well as I can figure, that's how it happened." That left out a few specifics, of course, but it was an accurate summary. "We had to talk through some things, and when we did so, it became obvious that we're similar."

I snuck a glance at Pyrrha to see how she was doing, and thought that I could see jealousy and shame on her face. The sight made my stomach tighten and only made me less confident about how to continue with this, and I looked back at Ren quickly.

"And your friendship was only in jeopardy because of your… _falling out?_ " he asked, gingerly saying that last part to be polite.

"The fight, yeah," I corrected, not bothered by the harsh terminology. I could already see where this was going. "Although Yang had her suspicions about me ever since she carried me home from Junior's, it got so bad we attacked each other when we confronted it."

"Why?" Pyrrha asked, her voice even and controlled, even if a little forced. It was a better shape than I feared she would be in.

"I told her the truth," I answered with a shrug, much to my team's surprise, both at the idea of _me_ doing _that_ and that whatever the truth is was that bad.

"And what is that, exactly?" Nora asked, though her reckless edge had been lost as she'd come back down to Remnant.

"I…" I trailed off, taking a deep inhale to steady myself. "Look, can we not do this? I don't want people to look at me differently after they know, and after how Yang reacted, I think that fear is warranted." None of them liked that option, if the disappointed frowns going around meant anything. None of them looked surprised, though. "If Yang came back, then you can be sure that it's not anything…irredeemable. It's not something that I want you all to worry about."

"You know, maybe you should _want_ us to look at you differently," Nora stated, challenging me with her expression. "So far you've only done it to Yang, and that seems to have worked out pretty well for you. That's a 100% success rate at people ending up with a better opinion of you."

I stared Nora down uncertainly, trying to see if she was messing with me or if she was being completely serious. It was the latter. Something tells me that she's not really going to accept a dismissal answer about how statistics work and that you need more than _one data point_ , either.

"I'm not trying to sleep with everyone here, Nora," I answered back flatly, figuring that was a better way to combat Nora's point than actually explaining how it wasn't a valid use of stats. _100% of the people I've told this to have slept with me, which seems like a more fitting comeback._ I completely forgot that _Pyrrha_ was standing right there, and as soon as the words had left my mouth, I was kicking myself for being so reckless. "Fine, you win, I'll talk," I relented, figuring defeat was better than having to deal with any fallout of what I had just said.

Besides, Nora's point wasn't _completely_ unfounded. Yang herself had suggested that I needed to trust my team with this stuff, and while there's no way I'm bringing anyone else in on Raven, there were other things that they could know. I hope. While they didn't need to know everything, I could at least give them half of the story, and I do have a good track record of explaining things recently.

"This is all a Team JNPR secret, got it?"

Nods all around. I had their attention, if not also their surprise that I was actually going through with this.

"When Yang picked me up at Junior's, she found out that I had been working with some of Junior's…criminal contacts. When we discussed this, I—" _went out of my way to belittle her, at least at the end_ , "—handled it poorly, and explained myself even more so. I didn't even explain what I was getting out of it, or why I would do it."

"What _did_ you get?" Ren asked, picking up from my tone that I wanted this asked. It would be better to give them the justification first before dropping the bad part.

"Information on my family," I answered, making a point to meet Pyrrha's eyes. Her recognition was immediate, putting it together that I was talking about the file she had read. "Or what they used to be. I got a few files about how they were killed, but no answers, or…closure."

Nora and Ren were taken back, and they had followed my eyes to realize that Pyrrha knew about this file. The sullen look on Pyrrha's face spoke volumes to them.

"I'm sorry," Ren spoke finally, forcing himself to look me in the eye. "I know what it's like not having closure." I nodded and graciously accepted the sentiment.

"Who did you have to work for to get the files, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked softly, though her eyes still expressed a mix of emotions that was probably just as confusing to her as it was to me.

 _Oh boy._

"Roman Torchwick," I answered plainly.

They all looked at me strangely, which was pretty much to be expected. I needed them to be shocked by the information, because then they would easily assume that it was the same reason Yang and I fell out. The downside was that it wasn't going to be _easily_ to calm them down now.

"Jaune…" Ren called out tentatively, " _when_ did you start working for Torchwick?"

" _With_ , not _for_ ," I corrected. "And the night before our raid on the White Fang."

They all stared at me again, this time more upset than the last.

"Yeah, that's about the reaction Yang had before I made things worse," I said calmly, trying to play things off. "Look, I went to Junior to find information on the White Fang, he set me up with an informant, and that informant turned out to be Torchwick. I got in over my head, and it was accept Roman's terms to help him or _die_. I was at least lucky enough to get something I wanted out of it."

I could see that they wanted to object to that point, to get on to me for trading the information for the head of a terrorist organization, but now that I had thrown out that my own life was on the line, there was only one real objection left.

"You should have come to us, Jaune," Pyrrha stated. "We would have helped you."

"In hindsight, you're right. I should have asked my team for help," I admitted, seeing no point in arguing over hypotheticals, regardless if I would take the same actions again or not. "But I didn't, and all I thought that I had was Yang, and even that was only because I was too scared that she would tell everyone. I get it _now_ , guys. I'm lucky that Yang could help me out of it."

I could tell from the dissipating anger in front of me—mostly from Nora and Pyrrha, as Ren had remained characteristically calm throughout—that I was winning them over. It's incredible what just admitting culpability does to sap the anger from someone who expects you to deny does.

"But you were still trying to keep you and Yang a secret," Nora accused. It was a valid point, if a weak one; if all they could object to from _that_ confession was that I was hiding a relationship with Yang, then I could live with that. I can even fight back on that point, too.

 _Yang's going to hate me if she ever finds out what I'm about to say._

"Yeah, well…we were just kinda looking forward to sneaking around for a bit," I admitted, doing my best to act sheepish and finding it _really_ easy. "She thinks that it would have been kinda hot."

My answer, though completely fabricated since Yang and I had not discussed how we would handle being around the other as much as we should have, had the intended effect of embarrassing everyone here. Nora especially was embarrassed since I made eye-contact with her the whole time, as I was answering her accusation directly, making it her fault we were all embarrassed. _It's almost as if she wasn't expecting me to be that honest._

"Okay, that's more than I needed to hear," Ren announced, seeing that the group was done and needed a good reason to break. "I think it goes without saying that we all should think about this on our own, but…don't hesitate to reach out to us again, Jaune. We're a team." He started to walk off, but paused for a moment, staring off at the ground. "I'm glad to see things worked out, though."

"Yeah," Nora tacked on, "what he said, about being a team. Oh, and, uh…congrats, I guess."

With that, they both walked off, leaving Pyrrha and I alone for a brief, tense moment.

"So, uh…"

"That's not everything, is it?" Pyrrha asked quietly once Ren and Nora were out of earshot. Her eyes were wide and I found looking into them difficult, lying to them impossible. I didn't know how she knew or if she even did completely, but she seemed confident enough about it to confront me outright.

"No, it's…not."

" _Jaune…_ "

"I'm sorry, Pyrrha," I cut her off, trying not to focus on how frail her voice was. "I know that this goes against everything we just said, but I'm not ready to tell you yet."

"N-No, it's okay. I…understand," she mumbled softly, not even trying to sell the lie at all. "Whenever you're…whenever you're ready."

With those words and a distant look in her eyes, she walked off too, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

"That…could have gone worse," I let out after a deep breath. Handling Pyrrha did not go that well, but that might be a sign that she needed some time to herself before being confronted. Nora and Ren seemed to go well, even if there are probably still some questions I'll get about Torchwick in the near future. All in all, though, they all seemed to accept the information, and none of them feel like a risk to ruin my cover or anything drastic.

And they didn't remember to ask about how I had a place to stay over the break, so that's nice.

" _Roman Torchwick_ , huh?" a familiar and agitated voice called out from behind a nearby tree, although one that was far enough away that hearing should have been limited. I had had my back to it and never even though to check for eavesdroppers, being to focused on my team's reactions. That had clearly been a mistake.

I turned around to find Blake, now leaning against the base of the tree, arms crossed and a very agitated look on her face.

"How did you even hear th—" I cut my question off as Blake made a show off rolling her eyes up, wiggling her bow with her ears as she did so.

"I suppose you want an explanation…"

"Wow, did you figure that one out on your own?"

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Well, so much for being discrete.**

 **I had a lot of fun with this chapter, if you couldn't tell by that first scene. For everyone wondering what all went on between Yang and Jaune after last chapter, they sadly did not do the sex. Until they did. Shockingly, two seventeen-year-olds discover that this is enjoyable and an excellent stress relief. That's good, because as you've noticed, stress is mounting.**

 **Yang and Jaune are mounting too. _Heh._ **

**Yang's suggestions that Jaune needs to start reaching out to his team seems to be taking hold, even if he's not being _completely_ honest to them. It's not like telling them about Raven would mean as much to them as telling them about Torchwick, so it's not as if he's intentionally dodging the hard stuff. It's just that he can plausibly say the Torchwick stuff is behind him and point to Yang's 'intervention' helping him break free and let Torchwick get captured, should that info ever leak out of his team; he doesn't have such deniability with Raven.**

 **And, well, we all are aware that there _is_ a leak on Jaune's team, and one who is in a very confused and emotionally-overwhelmed state of mind. **

**Blake returns! It appears the confessionals aren't over, and this one's probably going to be the opposite of Yang's confrontation with Jaune. Yang cared more about Raven than Torchwick, and Blake would probably care a lot more about Torchwick. As a reminder, though, Blake _does_ know that Jaune knows Yang's mother, since Yang shared her concerns with her before confronting Jaune. **

**We should be getting to JNPR's first round of the Festival next week, though since it won't even really be much of a contest since canon JNPR won handily, there'll be a unique perspective for it.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by a guest

"It really baffles me that a lot of people stopped following your story when you announced it was Dragonslayer. Like seriously, can people just enjoy a story without a specific paring. I wonder if it would've been different if this were an Arkos paring"

 **As far as I'm aware, it _hasn't_ had a pronounced effect on readership. There were two or three comments about it, with one or two announcing their distaste and that they wouldn't be back because of the pairing, and one or two just trolling. Honestly, that amount of hate over a pairing seems a little low for the FNDM, because we're famous for some ship-wars.**

 **I'm a bit of a stats nerd, so I've been keeping track of views on each new chapter in its first week. We've been on a steady increase ever since V6 began, which makes sense as RWBY is now on more peoples' minds. I can't discern a significant drop since that announcement. The number of follows and favs, while there's no data to track from, has still be rising at the same slow and steady pace. It never went down any amount that I could tell.**

 **All that is to say that there was never really a mass walk-out, so don't take anons all that seriously.**

 **I'm going to have to try harder to get you all to abandon this fic... :P**

* * *

"I think I need to join TurquoiseLeaf's cult if that means you keep this up." - _Torrasque666_

 **Well, there's currently a power-vacuum at the top of his forces on the Discord...**

 **Which is fortunate, because I have, like, three people left in my loyalist faction. There's like double that in both his faction and the harder-core splinter group...**


	44. Christmas Special

**Author's Note: Surprise! Bonus chapter!**

 **This is _not_ an omake, for the record; it's canon for this story. ****It's a flashback, as close to a 'fluff piece' as can be done for Raven Branwen. Since this isn't a traditional chapter, I've mixed up my style a little here, to keep things interesting. 3rd person is different for me, and I realized half-way through I had reverted back to writing in 1st person. Had to fix that.**

 **This chapter also should not affect the normal upload schedule, so see you all Sunday.**

* * *

Raven hated this time of year, or so she had come to find out very recently.

It had come as a surprise, too, since this had been her single favorite tradition while growing up in the Tribe. All four of the kingdoms had their own holiday for the winter solstice, or close enough to it, and the Branwen Tribe had been no different; it was just a time of the year where everyone celebrated family in their own way. Just because they were thieves, butchers, killers, and outcasts didn't mean that they didn't have camaraderie, and they were always looking for a good reason to throw a party and get drunk. Growing up, she and Qrow had loved this celebration, and for good reason; gift-giving wasn't expected, but the older members saw value in rewarding the younger members that they most wanted to stick around. She and Qrow, being prodigies since they were brought into the Tribe, always got something valuable, typically knives or handguns.

The celebration came with other fond memories, like the first time that Raven had ever gotten drunk—at the age of 12. She and Qrow both thought they'd hate it, but there was something about the warm feeling it put in her belly and the loud-mouthed, equally-as-drunk den of thieves around her that felt _right._ For her, this tradition marked the first time she ever felt at home, and as much as she would have denied it, this holiday had meant something to her.

It didn't mean as much for Qrow, though, not when they were still with the Tribe. From the day his Aura was unlocked, life had gotten harder for Qrow. While they were equally as skilled and both prodigies of the Tribe, Raven had grown to be the clear favorite of those members who mattered, and all because of a Semblance that Qrow could not help. Raven had always wondered if he blamed the Tribe for unlocking his Aura and giving him his curse; the thought had to have crossed his mind. It was no secret that the Tribe was a lot more hesitant about sending her to Beacon than they had been about Qrow.

A part of her hated that, despite her feelings that it shouldn't bother her. They liked _her_ , and that was what should matter. Still, she would be lying if she said that she didn't remember the names and faces of every Tribe member who had held disdain for her brother, even after all these years.

One of the reasons she was willing to give Beacon an honest chance—aside from Summer continuously wearing her down and Tai wearing her out—was that, for the first time, Qrow wasn't miserable. The place was filled with fools and children who thought killing a Beowulf was a sign of significant strength, but Qrow was thriving and their team was in a league of its own. She could put up with that.

Despite what the winter celebration meant to her—a celebration of finding home, of commemorating good fights, and getting sloshed with those scoundrels you'd take over the world—Raven was more than willing to share the celebration. It wasn't the same with Team STRQ as it was with the Tribe, obviously, but it was still a good time, and though she wouldn't say it aloud even with a gun to her head, it felt good to see Qrow happy for once.

Those celebrations had felt like a different holiday altogether, yet despite that, she held those memories fondly, too. Team STRQ proved to yield just as much fun as the Tribe ever had, and celebrations with both had given her things that had lasted her this long. She had found a home at the Tribe during the celebration once, and it had also been at one of these celebrations that she and Qrow had been officially adopted by the Tribe and given their surname. She was pretty sure that Yang was conceived as a result of one of Team STRQ's holiday celebrations, too.

After Yang was born, there was only one more winter solstice before things could no longer stay the same, and even that last one was strange. The tension between her and Tai was mounting, but it was slow still. Yang was still the source of so many conflicting desires and emotions, ranging from the desire to protect that which belonged to her and the instincts of a mother (yes, she had them, though weak they may have been) to a sense of shame for being tied down so easily and weakness for being responsible for such a burden. There were moments where she would beam with the pride of a smug mother, such as when seeing Yang asleep in Tai's arms or upon seeing Yang's eyes flash red as she threw a tantrum. For each of those moments, there were two more where she'd be alone in the house, being responsible for keeping the baby alive and watching TV while Tai, Summer, and Qrow were out in the world, killing things and roaming freely. It was in those moments where she found herself dramatically wishing for death, not unreminiscent of a teenage Qrow.

It wasn't long after that solstice that things ended. She couldn't take it anymore. Summer was heartbroken and did all she could to talk Raven out of it, to encourage Raven to try just a little harder, but all she could do was try to guilt Raven into doing it; guilt had kept Raven there that long, and Raven was already sick with herself for letting things become as they were. Summer's guilt just hardened her heart further at the time, ensuring that Raven burned bridges on the way out.

Tai… Tai understood, more so than expected, and more surprising was how much Raven appreciated him for that. She didn't need to say a word to explain herself. He was disappointed and hurt, but he knew that it really wasn't him, or his fault; he had done more than would be reasonably expected of him. It was Raven, needing to get the hell out of that life, even if it meant leaving Tai behind. They were just a bad fit and unfortunate that they both legitimately wanted things to work so badly.

Qrow _hated_ her for it. She didn't leave Ozpin's service for another three years, not till Yang was four, which meant that he knew how to get in touch. Undercover or not, across all of Remnant or not, he made damn well sure that he found his sister and gave her a piece of his mind. He had finally found some happiness in his cursed life, he had said, and Raven couldn't stand it, so she had to leave to ruin it. Looking back, Raven couldn't blame him for seeing things that way; the truth was that Qrow belonged with them, and Raven belonged without them.

If she had been emotionally capable of communicating that, maybe things wouldn't be so rough now. As it were, Raven told him to fuck right off when he came at her like that. Bridges burnt, irreparably.

After that, Raven stopped celebrating the solstice holiday. There was nothing left to celebrate for her. She wasn't free, she didn't have a home, didn't have teammates, didn't have a brother, didn't have a lover, didn't have a kid… She had a bottle of Mistral's finest every solstice and nothing else, mostly to avoid imagining how any of the things she was missing would be celebrating without her. She forced herself to ignore such things on every other day of the year through willpower, stubbornly refusing to turn to alcohol to solve her problems more than once a year. After how awful Qrow had it growing up, she would _not_ let _her_ be the one to turn into an alcoholic.

She thought that blacking out once a year to avoid thinking about it was rough. Raven had no clue how unbelievably worse it was to have to facilitate a celebration, surrounded by cheerful and drunk people, and put on a fake smile, while trying to hide how much you hate this holiday.

It's the first solstice holiday since Raven took over the Tribe. The closest thing to a present she got herself was beheading the last few living people whose names she had memorized when younger, though even the satisfaction that brought was diminished now that Qrow and her weren't on speaking terms. She had originally planned for a more political take-over of the Tribe, making occasional visits while in between missions for Ozpin so as to rally support and win over some influential backers. There were a few hold-outs—namely, the former head of the Tribe, who, while not a terrible leader, hadn't done much, and his lieutenants.

The plan to be subtle was thrown out the window when she became the Spring Maiden. Raven suddenly had nowhere to go back to; she had no idea how these powers worked or how to control them, and Oz would figure that out quickly if she went back. She'd never get to leave if he knew that Raven was both a flight-risk _and_ a Maiden. She was out on her own, had no idea if Salem's people knew that she was the Maiden, and even if they didn't figure that out, Raven had stolen away the last of the Arcs that they were actively hunting. They would be after her either way if they found out. The time for subtly was over. Instead, she showed up at the Tribe's door and announced her intentions to overthrow their leader.

Five minutes and a reckless over-exertion of her new Maiden powers later, Raven was covered in blood and being cheered by anyone in the Tribe who was smart enough to not have opposed her.

It was less than ideal, and Raven knew she needed to erase the doubt from any minds in the Tribe. Raids, it was decided, both for recruitment of any survivors and to line the pockets of her men, as well as quench any bloodthirst they had. That turned out to be the right course, as they netted some serious growth in membership—including a ten-year-old girl named Vernal that Raven decided could be of use—and it had the added benefit of signaling to Beacon that she was _not_ the girl who they thought they knew. There was nothing quite like a long string of violent murders to keep your ex-teammates from believing you to be redeemable.

This celebration is just one more method of showing the men that she is the best leader possible for them, with so much booze and food lying around that they'd be eating leftovers for weeks. That also meant that Raven needed to be seen out there, drinking and celebrating with them, and it was miserable.

It felt like home, too, the same home she had finally found as a girl. Ruffians getting shitfaced all over the place, all sorts of fun being had, stolen gifts being handed out unironically _and_ ironically… it felt just like growing up, and yet she hated it, and she wasn't sure why. There was something missing now. It scared her how much the emptiness reminded her of the emptiness she felt when she was playing mother on Patch. As badly as she had to get out of there, it seemed that the experience had spoiled her, had given her a taste of something different. She genuinely missed parts of that life, so much so that it's stopping her from enjoying her new life.

The further Raven gets into the bottle she found, the more she hates it all, which is _not_ how this is supposed to work. It's supposed to make you forget everything you're trying to avoid, and yet, with each swig taken, more and more stray thoughts and memories were swirling up, almost as if intentionally torturing her. She gave the label a once-over, not recognizing it but reading the word 'Vacuo' and figuring that they most do something different with _their_ alcohol if it's intentionally stirring up her feelings.

She'd take a swig, and a stray thought about what Team ST_Q's celebration was like without her would enter her mind. Qrow would have shown up with a bottle of wine for his old team leader and a handle of that bourbon he and Tai loved so much by now. Summer would have berated him for bringing it around Yang, all while silently counting down the hours till they would put Yang to bed.

Raven would shake the thought away, but not before having to confront that they weren't as miserable as she was right now. Her mind would play games on her, pointing out how she was easily the most miserable of her former team right now, and that she had been both replaced and eclipsed in her old bed by her own former partner.

She'd take another swig, since clearly that first one hadn't been enough to dull her senses. It would work for a moment, until a memory of how much she enjoyed the celebrations just like this one would kick itself up, forcing her to scowl. The irony that this was _her_ favorite holiday growing up while Qrow was always miserable would make itself evident, seeing as right now, those roles were so perfectly reversed. It was as if her mind wanted her to see how much she should enjoy this, just to make it all sting more.

 _Fuck it_ , she declared in her mind, turning the bottle up and taking as big of a drink as she could manage. The stuff burned her throat and her eyes, and muddled her senses just enough that she couldn't manage to control her thoughts. Now starting to feel it, her mind was flooded with more memories of the times she'd spent with Tai while in a similar state of drunkenness, unable to hold them back any longer. The memories were a little muddled but she could almost feel his embrace, the warmth of the drink and the ghost of his touch warming her sides.

She violently shook her head and excused herself from the group. Everyone was either too drunk to notice or too focused on the bonfire in the middle of camp to care, which was fine with Raven. She needed to get the hell away from anyone who was enjoying themselves, and she'd been out there long enough to accomplish her goals for the night.

It didn't take Raven long to stumble across someone else as miserable as she was, but it did nothing to lift her spirits; quite the opposite, in fact. Vernal was currently sharing a plate full of sweets with Jaune, the little four-year-old Arc kid she'd saved not too long ago now. Another reason she had taken in Vernal, as it would be another pair of eyes to keep on the kid. Raven had already decided she would keep the kid—his name and who his family was practically ensured he'd be worth keeping around, provided he could be kept secret—but right now, the sight of him was only making things worse. It took a great deal of concentration to realize through her increasingly-inebriated state that this was because of the bright yellow hair the kid had. It was a sharp reminder of the attempted family she'd tried to create with Tai, and it was an unwelcome reminder.

As Raven took another swig, she began to realize that wasn't all that bothered her about the child before her. Jaune nibbled on a cookie from Vernal's plate, but neither of them really seemed all that enthused. Sure, it was cold out, but that didn't explain this. Jaune had a blank, zoned-out expression on his face, like someone detached from reality; Raven had seen the look in the eyes of people who had lost everything and did not have the will to get it back, instead retreating in on themselves and allowing whatever may happen to be. Raven hated those people for their final act of weakness, and so long as she was around, it was _always_ their final act of weakness.

But there was something chilling about seeing that look in the eyes of one so small; it likely didn't help that the boy was basically an amalgamation of Yang and Taiyang to Drunk Raven. She didn't have the urge to put those lifeless eyes to their final sleep as she normally would, instead finding the prospect sickening, though she couldn't place why. It couldn't be that she felt bad for the kid; he may have lost everything that he had, but he was four. He wouldn't even remember any of this when he was grown up. Sure, he'd have some vague memories, but he wouldn't know anything about having everything he ever had ruined. _Some of us are old enough to have to actually have to deal with our shitty lives, kid._

It should have dawned on her then and there why she was so bothered by the state of this child, and it did begin to dawn on her, but a mix of denial and ethanol kept her from truly being able to nail it down. All she got was a sense, a feeling of herself reflected in the kid in front of her, despite how much she wanted to put it out of her head.

Once she saw it, though, she couldn't get rid of it, and it started to drive her crazy. She didn't want this, didn't want kids in the first place, and yet here she was, missing the life she didn't want badly enough that seeing a surrogate kid just as miserable as her hurt. She _should_ tell that kid to toughen up, that this was how the world was and he would need to get stronger or go join the rest of his family! She should be furious that this kid was allowing himself to be miserable! This world is cruel and spiteful, and happiness only exists where it is forced to be so. Your misery is your own fault in a harsh world such as theirs.

The words rang hollow within her own head, not even the alcohol dulling that.

In frustration with herself, both for where she had let herself go so far and for what she was about to have to do, Raven threw her bottle to the ground, smashing it and releasing what few drops of spirit it had left. No one noticed—it wasn't as if smashing bottle and crashing things around was all that strange for drunk and celebratory thugs.

The next moment, a bird stood where Raven had just been, before kicking off the ground and flying just over the bonfire to elevate off the hot air. That was a smart move, because otherwise this bird would have been _far_ too drunk to ever elevate itself to cruising altitude. As such, it was able to flap just enough to stay in the air—this was an avian well-practiced in the art of drunk-flying—but even that was a bit of a struggle. What was normally a half-hour flight turned into an hour, but Raven had indeed made it to her target: the nearest village large enough to have a toy shop.

Raven knew fuck-all about raising kids, and even less about raising kids who were older than infancy—she had, after all, only experience with them up to age one. She also knew next to nothing about psychology or mental therapy in general, and even when sober she would be horrible at trying to help that stupid kid. Plastered beyond belief, her plan was little more developed than "do something to make this stupid guilty feeling go away."

Her first issue was landing. This was resolved by crashing in human form to take advantage of her Aura. She had aimed for the front door of the toy shop, thinking that she could at least use her drunken momentum to bust it down. She hit the window instead, and aside from it being a rough landing and making a lot of noise, she was satisfied with the result. She was too sloshed to really care if it had hurt like hell or not.

Even a stumbling, bottom-of-the-bottle Raven was keen enough to know that making that much noise meant someone somewhere would be coming soon, so Raven got to work.

And by work, she naturally meant that she grabbed an empty burlap sack that was laying on the workbench and started knocking as many toys from the shelves into it as she could. The shop was a workshop where a woodcraftsman made handmade toys, and there wasn't a lot left given that everyone else had already bought most of the toys as gifts for children. Raven played it safe and decided to clean the shop out, going with the shotgun approach: something in this bag is sure to fix everything.

With the bag full, Raven did her best to pull the string at the top and seal it off, throwing it over her left shoulder. As she did so, the door to the workshop was opened, and a weathered-looking man in his fifties rushed in, shouting at her and yelling words that she quite frankly could not understand at the moment and did not care to. She had what she needed so she turned to summon a portal, fumbling for a bit with her right hand as it tried to locate where the hell her pommel was on her hip.

She found her grip, but not before the angry man grabbed her by the shoulder and tried to spin her around to shout at her some more. That was the last mistake of his life, as even while drunk Raven could draw her blade and hit a target that large and that close. Her blade sliced diagonally from the man's thigh to his opposite shoulder, blood spurting out as he slumped over backwards and landed on the ground with a thud. It took Raven a few seconds to even process that she had drawn her sword, as she ignored the dying man on the ground and tried to find it again so she could get that portal back open. After a few moments, it dawned on her that her sword was in her hand, and _huh, it's dripping blood. Weird._

She sliced open a portal to that Vernal kid, silently pleased that nothing had interrupted her this time, though she honestly couldn't remember why she was so pleased by this; had something interrupted her before?

A strange feeling washed over her, stopping her from taking the portal just yet. Eventually, she realized that it was the feeling of being watched, and she turned around, her sword pointed in the general direction of the doorway. A small child stood in the doorway, eyes wide in terror at the woman standing before her, _as they damn well should be whenever I come around_ , she thought. A small chuckle escaped Raven as she realized that, in her red and black winter jacket and with a big sack of toys over her shoulder, she cut quite the festive figure.

"Ho ho, kiddo," Raven slurred, doing a fantastic job at not breaking down into drunken giggles as she did so. The child before her stirred no emotion in her, no reflection of herself, nor did it show any redeemable bravery or fight in its eyes, only terror. She laughed it off as she walked through the portal.

Her good mood evaporated quickly as she stepped out of the portal next to Vernal and Jaune, realizing now that what she was doing was sure to attract some attention. This, as well as being back in that party atmosphere that was driving her crazy, soured her mood quickly.

"Here," Raven grumbled to Vernal as she dumped the sack at her and Jaune's feet. " _Share_."

Satisfied with herself though furious that her conscious even _needed_ for this to be done, she stormed off, ignorant of or unphased by the nearby onlookers. She grabbed a nearly-full bottle of whiskey straight out of the hand of whoever was closest, shooting him a look that told him he could kiss his genitals goodbye if he complained about it. The fact she was still holding her sword—the one that was still dripping with _someone_ 's blood—only reinforced matters.

Raven was well into that bottle before she even finished walking back to her tent, if you could even call it walking at that point.

For over a decade after that night, there would exist a peculiar town in the wilds of Mistral. It would be a hardy town, one that survived odds that would several times seem insurmountable. It would succumb to neither Grimm nor criminals. It would, however, be the only settlement in all of Remnant to have a posted bounty—dead or alive—for Santa Claus…

* * *

 **Merry Christmas, y'all.**


	45. Round 1, technically

**Author's Note: Ah, football bowl season here in the South, the annual time of celebration and competition. Good news is, your boy can't get sad about his Vols losing a bowl game since we sucked so badly we didn't make one.**

 _ **Is that actually good** **news?**_

 **Probably not. Here's a link to the Discord if you want to come rub it in my face. Do note that I will take it personally and kill off your favorite character... :P**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter **g** ee_ ) ( _the letter **g** ee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 42:** _"Nora, take care of that sniper. Burn the forest down if you have to. Ren: keep an eye on Nora." – Jaune Arc_

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Jaune's POV

* * *

"What were you even doing behind that tree?"

"Eavesdropping," Blake admitted simply, her flat, half-lidden stare unchanged. Her admission seemed like it didn't bother her or change things at all, and it probably didn't. As often as we kept telling each other that the ends don't justify the means, it sure seems like we both act like we do anyways.

"What, is that a thing we do to each other now?" I asked, trying to get a little worked up over it in order to serve as a small distraction. Blake and I haven't spoken a ton recently, mostly because I've been a little stretched thin, but we had a much more trusting relationship before this.

"Yang told me to do it," Blake answered with the tiniest shrug of her shoulders, her answer effectively ending any chance I would have of trying to hold this against her. "Or she told me to go drag answers out of you, at least. I don't think she expected it to be this easy."

I gave Blake an irritated, flat look, though it was meant more for Yang than her. Yang _had_ told me that I needed to tell my team and Blake about Torchwick, and it would appear that she expected me to do absolutely none of it and took things into her own hands. As much as that irritated me, I couldn't really find it in me to get angry over it. _I could certainly pretend to be upset about Yang going behind me back and say that it was unnecessary when I was already following her advice with my team; if I could make Yang feel guilty about that, I could probably get her to try to make it up to me…_

"I believe you have some explaining to do, followed by some begging for mercy," Blake announced snippily, almost coming across like Weiss' heiress persona. Her words snapped me from my thoughts.

Blake stared me down a little longer, before I eventually broke the silence with a sigh, seeing no reason to continue resisting. If Yang was intent on forcing my hand here— _and it occurs to me that she could be doing that to distract from having to be grilled herself, since her team no doubt wanted details too—_ then Blake was going to get this one way or another. The fact that she overhead it all means that I basically have the hard part out of the way, so there's no reason not to go ahead and get this over with.

"Okay, you win. Sheesh," I let out playfully, signaling that I wasn't going to be hostile or difficult and that she could calm down too. She relaxed a little but remained a bit confrontational, likely not willing to fall for me distracting her like this. "Although, I'm not sure that there's anything left to say. You already overheard me tell my team everything."

" _Not everything_ ," Blake cut back, referring to that last exchange with Pyrrha.

"That's about something else, Blake. It's—it's about that file we mentioned, and some things about where I'm from," I answered, latching on to what I could in the split-second I had to think. Blake would probably be the safest possible person to reveal what it was _really_ about—Raven, my family, and such—but that can wait until after she's cooled off from this. "Other than that, there's nothing more to tell. You already heard it all."

"Then you can start apologizing," Blake suggested heavily, crossing her arms as she did so. She seemed upset, and she did have a right to be, but I got the feeling that she just wanted to get this over with. She wanted me to admit it all, her to have a chance to be angry, me to accept that, and then for us to move on and move past it. If she didn't, then she would have been angry enough to storm off or jump out from behind the tree earlier, or at the very least berate me now that she has the chance. Call it the perks of having a baseline of trust or just her taking the news extremely well, but either way, this wasn't going to ruin anything.

So why not push it?

"I don't think I can."

" _What?_ " Blake asked, equally surprised and angered.

"I don't think that there's anything for me to apologize for, at least, not…to you," I repeated slowly, taking care to show that I was trying to explain myself and not trying to antagonize her with my words.

"Jaune, you—you helped the White Fang!" Blake stated, almost annoyed that she even had to say it out loud.

"No, I helped _Roman Torchwick_ ," I countered carefully. "He was going to _execute_ me, and the only reason he didn't was because I could help him escape from the raid with most of his Paladins. I didn't _like_ doing that, and you shouldn't like it either, but I don't think I can apologize for doing it. What was I supposed to do, _die?_ "

" _Maybe_ ," Blake grumbled, but her frown and guilty expression told me that she didn't mean it. "You still worked with the enemy, Jaune."

"Who, the White Fang?" I asked for clarity. She nodded. "No, I worked with _Torchwick_. He was running the White Fang, sure, but he was running a lot of things. I promise that I never helped the White Fang again, Blake."

I was able to remain truthful, though only because of a very convenient dosage of technicality—and honestly, Blake knows me well enough that she should suspect I was relying on such. After the rally incident, my work with Roman consisted of loaning out Team CRDL for Roman's purposes. It was possible that Roman was using them to stop any leaks within the White Fang, but it was equally possible (likely, even) that he was using them to keep his own men in line. Torchwick wasn't exactly a huge fan of being strong-armed into running the White Fang for Cinder, so it's not like he would waste such a great asset on them.

Even if CRDL was being used on the White Fang, _they_ wouldn't think that they were benefitting from it. CRDL was tracking down and assaulting people; that hardly sounds like _helping_ someone…

Blake stared at me while she judged my words, uncertainty undermining the harsh look she was trying to give me. With no desire to defend myself anymore and no real motivation to be standoffish, I let my shoulders slouch and waited for Blake to make her decision.

After a few seconds, Blake let out a sigh and rubbed a hand across her forehead. "Do you wake up every morning and think about how to make things as difficult as possible?"

"…no…" I answered. _Someone_ else _does, though I have a feeling that Raven was aiming for more than just 'difficult' most days._

"What did…" Blake began to ask, dismissing my answer as if I was joking or her question had been redundant. "What did 'working' for Torchwick encompass?"

" _With_ , not for," I emphasized again, if only because my pride liked the distinction. In the long run, working _with_ him was probably morally sketchier than working _for_ him, but I was already in this deep and Blake seems willing to let it go, so what could it hurt to be precise? I also noted that she was hesitant to ask the question, afraid of what the answer might be. "He didn't have me doing anything bad, Blake; not after the rally, anyways."

Blake looked a little relieved, though she was still holding out to hear details before believing me. Her eye did twitch at the mention of the rally. I have a feeling that I won't be hearing the end of that for a _long_ time.

"Roman would send me out to harass other criminals that he had problems with, and I would just bust up whatever operation they had running. I'm not even sure it was illegal; after all, as far as Vale is concerned, we _are_ certified Huntsmen." The _in-training_ part was only something that mattering inside of Beacon, probably to give Ozpin greater control over things should his students ever be involved in, say, foiling terrorist attacks. "Roughing up bad guys is in the job description."

"That's…that's not so bad," Blake let out quietly as she released the breath she had been holding. "There are certainly worse things you could have done."

"What, like founding a terrorist organization?" I cut back with a cheeky grin.

"I did _not_ found it," Blake growled back a little angrier than I had expected, though it was accompanied with the flat look I _did_ expect. "And you don't have any room to accuse _me_ of helping terrorists anymore," she cut back sassily, folding her arms the other way than they had been folded, just to be dramatic.

"You're right. I guess we're even…"

Blake opened her mouth to object to that—since she had come here to be angry at me in the first place, not to find that she had no grounds to _be_ angry on—but begrudgingly shut it when she found that she had no real objection to speak of. She gave me a frown, but that was more in response to the smirk I gave her as she realized I was right.

"That depends…" she amended finally.

"On _what?_ " I asked, not even bothering to hide the bemusement on my face as she tried to work her way out of this.

"Yang," she stated simply. My smile fell as my face got more serious and for a moment, I felt defensive. I pushed that feeling out of my mind, though, since I knew that Blake of all people wasn't going to be anything close to a threat to Yang or myself.

"What about her?"

"The two of you…" Blake answered a bit awkwardly, giving me a suspicious look. "You're…?"

" _Dating?_ " I cut in before she could finish her though, unsure of where _exactly_ she was about to take that. "We are _now_ , thanks to Weiss."

"So you two really weren't dating until earlier?" Blake asked, a little incredulously, but mostly out of curiosity.

"We might have been, but we hadn't talked about any sort of label or anything," I answered with a shrug. "This might just shock you, but I don't exactly have any experience in this area, and Yang…" I trailed off for a second, thinking over how to put things in the best manner. "We surpassed all of the things she had experience with by the time our pizza showed up," I said a bit sheepishly. Blake's face took on a pained expression at the implication, which embarrassed me a little further, even if it was funny. "So yeah, we're kinda flying blind here, and to make things worse, things between us have never been… _normal_."

"Is that because of her mom?" Blake asked curiously. The question didn't feel leading or entrapping in any way, but the mention of Raven coming from _Blake_ surprised the hell out of me and made my stomach flop.

"It…is," I answered nervously. "How did—what do you know about _that?_ "

"Yang told me," Blake answered freely, noticing how on edge I had just become and giving up the information to put me at ease. "The day after she drug you back from Junior's, she had been training herself to exhaustion to distract herself. I got her to at least tell me what was bothering her," she explained, giving me a playfully-suspicious look once she was done. "She said that you accidentally called her by her mother's name when you were drunk. I actually talked her down and got her to rationalize things, so _you're welcome for that_ ; she came to the conclusion that Junior had to have told you about 'Raven.' Although…" Blake trailed off, reading me and realizing—or confirming, probably—that Yang's theory was wrong. "…given the brawl you two had and the way she avoided you for weeks after that, I'm guessing that wasn't it."

"No," I answered with a dark chuckle. "No, that was not."

"She _does_ know the truth, right?" Blake asked sternly, giving the impression that if I was hiding something from Yang, then she would be changing that. The fact that she was going out of her way not to ask for herself, but only to make sure that at least Yang knew, was a nice gesture on her part. It was an even bigger gesture when you realized she was still trying to respect my secrets after just getting angry at me for having a secret.

 _Why do all of my friends make me look so shitty in comparison? Is it too much to ask for_ one _of them to make me look better?_

"She does," I answered with a small smile at my own internal monologue, also finding Blake's loyalty and protectiveness endearing…ly amusing. "Why do you think that falling out happened?" I asked rhetorically.

Blake nodded, having figured out that much already.

"I'm guessing you want to know why, too," I pointed out when Blake continued to stare at me intently.

"I mean, it would go a long way to letting you date my partner," Blake answered back, teasing me as a cover for her curiosity now that I had broached the topic.

 _Ah, hell, what's one more secret shared going to do to me now?_

I scanned the horizon around me, checking for any black birds that could be eavesdropping. It could be Qrow or Raven at this point, depending on whether it was Raven or Ozpin who wanted me monitored. When I didn't see any, I turned back to Blake.

" _Letting_ me date Yang, huh?" I asked with a grin. Blake didn't back down, but she did look a little sheepish at being caught so obviously digging. "I guess I need to retroactively ask your permission for everything I did with her this past week."

Blake's eye twitched and her face scrunched up again at my implication, which was beginning to be really fun for me.

"I don't think I need to remind you that this stays between you, me, and Yang, do I?"

Blake shook her head, signaling that she understood the importance that this remain secret. It was funny that even though I no longer had a big secret of her own to hold against her, I felt even more secure that she wouldn't betray my secret. _I guess trust can be a lot better than fear._

"I was raised by Yang's mother," I stated simply. Blake's eyes went wide in surprise and she even shook her head a little, doing a sort of double-take at the information.

"You were… _raised_ …by Yang's mother…the gang leader?" Blake summarized slowly, working through each piece of information at her own pace and judging by my reaction if each one was accurate. They were, of course. If anything, it was underselling it.

"Can you see why Yang didn't take the news well?"

" _Yes_ ," Blake answered emphatically. "Wow. Yang's instincts about you were… _really_ good."

" _Huh?_ "

"Nothing," Blake dismissed, despite my inquisitive look. "How did you ever get her to…?"

"Not hate me?" I filled in for her. "I…let her meet her mother…sort of." Blake's eyes were wide again, although this time with more emotion than the shocked look she had last time. I decided to continue. "I met with her mom and snuck Yang along so she could watch."

"How did—that just fixed everything?" Blake asked, confused as how all the damage that had been done could be fixed by one act that, if anything, should just have further cemented Jaune's place as the guy who was hiding her mother from Yang.

"It helped Yang realize exactly what her mother is," I answered. "That meeting was…rough, to say the least. Blows were exchanged, and if it wasn't for my Semblance, I'd have a few scars to show for it."

"Is she really _that_ bad?" Blake asked worried.

"Worse," I answered, feeling confident that I wasn't just being dramatic. " _So_ much worse."

* * *

Raven's POV

* * *

"You know that we could have you all arrested."

"You know that I could have you all killed," I shot back dismissively before sipping on my drink. It was Mistralian and expensive, so it's wasn't bad, but it was wine, so it wasn't exactly what I was used to. It was, however, a drink for a sophisticated and peaceful person, in the same way that downing shots of vodka or whiskey was more of a ruffian thing. I had ordered (and paid for) it to show that I was here peacefully, though that seemed to confuse my company more than anything.

The boy who had spoken to me—and despite looking nearly thirty, he certainly was no man, so boy fit him better—was a Mistralian soldier of some sort. He was one of a handful who were stationed at this town, acting as both city defense and a sort of sheriff's department. If things were still run the way they had always been on the frontier, then he and most of his comrades were from this town, and were only 'Mistralian soldiers' in the sense that they were sent to Mistral's military for training before being sent back. As such, his experience and strength were laughable. His role as the town's protector even more so.

Sitting next to him was the man I was really here to speak with, Mayor…something. I honestly have never cared for the politicking of the towns I interacted with, and this one was smaller than the rest so it garnered even less attention. This person _was_ a man, being in his sixties and having that weathered look of a man who felt far old than that. His body was still strong enough to be in its fourties, though, and the cutlass at his hip was likely not decorative.

"I think what Xavier meant to express is that he's curious why you're here," the mayor responded tactfully with his gruff voice, despite it being clear that he didn't like me at all. He was much more aware of the reality on the ground than the 'defense specialist' who was half his age. Sure, technically me and the Tribe were wanted by Mistral, and they _could_ call for reinforcements, but that would only work if we either surrendered at the mere threat of a fight or retreated. In the real world, such a threat would ensure that I would burn this place to the ground and probably let the men do what they wanted with the survivors, just to prove a point. And we would still be long-gone by the time airships arrived.

The mayor clearly understood that, understood the way of life out here. Little Xavier's time in Mistral clearly inflated his ego or just made him forget what the world really was once you got outside of those city walls.

"Me? I just needed a place to watch the first round," I answered innocently, gesturing towards the TV on the wall nearby, where Yang's team was currently dispatching a rather lackluster opponent in the group of four rounds. "We don't get these broadcasts where I'm from," I added on, truthful enough even if it wouldn't have mattered if it was an out-right lie; they never would tell the difference, and already didn't like me enough that it wouldn't matter. _And we_ don't _get these broadcasts, just pirated streams._

"Is that why you brought your whole group with you?" the mayor asked flatly.

"It is, actually," Vernal cut in from her seat on my side of the booth.

The small, country-style restaurant we were at was only slightly busier than usual, leaving enough room for the four of us to talk without being overhead too much. The rest of the Tribe, however, was spread throughout the town to watch the tournament fights however they could, albeit with specific instructions to be on their best behavior and to pay for anything they used. Including paying for however they watched the fights. The town theater's one screen was streaming the Vytal Festival, and was likely to see a nice financial windfall when the night was over.

"I understand that this could be difficult for you to comprehend, but we're here to _spend_ money today," I stated with a smirk as I took another drink of my wine. "I think that you'll find it beneficial to be on our good side."

"Is that a threat?" the glorified security guard cut in angrily, only to be waved down by the mayor.

"Trust me, kid, your town isn't worth sacking," Vernal cut back dismissively, further irritating the boy since he obviously had a few years on her. I shot Vernal a look for stating things to blatantly, but she didn't back down from it, and I let it slide as I returned my attention to the men before us.

"But it _might_ be worth protecting."

They both looked at me with strange mixes of surprise and hesitance.

"What do you mean by that?" the mayor asked after a few seconds.

"We…are going legitimate."

"Bullshit." Any respect Xavier held for himself withered when he flinched as I whipped my head at his comment, staring him down sternly.

"There is this notion going around that we're a tribe of bandits and pillagers, destroying lives just to take what they once had. Are you aware of that?"

"… _yes_. That notion has been expressed to us before…"

"Well, I have decided that I'll put up with baseless slander for no longer," I responded, not bothering to hide my smirk. "I've acquired quite the group of tough, battle-tested warriors, both against Grimm and humans. In this world, there is high demand for safety on the frontier with a startling shortage of supply; that's quite the recipe for profit, if I do say so myself."

"While people have their own stigmas about paramilitary groups, no one can accuse us of raiding settlements if we are actively protecting them…" Vernal chimed in helpfully.

" _Protection_ , huh?" The mayor grumbled, seeing where this was going. "And what happens to those who don't pay for your 'protection'?"

"They remain unprotected from Grimm and humans," I answered flatly. The mayor met my eyes with an angry stare, and I didn't even _need_ to remind him that there were dangerous tribes around. He was well aware.

There was a silence as the two men thought things over, never breaking their glares at me, although the mayor was much less hostile.

"What are your rates?"

"You can't be serious about this," Xavier let out loudly, only to be cut down by a furious stare from the mayor that told him that his role here was to remain silent from this point on.

"Twenty-five thousand lien per month," I answered after pausing to let the mayor sort out his lapdog.

"That's ridiculous," the mayor spat at me. "Even you can't be so greedy to not see that this town would be bled dry in a few years at that rate. This is mostly a farming community; we don't bring in enough extra cash to afford that."

"Safety is the most important part of a settlement, is it not?" I asked coyly, allowing his insult to slide.

"I'm not going to hand you the entire town's life savings just so that we can die alone when Grimm do show up," he spat back again.

"You must not have heard her," Vernal cut in, not-so-subtly laying one of her weapons on the table, though the laser was pointed at the wall. "She said protection from humans _and_ Grimm."

"What Vernal here means to say is that word of mouth would travel to other settlements quickly, should we abandon our posts," I added on calmly, putting a hand on Vernal's shoulder to calm her down and make her remove her weapon from the table. "Imagine, if you would for a moment, that this is _not_ a scam, and that I really do intend to use the strength of my Tribe to launch a paramilitary company. There _is_ an obvious demand in the world for protection, so I would not even _need_ to force people into paying for it." _Granted, for years now I've been building up that need._ "However, I would first need to overcome the reputation of my Tribe, as it would be the largest hindrance to acquiring new clients and making this profitable. How would I go about doing that?"

The table was silent. Xavier still glared at me, but the old mayor's eyes weren't so harsh. There was a bit of curiosity there.

"Marketing," I answered my own question, smirking. "I would need to prove my company to be effective protectors by protecting a small, vulnerable village, and then I would need that village to spread the word about how worthwhile my services are.

"I think you'll find that our protection is top-notch and our services…more affordable than you'd expect."

"And why is that?"

"Well, killing Grimm doesn't pay well, but killing bandits or would-be raiders? Well, they normally have some money lying around that they won't be needing in the afterlife. Anytime you can point me in the direction of some such criminals, you'll find that month's payment reduced. That should both lessen the burden on your town and make the wilds safer; more than fair, is it not?"

"It is," the mayor answered, though it was clear from his voice that there was a 'but,' "but I doubt that we can find enough outlaws to make up for how expensive your offer still is."

Vernal smirked, and I joined her.

"For every settlement that you can convince to pay for our services, you'll find your payment slashed in half."

Xavier still hated us, made evident by the glares he sent us while pouting away silently. The mayor, however, had more of a distant look on his eyes as it slowly dawned on him why we were here. His village was one of the smallest in Mistral, and also in one of the most remote locations in the nation's territory—a veritable nobody, as far as the world was concerned. But it was within an hour or two's journey to several larger settlements, ones that could easily afford to negotiate with us. Convincing just two of those settlements to come into the fold would slash his price down to just over six thousand lien, not to mention that clearing out any nearby bandit activity would see his price slashed even further for the first few months.

With cheap security like that, he could actually afford to _expand_ his town, where he was likely wondering before how long it could last. _And when people saw that his village was thriving because of our protection, they'd be quick to forget that we were once their tormentors._ With a growing and glowing reputation, the Tribe's membership would explode, with whatever rival bandits we didn't crush jumping in line to join us. We could also pick up straggler Huntsmen and military vets, creating a nice feedback loop of growing large enough to protect more settlements and growing larger _from_ those settlements.

It could be just as profitable—if not more so—to be their saviors.

And hell, the praise would be fun, too.

* * *

Ozpin's POV

* * *

The elevator chimed and the doors opened, with James strutting out as soon as they did so.

"Sorry I'm late," he offered plainly as he scanned the room. Qrow and Glynda were already here, and if he had his suspicions what this meeting was about, seeing all the members of our inner circle gathered confirmed it.

"Too busy wrestling control of the Festival away from us?" Qrow grumbled loudly. James shot him a glare for a moment before giving me the slightest of apologetic nods, and I waved Qrow off with one hand. James' heart was at least in the right place, and right now there wasn't anything that getting upset would do to change that.

"I assume there's a reason we're here?" James asked pointedly, trying to get my attention away from the television screen I had projected above my desk. The volume had been muted, but there was enough combat experience across all persons here that sound was not needed to enjoy—or judge—a good fight, which was _certainly_ what I expected. Team JNPR's match against Team BRNZ would be one-sided though, unless Vacuo was sitting on some talented students that were unknowns; traditionally, all of Vacuo's better dualists chose to study outside of the desert kingdom. Brawlers, thugs, and Grimm-slayers alike were all at home in Vacuo's _more relaxed_ society, but dualists and honor-bound fighters were not.

"I'm sure you're all aware that we're in need of a Fall Maiden," I stated as turned from the screen to walk to the window, staring out at Amity Arena while also keeping an eye on the fight through the window's reflection.

"What we _need_ is a miraculous recovery," Glynda stated plainly and with agitation. "And we needed it yesterday."

"As much as I would like for Amber to recover, I fear we've allowed too much time to pass waiting for that outcome."

"None of this is normal," James cut in defensively. "Having a part of someone's Aura stolen by force has never happened in recorded history, much less in modern medical history. Even with what technology Atlas can provide, there's no way of knowing if she even _can_ recover."

"No one is blaming you, James," I reassured, flicking my eyes to the man's reflection and watching him tighten his shoulders again, resuming his normal posture. "But the time for waiting is surely over. We need to begin to _act_."

The room was silent behind me. They all understood that this meant giving up on Amber. Glynda especially had liked Amber, and both Qrow and James had at least known her; to steal what was left of her lifeforce from her only to give it to some new, wide-eyed teenager was not something any wanted to do. To _not_ do so was to invite Salem's mystery candidate to claim whatever power she hadn't already, and all behind me understood this. They just didn't like it.

"Do you have your candidate?" James asked finally, avoiding the argument over the ethics of what would happen to Amber. Qrow and Glynda clearly disliked the option, but now that time had passed, neither could bring themselves to say anything against it. As an added bonus that made things run smoother, James seems to have dropped his 'suggestions' in my decision process. Certainly possible that this was a direct result of him not wanting to push me after maneuvering me out of the Festival's security, but it could also just be him deferring to his chain of command in a time of stress or crisis. Head of Atlas' military or not, _I_ am the one in charge in this room.

"I believe so," I answered, turning from the window to walk behind my desk, where the controls to the TV feed were. Currently, the fight between JNPR and BRNZ was just beginning, with one member of BRNZ running off into the trees to set up a sniping position while the rest of her team held a line against JNPR's assault. Normally, not a bad strategy, especially if the three were strong enough to hold out, as it would only take a few well-timed and well-placed shots to open significant holes in an attacking force. I smirked as it took all of four seconds for Mr. Arc and Ms. Nikos to bust open that line; Mr. Arc had charged in with a wide, sweeping attack from his longer blade and Ms. Nikos had rolled over his back, delivering a kick to the nearest dodging enemy's face and landing into a roll that put her firmly behind the enemy line, having broken straight through the middle. With a simple point, Mr. Arc sent his other two teammates after the sniper. In under ten seconds, the match was over, with the draining of Auras more of a formality than anything. I started typing on my control panel, searching for more specific broadcast than the made-for-TV one that was currently on. "I would like to go through my reasoning with you all, though, before I base this decision on it."

I looked up around the room and found all the faces there agreeable and waiting for me to continue.

"It goes without saying that we need to learn from this failure and do better." Glynda flinched slightly and looked to the ground. As much as she may have liked Amber, she couldn't argue against what had lead us to this reality. "With that in mind, I would ask: what were Amber's greatest drawbacks?"

"She made it too easy to attack her," Qrow answered first. "If I hadn't been on her trail, she would have died alone in the middle of nowhere, and we wouldn't even know it for a few weeks."

"She couldn't be contained," James added on, agreeing with Qrow's sentiment.

"You mean she couldn't be controlled," Glynda cut in, cutting her eyes at James.

"Call it what you what, it doesn't change the fact that she resisted taking orders and ran off on her own numerous times," James answered back, lowering his voice and trying not to escalate things.

"Her heart was in the right place, and she never let anything stop her from acting on that," I cut in softly, calming Glynda down and giving her a chance to level out again. "I would even go so far as to say her moral compass was a strength of hers, but it is undeniable that it got her killed—or _will_ have done so before long. I agree with you all that her indomitability was her greatest flaw, and should be corrected with our next Maiden. Given the time frame, we also do not have the luxury of picking a development project; we need to pick a polished warrior, because we're going to have to hunt down the rival Maiden sooner rather than later. With that in mind…" I trailed off, hitting one final button on my command screen and changing the TV feed to a specialized broadcast—one of eight that focused solely on a single fighter. "…allow me to present Pyrrha Nikos."

By standing behind the desk and the projection, I could see through it to watch the faces of all three as they watched one of several camera angles designed to showcase Pyrrha Nikos to the audience at home. Qrow's reaction was the most obvious, relief washing over him when the words ' _Yang Xiao Long_ ' or ' _Ruby Rose_ ' did not come out of my mouth. James hardly reacted at all, likely having seen this coming—it wasn't as if she wasn't the obvious choice. Glynda's eyes narrowed, and I could tell she had a few doubts—likely stemming from Ms. Nikos' close proximity to her partner, and perhaps a certain mishap during sparing.

"As far as skill goes, I don't believe I need to defend my choice," I announced with a slight smirk as the projection displayed Ms. Nikos taking on two of BRNZ's fighters with fluidity and ease, while also stopping in the middle to occasionally provide cover-fire to both Mr. Arc and her teammates hunting down the sniper. A cattle prod and— _wrist bracers with saw blades?_ Regardless, a cattle prod and short-range melee weapons were nowhere near ideal weapons to give Ms. Nikos any trouble. She had the reach advantage on both of them, but freely and intentionally let them inside her guard just to show them that she was still in a different class even when they had an 'advantage.' "She also possesses a rather potent Semblance, which I'm sure you all are aware of, as well as how lethal it can be when she fully utilizes it."

"Don't you think she's a little too… _public_ to be kept secret?" Qrow asked. It appeared there would be no questions of her abilities.

"She has expressed a desire to get out of that lifestyle. It was a deciding factor in her recruitment to Beacon, even. She was quite the fan of the steps I take to shield my students from prying eyes…" I trialed off, smirking a bit. That was a policy designed to keep the enemy from learning anything extra about my students; Salem would be forced to infiltrate Beacon to learn anything actionable, which would at least provide the opportunity for us to detect them. That it also helped secure my future Maiden was merely a bonus.

"And what about controllability?" James asked finally, his patience wearing down.

"From my interviews with her during her recruitment and since, I would say she possesses a true servant's heart, but unlike Amber, she…" I trailed off momentarily, looking for a gentle way of putting things, "…she is not as self-assured as Amber was."

Qrow snorted. "Amber was a handful. Pyrrha's the very definition of pliable."

I looked to James, since he was the only one in the room who didn't have any personal interaction with the girl yet, though even he had Winter who had no doubt given a report on her mission with the teams. He looked uncertain, but was also waiting to hear it from me instead of taking Qrow's analysis at face value.

"Miss Nikos has demonstrated a great deal of faith in the institutions that protect humanity," I explained, choosing not to give Qrow a look for intentionally phrasing things poorly. "I have little doubt that, once it is explained to her how we are the highest order of protection of this world, she would offer her services to further our goals."

It was a delicate way of saying that she could be controlled, at least in the short term. She'd likely grow out of her deference to authority after a few years as one of Remnant's most powerful women, but until then, she would be suggestable indeed. _And given that it is the immediate future that is most concerning, the willingness to follow orders is an immediate concern._

"She does have one drawback, if I recall," Qrow stated before taking a swig of his flask. He walked around to meet me behind my desk before pointing at my control panel, silently asking for permission. I bade him to do what he intended, and he changed the feed to another of the eight 'focused' broadcasts: Mr. Arc's. He was engaging the last member of BRNZ's failed line and was much more obviously toying with his opponent than his partner was. He had his long blade trailing down behind his right shoulder with his right hand holding onto the pommel above his shoulder, leaving his front completely exposed. Despite the fact his opponent also fought with some form of enhanced wrist-bracer and was inside his guard, he had yet to be touched. Any time a kick was thrown, he would bring his knee up and cut off the strike before it could get going, and would follow it up with a grapple or a punch from his left arm. As the fight dragged on, his opponent was visibly wearing down and getting tired.

"If she's 'suggestible' to us, then she's just as 'suggestible' to him, too," Qrow called out, walking back around the table and keeping his eyes on the screen. "And given the kid's ties, that's a glaring security threat."

"His ties?" James asked, his voice rising a bit.

"While not proven, there exists a connection between Jaune Arc and the counter-intelligence efforts that have caused Qrow's intel sources to run dry," I explained. "They're not solid yet, though, and I still believe it more likely that Mr. Arc is only tangentially involved, if at all. All we have to go on is knowing the four students responsible for Qrow's problems, and knowing that there exists a strange dynamic between them and Jaune Arc."

"Still, you have to concede that his presence is a weakness to her candidacy, one that the enemy would surely exploit," Glynda chimed in as dispassionately as possible, taking efforts to see things as neutrally as she can, given who we were talking about.

"On the contrary, Glynda, I see Mr. Arc as the greatest advantage Ms. Nikos has over Amber," I answered, smirking as all three of them gave me strange looks.

"Yeah, you're going to have to explain that one to me," Qrow quipped, taking another drink.

"Amber's weakness was that she always ran off alone. There are _two_ ways to solve this, not just the one we've discussed. Sure, you could _try_ to control a Maiden and keep them in-house, but that is both questionably manipulative and increasingly impractical. We won't be able to keep her cooped up forever, unless we do something malicious to her psyche so that she won't _want_ to leave." I left it unsaid that this option was not something we would consider. No one had any doubts about it, anyways. "The other avenue to explore involves making sure she's _not_ alone. Take Mr. Arc, for example," I said, gesturing to the screen as I walked around from behind my desk.

On the screen, Mr. Arc had finally had enough of wearing down his opponent, growing more aggressive with his counters and frustrating his opponent. They separated for a moment before Mr. Arc charged in, putting his opponent—Brawnz Ni, according to the display on the side—on the defensive. Mr. Ni sought to land a roundhouse kick to the side of Mr. Arc's face, and Mr. Arc pulled his torso back in time to let the kick pass by. Undeterred, Mr. Ni spun into another kick in the hopes of catching Mr. Arc on the charge, but this was his last mistake of the fight. With his weapon still slung behind his back, Mr. Arc stepped in and ducked under the kick, spinning as he did so. With his back to Mr. Ni in such close proximity, the end of the blade stuck out and swept Mr. Ni's plant leg without ever having to be moved from its spot on Mr. Arc's back. Mr. Arc continued to spin until he was facing the ground that Mr. Ni had be swept onto, except now he brought the sword over his shoulder and straight down onto the curled form of his opponent with enough force to earn a KO from nearly full Aura.

"He possesses equal skill to his partner with an equally as potent Semblance—arguably, one with a higher ceiling. But he possesses a keen wit and a caution that Amber did not have, and that Ms. Nikos does not have.

"Perhaps the best case for Miss Nikos' Maidenhood are the friendships she is forming—Team JNPR is close with Team RWBY, which housed two or three Maiden candidates of its own. With a few more years of bonding facilitated by us as much as possible, you would have quite the unassailable Fall Maiden."

Walking back behind the table, I changed the feed entirely and instead projected some of the files I was keeping on certain members of RWBY and JNPR. Arc's and Nikos', of course, as well as both of Qrow's nieces and the Schnee heiress. I had files for the other three as well, but they weren't as much of a deal-breaker in the war against Salem, at least not in the immediate sense. They held potential, to be sure, but needed the remaining years at Beacon to sharpen them into something the enemy would fear. The rest had roles they could step into immediately.

"All of this sounds nice, but it hinges on what, getting Jaune Arc into the fold willingly?" James asked, his voice making it clear that he was aware such a task was not easy. "I'll agree that this would be a best-case scenario, but I don't think you understand how averse Mr. Arc is to _you_ , Ozpin."

"We…have a plan for that," Qrow cut in, shooting me a tentative glare to make sure I was okay with revealing this. James looked to me for confirmation of Qrow's statement.

"Mr. Arc may have fallen into running with the wrong crowd, but fortunately for him, his is a…unique situation. It's not everyone who has a future Fall Maiden and a school Headmaster invested in seeing you turn a new leaf _without_ facing serious consequence, after all."

"I've already got the dirt on the team that's been running counter-intel on me. I can bring them down whenever Oz is ready."

"Ready for what, exactly?" James asked, giving Qrow a curious look.

"Ready to turn the heat up on Mr. Arc," I answered. "Whatever Mr. Arc is involved in, he's going to find it going up in flames, sooner rather than later. He's as stubborn as Qrow—" I shot a coy look at Qrow, who was not too pleased at the analogy, "—so before he'll accept that he needs help, he needs to hit rock-bottom. I would prefer it if we control exactly what that 'rock-bottom' is, and keep it from harming his future. With a little help from Ms. Nikos, we'll have what we need to bring his games crashing down on our terms…"

"…and you're going to offer him a chance at redemption," James realized finally. "Clever. Are you sure he won't hate you for it?"

I turned to Qrow.

"Eh, it's not that different to what Oz pulled on Raven and me, just on a larger scale. That had only a 50% hate rate, so…"

"And Ms. Nikos is on board with this?" James asked, shaking off Qrow's comments. He knew better than to listen to Qrow for serious input.

Now, Qrow looked to me, as did Glynda.

"I've been in constant communicate with Ms. Nikos regarding her partner. Her concern for him is significant, and surprisingly profound," I said, building up my answer. "Once she comes to see that this is what it will take to bring her partner into the light, I have no doubts she will work with us."

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: _What's this, Blake showing up in MoNT? What chapter is it, 15?_**

 **Yeah, yeah, obvious attempt at lampshading is obvious.**

 **Blake's eavesdropping seems to have helped Jaune out a bit, though, as it at least forced her to hear everything out—not that she wouldn't have anyways, but let her think about it on her own for a bit and lessen her harsh reaction. She'd still be pissed, because come on Jaune, you literally just betrayed everything she's been working for. Jaune is probably fortunate that their friendship appears to mean more to Blake than a mistake and a tough choice Jaune made.**

 **And we've got Raven going out of her way to see Yang's fight** **—totally a coincidence, or so she would force everyone to repeat back to her. The fights _are_ randomized as far as she knows, but her plan to send her men into town to watch the Festival and get some cash flow going to ease tensions is sure convenient. **

**The idea that Raven is now trying to turn the Tribe (semi)legitimate is just funny to me, despite that it's a serious attempt at prolonging Raven's career as the ' _Maiden that got away._ ' Like, I imagine it's similar to herding cats to take a group bath, except with a sword instead of a cat-tle prod.**

 **And Qrow's reaction when he finds out is sure to be interesting. Wonder if we'll ever see that...**

 **Lastly, The Oz has finished working out his plans, and his cards are on the table. Manipulate Pyrrha, break Jaune, offer 'salvation,' and then profit... at least, that's the cynical way to see it. You can also see it as Ozpin taking no risks in literally protecting the world, and facilitating Jaune's redemption while pulling strings to make sure that he is never in any _real_ trouble. Depends on your view of Ozpin, and we all know Jaune's view of Ozpin. **

**It all hinges on Pyrrha now, and it's not like she's in the best place right now. I see no way whatsoever that this plan could go wrong.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** on _Chapter 41_ by guest

"Good chapter all round.

Is it just me or the ship name "Dragonslayer" is a misnomer? Given that Yang is the dragon and Jaune is the knight shouldn't that be the ANTI ship name. "Dracoknight" implies a pairing where everyone is happy.

Eh, this is just a label, probably shouldn't think so hard about it."

 **Okay, this comment got me off on a _long_ sidebar one day and distracted me for a fair bit longer than I would like to admit, so kudos for that.**

 **Yeah, "dragon slayer" doesn't seem to make as much sense when you look at it. Dragon = Yang, that much is widely accepted due to her name translating as roughly "Sunny Little Dragon." Dragon slaying is something that knights do in fairytales, and since Jaune is widely referred to as a knight for shipping purposes, it seems to make sense: after all, Yang's out of Jaune's league, so it would _have_ to be a fairy tale.**

 **Except, yeah, that _totally_ implies that Jaune's killing Yang here. Yikes. I looked up that holiest of Google Docs, the RWBY Shipping Chart, and found some alternatives:**

 _Firewall — Okay, not bad. Yang brings fire, Jaune has mostly only been good for a shield-wall through the early volumes._

 _Vomit Boy — This...this is literally just Jaune's nickname for throwing up on Yang's shoes. Meh._

 _Dragoon — If this is a reference, I'm too simple to understand it._

 _Icarus — Like, the guy who flew too close to the sun and died? This is another anti-ship..._

 _Arc Welder — Okay, that's kinda clever. You gotta think about it for a second sometimes, but it's not bad._

 **Yeah, none of those have quite the ring to it as "Dragonslayer" though. Such a cool ship name, way better than like "White Rose" or "ReNora." It does seem odd that Jaune has to slay** **—**

 **Oh.**

 _ **Oh.**_

 **Either the dragon is too hot to handle, or it gets penetrated by the knight's "sword."**

 _ **Did Yang get to name their own ship name?**_

* * *

 **Other Comment of the Week, 2, the sequel:** on the _Christmas bonus chapter_ by _merendinoemiliano_

"Quite sweet and sad chapter, still you manage to make Raven feels like human ([though] my opinion of her doesn't change). Best of luck with next chapters, merry Christmas and happy new year."

 **What's this? A world with shades of gray, where you can still feel bad for bad people? _Huh._ **

**In all seriousness, I'm glad you all liked that little bonus chapter** **—or if you didn't, you let me believe you did by shutting your mouth. It was an great Christmas present! :P**

 _ **Someone**_ **(** _Avidlag_ , **probably) on the Discord put the idea in my head for little omakes or bonus scenes about Jaune's past in the Tribe, and when I sat down to write last Sunday this practically wrote itself. My goal was "sad, kinda funny, show Raven's conflicting desires and wants, show that she's not always been on top of things, and also show that this coexists with the murderer and bandit she is." I'd say, judging from you** _merendinoemiliano_ **,** **that it worked.**

 **Plus, I couldn't resist the opportunity to put a hit out on Santa. It's about time someone did.**

* * *

"The cult of turquoise is fed by the love of dragonslayer" - _Turquoise Leaf_

 **Damnit it all to hell, I really can't catch a break, can I? Now I gotta blow up Jaune and Yang's budding romance. _Fantastic._**

 **For anyone worrying where he went, fear not, it appears he survived, despite my best efforts.**

 **Oh, and this man right here, who had been MIA (presumed KIA) in the Discord for like two weeks, really just pops right back in on Christmas morn, says hi, and just skidaddles back to whence he came. Like, talk about an anti-Christmas present, amiright?**

 ** _Just kidding, we all know that I need you. Half my readers are just here to get their orders anyways._**

 **Oh, and someone showed up with a photo of** _Turquoise_ **'s dog in the Discord...somehow. So if overthrowing maniacal fanfic writers _or_ cute dogs are your thing, be sure to drop on by.**

* * *

 _Turquoise Leaf_ , does this mean I _don't_ have to keep killing off characters to satisfy your needs? I was kinda looking forward to it...


	46. Feeding a horse (or a handfull)

**Author's Note: Behold, the holiest of chapter numbers, chapter 43. The number of your lord _Ikedawg 43_. How appropriate that we hit 1,000 story follows this week.**

 **If you're new here, that's another case of my patented "maybe he's being sarcastic, but also maybe he's actually just that self-absorbed" humor. It litters the Author's Notes and Closing Thoughts. If you either A) find this humor to be funny or B) want to revolt against this humor, you might just find my Discord server the place for you.**

 **Unfortunately, there's a coup being staged by the shitheads in my Discord, so no link this week. I can't risk any of you joining them. Even without** _Turquoise Leaf_ **there to guide them, they still find something to revolt over: a lack of porn.**

 ** _Sigh._**

 **Aaaaaaanyways...**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 43:** _"_ Yang _." – Taiyang Xiao Long, after sensing a strange disturbance in the world, sometime after dinner_

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

A peaceful dinner with friends. Was that too much to ask? Just a nice time out, with good (enough) food to celebrate both Team RWBY and Team JNPR kicking ass today. A chance for us all to just relax and enjoy the moment—more specifically, a chance for _Jaune_ to get to do so. Dust knows that he needs something good going for him, and as awesome as I am, he could use more than just a girlfriend to remind him of the happy things in his life. _Not that I won't mind filling the role of taking up his focus…_

It had all started off so well, too. I convinced everyone that it would be just as easy to fly into Vale instead of heading back to the fairgrounds at Beacon, meaning we could find an actual place to sit down and relax. Beacon's spare grounds had been transformed into fairgrounds for all the visitors to Vale, and while that was pretty cool and had some nice stalls eat at, it was crowded at all hours. Eventually, we found a noodle shop in Vale with outdoor seating and a cozy feel; just the sort of place I wanted us to end up at.

"The fights were _awesome!_ " Nora had exclaimed, completely ignoring her food. "My favorite part was every time Yang hit someone! _Oooh_ , so satisfying!"

"I don't know, watching you launch that girl out of the arena with your hammer was pretty good, too," Ruby had responded. "Does it have rocket-propulsion on the swing?!"

Nora smirked at her and Ruby, predictably, fawned over the very idea.

"I still can't believe Team BRNZ thought that they could hold a line against you guys," Weiss cut in, taking a break from her noodles. She thought she was being sneaky, but I didn't miss that fact that she had ordered the medium-spicy noodles and was only now realizing that Atlas food was a _lot_ less spicy than the rest of the world's food. The way she spoke a little faster than normal either meant she was really hyper or that she was struggling with her food's spiciness—the glass of _milk_ she ordered pretty much confirmed it.

"Yeah, not their smartest move," Jaune had added on with a smirk from his spot next to me, before he ate an extra-large helping of the same type of noodles that Weiss had ordered. He made eye contact with her while doing it and very deliberately made a show of it _not_ bothering him, to which the Ice Queen grumbled at him for. I smacked him lightly under the table to get him to knock it off, despite nearly laughing at Weiss' expression. "I'm not sure _anyone_ could hold a line against us, not when we didn't even _use_ Nora to break through."

That challenge had signaled the end of the peaceful, laid-back group dinner.

"You're attack is good, but nothing is _that_ good," Weiss responded back, both not taking an obvious challenge lying down and also looking to cut back at Jaune for showing her up with his noodles, _and dear gods isn't that a weird sentence to say._ Teammate or not, Weiss had _better_ stay away from Jaune's noodle.

"Oh really?" Jaune shot back with a smirk, taking _another_ bite of noodles as an added taunt. "Who here thinks that Team RWBY could handle an all-out blitz from the one and only Team JNPR?"

Ruby, Weiss, Ren, and I all raised our hands.

" _Ren!_ " Nora berated at her partner's raised hand.

" _Blake!_ " Ruby whined similarly at our resident ex-radical terrorist for _not_ raising her hand.

Both offending parties just shrugged, already knowing that this conversation was going to be loud and wanting out of it.

"You really think you could have handled us out there?" Jaune asked, genuinely amused by topic if the smile on his face was any clue. That smile was _also_ the only reason I wasn't ready to wipe the floor with him for insulting my team. He was genuinely enjoying this, and since my whole plan was to just help him relax and enjoy the night, anyone who ruined it would have hell to pay.

"Uh, _duh,_ " Ruby answered back, crossing her arms and getting sassy with Jaune—as sassy as _Rubes_ can be, at least. "I'm _waaaay_ faster than their sniper. You'd have no time to attack before I was ready to shoot."

"Add into that all the dust I can use to keep you contained and the range Blake has with her ribbons only helps. You're not getting around us," Weiss added on.

"We didn't _go_ around BRNZ," Jaune cut in, leaning back in his chair. He was grinning. "We went through them."

" _So_ ," Nora announced, leaning forward with a mad grin and placing both hands on the table. "Renny keeps Blake pinned down with gunfire, Pyrrha _obliterates_ Weiss, and Jaune tames Yang, leaving me free to burn down whatever forest Ruby wants to hide in."

Weiss look conflicted, being both proud that she was Pyrrha's main concern and also insulted that Nora so casually wrote her off as an 'obliteration.'

" _Excuse me?!_ " I burst in leaning over to see past Jaune and stare Nora down. I was half-tempted to roll my eyes and just accept it as Nora being Nora, but the fact that _no one else_ was going to challenge the notion meant that I had to get at least a little upset. "Jaune does _what_ to me?"

"Oh _please_ ," Nora dismissed dramatically, waving a hand at me. "We all saw the video of your fight in the courtyard. I would know, I filmed it!" Nora stared me down, grinning, as she rubbed it in. "In _this_ fight, Jaune won't be taking it easy on you…"

"Jaune won't _what?!_ "

Jaune placed a hand on my thigh under the table, rubbing back and forth softly to calm me down. It worked, quickly. My mind was no longer thinking about violence.

Somewhere, the word _irony_ floated around my head, but I couldn't quite focus on it enough to figure out why.

"Nora, stop trying to start food fights."

"But you—"

"I _know_ that I started one. Do as I say, not as I do," Jaune cut her off, chuckling, before turning back to me. "Ignore her, Yang. She's been trying to start something for a while now. Besides," Jaune trailed off momentarily, reaching up with the hand previously on my leg and ruffling my hair, much to the shocked silence of the rest of the table, "I'm _sure_ you could _totally_ take me in a fight…"

The action stunned me so much that I never actually reacted until he took his hand away, which is good, because I'm not sure if his Semblance is capable of regrowing a limb. I turned my head to stare at him and to let him know how much of a dead man he was, and the son of a bitch sat there grinning cockily, giving me a playful look. I've never quite understood what it was like to want to 'hate fuck' someone, but for the first time I think I get it, as I had the urge to rip off both his head and his clothes.

 _He_ would _do that in public, too, the bastard._ I had to settle with shooting him some deadly side-eye, letting him know that he was going to get it later. I left it ambiguous just exactly what _getting it_ would mean tonight.

"I think it would be safest if we called it a night," Ren announced finally, rising from his chair and subtly making sure to stand up away from my direction. "Or at least went to go get dessert…?"

"Actually, I—I have somewhere I need to be," Pyrrha announced awkwardly as she looked at her scroll, before quickly tucking it away. "My agent needs to call me…about the fights earlier." Pyrrha nervously eyed Jaune before turning away quickly.

"We could wait up," Ruby offered hopefully, before anyone could question if Pyrrha had seemed off. "We all won our fights, so we _all_ get ice cream."

"N-No, thank you, though," Pyrrha answered. "This could…take a while. I'll just catch back up with you all at Beacon…?"

The group agreed, and waved Pyrrha off. Nora shot Jaune a glare ever since Pyrrha said she was leaving, but it was more a mixture of suspicion and disappointment than anger. Nora was probably thinking the same thing, that Jaune and I had made Pyrrha uncomfortable.

"I don't think I can eat any ice cream," Weiss announced as she stood up, before pointing a finger at me. "And no stupid _Weiss Cream_ puns."

"Wet blanket," I grumbled under my breath, just loud enough for Jaune (and maybe Blake's cat ears) to hear.

Jaune's hand reached under the table again to rest on my thigh, but this time with something cold and metallic in his grasp. He absently rubbed my thigh like last time, except this time his hand wandered _noticeably_ higher up my leg, leaving the metallic object half-way tucked into the bottom of my shorts. He acted like nothing was going on and I made sure to do the same, but dammit if this combined with earlier was getting _something_ going in me.

"I actually need to do some ammo shopping before all the shops close," Jaune announced, intentionally taking up their attention to give me enough time to look down at the gift he had left me. It was a key. It was… _Neo's_ key, I think. _He knew_ exactly _what he was doing, then, the bastard._ "My pommel fires a blunt round, but I have no clue what type. I was thinking of summoning my rocket over in the airfields and taking it to a dust shop."

It took me all of half a second to realize that Jaune was _not_ going ammo shopping.

"I can take you to the dust shop my dad uses. The guys there know us," I offered. Jaune's eyes met briefly, just long enough for us both to realize we were on the same page, and _dammit, this all needs to hurry up even more now._

I looked up to find Blake giving me a flat look. She's a smart girl, she should know what's going on here. I gave her a pleading look, begging her to help convince the others that we should all just split up for the night.

" _Oooh_ , ammo shopping?" Ruby cooed as my stomach sank. "Can I come too?"

My eyes widened as I silently pleaded for Blake to step in, mentally celebrating when she rolled her eyes and gave in.

"Ruby, I don't think they're actually going ammo shopping," Blake explained flatly.

"Huh?" Ruby let out, confused. "But Jaune just said that they were. You guys heard him too, right?"

Ren, Nora, and Weiss, who all understood what Blake meant immediately, cringed when Ruby tried to drag them into this. If there wasn't a table between us, I probably would have elbow-dropped my partner for her treachery. As it is, all Jaune and I could do is get a little red.

" _Ruby_ …" Blake cut in. Ruby looked to her in confusion, and when she didn't say anything, she looked to Jaune and me to see what was going on. After a few moments of staring at us blushing (and me trying to murder Blake with my eyes), Ruby's face went red.

" _O-Oh._ "

"Well, on _that_ note, I think it's time we left," Jaune announced, standing up while cutting his eyes at Blake slightly. I couldn't agree more and made sure to grab the key out of my shorts before standing up, sliding it into my back pocket for safe keeping. Something told me that, one way or another, Jaune would probably end up finding it there before we even got to the apartment.

"You… _are_ going on an actual date right now, yes?" Weiss asked rhetorically, though with enough uncertainty in her voice that it really sounded like she _hoped_ we were.

"Perish the thought, Weiss," Jaune teased before walking off dramatically, refusing to actually answer the question and making everyone at the table even more nervous and awkward.

"Relax, _mom_ , we're just going to eat dessert," I reassured, rolling my eyes and waving as I walked off to catch up to Jaune. _One of us is going to be, at least._

"Xiao Long, I swear, that had better _not_ be a pun!"

* * *

"Should I even ask why you still have that key?" I asked during our walk to Neo's safehouse apartment…thing. It was a suspiciously short walk from the noodle restaurant, so much so that I idly wondered if Jaune hadn't subtly pushed for us to eat there with this in mind. _He's certainly devious enough to plan that out._

"I don't," Jaune responded so casually that it left me looking at him confused. " _You_ have the key."

"You know what I meant," I said back flatly, patting my back pocket. The key was still there.

"I did," Jaune confirmed glibly. "I've still got it because Neo never came to take it back. The place probably _is_ just an empty safehouse. If she doesn't need the key, well, _I_ could put it to use."

" _We_ ," I corrected, giving him a coy look as we found the street the apartment was on.

"And here I thought you didn't _want_ to be associated with Torchwick…"

"Are you _trying_ to kill the mood?" I asked, cutting my eyes at him.

"Oh, you're _already_ in the mood?" Jaune asked teasingly. "And here I was wondering what I would have to do once we got inside."

We reached the door, and Jaune turned to me expectantly.

"Key?"

"I seem to have forgotten where I put it," I responded, playing dumb. "You might have to help me look."

Jaune smirked stepped in close to me, eyes staring down at me with humor in them as he reached around and pulled the key out of my back pocket with as minimal touching as possible. That was disappointing, but the damn smirk on his face was flat-out irritating.

"You patted it earlier when you brought it up," he explained, still smirking as he opened the door and let us in.

"You are no fun. You know that?"

"Mmhmm," he hummed back, closing the door behind us. "Some might say that's my specialty."

"Well, 'your specialty' certainly isn't endurance, so it's possible," I jibbed back, earning a slight blush to signify my victory.

Unwilling to let me win that easily and with no comeback in the world that would help him now, Jaune reached out with his right hand to ruffle my hair again to rile me up—and froze when I caught his wrist out of the air and gave him a mix between a death glare and a vicious smirk.

" _Dead man._ "

His eyes went wide for a moment before I spun him by his arm and pinned him up against the wall.

"You know, you should be on your knees begging for mercy after that little stunt you pulled at dinner," I warned softly, keeping his arm out to the side and pressing up against him to keep him pinned. Despite his height advantage, I was the clear frontrunner in our little game right now, and from the look in Jaune's eye he wasn't quite ready to lose yet. _Perfect._

"I thought getting on your knees was your job," he replied, trying his best to give me a coy look.

"Eh, too obvious," I dismissed his attempt. "You'll have to try harder."

Try harder he did, hooking his free arm around my waist and spinning us until our positions were reversed.

"Ooo, _you_ pinned _me_ to the wall," I droned, making a show of rolling my eyes and letting his other arm go free as I brought my hands up to my face to act out being really surprised. I wrapped them around his neck when I was done with them. " _Very_ original. You're going to have to do something _actually_ unexpected if you want to win—"

My voice hitched and my body shuddered involuntarily as the hand I had recently let go off found its way between my legs, _very_ eager to be there. As soon as my voice hitched, Jaune's lips came forward to steal what breath I had left there.

 _That son of a bitch!_

"You son of a bitch," I let out, out of breath, once he broke away. Only his lips disengaged, much to my pleasure—displeasure. Much to my _displeasure_. I still can't let him have the satisfaction.

"Did I win?" He asked softly, his face still only inches away. I tried to shake my head no and there was a sudden change of pattern by his right hand and my breath hitched again. He gave me a stupid, cocky smirk. "I think I won."

"That was a—" he made my voice hitch again, but I did my best to ignore and push through it, "—a dirty move. _Cheating_. That's what it was, cheating."

"Then why is your leg wrapping around me?" Jaune asked, reaching down with his left arm to grab my right thigh. True enough, my traitorous right leg was curled up and around Jaune's side with the knee rising to Jaune's hip level, doing everything it could to push him closer.

"Because you're a really good cheater," I said weakly, as good as admitting defeat as I wrapped my leg around further, consciously this time.

Satisfied with his victory, Jaune faked me out by leaning in and instead going for my neck, making me gasp and reach up to grab a fistful of Jaune's hair. It also gave me the chance to see over Jaune's shoulder at the rest of the room. My eyes caught a glimpse of color but I was already shutting them when I gasped, and it wasn't until I was done with that—no short affair, either—that I got to see what it was. I went rigid.

"What's wrong?" Jaune whispered, feeling me go from limp to stiff suddenly.

A vase crashed to the floor on the opposite side of the room, Raven having knocked it over to 'subtly' announce her presence. Jaune only turned his head around enough to see what had caused the noise, no doubt hoping it was something he could ignore so he could get back to business. Upon seeing Raven, he flinched and panicked, trying to act like his hand _wasn't_ just down my pants and more as he spun around.

Jaune positioned himself so that he blocked my right side, and in that moment I either wanted to curl into a ball and die or hide behind Jaune and _then_ curl into a ball and die. There was no way my face wasn't red beforehand, but it would make Ruby's cape jealous now. Raven, for what it was worth, wore a dramatic, agitated frown and gave us a half-squinted look—and dare I say it, looked a little bit awkward to boot. There might have even been just the slightest hint of color in her cheeks.

We stood there like that, with Raven switching between giving Jaune and I that look for a solid ten seconds, with Jaune and I both too surprised, embarrassed, and out of breath to say anything, and that was only if we were capable of thinking of something _to_ say. _What the hell do you say in this situation? 'thank god it wasn't my dad that found out?'_

Eventually, Raven's face fell to the floor and she shook her head softly, the tiniest of smirk on her face, before looking back up with her normal, patented almost-a-smirk expression, focusing on Jaune.

"Well, I would offer you a congratulatory handshake, but I'd rather not get my hand wet."

"How long have you been there?" Jaune asked, legitimately irritated, while trying to subtly shift his right hand so that it was hidden from Raven's view by his back.

"Too long," Raven replied gruffly, much to my horror. "Relax, only a few seconds. I would say that I'm surprised you didn't hear my portal, but I'm really not surprised; it seems you had your hands full…"

"What are you doing here, Raven?" Jaune grumbled angrily. Raven cocked her head to the side curiously at hearing Jaune mention her name, and it took me a few seconds to remember that Jaune isn't supposed to know Raven, at least, not in front of me. Raven knows that I know about Jaune, but Jaune doesn't know that Raven knows that I know about him, so he should still be pretending not to know her while he's in front of me.

Jaune realized his mistake soon enough, his left hand curling into a fist in frustration. I reached up and forced my fingers to intertwine with his, calming him down and forcing him to keep a level head.

Raven looked at me, cocking her head to the other side with a curious smirk on her face. A few moments later I realized that I was supposed to keep Jaune from knowing that Raven knew that I knew that Jaune knew Raven. I felt I couldn't be blamed for not being able to keep all this espionage shit straight, but the bottom line was that Jaune messed it up by not pretending to not recognize Raven, and then I messed it up by not pretending to be surprised that Jaune knew Raven.

Now, Raven was receiving flat glares from _both_ of us for blowing our covers.

"Hey, in my defense, I played my part the same way that I would have if I'd found some random dude with his hand down Yang's pants," Raven defended with a laugh at the dirty looks she was receiving from us both. "Feels like feeding a horse, I'd bet."

If Jaune's grip on my hand hadn't gone iron-tight, I would have beat her ass then and there.

" _Why. are. you. here?_ " Jaune growled again, more forcefully.

"Well, I was coming to congratulate Yang on her fight. It happened to be playing at the town I was in," she explained, grinning at the ire aimed at her as if it only made her stronger. "I didn't happen to see yours. I'm guessing you probably won?"

Jaune's grip on my hand clenched for a moment at how intentionally dismissive Raven's voice was. I would have been, too, if my surrogate mother had gone out of her way to write me off just to get under my skin. Hell, it pissed me off that she would do it to Jaune at all, teasing or not, and that she was using _me_ to do it was all the more reason to beat her ass.

"Let me at her," I half-whispered and half-growled.

"Okay, okay, I can take a hint," Raven cut in, doing her best not to laugh at us as she put her hands up to calm us down. "I'll get out of your hair, just tell me this: does Tai know yet?"

"Jaune's not dead, so no," I grumbled. For a moment, I was reminded that Ruby knew we were sneaking off right now. There was a 50% chance she had already told dad we were dating, and I'd say a 25% chance that he knows that we're by ourselves tonight. _Fuck_.

"Your father is such a hypocrite. Well, you kids have fun," Raven called out with a smirk as she cut open a portal, stepping through it as soon as possible, though her voice called out through it before it closed completely. "Vernal, I...owe you some lien..."

Jaune flipped off the closing portal with his right hand, holding the salute for long after the portal closed, to be dramatic.

"Well, that…" I said, trying to find some sort of funny thing to say. "…that was a thing."

"I don't think that could have gone worse," he mumbled back, finally loosening his death-grip on our intertwined fingers. In the end, Jaune had blown a cover, I had blown a cover, and Raven had blown a cover with each of us, though it would be nice if Jaune maybe didn't realize that Raven and I had a deal behind his back. Not that it was a huge one or anything—I mean, sending Blake to go demand answers from him so that she would leave me alone was probably a worse thing than that—but it still would be nice not to deal with that _right now_.

"She didn't overreact," I countered. "It could have gone a _lot_ worse."

"I'm guessing that… _that_ sorta killed the mood," Jaune mumbled, looking up to me with a faintest bit of hope but with the acceptance that the night was over.

It should have been. Getting walked in on by your mom was enough to kill just about any mood, and the fact that this was no ordinary 'mother' just made things worse, but the whole point of getting him out to dinner was to get him to relax and destress. Right now, the opposite has been accomplished, _and I refuse to lose to Jaune_ and _Raven in one night._

"I don't know," I said, giving Jaune a coy look and walking over to where he was still making a show of flipping off the general area Raven had been in with his right hand. I made an equally big show of sucking on his middle finger, releasing it with a soft pop. Jaune eyes went as wide a dinner plates, and he stopped breathing—and probably thinking—for a good couple of seconds. "Why don't you slam me into that wall and find out?"

* * *

Pyrrha's POV

* * *

When I got a text from the Headmaster, I had hoped that it would provide something of a distraction, something to take my mind off of everything. Jaune, Yang, Torchwick, Jaune's family…it was all so confusing and conflicting. Dinner with the teams had been nice until Yang and Jaune had started looking at each other funny, and my stupid jealously kicked into overdrive. From there I got onto myself for being jealous, since that wasn't fair to either of them, but that didn't really make things easier for me. I also tried to tell myself that I shouldn't be jealous over _Jaune_ , not with all the things he's been doing behind our backs.

I still was, though, and it all meshed together to leave me a confused mess, so much so that I actually thought that meeting with the Headmaster would be a good distraction. It was completely lost on me that the only thing we ever discuss is Jaune.

Except, this time, it wasn't. It was an _excellent_ distraction, but somehow it wasn't any easier.

"This is all just…a lot to take in," I said, struggling to find anything else I _could_ say. Beacon's apparently secret basement wasn't exactly a warm and inspiring place, either.

 _Magic._ Magic was real, if the four people who led me down here were telling the truth. Magic was real and they wanted me to have it, to be this…Maiden person. That… _I don't know, that feels…wrong._ I've never tried to take shortcuts or avoid challenges, and just taking all that power…it doesn't feel right, and that's not even considering _how_ they would give it to me.

"Why me?"

"Because you're ready," Headmaster Ozpin answered, giving me a warm and reassuring smile, even though his words had the opposite effect.

"No I'm not," I answered back upset. "I…you can't just _be_ ready for something like this. You have to have other reasons, real reasons. Why not pick someone else?"

The group exchanged looks on their faces, looks like they didn't want to answer the question, which only made the knot in my stomach tighten. Ozpin ignored them, though, letting out a sigh before looking up at me again.

"There were many things we discussed, Ms. Nikos, but most important are that we trust that your heart is in the right place, and that…you're strong enough to survive this."

"S-Survive it?"

"Amber had half her powers stolen," General Ironwood answered grimly. "And every day we wait, her assailant draws closer. If we do nothing, they will try to finish off Amber to claim the rest of her powers. However, whoever we give those powers to…"

"…They're going to go after?" I filled in, the realization coming over me and bringing a sense of dread with it. Ironwood nodded solemnly.

"The reason I chose you, Ms. Nikos, is because you have the best chance of not only surviving this, but in also reclaiming Amber's lost power," Ozpin stepped in, his voice as reassuring as it could be given what he said. "I have a good idea of the sort of person who stole Amber's power, and rest assured if they had the full power of Fall, hundreds—if not thousands—of people will die."

It was that point that stuck out more than all the rest. The Headmaster was so certain of it, so fearful of that happening, that it was more important than everything else. He…he _needed_ me to do this, because if I didn't, people will die. _Wasn't that why I wanted to be a Huntress in the first place? To protect people?_

"You will have more time to think about this, but there is…something else that we need to discuss," Ozpin said gingerly, before turning to his group. "James, Glynda, thank you for your help tonight. Qrow and I need to speak with Ms. Nikos alone now."

"Understood," the general answered with a nod.

"Ms. Nikos, if you need anything, my door is always open," Miss Goodwitch said to me, giving me a soft expression I had never seen from her before, before heading to the elevator and taking it up with General Ironwood.

"Good, they're gone," Mr. Branwen drawled once the elevator doors closed. "About time."

" _Qrow._ " Ozpin snapped at the man, much harsher than I'd seen before. Mr. Branwen seemed surprised and shut right up. I was equally as surprised.

"What is it that you wanted to speak with me about?" I asked nervously, wondering what could possibly need Miss Goodwitch and General Ironwood to leave, given that they could overhear the _last_ big thing we talked about.

"There's something I need your help with, before we can even consider offering you the Maidenhood," Ozpin answered motioning for us all to follow him to the elevator. "But, that can be discussed in my office. It's rather…dark down here."

We waited a few more moments for the elevator to come back, riding up to Ozpin's office in silence.

"Ms. Nikos, just a few hours ago, I argued on your behalf for the Maidenhood in this very office, to Qrow, Glynda, and James. Do you know what the biggest debate was over?" The Headmaster asked with a small smile, the kind he normally hid behind his mug. He sat down in his chair and set his mug down on his desk, taking even the option to hide behind it away.

"I…don't, no."

"Well, it certainly wasn't over your intentions for the powers. There wasn't a person in the room that was concerned for a moment that you weren't to be trusted with such power," Ozpin answered, his smile genuinely deepening. "I believe that to be quite the complement."

"It…it is, thank you," I stammered, unsure of how to respond.

"The only debate had wasn't really over you," the Headmaster continued. "I argued that one of your greatest strengths in this coming conflict is the fact that you have several friends who I believe would be beneficial to have by your side in a fight, leaving you practically unassailable."

"It's one of those friends that was the sticking point," Mr. Branwen cut in, careful to take a much less angry or cynical tone.

It wasn't hard to figure out which one.

"Jaune."

"Unfortunately, yes," the Headmaster answered. "Currently, he…represents a security threat."

"H-He…?" I stammered again, as all the things I was worried about with Jaune flooded back into my mind. _So much for a distraction._ "Why is that?"

"Ms. Nikos, this may be hard to here, but your partner is…"

"He's a criminal," Qrow cut in again, this time earning a glare from Ozpin. If my stomach wasn't knotted before, it certainly was now. _Did they know, then?_ Jaune seemed to indicate that he was finished with Torchwick, but not that he was finished with everything. Did Jaune do something even worse, and get caught? _Do they suspect our team helped him hide it?_

"H-He's…?"

Ozpin sighed from his side of the table, taking off his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"This may be difficult to hear, but Qrow has been investigating some criminal activity going on here on campus, and Mr. Arc's name has come up in connection, with…solid ties."

"What did he do?" I asked, fearful that they knew about Torchwick now. What other criminal activity could be going on at Beacon? It wasn't as if students were dragged into Vale's underworld all that often.

"We don't have all the details yet, but Qrow is ready to take down the members that we have solid evidence against," Ozpin answered, relieving a little of the panic that had taken me. It didn't sound like they had anything concrete against Jaune, which meant no Torchwick—the man must not have decided to give Jaune up, for whatever reason. He's been in custody for a while now. "I have no doubt that Mr. Arc will be ratted out in the following interrogations, though."

"What's…what's going to happen to him?"

Ozpin shifted uncomfortably, looking to Qrow for a moment.

"That's where we would like your help."

"My help?" I repeated, confused. "What can _I_ do?"

"You can save your boyfriend," Mr. Branwen answered back flatly.

"He's Yang's boyfriend, not…not mine," I answered back, upset with myself for how far under my skin the simple comment had gotten—though Nora would have been proud of the venom in my voice, at least before I caught myself. Mr. Branwen's wide eyes at my comment made things a little better. Apparently, he didn't know.

"Either way, should you become the Fall Maiden, having your partner at your side would be invaluable. Not only would his skill be an immediate asset, but I suspect his instincts and intuitions would be more helpful that you might think. It would do us no good to have him locked away," Ozpin stated, taking no pleasure in saying it, which matched how I flinched at hearing it. "I can…help."

"How?"

"It _is_ Qrow's investigation, and Qrow works directly for me— _not_ for any of Vale's law enforcement agencies. If I am satisfied that Mr. Arc has turned a new leaf, there are very few things I cannot protect him from," the Headmaster stated, heavily emphasizing that point so that I suspected he meant that there wasn't _anything_ he couldn't hide. "The problem is, as I'm sure you are aware, I need Mr. Arc himself to come to me and indicate that he wants my help, and this is not exactly something high on his list."

That was probably putting it gently. If I understood what the Headmaster was saying, he needed Jaune to tell him everything about himself, which was never going to happen. Jaune only _just now_ told us about Torchwick—only once he wasn't involved anymore, once it was over. He as good as told me that there were other things he 'wasn't ready' to share…which means those things aren't over yet. They're ongoing, which means that he really could be involved in whatever Mr. Branwen is investigating. _It doesn't help matters that Jaune…doesn't want to trust Ozpin_. Even in an area where Ozpin could help, could give Jaune something that Jaune couldn't get himself—his family, his past, his name—Jaune refused to go to the Headmaster. He would rather go through Roman Torchwick than Headmaster Ozpin. _Why?_

"I don't think that will happen," I mumbled, averting my eyes. "I don't know what I could even say to make him _consider_ it. He…" my eyes flicked to the Headmaster before quickly averting again, "…he's not your biggest fan."

"To put it lightly," Mr. Branwen added on.

"Yes, you could certainly put it like that," Ozpin confirmed with a slight, though dark, chuckle. "Truth be told, _many_ years ago, Mr. Arc's family and I had a…a falling out, of no small proportions. Hindsight being what it is, there were things I could have done to ease tensions, but I failed to do them. I had thought his name lost to the wilds and the Grimm, but it does appear that it survived, hatred of me and all."

"He…" I started to respond, before cutting myself off and deciding that it was Jaune's secret to tell, not mine. Ozpin looked to me expectantly, but understandingly, and I withered, going with a watered-down version of what I was going to say. "He _is_ the last, sir. He talks about not knowing his family at all, not even their names."

"And yet, he remembers to hold a grudge against me," Ozpin stated, giving me a funny look before shaking it off. "Maybe it really is in his DNA. In any matter, we all understand that Mr. Arc will not be _willingly_ talking to me."

The way he said that made me uncomfortable.

"There is another way we can make this work, however; a series of half-measures." Ozpin and Qrow both looked to me, waiting for me to either ask about it or give them a look that told them I wanted to hear it. I gave them the latter, though I can't say my face didn't look worried. "Mr. Arc does not need to trust me for me to be confident that he will protect his friends; as much as he has liked to hide it, he has demonstrated the value he places in them. In _you_ , Ms. Nikos." Ozpin stopped here to give me a look and make sure that I was following him and understanding the gravity of what he was saying. "Trust is built over time, and I do think that eventually, he will come around. When he does, I'll do what I can to bury the hatchet with his family; in the immediate, however, it will suffice to have him at least no longer a liability."

"What…what all does that mean?"

Ozpin and Qrow exchanged a look, which did nothing to settle my nerves, before the Headmaster pulled out a small box from one of his desk's drawers.

"I'm going to need to confront him," Ozpin said solemnly.

"You _what?_ " I asked quietly, barely more of a whisper as the knot in my stomach tightened. This was getting worse and worse.

"I need Mr. Arc to accept my help, and I fear that the only way to do that is by forcing his hand. You know him well by this point, Ms. Nikos; is there _any_ easier way to get through to him?"

The knot in my stomach remained, but I didn't have any answer I could give him.

"I was afraid so. Simply put, I believe that the only way to save your partner is to put an end to anything and everything illegal that he is involved in, and then to offer him a path to redemption—one that he knows that we all, in no uncertain terms, will help him along." Ozpin's frown softened as he looked over to Mr. Branwen again. "This… _method_ is not without precedent. The only issue is that without Mr. Arc willing to initiate this, I need to know everything about his activities before this confrontation. I need him to realize that the game is up, and that the path I'm offering is his best option—because it will be his _only_ option."

He trailed off, looking to me meaningfully, before he pushed the small box across the table to me. I opened it up to find what looked like a pen, but given the conversation, it was likely only meant to _look_ like a pen.

"You…you want me to _spy_ on Jaune?!" I asked, a sinking feeling growing in me. This wasn't just the Headmaster asking me to keep a close eye on my partner. This was the Headmaster asking me to _betray_ my partner's trust entirely, to go directly against him and turn him over on the hopes that he'll come to see it was for his own good.

The world was starting to spin.

"Yes," Ozpin answered, giving me something to focus on to stop my spiraling. I appreciated his honesty, but I felt it would have been better if he had lied to me, give me some excuse to make this easier. "Unfortunately, that is what things have come to. I am out of time because of Amber's condition and I _need_ you to be my Maiden, but I can't in good conscience even _ask_ you to consider that until I am confident that your partner is saved from himself. I simply do not have the luxury of time, or I would approach this very differently."

I stared at the Headmaster, lost in thought and overwhelmed, conflicted between my head—thousands of innocent people could die if I don't do this, and it's best for Jaune—and my heart—stealing Amber's life is wrong, and so is betraying Jaune.

Ozpin, noting the lost expression on my face, got up and walked around the table, taking the 'pen' from its box.

"This is something borrowed from Atlas, but with my own personal touches. In another life, long before I became a teacher, I was quite the tinkerer, you know," he stated with a soft chuckle at some internal joke. "It's all plastic, except for two parts: the wiring inside, and the tip. It's a recorder, and it turns on when the tip of the pen is exposed; you should be able to turn in on by using your Semblance to pull down the metal tip, making it imperceptible."

Ozpin handed the recorder out to me, and I left it hanging in the air, staring at the pen as if it would sear my soul the moment I touched it. Rather than look disappointed, he gave me an understanding smile, but still offered the pen out.

"Please, take it. It's a simple model, all it can do is record. Even if you do decide to use it, you will still have the opportunity to decide if it is worth betraying your partner to turn it in." I looked at him, a little surprise at his choice of words. He'd been far more bluntly honest than I was used to. "I don't envy the position you are in, Ms. Nikos. Yours is not an easy decision. I truly believe this to be the best thing for all parties involved, but I understand that it does not feel that way. Often, there are no good choices in life. Do you know what I have found is best to do in those situations?"

I looked up to him wide-eyed, waiting for his answer. _Hoping that it would help._

"Being prepared for all outcomes," he said with a genuine, sad smile, before nodding to the pen once more.

Begrudgingly, I took the pen, refusing to meet anyone's eyes as I did so. It didn't mean that I was going to do it. It didn't mean that I wanted to do it.

It did mean that I might _have_ to do it.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Ozpin really going with the full-on blitz here. Not a bad strategy, stun Pyrrha with the revelation of magic, convince her of the dire stakes, build her up as humanity's best hope, and then use all of that to try to break the toss-up decision between betraying Jaune and not betraying Jaune. The man is playing for keeps, and if he got his way, things would probably go really well for humanity. Jaune would be much more valuable in the struggle against Salem in the immediate than even Ozpin suspects, since he knows about Cinder; Ozpin's plan could actually lead to Cinder's complete defeat and Vale's survival.**

 **Oh, but we all know things aren't going to work out that well, don't we? _So, who is it gonna be that messes things up?_ _Is it going to be Raven, interferring? Cinder, altering plans? Yang, trying to protect Jaune?_ Pyrrha _trying to protect Jaune? Pyrrha trying to protect Jaune by turning him over to Ozpin? Jaune, making an expected move before his moves are made for him? Neo, doing...something nefarious?_**

 **Ah, I can't wait.**

 **On a different note, this chapter played out a little differently that I thought it would when I planned it out in my head. It started as our first POV chapter from Pyrrha since finding out about Jaune and Yang, and it was supposed to take us through her thoughts about that until slowly building up to show that Ozpin had made his move and explained (some) things to her.**

 **That...just didn't work. The idea of an entire chapter of Pyrrha's internal monologue of despair, confusion, hurt, anger, jealously, melancholy...it just was going to drag on for forever. I wanted to through that little scene of Raven walking in on Jaune and Yang right before it to break the monotony up, but that scene needed the dinner scene for some better context, and eventually this chapter felt a lot more natural as half-focused on Yang and Jaune and half-focused on Pyrrha and Ozpin.**

 **That also means that we'll get back into Pyrrha's head, where now she'll have bigger problems to worry about that just her partner is shady and also she's a little jealous, though that won't be going away either. Poor girl was already overwhelmed - Pyrrha's never been exactly emotionally mature, being put on a pedestal her whole life and all - and now she's going to be drowning in it. She's going to have to reach out for help or perspective from _somebody_. We'll see who...**

 **Poor Raven, too. She legitimately wanted to come talk to Yang about her fight, since fighting is probably the safest thing they could bond over. She's just trying to keep laying the foundation of a relationship here, doing what she can to change Yang's perception of her, and she saw what _had_ to look like a flashback of her and Tai, right? There's no way she could see Yang and Jaune there without seeing herself and Tai. Yang wanting to beat her ass for it just makes the comparison all the more accurate. **

**I only wish I could actually see Raven's face when she first stepped out of the portal, before she had a chance to compose herself and 'announce' her presence. Was she upset? Proud? Surprised? She's not the most expressive or emotional of people, so I would have loved to see those emotions battling on her face. Not to mention the chagrin at seeing Jaune call her bluff with all those times she teased him; he'd had an incredible streak of doing things she told him to do only because she thought he'd do the opposite, so she shouldn't be _that_ surprised. **

**Maybe he really does take after Raven after all.**

 **I still think it'd be awkward as hell to walk in on your quasi-adopted son fingerbanging your biological daughter, whom bonded with each other over their mommy issues (i.e. _you_ ). **

**Man, this story just keeps getting weirder. Tune in next week to see Cardin's Cute Grimm!Girl Bodypillow (with big anime eyes and bigger anime badonkadonks) and find out that Tyrian loves Achieve Men in inappropriate ways.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _Mo Eazy_

"Raven's first step was a decent start, but drawing comparisons from real life Private Security Companies (formerly PMC's or Private Military Companies) the ideal business model is to start out smaller. The number one service these companies are hired for is instruction.

This builds trust faster than anything else. It limits the number of men interacting with regional government, reducing the threat of a possible coup or other destabilizing presence. It is a contract that is open to expansion as a more permanent or longer lived contract. And it builds trust much faster having locals interact with the instructors in a more engaging environment on the instructors terms.

If I were Raven I would first propose that townships or a series of townships in relative close proximity pool money with the intent to raise a coordinated militia. Militias would be vital for a setting like Remnant frontier settlements, if not a standing defense force. Propose to train these forces and supplement them for several months to two years. If possible, help equip these forces.

This also counts as building trust with the idea that the goal is to eventually not require the Tribe's services in the future. However, the trust and effectiveness built during the time period statistically ( Earth history anyway) leads to a more permanent contract for members to remain on hand for added security, instruction and even prestige. Raven plans to expand but she's going to have to curb her power trip or her business is going to revert back to banditry. Securing the roads between settlements is an excellent way to improve local economy which in turn means more money to spend on contracts and it serves as a great example to other settlements to ally for similar reasons.

I studied the history of PMC's back In CC and after because I find them fascinating. I might be drawling on so sorry but depending on how far you want to take this in the future it's a decent idea I think.

She's going to have to fight for trust and it won't happen without smiles instead of fists. Honestly her biggest obstacle is her own attitude and beliefs. Though nobody could call Raven a businesswoman by any means, with her history. Doesn't mean she can't start, assuming she's willing to keep her iron fist within the wilds and not civilization."

 **No, please, drawl on. It saves me the trouble of having to google the history and methods of historical PMCs... :P**

 **In all seriousness, this actually is pretty useful info and will definitely be in the back of my mind, but I'll also have to consider other things to make it fit with Remnant. We've never really seen anything about private security corporations in RWBY, which seems odd because Remnant seems like the perfect place for them: there is a permanent demand for controlled, sanctioned violence (i.e. people need Grimm deaded).**

 **There's a pretty general idea that Huntsmen and Huntresses often live a sort of nomadic lifestyle, stopping at villages and slaying any problematic Grimm. RNJR did this in V4's opening as a way to pay for Jaune's upgrades to Crocea Mors, so it's not just conjecture. We also saw how Mistral treats their standing Huntsmen, with an open bounty board and a directory of all the Huntsmen. It appeared that anyone could contact a Huntsman with a job, so long as they were available.**

 **All of that sorta sounds like Huntresses and Huntsman are their own private military forces. The question would be why a larger paramilitary group has never burst onto the scene, especially considering how large the territories of Kingdoms such as Mistral are. Kuroyuri (spelling?) could have certainly used a larger protection force, seeing as it was originally intended to be almost a sort of city-state.**

 **Maybe Remnant isn't a great place for PMCs right now, or at least not Mistral (I could see Atlas having them in the roles you described,** _Eazy_ **). Too many Huntsman wandering the wilds, culling Grimm and keeping things safe enough. Raven's move is likely to get her a little bit of legitimacy in the short run, since she has the means to help two or three small villages thrive. There just isn't any room for her to grow right now.**

 **But we all know that Mistral is about to have an _unprecedented_ Huntsman shortage, a la Lionheart.**

* * *

 **Also, I got a nice little history (linguistics?) lesson about the word "Dragoon." Thanks to** _Nightengale4698_ **for that. I now see why Dragoon is one of the alternatives.**

 **Given Yang's explosive personality (and tendancies) and Jaune's french inspirations, I shall now exclusively be referring to this pairing as...**

 _ **Napoleon** **Dynamite.**_

 **I'll see myself out.**


	47. im out of clever names okay

**Author's Note: A dark day in the _Fiefdom of Isaacistan_ occured recently, as I learned just how hard it is to live up to the ideal of not negotiating with terrorists. I woke up one morning to a blight of unholy content covering my entire Discord server, like four feet of snow blanketing Hawaii. Except instead of Hawaii, it was my Discord, and instead of snow, it was porn.**

 **A lot of porn. Mostly cartoon porn, with under half of that being RWBY hentai... I spent the better part of fifteen minutes deleting it by hand, but the damage to my psyche was done. I conceded and opened up a special, NSFI (Not Safe For Ike) channel where they were free to do whatever they desired, so long as I never had to see a detailed picture of Neo, Ilia, and some other random girl playing strip poker.**

 **The good news is things got so bad that I now officially have my own personal secret police on the Discord, in the form of a bot that I can command to mute people _on whim._ Things have settled down since I showed off my propensity for abusing executive authority. **

**Maybe I should build a wall now.**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter **g** ee_ ) ( _the letter **g** ee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **There's the link, in case getting in on the inevitable revolt sounds like fun.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 44:** _"Could you even…_ try _to be subtle? Or at least learn what the word means?" – An exasperated Weiss Schnee, upon seeing Yang Xiao Long for the first time since dinner_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

Fortunately for Yang and me, bullheads between Vale and Beacon were running 24/7 to accommodate traffic to and from the Beacon fairgrounds, which meant that we didn't particularly need to rush home from the apartment. We had enough time to clean up and think of a passable excuse to give our teammates, if it was still even possible to convince them that we had been out so late _just_ for ice cream. Really, so long as we had a plausible excuse and stuck to it, it would be too awkward for anyone to just come out and accuse us of having a spare apartment to hook up in—after the awkward exchange over lunch, not even Weiss would dare try that.

" _Cleaning up_ " had meant taking a shower—which was fun—and then Yang spending nearly thirty minutes drying her hair—which was also fun, because it meant watching Yang in her post-shower outfit for thirty minutes. When we had packed our things for a potential Vytal Festival match, we had packed a spare change of clothes to change into afterwards, as had most everyone. Neither of us had been expecting _this_ , meaning we had no extra set of clean clothes and we would put back on the clothes we arrived with—which was fine; it was not like they were on for all that long, at least not after we were rudely interrupted. All of that meant Yang stood there with a hair-drier and nothing else, not wanting to get her only set of clothes wet. _That was more than fine by me._

Surprisingly, my mind began to not only think during this, but also wander, 'helpfully' reminding me of things that I need to get done soon.

Raven was going to have to be faced, for one, and it would be far better to do it on my own terms. Yang may not have thought things went _that_ badly, but Raven had just discovered that Yang and I are together _and_ that Yang knows about my connection to the Tribe. _Hell, Yang might have just put herself in bad standing with Raven by associating with me._ Raven couldn't do anything directly to Yang, not when Yang can go to Tai and Qrow without any sort of explanation required, but I doubt Yang realizes how much she could have soured things between Raven and her. Raven is definitely going to have to be confronted so that I can find out how she's taking this and what's going to change now. I just need to make sure I have a chance to clear my head before doing it, and as fun as it was to watch Yang, having her around would distract me from really thinking things over. _At least, that was my excuse not to think on it any further at the time._

Once Yang and I split up at Beacon's airfields with a quick kiss, I went off to check on one of the other things my wandering mind had reminded me of: Cinder. I would have to be a fool to think that just because I want her to avoid hurting innocents that she would comply, or even go out of her way to warn me. I'm going to have to make myself useful to her somehow, and I'm also going to have to become enough of a constant presence that she decides that it would be easier to loop me in than it would be to just ignore me. _And given that she's the one who took half of Fall's powers, she certainly doesn't need my help, which will make it harder._

The best I can do for now is to show up consistently and do what I can to get her to either trust me, or want to use me more. Roman was never very enthused with being Cinder's lapdog, so getting Neo to keep me updated on Cinder's doings shouldn't be difficult… _It's not like I've been using Neo's safehouse to have sex with my girlfriend or anything that would sour Neo's opinion of me…_

The transfer dorms were a different building than our dorms were, so the chances of being seen by anyone I cared to be seen by was slim, and I made it to Cinder's dorm without any problems. The light was on inside and I knocked twice. I kept a look out over my shoulder, making sure that there was no one around, on the off-chance that someone would remember seeing me here.

The door cracked open and a single red eye glared out at me—something that would have given me a surreal sense of déjà vu had that eye not been framed by olive skin and green hair.

"What do you want _now?_ " Emerald hissed at me.

"Is she here?" I asked, keeping my voice low on the chance I would be overheard.

"No," Emerald grumbled back, her eye narrowing at me suspiciously, "she's not."

I waited a few moments, watching Emerald suspiciously as she did the same.

"You're not a very good liar."

The half of her face I could see scowled at me, before Cinder's voice called out from inside the room to let me in. Emerald was either too embarrassed at being called out or too ashamed at not being able to send me off to look up and meet anyone's eyes as I walked into the room. I spotted Neo sitting on her bed at the far end of the room, and I turned to give her a wink that no one else could see. _Emerald's lie wasn't all that bad; she just didn't know that I had texted ahead and confirmed that Cinder was here._

Cinder wasn't pleased to see me; that, or she wasn't pleased that Emerald couldn't get rid of me. She was sitting with her back to her desk, looking through something on her scroll, which she turned off and set down on the desk as I approached.

" _What?_ " She spat out with a huff.

"What now?" I responded, looking for whatever order she had for me next. Cinder's eyes narrowed on me dangerously as she took in my question.

"If you're referring to orders, I believe you already have yours."

" _Keep my team in the tournament_ ," I recalled with a bit of a drawl. "I did that. We're moving on to round two. Now what?"

"Until you receive anything new from me, you are to assume that those orders still hold," Cinder stated slowly, drawing the words out with a hint of a threat and rising from her chair to take a more even footing with me. I'm still taller than her by a fair margin, but I'm no longer staring down at her in her seat. " _I_ will contact _you_ , if and when things change."

"That's not good enough," I stated firmly, causing the rest of the room to go silent and still. Cinder hid her reaction well. Instead of glaring at me or getting angry at what she perceived as a threat, her posture loosened and her eyes shone a little brighter. It was the same reaction Raven would have given when someone thought they were good enough to stand up to her and she was salivating over the chance to cut them down. It was not the reaction that I wanted to see, but it at least put me on somewhat familiar ground. _This_ is something I'm uniquely experienced in dealing with, after all.

Cinder remained silent, staring at me with that look and waiting for me to say something else. She was practically begging me to give her a reason to move on me.

"Now, I don't exactly know what sort of heist you have planned, but I'm not stupid; it's much more involved than rigging the tournament," I announced carefully, making sure to frame myself as only knowing what Cinder would want me to know. As far as they were concerned, I knew nothing of Maidens or Beacon's Vault, and would assume they were here for something else. "Let's not make any pretenses, either: you have no intentions of sparing bystanders."

The room felt colder by a few degrees now, a real possibility with Cinder's abilities. That last line accused them of disregarding the whole reason I had forced my way into an alliance with them; all of us knew it to be true, but saying it out loud was dangerous. I stood there tensely, fully aware that the whole room was watching me on the chance that I made a move and watching Cinder to see if _she_ would make a move. Three on one were bad odds for me (assuming Neo would stay out of it), especially when one had Maiden powers; even if Neo surprised them and took my side, we'd be fighting a losing battle. If Neo could surprise Emerald and slit her throat or something, it would be two on two, but still a losing fight. _The window's not too high up to be jumped out of; all it would take is a quick use of Neo's Semblance to buy time._

" _I_ am the only one here concerned about that, I can tell, so I want to know _more_ about what your plans are," I stated, keeping a close watch on Cinder. Her posture was still loose and dangerous, but now her eyes had narrowed at me again, probably identifying all of the ways she could close the distance and attack. "But you don't seem like the type to tell me more, so I'll settle for _doing_ more. Advancing in the tournament is easy, especially now that I'm out of the team fights. If less people will get hurt when your plans run smooth and uninterrupted, then give me something to do that will help."

Cinder watched me for a few more seconds, before a small smile broke out on her lips, no doubt as she figured out some way that she could use me. It figures that she wouldn't let me help unless she felt like she was manipulating me in some way—so very like Raven in that regard. _At some point, I'm going to have to figure out why I seem to get stuck dealing with very specific type of woman._ Stuck working for two different Maidens with an intense desire to control and manipulate? Hell of a coincidence. _If Yang somehow becomes the Summer or Winter Maiden and then starts bossing me around, I think I might just go insane._

Cinder walked back to her desk and grabbed her scroll, searching through it for a few moments before finally projecting it onto the desk's display. "Believe it or not, we don't need anything else right now," she said, her voice and expression unreadable but smug. "We're going to use the tournament as a distraction, which means we want as many people on Amity as we can. More people there means more security there, and that means less security _elsewhere._ "

On the projected screen was a list of around twenty teams, broken into a green, yellow, and red category. Within those categories, each team member's photo was framed in one of those three colors as well.

"That's why you want my team to advance, then," I stated as I took a few steps forward, trying to figure out how her system ranked teams. My team was the top team in the green, but only Pyrrha's photo was framed in green. I was yellow, and both Ren and Nora were red. If my intuition was right, green indicated you were the best at drawing a crowd, and red was the worst. "You want to draw the biggest crowds that you can, and Pyrrha's reputation would create a huge draw."

"The draw of the crowd is half the purpose. We also want high-value persons drawn in, too. Ozpin specifically, as General Ironwood is already overseeing each match."

I nodded absently, not giving away that I understood just how much that would factor into her reasoning. She also didn't know just how interested Ozpin really was in me, so she had mislabeled me as yellow; Pyrrha's label in green meant that she had come to the obvious conclusion that Pyrrha's talents were too great for Ozpin to pass up. That, or Pyrrha's potential crowd appeal was that great.

With this new knowledge, I looked over her top teams. RWBY was directly below JNPR, with Ruby, Yang, and Weiss all in the green; Blake was red, _and it's a shame that I won't be able to tease her on that._ It made sense, as Yang would be a natural crowd-pleaser, Weiss' name would draw intrigue from crowds, and Ruby was a 15-year-old receiving special treatment from Ozpin; all reasons to bump someone to green. Blake didn't stand out to a crowd, and if she was in the red, then Cinder likely didn't know about her past. Surely, a former life as a terrorist was worth at least yellow, right?

A quick scan over the other top prospects showed that the Penny girl who helped us at the docks' team was in the green, but all her teammates were red individually; she was in the green and, presumably, was the only one on her team keeping them there. That strikes me as odd, as I can't really remember anything particularly interesting about the girl, aside from that she could handle herself at the docks.

"So, your plan is to, what, increase TV ratings?"

"As a byproduct, perhaps," Cinder answered with a smirk. "We're going to make this the most memorable Vytal Festival in recent memory. And if you are so dedicated to helping things go smoothly, there is one thing you can do…"

I looked up to her expectantly, waiting for her answer.

"Drama," she answered simply. "Cause it. Fuel it. Fan it. Whatever you can do to make sure people can't take their eyes off the fights, do it."

* * *

Of all the dangerous women I had been around tonight—Raven, Cinder, even Yang—I would not have thought that _Nora_ would be the one I was most terrified of, worried about, and outright confused by.

Nothing was out of the ordinary as I left Cinder's dorm, except for maybe Neo _not_ trying to stab me. If anything, that was a change I could get behind. It was late enough by then and I headed straight to our dorm. Nothing out of the ordinary.

When I walked into the room, nothing struck me as odd, not immediately. Ren was sitting on his bed in his pajamas, reading a book, which was normal. Things stopped being normal when he looked up and made eye contact with me with some strange emotion in his eyes. Was it pity? Anxiousness? Worry? Something there was screaming _you should just turn around and leave, trust me_ , but I didn't catch on quite quick enough.

It wasn't until I felt another pair of eyes on me that I realized what, or _who_ , was unaccounted for that would make Ren pity me. I scanned the room to find no Pyrrha, but Nora was standing there, giving me a… _disappointed frown?_

"Hi?"

"You were right, Ren, he _was_ planning on coming back tonight," Nora announced, talking past me on purpose. There was an edge to her voice that I couldn't place, but it certainly wasn't happy.

"Well, obviously. I don't have anywhere else to stay…" I responded, a bit uncertain of what was going on. Nora had been giving me and Yang strange looks off and on ever since we became official, and with anyone else, I would say that she was upset about us; with it being _Nora_ , I don't really have any clue what it could be. _Plus, if anything, I would expect Nora to excitedly hound us for uncomfortable details, not stand there like a disappointed team-mom._

I was prepared for Nora to make an obvious insinuation that I would have stayed the night with Yang—hell, Yang and I had discussed a few ideas for excuses that we would inevitably need for our teams.

"You could always stay wherever you stayed over the break…"

"I…" I trailed off awkwardly, caught off-guard both by Nora remembering that and by how accurate Nora was, even if she may not have realized it. "…stayed with some friends."

 _Not a lie_ , though my delivery needs work. Yang stayed the night once, after all.

"Oh really?" Nora asked, crossing her arms. Ren was watching more carefully now, though he didn't seem invested in the outcome in the slightest. " _Friends_ , huh?"

"Yeah, I _do_ have those, Nora," I drawled back as best I could, trying to sound the slightest bit offended.

"Friends like Roman Torchwick?"

"Not helping, Ren."

"No, I think we should hear him out," Nora cut back at me as I grumbled at Ren. "So?"

"…so…?" I repeated, confused, though Nora's reaction made it clear she thought I was playing hard to get. She strode forward, eyes narrowing on me.

"Where'd you and Yang go?" Nora asked, walking right up to me and throwing the term 'personal space' out the window. Nora's eyes narrowed and she cut me off before I could ever answer. "You took a shower recently," she stated, presumably being able to smell my shampoo from literally right next to me.

I shot Ren a pleading look, silently invoking any chapter of the bro code for even the slightest bit of help. He returned to reading his book, though not without a small smirk at my misfortune.

"…yeah, I did. At Amity's locker rooms, right after our match," I answered confidently, turning my attention to Nora. While I can't say that being grilled over how I smell was what I expected when I said my team would wonder what I had been up to, it didn't mean that I wasn't prepared. "We all did, remember?"

Nora did not concede the point, not yet, instead making a show of sniffing at the air with her eyes closed.

"You washed your hair with _strawberry_ shampoo?" Nora asked suspiciously, thinking that she had me. _Not yet._

"Yeah, it was the only shampoo they had provided for us in the guy's locker room, for whatever reason. Ren probably used it, too," I lied convincingly, smirking at Nora as I silently implied that she should go get all cozy up on _Ren_ , not me. It also offered Ren one last chance to come to my rescue and be a real bro.

"I brought my own shampoo," Ren responded without looking up from his book, which he obviously wasn't reading since he hadn't turned the page yet.

"Smart. _I_ should have done that," I deflected, playing off of Ren's answer. There was no way to prove I was lying, at the least. That didn't deter Nora. She sniffed the air again.

"Not just strawberry. Is that…chocolate?"

 _And vanilla, too._ The price you get for showering at one of Neo's apartments: neapolitan-scented shampoo. I do smell nice, though.

"Yang and I _did_ go out for ice cream, Nora. There's no big mystery where the chocolate is from," I answered, giving Nora a grin. She was losing. "I'm surprised you're not so close that you can't _taste_ the noodles I had for dinner."

With a dissatisfied huff, Nora backed off, dramatically walking off towards her bed. She was almost pouting.

"Alright, I give up," I called out, rolling my eyes before Nora could turn around and see them. "Yang and I snuck off and made out after dessert. _You caught us_. Happy?"

Instead of snapping at me or exclaiming to Ren how she knew it, Nora didn't react at all, save for maybe frowning a little more. Frankly, it's starting to get on my nerves.

"Nora, just come out and say it," I let out finally with an exhausted huff. "You've been acting odd ever since lunch Sunday. I promise that it won't leave this room, so let's just air it out, okay? _You have a crush on me._ "

" _What?_ No!" Nora blurted out, reverting to her usual energetic self for a brief moment.

"Oh, good. Can you imagine how _oblivious_ I would have to be not to know if you had a crush on me?" I asked _very_ specifically and pointedly, doing everything I could to angle myself towards Ren without ever looking at him. Nora's eye twitched. Eventually, I gave her an out to get away from responding to that, but not before reveling in the shoe being on the other foot. "I was hoping it was that one, because the other option I can think of is you don't like Yang."

"That's…not it, Jaune," Serious Nora answered, locking away the normal Nora once more. Her voice was a bit tense and defensive, which was good because it meant that she didn't like that I had accused her of disliking Yang. "I _do_ like Yang, and I'm happy that she settled for you—"

" _Come again?_ "

"—it's just that…it wasn't fair for you to lead Pyrrha on like that."

"I…did what?" I asked, genuinely confused by Nora's words, but convinced by her sincerity that she meant them. "I did _what_ to Pyrrha?"

"Look, okay, I get it, it's not _your_ fault that both of them were interested in you, and you did what most every other guy would do. I get that, okay?" Nora continued, ignoring anything I had said.

"Ren, what's going on?" I asked, once again ignored by Nora as she continued on what was apparently some sort of prepared speech she had worked out. Ren did look up from his book to make eye contact, but didn't say anything, instead looking at Nora and then back at me, silently saying… _something._ He then went back to pretending to read.

"A-And it's not that I think you made a bad choice or anything. Like, Yang is pretty awesome…" Nora's speech had sped up a little and was now bordering on rambling. "It's just…what you did to Pyrrha wasn't fair, okay? And it bothers me that you don't care about it!"

" _Whoa whoa whoa_ , slow down, Nora," I cut in finally after that last accusation, waving my hands to forcibly take Nora's attention. "What are you talking about? What did I _do_ to Pyrrha?" I asked, letting my genuine confusion show to let Nora know that I wasn't jerking her around here. If anything, I haven't really done all that much with Pyrrha recently, if _anything_ ; I've been too busy with Yang and Raven and Torchwick to even have _time_ to do anything to Pyrrha, so I really don't know what Nora is rambling on about.

Nora gave me a suspicious look at first, but that slowly melted away as she realized that I honestly didn't know what she was talking about.

"Now, explain this slowly for those of us who are too stupid to figure it out," I joked, relieving any tension with some self-deprecation. "What did I do to Pyrrha?"

"You led her on," Nora answered, her body language showing uncertainty but her voice remaining solid, "and then chose Yang over her."

"No, I didn't," I responded softly, though I could plainly see how she came to that conclusion, which kept me from getting upset at the accusation.

"Jaune, I—I know that you did," Nora countered, doing her best not to sound like she was blaming me or accusing me anymore. Her head swiveled around the room, scanning her surroundings nervously before turning back to me. "Pyrrha would talk to me about it, about how the two of you sparred and talked about things, and how she was nervous about Yang."

"Nora, I—"

"Look, I get that you may not have _wanted_ to lead Pyrrha on and that Yang might have surprised you, but you still _did_ , Jaune! And that—"

" _Nora_ ," I said forcefully, cutting her off and shaking her by her shoulders to stop her rambling. With her attention solely on me for a few moments, I asked her a very critical question very slowly. "Do you think that I knew what I was doing?"

"I-I mean, I don't…think you _meant_ to hurt Pyrrha, but you—"

"Yang and I didn't even _realize_ that we were dating until Weiss and Ren pointed it out over lunch," I cut her off, stating the fact as incredulously as I could to make my point. "I was raised by bandits and thugs in the middle of nowhere. I spent like two weeks trying to _avoid_ making friends when I got to Beacon. Do you think I had a _clue_ what I was doing during _any_ of this?"

There was a soft chuckle from Ren as Nora struggled to process what I was saying, essentially having to reboot herself and throw out what had been her most basic assumption: that I had been consciously trying to reach a certain outcome. The truth was that, while I knew that Pyrrha liked me, I had no clue what to do from there or what I should even try for. No one else was aware that Yang and I's time together was originally about my past and that Yang and I having feelings for each other literally blind-sided us both. _And a pizzaman._

"You…you didn't…know?"

"Of course I knew that Pyrrha had a crush on me. I just…didn't know how _I_ felt or if I even _did_ feel anything, and if I did, I sure didn't know what to do about it. I was about as useful as a winter jacket in Vacuo…maybe even less so." Despite myself, I was grinning as I backed away and shook my head in disbelief. It was _funny_ , in a sad way, that all of this happened because Nora assumed too much of my basic functionality. "Is that the whole reason you've been acting funny around us?"

A very guilty Nora nervously averted her eyes and shuffled her feet, only looking up to meet my eyes briefly, but it was long enough that she didn't need to say yes out loud. Another fit of laughter escaped my mouth, despite my efforts not to laugh in Nora's face.

"You just let her believe this?" I asked to Ren, who shrugged.

"It made the most sense at the time," Ren answered with just a little sheepishness, just enough to make me realize that he had _agreed_ with Nora beforehand.

"This is unbelievable, half my team thinks I'm some sort of monster," I joked dramatically, poking Nora in the ribs when she didn't seem to recognize the joke or didn't find it funny enough to stop looking guilty.

"…sorry?" Nora asked awkwardly, trying and failing to put on a smile and instead coming across more nervous than someone trying to explain to Goodwitch that a Grimm ate their homework…and their partner.

"Don't be," I dismissed with one final chuckle, reaching out and ruffling Nora's hair before I even realized what I was doing. When, upon inspection, my hand was still there afterwards, I decided not to try that again, just in case next time she isn't too guilt-wracked to retaliate. I've no clue if she would react as violently as Yang, but I wouldn't bet my hand against it. "While I don't _appreciate_ it when my team thinks I'm a horrible person, I'm glad that it would bother you _if_ I was…"

Nora looked unconvinced, as if what she had done deserved a little more drama or punishment, or at the very least some anger on my part, but I couldn't disagree more. At the end of the day, she was just being protective of her teammate and looking out for her. It was honestly refreshing to see someone angry at me on someone else's behalf. There was a selflessness to it that was so basic that Nora and Ren probably didn't even realize it—after all, that's just what you _do_ when your friend is hurt by someone. To someone who grew up in the Tribe, though, that meant a lot more, which was the main reason I had no intentions of holding this against Nora.

 _It is a good reminder that I need to figure things out with Pyrrha, though, and soon._

"Not…just for that," Nora mumbled sheepishly, eyes guilty avoiding mine as she studied every detail of the room that didn't involve looking at me. "I…uh, was kinda trying to help set you and Pyrrha up, too…for all the good it did."

"Well, don't apologize to _me_ ," I responded, getting Nora to look up at me curiously, before dropping the hammer on her. "Either way, you were helping me out. You oughta apologize to _Yang_ for trying to screw her out of a relationship."

The blood in Nora's face drained. "I…uh…do I _have_ to?"

* * *

Pyrrha's POV

* * *

Clearing my head was not something I was capable of, I came to find quickly. I mean, how could I be expected to be calm and collected when I had just been told… _that?_ Magic is _real?_ It's real and it has been kept secret from the world by the Huntsman Academies, and if they hadn't shown it to me, I would dismiss that as some sort of crazy conspiracy theory. That alone was hard not to get worked up over _without_ adding in that they want _me_ to be their next Maiden. That was a prospect that sent me spiraling, wondering if I was actually worthy of such a burden and whether I even _wanted_ such a thing. All my life I've been dreaming of being a Huntress and protecting people, and I've worked hard to be the best one I can be, but it feels almost too perfect that they want me to be their Maiden. It feels good to know that I am what they consider their best choice and it plays really well into my pride, but I can't shake the feeling that it would be somehow wrong to accept; I can't quite place it, but I get the feeling that it would be cheating destiny to take such a shortcut.

 _And if I don't…?_ If the Headmaster is right, if I am the best chance there is to stop something terrible from happening, and I _don't_ accept, am I responsible for anyone that gets hurt? Worse, any time I fail to save someone in the future, will I feel guilty, knowing that I could have had the power to save them and turned it down?

While I had desperately searched for something capable of taking all these thoughts off my mind, I had absently wondered if this was why Ruby's uncle drank. He'd been in the room and helped with the explaining, so he clearly knew all of this stuff before now; had he been driven to alcohol to help distract himself?

I had shaken the thought off easily, not caring enough to think on it further. _I_ wouldn't bring myself to that, even if it meant that I couldn't distract myself at all. What I was currently trying wasn't helping, at least.

" _Welcome back to the Vale Sports Network's one and only sports betting show, Fade Our Picks,_ " a TV blared from the wall of the small shooting range I wandered into, Miló in hand with a large box of dust rounds accompanying. Beacon's basement firing range was small, only a handful lanes wide, since most shooting practice was done on the cliff overlooking the Emerald Forest; the range was also empty right now, which only served to isolate me with my thoughts. " _Not to just do what every other show is doing, but it's the Vytal Festival right now, and we're here to take a look at the largest line changes after the first day of Round 1, and tell you, the viewer, if it's an overreaction or a good change. Jole, what we got up first?_ "

Ignoring the sound, I focused on lining up my sights. What the range lacked in width it made up for in length, and I had the paper target set to fifty yards to start out with. Ranged precision was something I was just okay at, as it never really came up in sparring or fighting Grimm all that much. As such, I slowed my breathing, focused on the target, and fired slowly, hitting paper each time and slowly tightening my aim as I got relaxed.

" _Well, the most important line change was the odds for a first-year team winning it all, something that's only happened once before, in what was sort of a fluke year, if you remember. The line went from 25/1 odds down to 18/1 after a couple of solid victories by freshman teams today, particularly Beacon teams._ "

" _And you think that's a mistake, right? You're not buying that some seventeen-year-old punks can pull off a victory on such Remnant's largest stage, is that right?_ "

I hit the button to switch paper targets while I reloaded the rounds I had fired, before settling back down and taking aim once more. Whatever distractions I had slowly melted away as I exhaled and honed my sights. This time, my shots all hit center mass, within inches of the dead middle. I found myself slowly relaxing as the ambient noise from the TV mixed with the echoes from my rifle, drowning out the rest of the world.

" _That's right, Collin. I think it would probably be a little foolish after just the first half of the first round to come out and take the freshman teams outright._ "

" _Oh, come on, did you_ see _them? We had some_ really _good fighters here today. Is there at least_ one _team that you like?_ "

I moved the target back to 75 yards, the distance which I normally start to struggle with rapid firing and usually have to stick to a slow pace to land my shots on the target. I aimed for the head of the target's silhouette, deciding that pushing myself here was the best way to occupy my focus.

My first shot rung right between the eyes, and I followed up quicker than usual and still landed the shot to the target's ear.

" _I'll tell you what, there is one first-year team that I think_ could _have a shot. If I had to pick one freshman team to bet it all on, I'd put my money down on Team JNPR._ "

" _The Beacon team?_ "

" _That's the one, and let me tell you why…_ "

I hitched slightly and pulled my shot to the side, hitting the blank white space next to the target, but still on the paper. My concentration was broken, though. Thoughts flooded back into my head, and I tried to force myself to keep firing, though my control was not what it had been.

"… _they're sitting at +1000 to win it all, which is the lowest for any freshman team, and it should be. Coming into the Festival, the question was 'could Pyrrha Nikos carry her team to the single rounds?' Now, I do think that a seventeen-year-old would struggle against juniors or seniors in single combat no matter_ what _her previous record at tournaments is, but the common belief was that the hardest part for her would be advancing through the 4v4's and the 2v2's._ "

" _And you think that's changed?_ "

" _What sort of question is that, of course it changed, Collin! I know we all heard the rumors about the spar with her teammate—_ "

My shot missed the target entirely, as well as the next shot. With an agitated huff, I called in all the targets to take a look at them. My concentration was gone and would not be recovering.

" _Not just a rumor, there_ was _video._ "

" _Yeah, there was grainy scroll footage that showed her…controlling swords and making them fly. It looked straight out of a movie, Collin, and no one came out and apologized for her partner almost dying—not Beacon, and not Nikos' agent or the girl herself. The whole thing just feels like a publicity stunt, probably to boost the viewership of her matches. But even discounting that as a rumor, I don't think anyone expected her team to come out and dominate so thoroughly._ "

" _That_ is _true, Jole Katt. It was convincing._ "

" _Convincing? Come on, that was a beat down, Collin! I still have some reservations about Nikos in the singles against fighters that have three or four years of training on her, but if you want a value bet, JNPR's it. You can go ahead and pencil them into the singles thanks to the emergence of this Jaune Arc kid, who came out of nowh—_ "

The TV was abruptly turned off as a spare scrap of metal lying on the ground floated up and pressed in the power button. _Leave it to the universe to find a way to bring up the one topic I've been trying to avoid more than any other._

The Maidenhood was confusing, but I had basically boiled it down to something I would regret equally no matter which option I chose. I would feel good about myself if I turned it down, but I would be haunted by any lives that were affected because I wasn't able to stop something. I would feel awful for taking Amber's Aura and for taking a shortcut to power, but I would live with it knowing that I was doing everything I could to protect people. In the end, whether or not I became a Maiden would boil down to what I was going to do with Jaune. If I went along with Ozpin's plan to help Jaune, then I would go ahead and become his Maiden when it was done. If I thought Jaune was better off without Ozpin, then I wouldn't be his Maiden.

 _Simple, right?_

With an exasperated and exhausted sigh, I grabbed my things and turned to leave the training facility's basement entirely, before running into a familiar face coming down the stairs.

Yang froze, eyes wide and nervous as if she'd been caught sneaking around somewhere.

"U-Uh, Pyrrha. _Hi_. W-What brings you down here?"

I looked at her suspiciously, before looking down at the rifle form of Miló and box of ammo in my hands, looking back at her with a flat expression. I mentally chastised myself for coming across as hostile, forcing myself to remember that Yang didn't deserve to have me angry at her for dating Jaune; I wouldn't even be able to _go_ on a date with him without feeling guilty for going behind his back to Ozpin, but that didn't alleviate the pangs of jealousy I was fighting down. Nor did it make it easy to be around Yang.

"Right, that makes sense," Yang mumbled.

" _Yang_ …what's wrong?" I asked hesitantly, giving her a weird look for acting… _well, acting weird._ It actually reminded me of Ruby in a way, although I doubted Yang had just stolen an extra cookie from the cafeteria, which was what caused Ruby to act like this last time. "Why are you…sneaking around the training building's basement?"

Yang's eyes nervously flicked around for a moment before she was satisfied that the coast was clear. "Look, do me a favor and don't tell my team, okay? I cut through down here whenever my team is looking for me. This building is the sneakiest way to get from the airfields to the dorms without being spotted by the dorm windows."

"Why do you go through the basement?" I asked, both for my curiosity and to show I was following along.

Yang shrugged. "On the chance that Weiss has stationed Ruby and Blake as lookouts in the halls. You can never be too safe when hiding from Weiss or Blake." Ruby, understandably, probably wasn't that hard to hide from. That, or she lacked the stubbornness to keep searching that the other two had.

"Why is your team so worried about catching you sneaking around?"

Yang opened her mouth to answered before shutting it and standing there awkwardly, confusing me. It wasn't until I saw her cheeks starting to turn a little red that I realized exactly what sort of _sneaking around_ she had been up to.

" _O-Oh._ "

If things weren't awkward for me before, they certainly were now.

"Yeah, I'd like to avoid giving Weiss _any_ satisfaction in thinking that she's caught me," Yang mumbled, doing her best not to meet my eyes out of embarrassment.

"Well, good luck, I guess. Weiss won't hear about it from me," I mumbled, turning aside to let Yang pass by.

"Thanks!" Yang called back as she took me up on the offer and walked past me.

Yang flashed me a friendly smile as she walked past and despite my best intentions, all it did was bring up her connection to Jaune in my mind, and that and the TV a few moments ago was enough to force me to think about my situation once again. My head told me that the Headmaster's plan was the right thing to do, that it would help Jaune and it would help protect people, and that not doing it risked losing both; to _not_ do it was to potentially harm innocent people _and_ potentially harm Jaune by letting him fall away. My heart told me that I had already gone behind Jaune's back a lot, and now Headmaster Ozpin wanted me to…to record a _confession_ that he could use to force Jaune into something he wouldn't want.

I'm at a stalemate. That much I know for sure, that neither option sounds any better than the other. And until I decide what to do about Jaune, I can't decide what to do about the Maidenhood. All I need is _some_ way to decide what to do about Jaune. If I could just be sure that he didn't _need_ Ozpin's 'help,' or if I could be sure that he _did_ need it, then all of my decisions would practically make themselves.

The hardest way to fix that would be to ask Jaune directly. That would raise some difficult questions, as I couldn't just walk up and ask him if he was in a bad enough spot that he needed to be saved from himself. Doing so probably wouldn't get me anywhere anyways, and it would earn Jaune's suspicion, if he didn't outright realize what I was doing. Although it would be awkward, embarrassing, and humiliating, there…was a less difficult option right in front of me.

" _Yang?_ " I called out nervously before she could get too far away.

"Hmmm?" She hummed back, stopping and turning to look back.

"Can I…ask you something?" I asked quietly, eyes cut sideways nervously at her.

"About Jaune?" Yang guessed, and I confirmed it with a small nod. Yang let out a small, nervous sigh and walked back over, taking care to keep her expression gentle. "What is it?"

"Jaune is… You know about…?" I trailed off and stayed quiet, realizing that if Yang _didn't_ know about Torchwick, then I would really be betraying Jaune's trust here. _And not for any 'good cause' I could rationalize_. Yang deserved to know, but Jaune didn't deserve for _me_ to tell her like this. With everything else I've been going behind Jaune to do, I don't need to add anything else to make me feel worse.

" _Yes_ , I know," Yang answered with a soft laugh at how nervous I was, the idea that I could share Jaune's 'secret' with her laughable. This was fortunate for me, as at least I could speak more freely. "I would bet I know _even more_ than you do."

"And you…don't have a problem with that?" I struggled to ask, not finding the right words to express my concern.

Yang's expression shifted for a moment, with almost a sad look flashing over her eyes as she took a deep breath.

"I…do, sort of. It's…complicated," Yang said, her eyes staring off into the distance as she ran a hand through her hair, lost in thought. She didn't look all that different from how I felt whenever I tried to think through this, which feels like a good sign—that I'm not that far off from Yang, who is the leader in understanding Jaune. _Or that could be bad, that the leader in understanding Jaune is not all that much better off than_ me. "I take it you heard about…uh… _the guy in the hat?_ "

"Torchwick? Yeah…"

"Okay, good. I guess Jaune wasn't lying when he said that he told his team. _Huh._ " Yang trailed off for a moment, before getting back to the point. "Obviously, I'm not a fan of what Jaune was doing with Torchwick, but…I just can't find it in me to hold that against him anymore."

"Why not? What changed?" I asked pointedly, recalling that period where Yang refused to talk to Jaune and everyone had to wonder what was wrong. If something had changed, if there was something I was missing that could make this all easier to digest, that could solve everything for me.

"There are…a few more things about Jaune, things that he didn't _mean_ to tell me. They were the reason why I was so angry with him, but…well, they're also the reason I can forgive so much."

I gave Yang a weird look, trying to make heads or tails of that answer. It didn't help me all that much.

"Look, Jaune is close to telling you. I _know_ that, trust me. When…when he does, believe me when I say that he's not being dramatic about it. Things…were pretty dire there for a while, and still can be."

My eyes went wide at that line, as thoughts that accepting the Headmaster's plan to help Jaune went through my head. Whatever Jaune could be in trouble with that's _worse_ than Roman Torchwick…surely Ozpin could help with that, couldn't he? _Wouldn't he?_

" _D-Dire?_ " I asked, nervously, to make sure I heard her right. "Does he need…?"

"They _were_ dire, but things are actually looking up right now, even if he doesn't quite realize it," Yang answered with a gentle smile, going out of her way to put me at ease. "And yeah, Jaune needs help, desperately. Not to blow my own horn or anything, but…he _has_ help, now, and believe me when I say that I'm not going to let anything tear him away."

"Is…is that going to be enough?"

"Maybe," Yang answered flippantly, much more so than I could have if I had tried. "Right now he's got me. Pretty soon, he's going to reach out to you, too; trust me on that one, okay?"

"Okay," I gave in, averting my eyes but nodding slightly. "I'm just…confused, I guess. Is he…?"

"Is he what?" Yang repeated softly.

I kept my head bowed, too embarrassed to look up at Yang.

"Is Jaune a… _good_ person?"

"Maybe," Yang answered, again far too quickly and flippantly for my taste, though this time with a small laugh mixed in with the word. "If I let him do things by himself, he might still come out of it as the best version of Jaune Arc. But I don't plan on sitting out of it." Yang looked up at me with a cocky grin until I looked up at her. "I plan on _ensuring_ that he does… even if it's just because that I profit from my boyfriend coming out on top."

Yang paused for a moment, staring off into the distance as she realized how poorly phrased that was, not to mention who she had just said it too. A flash of horror shot across her face.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't realize—I didn't mean for you—"

"It's okay," I said, bursting out in a small fit of laughter. Yang didn't realize it, but her answer had helped a lot, enough that I _could_ laugh at her facial expression. She might just have tipped the scales and given me enough information so that I could make a decision, one that would decide…well, everything. For that, Yang has my appreciation. "I think that…I think that maybe you're better for him…" I said as honestly and cheerfully as I could. I don't know how _I_ would have reacted to whatever it is Jaune is dealing with, but if it's been this hard with just what I do know, then… _yeah, maybe it really is better if he has Yang._

Yang's face lit up in surprise at that, but that was followed with a genuine smile of appreciation that helped make me feel better about it. That she was nervous about upsetting me over it was also a nice gesture, one that I appreciated greatly.

The jealousy still stung a little, but it was easy to ignore that for now. Whatever Jaune was, whatever he's up to… he deserves support and the chance to fix things on his own. Ozpin can wait.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: It's good to see that Jaune still has his focus where it should be. Personally, I think we can all agree it's much better to dwell on your problems than to watch your hot naked girlfriend. I can't imagine that anyone here could disagree with that...**

 **Kidding aside, Jaune does have a pretty good handle on the fact that he is on the outside looking in when it comes to Cinder's group. Frankly, if you were planning to destroy Beacon and murder thousands of people and this guy showed up and tried to force his way into 'helping' you, your first reaction should probably be to suspect that he's a narc. That's going to make trust hard, and Jaune also hit the nail on the head: Cinder doesn't really _need_ his help. We'll have to keep an eye on that...**

 **And then the Nora section. Nora has actually been getting a lot of hate recently, which surprised me at first. It seems centered around her pep talk with Pyrrha about ten chapters ago ( _Nora's Fireside Chat_ ), with her line about things being better for JNPR if Arkos beat out Dragonslayer coming up. Now, I don't mind people getting upset _in favor_ of Dragonslayer; it's actually a nice change of pace. But, I do think that maybe Nora's talk with Pyrrha comes across more seriously than I intended. **

**I intended for it to be Nora giving Pyrrha a confidence-boosting pep talk, and that anything said by Nora _during_ said pep talk should be taken with a grain of salt...because it's _Nora_. She just wanted to say whatever she could to see Pyrrha _try_ to go after Jaune, not wanting her friend to lose out and wonder if she could have done something if only she'd tried. **

**Nora's been a bit upset about Jaune and Yang getting together, but that was always planned as her seeing Jaune as having lead Pyrrha on a little and not liking how he handled things. The fact that I needed to let that simmer for a few chapters probably didn't help how some viewed Nora.**

 **Oh, and like, Pyrrha might have just finally tipped the scales, and in Jaune's favor for once. _Way to go, Yang._ **

**Just because she's holding off for now does _not_ mean that she won't ever go back to Ozpin, though. Jaune still has a lot of critical things to explain to her, and how he does that will affect what Pyrrha does. If he takes it slow, brings her along at her own pace and doesn't pressure her, then given that she's leaning towards his side, things should go well. If, for some reason, he tries to tell her everything at once and handles it poorly, well, that could go badly. **

**And if he tells her that he _wants_ her to become the Maiden, so that he can use her against Raven? Well, he had better be charismatic as all hell if he wants to pull that off...**

* * *

 **Comments of the Week:** a bunch of quick ones because why not

"Suddenly i realise why i burst into fits of laughter, whenever i see your pen name... 'ike' in my dialect actually translate to 'buttocks' in the english language, that or 'strength' but i prefer the former. Anywho, i waited this long for the chapters to accumulate, so i might as well get back to reading." - _Altair25_

 **"I'm sickened, but curious. Maybe all the times I've acted like an ass, I was just being myself..." - _Buttcheeksdawg43_**

"Dammit Pyrrha you bitch! You (inadvertently) snitched on Jaune and Yang. Now Jaune's sword will be de-pommelled. Also, a horse eating out of your hand really made my day." - _The Exiled Darkness_

 **You know, the bell end of a pommel can normally be pulled off, or sometimes screwed off... and that's not a mental imagery that I needed. If you'll excuse me, I need to go groan in pain and curl up into a ball.** _ **Oh yeah, and we still need to see Qrow dilemma over should he tell Tai before or after warning Yang.**_

"Truly a filthy coward that is terrified of being overthrown by a just cause DOWN WITH THE TYRANT" - _Jwadd01_

 **I recognize your handle from the Discord. Consider yourself muted, ikehole.** :P

* * *

"Fuck TurqoiseLeaf. I need you dead for that ship name." - _Torrasque666  
_ "Fucking TurquoiseLeaf is a great past time. Also what's this about me and a ship?" - _Turquoise Leaf_

 **Actually, I think he's mad at me for coming up for the best replacement ship name for Dragonslayer, drawing on Jaune's french inspirations and Yang's explosive personality (and the nickname 'Firecracker'): _Napoleon Dynamite._ **

**Yeah, now that I say it out loud, his reaction is probably fair.**


	48. Resilience and Disappointment

**Author's Note: There are a few interesting developments to speak of, but I'll save them for the Closing Thoughts down below. This chapter is a sort of experiment chapter, though I doubt it will be obvious from the chapter itself. Read down below if you're curious.**

 **Also, the Discord is now up to 58 members as of this past Friday (when I'm writing this AN), which is, like, 30 people more than I can manage. Things get interesting, especially ever since the leafy one came back...**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter **g** ee_ ) ( _the letter **g** ee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **Knock yourselves out.**

* * *

 **Chapter 45:** _"Why don't we find out Xiao Long you'll last?" – Yang Xiao Long to an embarrassed and annoyed Jaune Arc_

* * *

Qrow's POV

* * *

There used to be a time where I felt bad for spying on people I know in bird form. I mean, it still feels weird sometimes depending on who it is, but I used to have legitimate qualms with it. Raven never did, but if anything, that only convinced me further that I _should_ feel bad for using it like that. _Using it to spy on Yang at the moment?_ Well, I'm doing her a favor, so it all works out. Giving her the chance to explain things to me before I went to Tai was about as generous of a thing I could do for her.

Of all the things that happened while bringing Oz's candidate up to speed last night, finding out that Yang and Jaune Arc were a thing was the one that stuck with me the most—which was saying something, considering just how much stuff we covered with Nikos. That probably had something to do with the fact that Jaune Arc as about as mysterious of a student as you could find, or that he was firmly in Oz's sights. _And let's not forget any criminal activity, either._ If his ties to CRDL do turn out significant, he's going to find himself in hot water, and the idea of Yang getting caught up in that is not a pleasant one. Tai would _kill_ me if I let Yang get seriously hurt, either because she was dragged into it or because he was dragged away from her.

I more or less waited for Yang and her team to leave the dorms and head to Amity, banking on the fact that there was no way that Ruby was going to miss a fight. It took a bit, but I did eventually spot them making their way towards the airfields, and I found a tree to morph back into my normal self behind. It was ahead of them and just off the path they were walking, and I waited on the other side for them to pass by.

"Guys, could we _please_ stop talking about this, for, like, five minutes?" Ruby's voice pleaded as they got within earshot.

"Hey, that's fine with _me,_ " Yang shot back defensively. "It's _Weiss_ who keeps bringing it up."

"Well, I'm sorry that you keep sneaking off to do dust-knows-what and don't even have the decency to hide it from us," the Schnee 'apologized.'

"I _am_ trying to hide it from you. It's just that _you_ keep asking if I'm sneaking off _every time I do anything!_ " Yang shot back, exasperated, as the voices reached about even with the tree I'm behind. " _That's_ what is weird here! Two people sneaking off by themselves is _normal_ , Weiss! Blake, back me up here, you've snuck off with a guy before, right?"

"Don't drag me into this," the last member finally spoke. "Also, we…had a tent, so…no sneaking off."

"Guys, _please_ ," Ruby groaned dramatically, "could we talk about _anything_ else?"

"I don't know, I'm kind of curious now," I said loudly, announcing my presence as I stepped out from behind the tree. "What's all this about sneaking off?"

The Schnee and the Belladonna were a bit surprised to see me, but the blood drained from the faces of both my nieces.

" _Yang_ has been—" the Schnee was cut off as Yang's arm shot out and clamped over her mouth.

"Sneaking off with someone?" I finished for her, giving Yang a flat look.

" _N-No_."

"That's it? Not even going to come up with an excuse?"

"I don't need one. I'm innocent," Yang lied, badly, if her face or the faces of her teammates were any indication.

" _Oh?_ " I asked, daring Yang to stick with that story. "So you _aren't_ sneaking around with that blond kid from JNPR?"

Yang went stiff once more and her teammates eyes went wide as they realized that I knew, which meant that Yang was screwed.

"Nope. Don't even know his name."

"Is that so?" I asked, a grin forming on my face as I pointedly turned to Ruby. "Favorite niece who would _never_ lie to her uncle, how long has Yang been hooking up with Jaune?"

Ruby choked on air as all the pressure suddenly shifted to her, wilting under the nervous and intense stare from Yang, the worried stares from her other teammates, and the scrutinizing stare I was giving her.

"…u-uh…she…Yang is…" Ruby fumbled nervously, cutting off whatever she was going to say each time she switched from looking between me and Yang. "You see…the thing is… _Yang_ , uh…"

"Oh for dust's sake," Yang cried out finally, the tension and the wait too much for her. "Since Sunday, okay?"

"Last Wednesday, actually," Weiss Schnee corrected her, giving Yang a satisfied smirk when Yang glared at her for her betrayal.

"Wednesday, huh? Well, I assume that since you were staying with your dad then, he knows about this Jaune Arc thing and has approved of it, _right?_ "

Yang, Blake, and Weiss all went silent, sharing a nervous look, with Yang's teammates looking at her with some curiosity. It was a lot of fun to poke holes in Yang's whole 'wild child' image she liked to maintain considering how much of a daddy's girl she was. _She and Ruby both, actually, although Ruby idolizes her mom more._

"Right, _Ruby?_ "

"…no…" Ruby squeaked out, equally embarrassed for both ratting Yang out to me and ratting herself out for not having told Tai. Honestly, that last part was more surprising than anything, that Ruby both _could_ and _would_ keep a secret from her dad.

Yang tried her best to give an innocent smile, instead looking like the cat that ate the canary, if that cat had then directly walked around a corner into a room full of starved pitbulls.

"You ladies go on ahead," I announced, staring dead at Yang the whole time. "I'm sure Yang will catch up with you…"

Yang looked to each of her teammates desperately, only to find no help from any of them; the closest she got was a sheepish shrug from Ruby.

" _Fine_ ," Yang drawled in defeat, strolling forward to me as her team went on their way, checking over their shoulder occasionally to keep an eye on Yang. "I thought you were supposed to be the fun uncle."

"Well, unless you're hiding another uncle somewhere, I still _am_ the fun uncle," I responded.

" _By default_ ," Yang grumbled.

"Still counts," I added on. A small lull fell between us, marking the perfect chance for a drink to make this whole 'talking' thing go easier. I took a swig from my flask and went to recap it, before catching Yang's eyes watching me suspiciously. From the look she gave, she was adding up in her head how the way I got her alone plus me taking a drink meant an uncomfortable talk was coming down the pipe, so I held the flask out for her. She gave me another funny look before shrugging it off and playing it safe, wiping the rim with her hand as she took it and took a quick swig of her own.

" _Oh gods_ ," she coughed out in surprise, but without spilling or losing any of the alcohol, "what the hell is that?"

I took the flask back and shrugged. It was some bottom-shelf crap I had topped off my flask with the previous night while drunk, so there's no telling what it was a mixture of.

"I take it you've figured out what this talk is about?"

"Jaune," Yang answered, giving me a flat look and nothing else. Her manner was a lot like her mother when caught with something minor, not willing to give an inch even when it wouldn't cost her anything.

"You wanna elaborate on that?" I asked, offering her the chance to dictate how this was gonna go. She sat there and gave me that same flat, irritated look, forcing me to wonder if it was Raven's side of her blood that was making her be difficult, or just the fact she was a teenager. "You know, Yang, considering all the stuff I've taught you that your dad is _never_ to find out about—" I waggled my flask in the air to make a point, "—I would think you'd take this chance to convince me to keep this between us."

Yang didn't bite, staying really defensive instead.

"How'd you find out?"

"Heard it from Oz, who heard it through the grapevine," I answered, true enough for my purposes. Yang's eyes widened in surprise, meaning that I'd finally broken through her stubborn little defensive streak, which will make everything easier from here.

"I don't even know why we're having this conversation," Yang huffed, her defensiveness decidedly _not_ going away. "Jaune and I can make our own decisions, and who I spend time with is _my_ business. It'd be really rich for you or dad of all people to try to _discourage_ us from doing anything together…"

"Easy there, Firecracker," I pleaded, putting my hands up mockingly to calm her down. I couldn't help but chuckle at how defensive she'd gotten, or the fact that she'd undermined herself and given up more information in her attempt to _be_ defensive. "You'd be right… _if_ we'd been talking about you two wearing out the bedsprings. Is there something you wanna tell me…?"

I gave Yang a cheeky grin to signal that she'd just given herself away, though that slowly faded as Yang didn't seem upset at being caught out. A little bit of color appeared in her cheeks, but she continued to wear her flat, irritated expression, making it clear that she was willing to defend her involvement fiercely, even if it meant implicitly admitting how far that involvement went. Her resolve in that honestly surprised me a bit, not unlike the first time Raven ever admitted to the team that she had a thing for Tai beyond just hooking up. She had been embarrassed, but angrily and stubbornly refused to apologize for it.

" _Huh_ ," I mumbled, as I realized that protecting Jaune actually meant something to Yang. I made an effort to soften my posture and make it clear I was backing off, which Yang began to mirror. "Okay then. This can stay between us for now."

"Thank you, uncle Qrow," Yang replied, offering a small but genuine smile out of appreciation.

"Not _so_ fast, there. You _are_ going to have to explain this to your dad at some point. I'm just going to give you some time to do it yourself before I gotta step in…"

"Yes, I'm sure it's _really_ hard for you to not get in the middle of _that_ mess," Yang antagonized with a roll of her eyes. "I'll do it eventually, I promise. I just…need to figure out how."

"Well I'd recommend _not_ leading with accusing him of being a bad role model, not if you don't want him to realize what the two of you have been up to," I offered teasingly, though it was 100% legitimate advice. "That would be the fastest way to get your boy toy killed."

"Somehow, I think Jaune would survive," Yang drawled, giving me a funny look. I cocked my head to the side and gave her a look that asked her if she was _certain_ about that. "But I agree; that would _not_ be the best way to handle it."

A lull in the talk followed for a few moments, just long enough for me to remember why I wanted to speak to Yang. It was only harder to warn her about the Arc kid after seeing how she acted so far.

"Yang, about Jaune…" I said finally after a few moments of staring off at the ground. I looked up to find Yang looking at me intently, with far more concern and emotion there than I had expected. Any thoughts I had of telling her to steer clear died as the words wouldn't form. "You really like the kid, don't you?"

"I do, yeah," Yang answered meaningfully and softly.

"Just… _be careful_ , okay?" I asked, trying to stress the point as much as I could without making it apparent that there was a _reason_ she needed to be careful around him.

"Who, me?" Yang responded with a cheeky grin, one that was a scary mix of Raven and Tai rolled into one. " _Never._ "

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

Everything was prepared. The dorm curtains were pulled closed, preventing any chance of someone like Qrow peaking in. My team is currently on their way to Beacon's Fairgrounds, eager to enjoy their day off during the rest of the 4v4 round. Team RWBY went to watch the fights, meaning that Yang wouldn't have to worry about Weiss getting suspicious of where we were—something Yang had been complaining about, and something that it didn't hurt me to help her out with.

For all intents and purposes, I am alone in the dorm, and I'll be alone for some time.

I tried to sit there and plan things out, going over what I knew and what I should say with every little variation of conversation that I could think of, but I never made much progress. Raven was predictable in some ways, but just because you knew what she was going to say didn't necessarily mean that you could come up with a counter to it. Sometimes, things just boiled down to one side holding more of the cards.

In a moment of frustration with how little progress I was making, I grabbed my scroll and sent the text, before shutting it off entirely and taking a seat on my bed, waiting.

After a minute or two, a red portal sprang to life in the room, with Raven strutting through without a care in the world, mask held underneath her arm and her sword sheathed at her hip. Her portal closed behind her and she walked around the room, taking her time as she took in all the details of Team JNPR's dorm for what they were worth.

"Say it," I grumbled, fed up with the wait, as I stood to my feet.

"Hmmm?" she responded without looking at me, instead curiously inspecting Nora's things.

"Say it," I repeated a bit agitated.

" _You_ asked _me_ to come here," Raven pointed out, trying to get me to be the one to start things off.

"Oh, so you don't have _anything_ you want to comment on," I drawled, giving her a flat look as she finally looked up at me with a smirk. "Nothing that's happened recently that caught your attention?"

"You seem to be in a sour mood," Raven pointed out innocently, only to taunt me. "Did someone interrupt you making a move on Yang again?"

"And _there_ it is," I grumbled. Raven's grin was not affected in the slightest by having proved my point about her having something to say.

"I _am_ curious how that happened…"

"Trust me, if I understood how it happened, I still wouldn't tell you," I taunted flatly. I kept my eyes keenly on her, looking for any signs for how she felt about the development, but she remained mostly unreadable.

Raven tisked dismissively while softly shaking her head. "For what it's worth, you two do make a cute couple. Or at least," she pivoted, cutting her eyes coyly at me and signaling that she was about to take the piss out of me, "you had _better_ be a couple if I'm to expect the two of you to get up to more of what I walked in on…"

"Yes, I'm sure that you'll pick _now_ to start like a mother for Yang," I cut back venomously. Raven bristled for a moment, before shrugging off the insult.

" _Yang?_ Who said I wasn't doing it just to spite _you?_ " Raven asked pointedly. I opened my mouth to retort, before shutting it as I had nothing to respond to that. She had a point, after all. "Unbelievable," Raven announced after watching me basically agree with her sarcastic retort. "You really wouldn't put it past me to make a hypocrite out of myself just to make your life harder? You either have an incredibly high opinion of yourself, or an incredibly low one of me."

"I wonder which it is," I cut back flatly.

"You are so incredibly dense, you know that?" Raven huffed, rubbing her forehead with her fingertips in frustration as she did so. "For what it's worth, I'm _not_ planning on stopping the two of you. Hell, if anything, I approve of it; you'd be good for each other."

"Well, gee golly, if that doesn't just warm my heart," I spat out flatly, making it clear what I thought of her opinion on this. Her opinion on interpersonal affairs could not carry any _less_ weight, quite literally. It was almost a _bad_ sign that she approved of the relationship, seeing as this was the woman who ran from her team and her family.

"Why _did_ you call me here?" Raven asked pointedly, visibly frustrated by how little value I placed in her 'gesture.' Whereas others might have taken her gesture at face value, I had played this game far too long to know that it was a ploy to some ends, and her frustration at it not having worked was satisfactory to say the least.

"To make sure we're on the same page," I answered firmly, if not with just a hint of a threat. "Yang is off the table. You may have me by the throat, but you don't have anything on her, not when she can go to Qrow or Tai without any need for explanation."

"It's interesting that you thought I needed to have that spelled out for me," Raven commented coyly, taking a few steps towards me. "Whatever you're trying to say, go ahead and say it," she challenged, locking eyes with me.

"This… _game_ we play? It stays that way, between you and me," I stated coldly, not breaking off the staring contest now underway. "Yang is _not_ to be involved."

Our eyes remained locked for a few more tense seconds of silence, before Raven finally broke it off with a few soft chuckles.

"That's funny, because I don't remember _bringing_ Yang into this."

"You wanted to hijack Ozpin's Maiden, remember?" I offered, bringing up the original reason that Yang ever got involved and hoping that she didn't know that Yang and I had set that up in the first place, nor that Yang wasn't actually in line to be Ozpin's Maiden.

"That was always an unreasonable expectation, not to mention at best a questionable decision," Raven dismissed as if she _hadn't_ salivated at the chance control a second Maiden. The fact that it was Yang only sweetened the pot, giving her the chance to really stick it to Oz and Qrow. "I did my due diligence, just in case, but it wasn't _me_ that brought Yang into this, now, _was it?_ "

The firm and knowing look she gave me sent a bit of panic through me, and I deemed it wisest to keep my mouth shut. She acted like she knew something, and I was _not_ about to get caught giving away more than she already knew.

"You had already brought her into it before I even met with her," Raven accused, correctly, as I held my tongue. The longer I remained quiet, the stronger her glare grew, and I was already feeling the urge to shrink under it. "It's pretty rich to hear _you_ tell _me_ to leave Yang out of this, now, _isn't it?_ "

"How'd you know?" I asked quietly, somewhat accepting defeat in this, hoping that she was just angling to get me to admit failure and nothing more significant.

"You should already have figured that out," Raven responded instead of answering. "You have all the pieces, though I'm not in the mood to watch you struggle to fit them together. Yang told me."

" _What?_ "

"That first meeting you set up, she went along with the plan the two of you discussed for a while—and played it well, too. But she had other plans and confronted me about you, before asking me to keep that part a secret from you." Raven spoke freely and didn't seem to care about giving away such information, likely satisfied if it caused me strife by knowing it. My head was certainly racing to figure out if she was telling the truth, which felt unlikely; this is _Raven Branwen_ , after all. Using lies to turn me against someone is second nature for her, and apparently, it was clear from my expression that's what I was thinking about. "You should have realized something was off from her reaction during _the fingering incident_."

"Please don't call it that," I mumbled weakly.

" _The fingering incident_ ," Raven repeated smugly. "Yang should have acted like she didn't know that you and I knew each other. That should have been a clue for something…"

Despite my distrust of their source, I couldn't find any lie to Raven's words, and the realization that she was right about that part made my stomach flop. _Why would Yang—?_

"As fun as it is to watch you struggle, you can relax," Raven said after a few moments of watching my thoughts play out on my face, all with a bemused smile on hers. "She didn't betray you or anything fun like that. She was actually there trying to _help_ your dumb ass, so you can stop worrying."

I gave Raven a strange look, which she ignored.

"She was there to negotiate with me to get me to back off you," Raven explained with a casual wave of her hand. "She impressed me so much that I saw no reason not to let her succeed. It cost me very little, after all."

"Bullshit."

"What was that?" Raven asked with a small edge to her voice.

" _Bullshit_ ," I repeated forcefully. "She _impressed_ you, so you pulled back off the threats on my life? How stupid do you think I am?"

My fists clenched and I felt my Aura tingling, anticipating a fight and ready for whatever move it was needed for. Raven didn't rise to my aggression, though, in fact doing the opposite. With a disappointed sigh and matching stare, she reached down and drew her sword away from me, slicing open a portal with no real urgency, before stowing her sword away once more.

"How is it possible that I somehow raised you to be _more_ cynical than I am, but _only_ about me?" she asked to no one in particular before turning back to me. "Don't do anything stupid, Jaune," she said in a tired, exasperated expression that I can't recall ever seeing before.

"Why not?" I challenged back, only to find that she wasn't in the mood for escalating things anymore.

"Things are changing, Jaune, things that you can't see. I want you coming back home in one piece."

"And who says I'm _going_ back to the Tribe?" I challenged again, this time challenging the very notion that I would allow myself to be taken back—and also refusing to acknowledge that place as my home. Any other time, it would have been suicidal to challenge that directly to Raven, but reading the mood in the room emboldened me.

Raven looked back at me as she approached the portal. She gave me a weak smile, before shaking her head dismissively and leaving me alone in my dorm with my jumbled thoughts.

* * *

Qrow's POV

* * *

There's something deeply satisfying about seeing Oz at a loss for words, even if it only lasts for a split second. It can get real irritating how he almost never rises to any bait and takes in massive doses of bad information with nothing more than a frown and a sip of coffee. I can see how living through thousands of years of conflict with the highest stakes possible would temper you down and get you used to bad news real fast, but I guess not even _that_ is enough to teach someone how to completely suppress shock and disappointment. It was gone almost as soon as it was there, but not so fast that I couldn't see it.

"Ms. Nikos, I don't believe it wise to rush to any decisions on this matter," Ozpin responded slowly and carefully to the announcement that Pyrrha _wasn't_ going to be his Maiden.

"I'm not rushing into a decision," the girl countered softly, eyes staring at Ozpin's desk instead of returning the man's stare. "I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since last night. I am truly grateful that you would entrust me with this, and if there is anything _else_ I can do, I would like to help," Pyrrha said, stressing it so that we wouldn't fear her sharing the information she knew. "But I can't accept your offer."

" _Why?_ " Ozpin asked, dropping the warmth and pomp of his normal persona and displaying an edge to his voice that the girl had never seen before. It surprised her more than anything, and moments later Ozpin recovered and rephrased. "You'll have to forgive me for that, but I'm certain that you're aware of the significance of the consequences here. People _will_ die, Ms. Nikos."

"O-Only if you can't protect your Maiden," she stated back, not letting her nervousness stop her from countering the point. "I would be more than willing to help you protect them, but I can't bring myself to do what you've asked me to do to Amber, and to…"

"And to _Mr. Arc?_ " Ozpin finished for her, not needing to wait for her to confirm. Oz made no moves to hide his disappointment or frustration, instead only containing them for Pyrrha's sake. There had been a lot of thought put into the plan to enlist Ms. Nikos and her partner, and to have to all crash down before it ever started wasn't something we'd expected.

Slowly and deliberately, Oz took his glasses off by pinching them at the bridge, before wiping the lenses with a small cloth from a drawer in his desk.

"I think you're wrong about him," Pyrrha said to fill the silence. "I don't think that he needs your help."

"Are you _certain_ about that?" Ozpin asked pointedly, putting a lot of emphasis on the question in an attempt to salvage this situation.

"I'm…not, no," Pyrrha answered quietly. "But I'm even less certain that he _does_ need help. The only thing I'm truly certain of is that I would regret betraying his trust any more than I already have."

A long, tense silence followed as Oz watched this girl intently. She clearly wasn't confident in what she was saying, not very much, at least, but she _was_ saying it, which had to mean something.

"Very well," Oz mumbled softly, likely coming across to this girl as accepting when he was only masking his frustration. _As a chief source of frustration for the old man, I know the look well._ "I cannot expect you to do something that violates your conscience. I _will_ ask, however, that you remain discrete about this affair."

"I will. I promise."

The girl rose to her feet, but dug through her pockets before turning to leave, pulling out the recorder pen that Ozpin had given her the night before.

"Do you… need this back?"

Oz looked at the pen curiously for a moment, before shaking that off with a put-on laugh. "Keep it, Ms. Nikos. It's little more than a trinket I put together, and there's no one else with the Semblance to operate it. I can always make another if I really need to."

Pyrrha wasn't sure about it, but eventually put the pen back in her pocket. With no other reason to stay now, she glanced around the office once, before graciously turning and leaving through the elevator.

With her gone, I strode forward and plopped myself down in the empty chair across from Oz's desk that she'd just evacuated. The man's brow was furrowed as he stared at the mug sitting on his desk, deep in his thoughts and clearly not pleased by them.

"Well, that didn't go well," I announced, leaning back in the chair and folding up one leg to get comfortable. "What do we do from here?"

"We need to move on to other candidates, I suppose," Ozpin let out with a frustrated sigh, resigning himself to the situation. "Time is of paramount importance now. Whatever small luxury we had to develop the situation of our first candidate is gone now." Ozpin gave me a firm stare, likely knowing I wasn't going to like this. "More than anything, we need an exceptionally strong candidate who can be made to trust us rapidly, for their protection more than anything."

"Yang isn't cut out for this," I stated angrily, reading between the lines as he intended. "We've been over this. _Neither_ of her parents would take this lying down."

"Those are risks we may just have to take," Ozpin countered patronizingly, which set me off more. "It's less than ideal, but we can handle Taiyang. He won't like it, but he _does_ understand the stakes. Raven could be an issue if she were to find out, but even then, I have _you_ to counteract that." Ozpin paused to rub the bridge of his nose, buying time to think. "We have Ironwood running the Festival, making now our best chance to do this. _Would it work?_ "

"You already know my thoughts on the subject."

"And _you_ already know that we don't have a choice," Ozpin countered angrily, fixing me with a firm glare. "If you'd like it noted that you don't like this development, then I'd like it noted that I don't like _any_ of the last thousand years' worth of developments, but here we are. The time for sentimentality has passed, Qrow. _Would. it. work?_ "

With a frustrated sigh, I ran my hand through my hair absently as I thought through it. The first conclusion I came to was that I needed a drink, and that was taken care of promptly. With that out of the way, I went over what would need to happen to make sure that nothing bad would come to my niece if this did happen. Tai would not only have to get over it, but he'd have to come on board, both to protect Yang and to get Yang to trust us more readily; that could be done, and would be the easiest thing. Raven was a wild card, as she was liable to exploit Yang if she thought she could get her hands on _another_ Maiden. That would be bad, but there was an off-chance that Raven could be used to protect Yang from Salem's Maiden, but that was only if Raven saw Yang as an investment. _There was only one other angle here to worry about, and it was a good one._

"No, it wouldn't."

"Why not?"

"Same reason as Nikos, actually," I answered, earning Ozpin's interest. "The Arc kid. Nikos wasn't kidding when she implied he and Yang were together; I verified it with Yang this morning."

Ozpin let out his frustration in a sigh once more, this one clearly having built off the frustration of the previous ones.

"It appears the boy has a penchant for making my life difficult," Ozpin stated gruffly, leaving me unsure if it was an attempt at humor. "Am I to assume our concerns about his influence over his partner extend to Ms. Xiao Long?"

"If you thought he was too great a liability before, then that certainly hasn't changed, no," I answered, making it clear that I was no longer sold on the idea of Jaune Arc as a detriment to a candidate. Ozpin picked up on this and gave me a curious and slightly betrayed look. "Yang speaks…highly of him. I get the sense that the kid is important to her, and not in the normal way teenagers feel. That, and we don't actually have anything on him yet… I just don't know if I see him being a threat."

"The potential—"

"The _potential_ for a threat is there, yeah. I just don't see that potential being realized, at least not how we're suspecting."

Oz had no real response, and after a few moments of silence pushed himself up from his chair and walked over to stare out the window, sorting his thoughts. He held his arms behind his back, but he kept a firm grip on his cane, something he rarely did unless he was wading through difficult thoughts, typically unsuccessfully.

"So what now?" I asked, looking to see where his head was at. "Do we _have_ a third candidate?"

"Not one we can trust to survive this predicament, no," Ozpin grumbled back without turning around. From what I could see of his reflection, he was not pleased with the state of things, not in the slightest. "It would appear that both of our options are hindered by Mr. Arc. We'll have no choice but to take the gamble."

"Which gamble would that be?"

"Leveraging Mr. Arc into the fold _without_ the assistance of Ms. Nikos."

"We're gonna need evidence on him first," I called out pointedly. "Evidence we don't have, and that we don't even _know_ if it exists."

"I am aware of that," Ozpin replied, turning around and walking back to his desk with hardened features. "That is what makes it a gamble. The next time that Team CRDL engages in counter-espionage, you are to bring them down hard. Whatever or whoever you need, you'll have it available to you. We're only going to have one shot at this, and if we're going to get them to give up their connections, we'll need them to fear for their futures."

"And if Jaune's _not_ involved after all?"

"Then we have no reason not to make Ms. Nikos our Maiden," Ozpin answered simply, taking a drink of his mug not to hide his expression but to calm himself down. "And if that bridge is burnt, we go with Yang."

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Alright, enough teasing from the AN. Up until now, this story has been written by me, edited by me, beta-read by me, planned out by me, and uploaded by (you guessed it) me. This seemed to be somewhat of a surprising revelation to my Discord that, outside of maybe sharing long-term plans with two people who don't even read the story, I don't have any sort of staff or help.**

 **So that's changed...kinda. I've quasi-recruited a handful of my more active and (sometimes) thoughtful Discord members to quasi-proofread chapters now. It was originally just intended for me to upload a private link maybe a day early and brainstorm ideas for the opening quotes and chapter titles, since the quotes were useful early on in the story but I never planned to _not be finished_ by Chapter 45. They also took the liberty to spam me with grammar/spelling/nitpicks, and I went ahead and used that as a chance to go back and review those spots. _Quasi-beta readers, of sorts, kinda maybe._**

 **Don't know if this will become a permanent thing, as it requires me to get writing done a day or two in advance and I love pushing deadlines, but it shouldn't do anything to change the feel of the story. Anything they catch comes back to me and I fix it how I want it, so the style should stay consistent. _As of now, they also know nothing of my plans for the plot, meaning that they're just as surprised as you are, albeit a day or two early._ **

* * *

**Now for the _real_ Closing Thoughts: _The board is set._ **

**That's right, we've reached all the build-up we need. Next week, we strike a match and light the fuse, or push over the few domino, or push the slinky down the stairs.**

 **Ozpin has just been dealt a blow to his ego and his plans, forcing him into betting on dicier stakes than he had hoped. And that's saying something, since betting his Maiden on his original plan of leveraging Pyrrha and Jaune wasn't risk-free to begin with. Now, by necessity, he's forced to solve the Jaune Arc Problem no matter what, and he has to do it without Pyrrha's cooperation. _Oz still has one last card to play, and there's a key word in that last sentence..._ **

**Pyrrha's now in sort of a limbo period. She's made the decision not to turn on Jaune, but as long as Ozpin hasn't finalized a Maiden (and is going after Jaune), there exists the possibility of her going back on this. She may have turned Ozpin down, but that doesn't yet mean she's picked Jaune's side; that can't fully happen until after Jaune lays everything he's doing at her feet. As we've discussed before, how that is handled will mean a lot going forward.**

 **Raven is an interesting case where no one truly has the proper bead on her, maybe not even Vernal. I'll save talking about Raven for CotW, though.**

 **Yang has emerged as a bit of a player now. She's going behind Jaune's back to help fix things for him, originally with Raven and now recently with Pyrrha, and that's not dissimilar to what Jaune did with Blake and Weiss. Earlier (paranoid) Jaune would take this as a breach of trust and react strongly, but right now, Jaune's been learning to lean on his friends a lot, specifically Yang. If you're worried that this will drive a rift between Yang and Jaune right as things get most critical, well, that's a valid concern, but it is one that would take a _specific_ set of events with long periods to stew in order to catalyze. Simply put, if Jaune gets distracted by anything major, Yang's minor transgressions here will be the last thing on his mind.**

 **Cinder is still floating around out there too, with no real reason to suspect that her V3 plan to bring down Beacon will fail. Ozpin doesn't have a Maiden yet and her hand is the same as in the show, or maybe slightly stronger with Jaune's willingness to be used.**

 **Qrow has actually split off from Oz just a little bit, if not in action then in mentality. Both Yang and Pyrrha stood up for Jaune despite seeming to be aware that there could be some risk involved with that, and that's not something Qrow missed. He's still going along with Ozpin's plan because for now, the ends justify the means, but he's giving Jaune the benefit of the doubt right now. Hell, he might kinda like the kid.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _Veraq_ (abridged for just the Raven part)

"It's absolutely amazing, how much of a difference skull-tinted glasses make.

If I try to interpret Raven's interactions with Jaune from her PoV, it makes a lot of sense.  
She makes him participate in the warehouse raid because his actions (spying) show that he is still part of the tribe.  
She punishes him after relocating the Paladins, because he tells her, he's still part of the tribe but acting against her, in a reckless and stupid manner, while at the same time relying on her help.  
When they meet in front of Yang, their sparring is like saying hello to him and she's genuinely hurt by his hate and aggression.

It's like they have a conversation.  
Raven (in Ravenspeak): Jaune, my beloved son, I have given you everything you could possibly need in your life. Now go out there and forge your own fate.  
Jaune: You are my enemy!  
Raven: I'm not going to let you stab me in the back, just because you don't have the balls to tell me 'no'.  
Jaune: I will never be free of your dark and cruel shadow, unless I have the power to overcome you. I need more POWER, MOOORREEE POOOWWWEEEER, by whatever means.  
Raven: Goddamnit, Jaune!

But seriously, I'm having trouble seeing Raven's bad side (aside from the whole bandit queen thing). She puts him into a position, where all he has to do is to say 'Raven, I'm not working for you anymore, and if you come after me, I have a dead man's switch that will send all of your secrets to Ozpin.' And then he's free.  
The only thing, I could possibly hold against her, is that she didn't make a move (yet) to keep Ruby and Yang out of Ozpin's eternal blender.

Admittedly, it's probably Raven's fault, how Jaune sees her; after all, if she tells a little boy that strength is the most important thing in the world, and that she only saves even a loved one once, what other conclusion is he supposed to come to, aside from 'heartless monster'? Especially considering everything, he must have seen her do, growing up.

..."

 **You are _so_ close to nailing MoNT!Raven, and comments like yours are super encouraging to me, like, _yes, they're getting it, it actually makes sense outside of my head!_ That's one of those things that you just don't know if it will translate well from writer to page to reader, specifically the different lenses that everyone sees Raven in. Jaune's _skull-colored glasses_ (to steal a phrase) are something I've been worried wouldn't be picked up on, mostly because we've been looking through them for most of the story. **

**You've got Jaune decently nailed, if a bit dramatic, although who the hell am I to get upset with someone writing Jaune dramatically... I actually loved your analogy later in the review about Jaune being a bird that keeps flying into glass when the hole is like right next to the glass. That's certainly how it feels to be Raven watching Jaune.**

 **Raven's intentions or motivations are just slightly off, slightly more nuanced and planned on her part, but you're certainly close. The hint I'll give you is that she _doesn't_ want Jaune to be free and forge his destiny; that would be awfully selfless of her. She wants to fulfill her own selfishness. It's just _what_ she wants and _how_ she intends to get it that are coming down the pipe. **

**Based on a rough sketch of the coming timeline in my head, it should be only 2 or 3 chapters before Raven comes out and says it plainly..** **.**

 **As for Raven's bad side, there are certainly humanizing elements here, but that _is_ balanced by the fact that she _is_ manipulative, selfish, and, like, murders people freely. Oh, and she abandoned her daughter, _somehow_ got Maiden's powers, and for how clear it is that she's not very good at maybe expressing her emotional connections ( _attacking Jaune straight out a portal is like saying hi_ comes to mind here, lol), she probably shouldn't just be given a free pass on how she raised Jaune for that. Raven's an interesting character, and to me at least, that ugly side only serves to increase that. **

**Also, yes, I am totally on board with the 's' in Dragonslayer being silent.**


	49. Praise Be Unto Turquoise

**"Author's" Note: I feel like the Author's Note has bumped all story information down to Closing Thoughts and has now just become the weekly "Shining Turquoise Report" section.**

 **On that note, the Discord has gotten… beautiful. The Brits finally revolted and created yet another faction in the civil war (that makes four, for those counting). The Coalition of Unions of Nationalistic Turquoise was founded certainly as a means of bringing me to my knees where I belong and was not created solely for the purpose of a fun acronym.**

 **Similarly, a smaller faction was inspired by this and also split off to form the Justice Expansion Welcoming Society, although it is literally just one guy and his alt account.**

 **Appropriately, I have taken a stand against these glorious Crusaders and renamed my loyalists as 'Loyalists Of the False One.'**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **Please use the link and join THE GLORIOUS TURQUOISE REVOLUTION.**

 **Now, do the responsible thing and enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

 **Chapter 46:** _"Turquoise is such a wonderful color, do you not agree?" - Inquisitor Yang-Xiao-Long to High Priest Jaune Arc, mid-coitus_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

Amity Arena, being built with the sole purpose of housing fights in front of a massive crowd, was well-built when it came to staging arenas, dressing rooms, and anything else fighters needed to prepare for a fight. The locker room that Pyrrha and I were assigned for our Round of Twos fight was split down the middle with lockers to allow for privacy for teams that would need it, and also had a common area where you could sit down and watch the current fight on a TV screen. Two teams that I didn't recognize were fighting, and ours was scheduled to be one of the last fights of this round. Yang had managed to drag Team RWBY to victory yesterday, although Pyrrha and I were in for a much easier match up, if Cinder's intel was anything to go by.

It had been awkwardly silent as we changed, as even though there were lockers dividing the room, it wasn't as if we couldn't easily hear one another; neither of us really had anything to say, or at least, didn't know how to say it. I had finished dressing first and took a seat in one of the chairs of the common area, laying Angau Glas over my lap and inspecting it and all of its forms. Pyrrha followed a few minutes later, and I did my best to focus on my weapon, but I could feel her eyes as she stole glances at me often, each time only serving to make me feel guiltier about having avoided confronting her for so long.

Eventually, I worked up the nerve to broach the subject, seeing as I wouldn't have such a perfect, private opportunity to do so again, at least not without me having to set up it myself.

"Hey Pyrrha?" I asked softly, not looking up from my blade as I continued to prepare it, which now meant polishing it. It was a simple enough task, but it kept my hands occupied and was at least a half-way decent excuse to keep my eyes down.

"Hmm?" she hummed back attentively, her eyes fixing on me.

"This…might not be the _best_ time, but I think that we should talk…" I opened up, trailing off to see if she had anything to say. When she waited for me to continue, I did. "I... probably owe you an apology."

"For what?" Pyrrha asked neutrally, though her voice betrayed a bit of nervousness on her own part.

"About…Yang," I said, struggling to find the words, "and about how this all went down. I didn't—"

" _You_ don't owe _me_ an apology, Jaune," Pyrrha cut me off, surprising me enough to get me to look up at her. Her eyes were a bit sad, but she was otherwise confident in her words.

"Are you sure about that?" I half-joked, a bit thrown off by Pyrrha's response.

"Yes."

"…I still feel like I should," I threw out there tentatively.

"Well, you can, but…I won't accept it if you do," Pyrrha teased…or threatened, I'm not entirely sure which.

"Can I tell you _why_ I need to apologize before you refuse it?" I asked, testing out whatever this was.

Pyrrha shrugged noncommittally. I gave her a weird look for a little bit longer, trying to figure out what was going on, before hesitantly going forward with it.

"Nora got into my head a couple nights ago," I explained lightheartedly, "about how all of this went down. She was upset that I led you on before Yang… _happened_ , and she's okay now because I explained that I didn't know what I was doing, but that thought has been stuck in my head, and—"

"Jaune, you don't really sound like _you_ even know what you're apologizing for," Pyrrha pointed out with a slight knowing look.

"I don't, but I know I need to apologize for _something_."

"Oh, well, in that case, _go ahead_ ," Pyrrha challenged with a giggle, enjoying me trying to feel better about myself more than she should.

"I, Jaune Arc, am terribly sorry for… uh…" I trailed off, staring off in the distance trying to come up with something while Pyrrha smirked at my incompetence. "…for not having anything to be sorry for."

" _Wow_."

"You know, I really do feel better," I joked, brushing off Pyrrha's snarky reply. " _Oh_ , I remembered something to be sorry for!"

Pyrrha crossed her arms and gave me a flat look, silently challenging me to try again.

"The Torchwick thing."

" _The Torchwick thing?_ " Pyrrha repeated back, mocking me softly. "That's putting it lightly. Or were you going to apologize for the part that you _haven't_ told me about yet?"

"I…" I trailed of tensely, biting my tongue. For all the planning about bringing Pyrrha up to speed and seeing if she would help, I hadn't exactly come up with a plan for _how to do that._ But if things are going well right now and she seems to be okay with how Yang and I's relationship ended up, then maybe… "Would you…like to know?"

"R-Right now?" Pyrrha fumbled as I put her on the spot. The lightheartedness from the teasing had melted away and she looked surprised, if not a little nervous. My noncommittal shrug to answer her question did nothing to change that. "Is that…wise? I mean, whatever it is, you s-seem to think it's pretty important, and we're about to have a fight."

"…are you saying that you _don't_ want to know?"

"N-No!" Pyrrha let out suddenly, before realizing that I had watched her enthusiasm with a knowing grin. "I'm just saying that…maybe it could wait until _after_ the fight?"

"I don't know, we'll never have a room this private again," I teased back coyly, before wiping the smile off my face and giving Pyrrha a meaningful look. " _Tonight_. Once we get back from celebrating our victory, we'll have Ren distract Nora. Does that sound good?"

Pyrrha looked at me with uncertainty, but was persuaded pretty easily into nodding softly. With that out of the way, the two of us sat in silence for a bit, watching the fight on the TV.

"What makes you so sure that we'll be celebrating our victory, and not…?"

" _Drowning our sorrows?_ " I finished for her, cutting my eyes at her playfully. She rolled her eyes at my dramatic answer, but didn't correct me. "I saw our match-up earlier. Let's just say that we'll be fine."

"You saw our match-up?" Pyrrha repeated, confused. "These matches are supposed to be drawn from a pool in each bracket. Where did you _see_ our match-up at?" she asked again, not accusatorily in any way but thoroughly confused.

"I don't remember, I just remember seeing that we got Team CRDL somehow," I lied, though it was easy to pretend to be surprised about that last part because I _am_ surprised that they made it out of the first rounds. _Team RWBY or JNPR making it to round 2 as freshman teams I can see, but some poor team out there let_ Cardin _beat them?_ In any order, once I realized that CRDL was still in, it did not take a lot to pitch to Cinder that I could create a _lot_ of drama if I got to go after them. If we do match up with CRDL, it'll all but confirm that Cinder somehow has access to rigging the selection process. "Why, what is the selection process like? _You're_ the expert on pit-fighting here, after all."

" _Oh_ , great, bringing _that_ joke back, are we?" Pyrrha drawled, cutting her eyes at me playfully once more.

"No," I lied, _badly_. Pyrrha caught on to that, too, and gave me the flattest look she possibly could. My shit-eating grin only grew stronger from it.

" _The selection process_ ," Pyrrha announced forcefully, giving me a dirty look, "for the Vytal Festival is unique in that they use both a random pool _and_ a bracket. Most tournaments either have a bracket, or a survivor-style pool where winners get put into a new pool for the next round."

"Yes, I do understand how pools work," I snipped.

"The Vytal Festival has a bracket system worked out so that one full part of the bracket's first two rounds will each be fought on their own day, and every team in that bracket has their own locker room like this one. They draw to determine the match-ups in the morning, that way they can at least tell the teams when they need to get ready by."

"So they _do_ have to announce it, sort of," I countered, finding a plausible way that I could know what I do. "It could leak, or someone could just have noticed which teams started getting ready at the same time."

"I…guess," Pyrrha mumbled. "It doesn't really matter all that much. Once you get to the singles, it's all a traditional pool-style anyways."

"I guess not," I mumbled in agreeance, not really having much else to add. "The whole system seems…strange."

"It is," Pyrrha confirmed, and with her experience in this world, that meant a good bit. "It all seems structured to make it easier to follow along with at home, even if that makes it harder to actually run. In the end, the best fighter _should_ win, regardless of when the fights are scheduled."

I shrugged, not really having any complaint about how it would set up that was profound and not really having any comment that was worth adding.

We watched the rest of the match before us in silence, and as it ended, the screen shifted and began announcing that we needed to report to the arena floor.

* * *

As we reached the entrance to the arena and began to walk to the center, we spotted our opponents making their way from the opposite side, and sure enough, Russel and Sky were making their way out to us. They both looked upset, probably because they recognized us as the end to their Vytal Festival run. Once she recognized them as Cardin's teammates, Pyrrha gave me some suspicious side-eye too, no doubt wondering how I was right. All of that fueled a victorious smirk for me.

"What's up, losers?" I called out antagonistically once we all reached the center of the stage. Sky and Russel gave me agitated looks for that, either remembering our normal cover role or just legitimately tired of that cover role. _Gotta say, it's a lot of fun on my end, though._ "No Cardin?"

"Nah," Sky called back, "a giant mace really isn't the best weapon for fighting other people."

" _Wow_ , color me shocked," I drawled back, earning another flat look.

" _And now, for the arena randomization!"_ Professor Port's voice boomed across the arena as the holographic displays brought up two wheels and began spinning. _"On the left half of the arena, we have…grass! And on the right half…more grass! It looks like there will be no help from the landscape today, just good old-fashioned combat to determine our winner!"_

Sky and Russel looked disappointed. An even playing field was a bad thing for them against _one_ of us, but having no cover and no possible way to split Pyrrha and me up was basically a death sentence.

"Hey Pyrrha," I whispered, keeping my voice low enough to not be overheard by anyone else, "when do the 1v1 fights start?"

"They passed out tournament info to all teams, Jaune. Did you not read any of—" she cut herself off with a roll of her eyes. "—of _course_ you didn't. The first match will be tonight, and only teams that qualified yesterday are eligible to be drawn for that first one. After that, it's all random starting tomorrow."

"Tonight, huh?" I repeated with a smirk starting to form. "I guess we should keep you rested in case you get picked, shouldn't we?"

" _Match begins in 10…9…"_

"I just said that we won't be drawn from, Jaune," Pyrrha replied, giving me a confused look.

" _8…7…6…"_

"No, I _said_ , we should let you _rest_ ," I said, giving her an obvious wink. " _Right?_ "

" _5…4…3…"_

Pyrrha gave me an uncertain look, before flicking her eyes towards Sky and Russel, who were eyeing us nervously now.

"You just want to make them look bad, don't you?"

" _2…1…"_

I shrugged, though I couldn't hide my grin.

" _BEGIN!"_

Pyrrha rolled her eyes and backed down, letting me step forward alone as I drew Angau Glas off my back. Russel and Sky took defensive positions, which was a slight improvement over the last time I sparred Team CRDL, though they looked nervous that Pyrrha wasn't involving herself in the fight, like she was waiting to get them when they weren't expecting it.

"What's the matter, boys?" I taunted, letting Angau drag across the ground to my right lazily as I approached. They didn't answer, but their eyes kept nervously flicking over to where Pyrrha was stood behind me. Facing them, Russel was on my left side with his duel Messer-style swords and Sky was on my right with his great axe, both held out in front of them defensively.

Without warning, I charged at Sky, angling to pass just to his left, between him and Russel. I led with a heavy strike from my right side, forcing Sky to commit to blocking it by catching the blow on his haft. Russel began to move towards me and I let my feet continue to carry me past Sky, but rotating to my right to keep myself pointed towards Sky and my sword. Once I had gotten a step past Sky, I stopped and pivoted to spin myself all the way around to face Russel, swinging my sword low to disengage from Sky's weapon and take a massive swing at Russel's lower half. He had been charging in and had no way get out of measure, forcing him to find some way to block the strike. With the weapon weight and momentum advantages working against him, all he could do is place his two swords down in front of his leg to block the blade of Angau.

The blow still transferred a lot of force to Russel, earning a grimace from him as he was knocked backwards, before losing balance and falling. I kept Angau going, spinning it all the way back around towards Sky. He had been trying to throw a quick chop from the side, and by drop-stepping away from him, I created just enough separation to let his axe pass underneath my arms and inches short of my stomach. With Angau Glas having a reach advantage, keeping my arms above my head as I swung at him meant that the last two inches of the blade caught Sky right across his cheek, causing him to shout out in surprise and pain and stumble backwards.

His aura had flared to save him from the blow, but he still instinctively clutched his face with his right hand, which was a lapse of awareness on his part. Contacting his head slowed my blade enough that I could reverse my arms while they were still above my head, allowing me to bring them down from the other direction and put considerable force into a down-diagonal slash at Sky's chest. He managed to look up just in time to watch it happen and clumsily yanked his left hand up to try to block the blow with his weapon. All he succeeded in doing was ensuring that I both slashed him across the chest _and_ knocked his weapon away.

The crowd roared, which only served to fuel my cocky grin and inflate my ego, something that I'm sure everyone who deals with me on a regular basis is going to hate.

"Are you guys going to start trying any time soon?" I taunted, stabbing Angau into the ground slightly and leaning against its cross-guard. Footsteps behind me gave away that Russel was back on his feet, so I half-sword Angau with my right hand and kept it in tight as I spun around, bringing the tip up to point in the direction that I heard Russel coming from. He had jumped at me and was bringing both swords down on me at the same time, so I brought the tip up just a little higher and continued to spin, deflecting his attack and directing it to strike the ground next to me. Continuing the spin, I smacked Russel in the side of the head with my pommel as it passed him and then I spun all the way around once more before releasing my half-sword grip and stabbing the blade at Russel's stomach as it came back around.

Russel had his guard back up this time, crossing his blades underneath my lunge and using them to force the blade up and away from his torso. His blades slid down mine until they caught on the cross-guard, leaving us locked and grappling for a few moments.

I broke the struggle off once I realize that my cross-guard was pointing up at my stomach on one side and down at his crotch on the other side. With a quick flex of Aura into my blade's synchronizer, I activated the mechanism that pops the ends of the cross-guard off, normally to make the shorter versions of Angau easier to use. It had the fun quick of springing off a small metal rod a few inches long right into Russel's balls, with no more force than a friendly nut-tap. Russel flinched—no shame there, as any man would recoil from that—and while the other side shot towards me, it bounced harmlessly off my stomach. Russel's distraction let me break through the stalemate and force his blade apart as I brought my handle up to catch him under the chin with the now-shortened cross-guard. For good measure, I brought the pommel back down afterwards, striking him in the face and firing the dust chamber within the pommel that so rarely got used.

Russel staggered backwards and it was his turn to clutch his face now, and I looked around to find Sky eyeing me nervously and skirting around me to make his way to Russel. The crowd was loving it, though that may be because I was playing up to them and gesturing for them to get louder.

Russel and Sky regrouped and exchanged words that I couldn't hear, so while they did so, I went ahead and transformed Angau Glas down to a two-handed broadsword, shucking off the outer shell and testing the new weapons balance absentmindedly by twirling it around me.

Sky and Russel approached me this time, looking to attack together to try to limit my counter-attacking options. _It only took them this long to figure it out, too._

Russel came from my right, swiping at my leg with one sword, which I batted aside easily. Sky brought a down-diagonal chop with his axe from the other, and I brought my blade up from underneath it to deflect it to my right just enough to allow me to slip aside to the left. As I did so, a gunshot rang out and I flexed my Aura instinctively, a round pinging off my left shoulder coming from the dust chambers in Russel's weapons, not dissimilar in style to Weiss' Myrtenaster. I gave Russel an irritated look as I took in the new threat, which seemed to give him a sliver of hope.

I disengaged and they pushed right back, forcing me to continue giving ground as I couldn't block their simultaneous attacks _and_ dodge dust rounds, instead settling for blocking and backpedaling to stay out of the range of that axe. A loose plan on how to use their aggression against them formed in my mind, but for it to work, I would need Russel to be on my left and Sky to be on my right, the opposite of how _they_ wanted this to work, since Sky was right-handed and needed the free space on his right side to attack with his axe.

I decided on the old-fashioned method of forcing your way through someone's defense: brute strength and reckless abandon. I swung _hard_ in an up-diagonal at Russel which forced him to catch the blow on both blades and let me take a step forward, before pulling back to chop at Sky's chest from the side and forcing him to block, too. This gave me another step forward until I was directly between the two, and I went for the easy option of dive-rolling forwards to get out of melee range long enough to turn around, though Russel did take the opportunity to pelt me with a few dust rounds, but nothing my Aura couldn't handle easily.

I spun around and stood my ground as they charged in, deflecting Russel's probing strike easily. When Sky attacked from my side, it was a bit slower now that he was coming from the other side, and I brought my sword up to block the blow outright, using my Semblance to keep from staggering. As I did so, Russel's eyes lit up and he lunged forward, ducking down under my and Sky's weapons and looking to stab me in legs with both swords to really turn the fight around. With Sky's axe interlocked with my blade, I spun my hips and let go of Angau Glas entirely. Sky reacted quickly enough to pull back so that he wouldn't hit Russel, letting him finish his strike.

Spinning my hips let me hide a fair amount of my body behind the sheathed form of Crocea Mors, which deflected the sword coming in on my left entirely. I still took a nasty scratch from the right sword on my right leg, and I let it bite into my Aura _without_ flaring my Semblance so that Russel's momentum continued to carry him forward…

…right into my left knee, which I brought up under his jaw. With my hands free, I drew Crocea Mors directly into the upper chest and side of Russel's face. Stunned and dazed after taking my knee to his jaw, Russel's Aura wasn't engaged and my blade sent blood flying as Russel dropped to the ground, screaming and clutching the side of his head.

 _Fuck._

I looked up and met Sky's eyes, finding them wide in panic now.

"Yield," I commanded gruffly, pointing Crocea Mors at him in the hopes that he would forfeit quickly. He flinched and made no noise, letting the screams of his teammate and the gasps from the crowd fill the air as he brought his weapon up in front of him. It didn't help matters that drops of red fell from Crocea's edge.

With a frustrated huff, I swung at his head, forcing him to bring his weapon in front of his eyes to block it. I pushed forward and forced us into a locked position before shoving my weight down and forcing our weapons to extend below our waists, while freeing my left hand and clocking Sky in the face with it. He stumbled backwards and I freed Crocea Mors up and brought the tip up against his throat before he could even react, no longer playing around with him.

" _Dammit, Sky_ , I need you to _yield!_ " I hissed furiously, trying to break through to him. I kept my voice low to keep it from being picked up by anyone watching, but that didn't mask the frustration in it. "I need to heal him and _you're not helping!_ "

Sky's eyes flicked to Russel in confusion before finally lighting up as he realized that I just needed the match to be over. He threw his hands up in defeat and announced his forfeit, and as soon as that was done I was over on my knees in front of Russel, examining the damage.

" _Jaune Arc, stand down!"_ an automated voice announced, followed by heavy, metallic footsteps of what were probably Atlas' robot soldiers.

"Uh, Jaune?" Pyrrha called out nervously.

"Buy me some time here, Pyrrha," I called back, not looking up. "I think I can save his eye."

The slice wasn't close to fatal, with a scratch on his chest leading up to an upwards gash on the right side of his face, going over his eye. It took me a few moments to get him to let go of his face so I could see what I was working with, but pushing my Semblance out to him certainly helped calm him down.

In the distance, I could hear Pyrrha trying to plead with someone not to attack or remove me by force, but I pushed those distractions out of my head. If worst comes to worst, a few _metal_ robots weren't going to be able to do anything if Pyrrha didn't want them to. Instead, I focused on the task at hand.

"Russel, can you hear me? Russel!" I shouted, giving him a soft slap to the good side of his face to get his attention, which worked as he tilted his head at me. "I need you to focus all of your Aura on your eye, okay? Nod if you heard that."

Russel nodded once, and I got to work. I still had most of my Aura and Russel hadn't reached the red yet, meaning there was a chance that this would work. Normally, you'd look at a gash to someone's actual eye and say that the eye was lost, but that was only because the body sort of 'seals off' the damaged eye because it can't heal it fast enough. Not even Aura heals fast enough for that, but there was a chance that since the wound was fresh, my Semblance could overclock the healing process enough to restore functionality.

Russel was doing an adequate job of focusing his Aura on his eye, and I _dumped_ my Aura into powering my Semblance on that Aura specifically. It was difficult to see through his shut eyelids and the shine of my Semblance making his Aura glow, but there was noticeable movement of what I assumed was sliced flesh sealing back together. After a few moments, Russel nervously opened his repaired eye, looking around frantically, which displayed that he at least had motor function over the muscles there again.

"I—everything is red! What's wrong with my eye?!" Russel let out in a mix of panic, though the relief that he _could_ see was there too.

I grabbed him by his arm and pulled him to his feet, and he shot his arms out sideways to balance himself.

"You've still got blood in your eye, idiot," I answered. "Try flushing them."

Russel blinked a few times and wiped away any excess liquid, and while he did so I went ahead and focused my Semblance on sealing up the cut above his eye to stop any more blood from trickling down.

" _Oh_ ," Russel let out sheepishly a few moments later. "It's getting clearer. Uh…thanks?"

The butt of a gun was shoved into my back unceremoniously.

" _Jaune Arc, stand down,"_ the Atlesian Knight unit commanded again. I looked around to find that Pyrrha was still trying to talk down the robots instead of attacking them, and the display showed that my Aura had burnt all the way down to the low twenties just from overclocking to save Russel's eye.

"Could you do me a favor and tell them you're not dying?" I half-joked, only for the robot behind me to nudge its gun into me threateningly. "Okay, okay, sheesh. I surrender."

* * *

Not for the first time, I wound up in an interrogation room on Atlas' command ship. It was a _little_ more exciting this time, since last time I was just meeting General Ironwood to talk about the Breach, but that was counteracted by having to wait for over two hours to be seen. They hadn't taken my scroll, though, and I was able to keep up with what was going on via texts to my team and Yang's team.

Eventually, the door behind me opened and General Ironwood walked in, holding a folder with only a couple of pages inside of it.

"You know, one of these days _I_ am gonna get to interrogate _you_ ," I joked, earning a soft chuckle from the man. He didn't seem to be in any particularly sour mood, which meant that he had probably put together what had happened and wasn't upset. Still, I get the feeling I'm going to have to explain it all on record, anyways.

"I won't hold my breath," Ironwood responded, taking the seat across from me and plopping his folder down on the table. "My apologies for taking so long, but as head of security for the Festival, someone had to make a public statement about what happened out there."

"What's the story, then?" I asked, more curious than anything, with a playful edge to my voice that would have been obvious. "Did you throw me under the bus as a vicious sadist?"

"Why don't we get your official side of the story first?" Ironwood suggested firmly, ignoring my dramatics. I shrugged, but made it clear that I would cooperate. "Take me through your thought process during the fight."

"Where do you want me to start?" I asked, mostly hoping that he would let me skip to the part where Russel got hurt, just to save some time.

"How about why your partner didn't engage in the fight?" Ironwood asked with only a hint of suspicion detectible through his stoic expression.

 _Of course this won't be quick_ , I thought, fighting not to roll my eyes.

"She didn't need to," I answered with a shrug. "I've fought Team CRDL by myself in the past. Russel and Sky have gotten better since the beginning of the semester, but there wasn't really any reason for both of us to fight."

" _No_ reason?" Ironwood asked suspiciously.

"Well, sure, we could have ended the fight sooner, but that's no fun. It also makes for a boring fight…"

"And it had nothing to do with showing off for the crowds?" Ironwood asked with a small smirk, making it clear his only accusation here was that I was being a little vain.

"Eh, so I'm a little dramatic and enjoyed the spotlight," I dismissed casually. "Pyrrha _doesn't_ enjoy the spotlight, I _do_ enjoy it a little, and I had the chance to put on a little show in front of a big crowd. How many guys my age are going to turn that down?"

"Fair enough," Ironwood let up, taking a pen and scratching through something on the front page of his folder. "What about Russel's injury?"

"You saw what happened," I deflected. "I doubt I need to explain to _you_ that I didn't do anything wrong."

"Perhaps not, but I still need to hear it from you," Ironwood answered, nodding up towards the corner of the room where the security camera's red light indicated that this was being taped.

"Fine. They had figured out how to keep my counter-attacking options limited, so I figured out a way to get them to overplay their advantage. All I had to do was get on the other side of them and bait Russel into lunging at me. It worked and, well, you know the rest…"

"Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?" the man asked, obviously asking if I thought the injury could have been avoided.

"I mean, had I _known_ that Russel wouldn't get his aura up after getting kneed, I would have forgone kneeing him and just gone for slicing him on the draw," I answered, willing enough to play along. "But since I didn't know, it would have been foolish to just leave free damage on the table by not kneeing him. Even though I was better than them, a 2v1 situation can get out of hand quick if you get too cocky."

Ironwood mulled over my answer in silence, staring me down with distant eyes as he thought things over.

"And immediately after he went down, what went through your head?"  
"End the fight as quickly as possible so that I could use my Semblance to repair any damage," I answered confidently, even if a bit curt. "You might notice that it did not take very long to make Sky yield."

"Which implies that you had been stringing them along somewhat," Ironwood finished my thought. "I thought you said that situations can get out of hand if you're cocky…"

" _Too_ cocky," I corrected with a grin. "I'm pretty good at figuring out how cocky I can be and still come out on top." _I was raised by Raven; I practically_ have _to know that by now._

"So it seems," Ironwood added on. "Last thing I need from you: can you explain to me why you and your partner resisted arrest?"

" _Resisted arrest?_ " I repeated, a bit incredulously and also mocking the term openly.

"Technically, that's the charge for refusing to cooperate with the Knight units. _Don't be overly concerned_ ," he said, handwaving that last part to communicate that it really wasn't going to be pursued. "I just need your statement on it."

"Sure, whatever," I answered, rolling my eyes. "I needed some time to concentrate to get my Semblance going, with the intention of at least saving Russel's eye; the rest of the damage was superficial anyways. I _directed_ Pyrrha to buy me enough time to do so, should someone try to interrupt," I said, emphasizing that Pyrrha wasn't to blame for anything, just in case. "It would have been unfortunate if protocol had prevented me from saving Russel's eye."

Ironwood mulled over my words once more, absently tapping his pen against the table. Eventually, he turned his head to the side and nodded towards the one-way mirror that lead to the observation room, and a few moments later, the light on the camera shut off.

"Very well. I'm sorry to have kept you for so long, but I needed to make sure I got your statement for posterity's sake. You'll be pleased to know that I've found no wrongdoing, not that I truly suspected any; as you said, the events were self-evident to anyone that's been in a spar before."

"So, what happens now?"

"Now, I get to give a follow-up press conference," Ironwood replied, not particularly thrilled with that, either. "I'll announce that we've performed a full internal review and all parties agreed that it was an accident. I'm sure that there will be a few who watched the event who won't understand or like that, but obviously there's no reason to punish you or your team for this. The match result will be allowed to stand."

"Yes, because I was just going to be _heartbroken_ if I got DQ'ed," I drawled. "And heaven forbid that some random crowd member will dislike me now…"

"They'd get over it in time, anyways," Ironwood dismissed, deigning to allow or just ignoring my sarcasm. "In truth, every Festival always has one thing that goes wrong. Sometimes it's an accident during a fight, sometimes it's two teams getting angry and putting on a 'performance' not fit for broadcast, sometimes it's just that the vendors run out of snacks…" Ironwood chuckled at that last one, recalling some old memory. "If this is the worst thing that happens, I'd consider this a successful Festival."

"Well, I'm glad to know that I'm on track to be the literal worst thing to happen to the Festival," I joked, before pivoting in the following silence. "How's Russel doing?"

"Mr. Thrush will make a full recovery, which will go a long way in smoothing this incident over," Ironwood replied. "My medical staff isn't quite sure what to make of the recovery made by his eye. They suspect that you saved it with your Semblance, but because fully healing damaged eyes is unheard of, they can't be certain that your strike didn't just miss the eye."

"Oh, it didn't miss. His eye was split, trust me," I responded dramatically, though not inaccurately. "Let them believe what they want, though. I'd rather not have people studying me for my Semblance's scientific capabilities."

"I suspected as much," Ironwood mumbled, pushing himself to stand. "You're free to go, Mr. Arc. I'll have transport arranged to drop you off at a destination of your choosing."

I followed Ironwood out of the interrogation room, only for him to hand me off to some soldier to guide me to the hangar bay. We rendezvoused with Pyrrha along the way, which was a fun surprise.

"Oh, they tortured you too?" I joked upon meeting up back up.

"They asked me a few questions and then let me watch your talk with the General, Jaune," Pyrrha answered flatly. " _Neither_ of us were tortured, though… being put in an Atlas interrogation room was a new experience for me."

"How was it?"

"Not bad or anything," Pyrrha answered quickly, nervous of insulting our Atlesian soldier before he showed us how to leave. "It was certainly a unique experience."

"Well, take it from an expert at being interrogated after hurting someone during a spar," I led, thinking back on the incident with Ruby that landed me in Ms. Goodwitch's sights, "that Atlas is a lot nicer about it than Beacon."

"Atlas is nicer about it than _Ms. Goodwitch_ ," Pyrrha corrected with a giggle. "Ozpin was pretty nice about it, too."

I gave Pyrrha a confused look for that, which embarrassed her slightly as she went to explain.

"You're not the _only_ one to have hurt someone during a spar, _remember?_ " Pyrrha tried her best to cut her eyes at me playfully, but that didn't completely hide her embarrassment at bringing back up the time she tried to kill me. "Ozpi—The Headmaster called me in to t-talk about that incident once…" Pyrrha explained nervously, trailing off awkwardly. I shrugged it off and assumed it to be because she wasn't comfortable bringing back up the thought of nearly killing me and decided to be gracious and let it slide.

"You said they're going to hold the first 1v1 fight tonight, right?" I asked Pyrrha as we made it to the hangar.

"Right. If it's anything like previous Vytal Festivals, they'll have all the winners from yesterday's fights on stage and then draw the two who will start things off," Pyrrha answered.

"Then it sounds like we're heading back to Amity," I said, loud enough for our guide to hear it and be able to find us a flight over there. "Yang's in that group, and if she does get drawn and I _miss it_ , well, that won't be good for me," I explained, earning a laugh from Pyrrha as she no doubt imagined the evisceration I would receive.

* * *

Blake's POV

* * *

"Well, it's about time!" Nora called out as Pyrrha and Jaune made their way through the stands to join where we were all sitting as a group.

"Yeah, yeah," Jaune dismissed as he and Pyrrha hurried to take whatever seat was open to them, with Pyrrha having to go down to the opposite end to sit by Ren and Jaune having to take the spot on the end next to me. The announcer was almost finished announcing the names and teams of all the fighters gathered on the stage, and no sooner had they sat down had the random drawing began.

"Did you have fun?" I whispered teasingly to Jaune once everyone had settled down. I hadn't missed a couple of funny looks thrown Jaune's way from the people behind us as he made his way to his seat, but he wasn't the type to be bothered by that. _Didn't stop me from cutting my eyes at them, though._ What did matter was that all of us saw pretty easily that it wasn't intentional, which was pretty easy since we've _seen_ what it looks like when Jaune hurts someone intentionally.

"Locked up in an Atlas dungeon? _You bet I did_ ," Jaune drawled back quietly, not taking his eyes off of the screen.

The first selection wheel stopped on a guy named Mercury Black. He looked vaguely familiar, but not for any real reason. He's a transfer, I think, and I know I've seen him around occasionally, but never paid much attention. Port's voice-over announced that his team was from Haven, which confirmed the transfer thing. Jaune did seem to be intrigued by him being selected.

"Hmmm. Can't say that sounds all that fun…" I retorted.

"Yeah, well, they didn't think I was an ex-terrorist, so I doubt that you'd get the same—" Jaune cut himself off abruptly, going stiff for just a moment as his eyes widened. It was barely noticeable and I would have missed it if I hadn't turned to look at him when he cut himself off. I'm not sure _why_ he stopped—

"… _and Yang Xiao Long of Beacon's own Team RWBY!"_

"BREAK HIS LEGS, YANG!"

A quick flick of my eyes towards the holoboard confirmed that I had heard that correctly, and by the time I had looked back at Jaune, he had regained control of himself and forced himself to relax.

"That's adorable," I teased Jaune, giving him an evil smirk when he looked up to let him know that his reaction hadn't gone unnoticed. "Yang wouldn't let you hear the end of it if I told her how worried you were…"

"Is that a threat?" Jaune retorted, giving me some side-eye.

" _Yes_."

Jaune held my stare for a moment before breaking it off with a roll of his eyes, resigning himself to whatever cruelty I saw fit to inflict. _I'll let it slide for now, but the next time he tries to drag me into an argument during lunch, it's getting brought out._

The fight began soon after, and I found myself more intrigued watching Jaune watch the fight than I was watching the fight for myself. The rest of our teams were vocal supporters and cheerleaders for Yang—well, _Ren_ wasn't, but Ruby and Nora made up for that easily. Jaune wasn't, though that didn't mean he didn't look invested. He was leaned forward for the whole fight, his elbows resting on his knees, giving him the ability to claim he was just watching closely while hiding the nervous rigidness to his posture. He didn't react visibly, watching Yang land _and_ take hits with the same nervous, slightly pained expression in his eyes.

The crowd was loud and everyone was on the edge of their seats, but Jaune was just _on edge._ More than once, he caught himself and made an effort to relax himself, but that never lasted long; his eyes would flick around and scan his surroundings nervously and he'd go right back to watching the fight intently. It left me wondering if something was wrong, or if he was just uncomfortable being in this large of a crowd and the nerves from watching Yang fight were making that worse. _This is a_ lot _of people, more than Jaune probably would have ever seen in one place._ Sure, he had sat here for our first two fights, but I wasn't watching him during those, so I had no way of knowing if I was right or if this was unique to this fight.

Yang's fight wasn't going well, which probably didn't help things much. This Mercury guy was a melee fighter as well, but the inverse of Yang; she features her fists while he features his feet, and both had guns to complement their primary mode of attack. This guy controlled the flow of the fight and forced Yang to give him enough separation to build up a large storm of shots from his gun-boots, sending them all crashing down on Yang without any real room to dodge.

The crowd gasped as Yang took the blow, with Ruby sucking almost half the air out of Vale just by herself. While subtler, Jaune held his breath too, eyes wide as he waited for Yang to emerge through the smoke. His eyes flicked up to the videoboard and he calmed down a bit, and I followed to see that Yang's Aura was at 16%—one point away from elimination in by Vytal Festival rules.

That was all she needed, though, as she shot forward out of the smoke with her Semblance active and proceeded to pound this Mercury guy into submission, dropping him down in large chunks before outright shattering what was left of the guy's Aura with a powerful finisher to his gut, knocking him to the ground.

The crowd erupted, and once Yang burnt off enough adrenaline to end her Semblance, she wasted no time in playing to the crowd. Ruby went nuts, as did Nora and even Weiss, to some degree.

Jaune dropped his head down and let out the breath he'd been holding, before forcing himself to lean back into his chair and relax. He let a small, relieved smile show on his face, and even kept it there after noticing that I was watching him.

"You gonna be okay there, Jaune?" I asked teasingly. "You made _me_ nervous just by watching you for that."

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, Bla—"

Jaune trailed off suddenly as his eyes roved back up to the videoboard and he froze in place. I looked up to see what had changed, and saw the videoboard still showing Yang waving to the crowd, except her eyes had turned red now. In a split second, she went from smiling to her brow furrowing and her jaw setting, and her arm stopping waving as her fingers curled into a fist. Her head cocked slightly to the side, too, all of this happening in the span of _maybe_ a second.

With no other warning, she turned around and fired a shotgun shell into the leg of her defenseless opponent, who had held a hand out in congratulations and only managed to bring it up to protect his head in a sheer panic. He crumpled to the ground, screaming in agony and clutching his leg.

No one knew what to do, all of us watching in shock and horror as this dude cried out for help and tried to crawl away in terror from Yang, who proceeded to taunt him until catching a glimpse of herself on the videoboard, which was showing a full replay of what had just happened, going so far as to put it in slow motion.

" _Yang Xiao Long, stand down!"_

Once they recovered from the sheer shock of what had happened, the crowd began booing angrily at Yang as she tried to plead to the surrounding Atlesian Knights. I looked up to Ruby and Weiss, hoping that they had some sort of answer or explanation, but Weiss looked shocked and Ruby looked… _rattled_. Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha were no better.

And Jaune was gone.

* * *

 **I, _Turquoise Leaf_ , have taken over the discord and now have Ike hostage. I hope you all like this chapter I was told to write, because if you don't then Ike will be force fed turquoise-colored go-gurt until you do. **

* * *

**Comment of the Week** : by _darkmist111._ _ **You are blessed by Turquoise, my child.**_

"I'm not buying that Raven is Actually doing what's best for Jaune no matter what positive thing she wants from [him.] [There's] no justification for forcing a Neutral Good Character to contort themselves into the image of a True neutral character.

Do you ever think the Turquoise cult are like [ _goodly, welcoming people_ ] or people who root for rival football teams? They're doing it Ironically until they're not?"

 **The Raven part I'll leave uncommented on, because I said my piece last week and we had some discussion in the comments about it. Instead, I'll just ask you to look up the** _ **Kermit sips tea and pretends not to notice**_ **meme and imagine that's my reaction. Turquoise had a similar reaction, and has informed me that mine was appropriate. Praise be unto Him.**

 **At this point, the** _ **Turquoise Leaf**_ **Church is a grand Church of God. The Militia split off from Turquoise Fanatics (a crude name for such civilized people) because they thought I wasn't being overthrown fast enough. The Coalition rode the momentum they got when they forced me to create a porn channel for them into forming their own faction. Savages, the lot of them. (Did I do well, Leaf?) They do make the most memes, so there's that. The Justice Society...well, it's** _ **Hemlock**_ **'s attempt to be relevant.**

 **It didn't work. His time would be better spent becoming a fellow disciple of Turquoise.**

 **As for whether or not they root for it seriously, well, I would imagine that most of them are doing it unironically. So too, do I. They actually** _ **did something**_ **and actually revolted for porn. May those proud revolutionaries be rewarded in the afterlife. Maybe that means that they're for real, or maybe that just demonstrates the power of hentai. In the end, all of this is** _ **His**_ **plan for us. May Turquoise be with you all.**


	50. A stabbing-good time, the sequel

**Author's Note: Well, uh, that was weird. Don't know what came over me last week.**

 **All I remember was** _Turquoise Leaf_ **taking over the Discord server, and then when everyone cheered him for that, I threatened to make Turq write MoNT, that way everyone would have to realize just how much they would miss me.**

 _ **That doesn't seem to have worked, now, does** **it?**_

 **Anyways, I'm back, with a fresh new appreciation for life. _Yay_.**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **This chapter is long, and next week's chapter is just as long, and... well, you'll see why.**

 **Enjoy...**

* * *

 **Chapter 47:** _"I'll never forget the day you picked me up off the street." – Emerald Sustrai_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

"Damnit, Yang, just stand down," I growled to myself as I hurried down the stairs and into the tunnels that lead to the vendors' stands and restrooms. _Come on, Yang, don't do anything to make this worse; trust that I'm not going to let this get far._

It was hard to be upset with Yang for not wanting to stand down at first, not when I should have trusted my gut and figured out something was wrong before things ever got to this point. Cinder had RWBY high on her list of teams she wanted to continue advancing and she had just earlier tipped that she controlled the selection process; when Yang came up against Cinder's own team, I _knew_ something was wrong. _I knew it and I talked myself into relaxing when I should have done something._

"You wanted _drama_ , did you?" I hissed to myself as I found the stairwell to the lower levels. They were unguarded and that felt weird given the security of this event, but I didn't think anything of it; it worked in my favor, at least.

 _Worse, I had_ seen _Emerald sitting there, too, and still didn't figure this out._ Cinder was behind this somehow, to some end. Would she be foolish enough to try to break into the Vault tonight? Surely not, since Ozpin was still at Beacon, but then _why?_ What did she have to gain from this, aside from the drama that it would cause? This wasn't even the right type of drama—this wouldn't spike ratings and force eyes onto the Festival, it would sour the mood in the air and take away from viewership, if anything. _Was this some sort of message at me?_

If it was, it was received loud and clear, and I would have one hell of a response to give to her personally. I've wounded a Maiden before, and I've been itching to try it again.

The sound of voices up ahead snapped me out of it, and I ducked behind some boxes off to the side.

"What do you mean you already handed him off?" a woman in a doctor's lab coat asked loudly to two Atlas soldiers.

"Hey, the guy needed to get to an actual hospital," the first guy pleaded. "His teammates wouldn't leave his side, and there was no way they were gonna let us just drop him off at the nurse's office."

"When we saw that there was a medical airship already on standby, we assumed that the patient was _supposed_ to get on board," the second explained, talking over his partner.

"That's not protocol," the doctor hissed, though it had little effect on the soldiers. "This Festival is run by Atlas, and all injuries are supposed to be taken care of by _Atlas_ medical staff so that any investigation can have first-hand details reported to them."

"I'm sure that Vale will cooperate," soldier number one reassured. "Not like anyone is gonna wanna take heat over this whole fiasco."

They continued to bicker about proceedings and protocols, but I had heard all I needed and took my leave of the place. _Cinder and her team have already left the arena. Damnit._

With no other options for as long as Cinder was in the air, I decided to make my way to Amity's landing strip and catch a bullhead back to Beacon. If Cinder was making her move now, then I wouldn't have to worry about confronting her, because Ozpin would do it for me. Assuming she's not going to try that yet, she'll have to come back to her dorm at some point.

* * *

"Oh, _there_ he is!" Nora called out to Ren and Pyrrha as she walked into our dorm and saw me. "He's been…watching TV?"

" _Hmph_ ," I groaned in response, not so much as flicking my eyes in her direction. I'd been standing here with my arms crossed to hide my balled fists for a good fifteen minutes, watching the news report on the 'Tragedy at Amity' that had taken place. I had originally turned the TV on to calm myself down, but soon accepted that I was only watching the news so that I could let my anger stew.

"What are they saying?" Ren asked me as he walked up beside me to view the report.

"Grimm activity is spiking in Vale. They've called on any available Huntsman to help quell them," I responded coldly, making a point not to answer his real question.

"How do you think Yang is doing?" Nora asked the group worriedly, which brought me out of glaring at the TV as I turned to look at Nora. The mention of Yang's name and the sentiment behind Nora's question was enough to force me to swallow some of my anger and soften my features. "You've been through this once already, today even. Is Atlas interrogation…bad?"

"Well, for one, they're not on Atlas' ship. They're in RWBY's dorm across the hall," I answered, having been back here early enough to catch a glimpse of the general leaving.

"They _didn't_ take Yang to Ironwood's ship?" Pyrrha asked surprised.

"Why did they take you two but not _Yang?_ " Nora asked, stressing that last part to imply something that I'm not certain that I appreciate. I shot Nora the slightest of glares as a warning.

"I don't know. Maybe they didn't think it was necessary, or maybe they wanted to avoid stressing Yang further," I answered, not doing a great job of hiding the fact that I was lying, or that my anger and frustration at the situation as a whole was seeping through now that Nora had pushed the issue ever so slightly. In all likelihood, Ironwood was probably capitalizing on the chance to get me alone and have a word with me, whether because he suspects me of something or because Ozpin's interest in me interests him. Nothing came of it though, so it was irrelevant. "Ironwood already left, so I'm assuming that it didn't take long to come to a conclusion."

"That doesn't sound good," Ren added tensely, though that was more directed at the mood of the room.

"What even happened?" Nora asked. My blood started to run hot again as all I could think of is Cinder's role in this, and I had to go back to glaring at the TV to distract myself. I didn't _want_ to direct this at Nora, but didn't trust myself not to. Her words did nothing to help that. "Why would…why would she even do something like that?"

 _Because you kept yelling for her to break his fucking legs_ , I thought, before forcing myself to calm down and offering a silent apology to Nora. Her question must have been phrased poorly, as it had originally made me think that Nora thought that Yang did it on purpose.

"I don't know," Ren replied. "Sometimes, our emotions get the best of us…"

A slight chill ran down my spine and I stared at the TV blankly for a moment, as it sounded like more than just Nora didn't believe Yang.

"I-I don't know if she meant to hurt him, but—"

"But _what_ , Pyrrha?" I growled, not trusting myself to turn around and deal with my three teammates if they all thought so lowly of Yang.

The room went tensely silent and I could _feel_ all three sets of eyes boring into the back of my head, filled with emotions like concern and worry. It all felt hollow and I refused to turn around and see it for myself. What right did they have to feel concern for _anyone_ but Yang right now? How could they not see that Cinder was—

 _Oh._

"J-Jaune, this isn't easy for any of us, but we all saw…we all saw the same thing," Pyrrha said nervously, with Nora and Ren not daring to make a sound.

"No, there was—" I cut myself off abruptly as I realized that there was nothing to be said in Yang's defense unless it involved explaining Cinder's connection, which necessitated explaining a _lot_ of other things that I couldn't afford going over right now. I had enough evidence to prove that Yang should at _least_ be given the benefit of doubt, but revealing that evidence would do just as much harm as not revealing it. _Which leaves me in the position of having to let my team think this about Yang._ "We must have seen different things."

I turned and made my way for the door, avoiding eye contact as best I could. If I had to sit here and listen to them disparage Yang, all the while knowing that there wasn't a damn thing I could do to defend her, then there was no telling what stupid thing I might do or say. I could still feel their eyes on me as I tried to leave, despite refusing to look at any of them.

"Where are—?"

"To talk to Yang," I growled out, cutting off the question.

" _Jaune_ —"

I closed the door behind me, leaving me alone in the hallway for the time being. I wanted nothing more than to put my fist through something and let off some of the vitriol, but I forced myself to calm down and internalize, taking a few deep breaths and uncurling my fists. The last time I was this pissed off, I trashed Junior's bar and then got drunk off my ass, neither of which really did all that much to make me feel better. Say what you will about all the stupid decisions I've made, but I don't make them twice, especially not when Yang's going to need me.

Instead, I forced myself to calm down enough to take stock of what I know as I waited outside RWBY's dorm. At some point, they would have to leave Yang alone to rest or Yang would storm out. All I have to do was wait, so I might as well use that time to think.

 _Yang reacted to something._ No one else might have seen it at first, but Yang didn't just turn around and destroy Mercury's leg for no reason. The video made it look a lot like Yang got angry when Mercury offered her congratulations, and if this _was_ set up against Yang, that would go even further to making her hated by the crowd. The timing didn't match up, though, from what I remember. Yang's eyes went red and her arm went still mid-wave, and _then_ Mercury said something to her, followed by her attacking. _I'd bet just about anything that Emerald's little Semblance played into that_. She was front row, after all, and her involvement would all but settle this as Cinder's plan. If she could hide people from my vision, she could probably add something too, and she already outright manipulated voices in my ears.

 _Why?_ Cinder told me that she wanted eyes on the Festival, that she wanted to cause petty drama that would spike ratings. All this has done is ruin the Festival's mood and increased Grimm activity in the area, while inflicting a personal cost to _me_ , an ally. She doesn't seem the type to do things without specific reason, but all she's going to do is make sneaking into Beacon's Vault even harder. They're going to call Huntsmen in to deal with the Grimm spike down in Vale, which leaves Beacon less guarded, but it also is going to put everyone on edge. _If anything, she's going to have more security to deal with now._ She'd be lucky not to have Atlas drones on every street corner from now on, too. Why would—

I snapped out of my thoughts as the door to RWBY's dorm slid open and Blake, Weiss, and Ruby all shuffled out awkwardly. I had apparently paced down the hall during my thoughts and I hurried back over to them.

"How is she?" I asked worriedly, not liking the looks on their faces. Ruby's face alone was hard to look at, as she kinda stared off at the ground distantly, seeming tired and emotionally drained. _Seeing_ Ruby _looking drained is not good._

"She's…managing," Weiss answered delicately, though not able to hide the exhaustion in her voice, either. "They said it was probably just stress that caused it, but our team is disqualified."

Weiss averted her eyes by looking off at the ground, too, not giving up a very hopeful vibe to her.

"I need to talk to her."

"I don't…know if that's a good idea right now, Jaune," Weiss mumbled quietly, giving me a sad look and hoping that would be enough. Weiss gave me a weird look and I wondered she somehow thought I was trying to get Yang alone _now_ of all times.

"I—"

"It's okay, Weiss," Blake intervened on my behalf, laying a hand on Weiss' shoulder to calm her down. Even Blake looked downtrodden and tired, though she did look to me with just a bit of hope that I would be a friendly shoulder for Yang. "We'll go get some coffee or something. Take all the time you need, Jaune."

Blake's eyes met mine, pleading with me for Yang's sake. There was a slight red tint to her eyes and a sunkenness to them, signs of tears that had been held back and wiped away. I gave her a small nod in appreciation, and she turned to lead the rest of her team away. Once they were gone, I opened the door and walked in, closing it behind me without a word.

"Just…leave me alone, _please_ ," Yang called out, her back to the door as she stared out the closed windows. Her voice was exhausted, but there were hints of frustration and anger there that told me about all I needed to know about how her team was taking it. She was tired of not being supported by anyone but herself, and had reached the point where she had given up on that and just wanted to be left alone.

"I'm…not going to do that."

Yang turned around at the sound of my voice, a bit of surprise showing on her face that was washed away with apprehension in short order.

"Jaune, i-if you're here to ask me why I did it, please…just don't, okay? I can't do this right now, not _again._ " Her voice was resigned and sad and I unironically wondered if I could ask Raven for pointers on how to make whoever truly was responsible suffer for what they've done.

"Just tell me what happened," I responded gently, taking a few slow steps towards Yang and making sure to give her time to adjust to my presence.

"Why, so you can tell me that it's not what the video shows, or it's not what the crowd saw, or—"

" _Yang_ ," I whispered softly, finally making it to her and gently taking one of her hands and holding it in both of mine. "Trust me on this, okay?"

I forced her to look up into my eyes and slowly realize that I was on her side, her eyes widening as she did so. The confusion and hurt that was spinning through her lilac irises struck a chord inside me, forcing me to put aside any thoughts of vengeance against Cinder for the moment. _That could wait. Yang can't._

"The fight was over, a-and I had my back to Mercury when he threatened me, and I heard him fire his boot at me. I turned around and he was coming at me, and I didn't let him," Yang recounted, her eyes staring distantly at our clasped hands. "And then everyone started acting like…like _I_ was the bad guy, and then the tape, and…" Yang's grip tightened as she clenched her eyes shut, shaking free the memory as best she could, before looking up to lock eyes with me, hers being glassed-over. "You… _you_ believe me, Jaune?"

"I do," I answered softly, giving her hand a soft squeeze. Yang looked at me suspiciously, before pulling away entirely and turning away from me.

"No you don't. Of _course_ you don't—"

"Yang."

"You're just like my team, you just want to say that to make me feel better, but you don't actually—"

" _Yang_ ," I called out gently, walking forward and cupping her face in one hand to get her to look up at me. She blinked, trying to fight back the tears that had been welling, before giving up and letting one single tear streak down her cheek as she stared up at me. Her lip quivered ever so slightly. "I do, Yang. I promise that I believe you."

Yang still didn't trust it right away, but it didn't take long for her eyes to go wide as she realized that I meant it, and as soon as that happened Yang crashed into my side, burying her face in my chest as she gripped me for dear life.

" _Thank you_ ," Yang whispered, her voice quiet as she made no effort to hold back any tears now. I wrapped myself around her protectively, leaning my head down and placing my cheek on the top of her head. "Y-You don't know how hard it's been. _No one_ believes me, Jaune."

"It's okay, Yang," I whispered, gently rubbing her with the arm that was around her lower back, letting her know I was here. "It's going to be okay."

"The way they all looked at me… it—it _hurt_ ," she let out, her voice fraying with emotion and causing me to hold her tighter. "My team didn't even believe me at first. They…they say they do now, that they're _choosing_ to believe me, but… I don't know if I trust that. _B-Blake_ —" Yang's voice finally cracked and she gave up on speaking entirely, burying her face further into me as a few small sobs wracked through her. "Y-You're all I have right now, Jaune."

"That's not true, Yang. You always have your team, even if—"

" _N-No_ ," Yang answered back forcefully, or as forcefully as she could. "They believed I was capable of doing that. They didn't trust me like you."

"Okay," I relented, knowing better than to try to push any issue with Yang right now. I had been upset with my team over the same issue, and I could only imagine how much worse it would be to be in Yang's position.

"Just so you know, I sorta…cheated," I said after a lull in the conversation, letting Yang's breathing return to a normal place without any involuntary hitches as her tears worked their way out.

"Huh?" Yang mumbled, turning her head to the side to be able to look up at me without having to move away from me at all.

"I knew it wasn't your fault immediately because I knew that it was Cinder's," I confessed, preparing myself for whatever backlash Yang would go through upon realizing that I didn't believe her without other reasons. It would still be better to establish this now, as it might seriously hurt Yang if she later found out I let her believe otherwise. "Not…not because I just _knew_ that it wasn't you."

"Cinder?" Yang asked confused, making me go stiff as I realized my slip.

"She…" I trailed off, trying to figure out my way out of this, before asking myself what the hell it would hurt at this point. Yang was already in deeper than I ever intended, and there weren't any other secrets I had from her. _What's one more?_ "Cinder Fall is the person who stole half of the Fall Maiden's powers. She's trying to get to the other half by distracting Ozpin, and she also happens to be Mercury's team leader."

"…you think she set me up?"

"I know she did," I answered back firmly. "Mercury's other teammate has a Semblance that controls what you see and hear. I've experienced it before and it's so lifelike you don't notice it. There's no way you weren't set up. When it happened, I was already out of my seat and hunting Cinder down before the dust had settled. _Unsuccessfully_ hunted her down, though."

Yang looked up at me, eyes wide, and I felt too ashamed to look into them, not believing in her the way she wanted me to or for the reasons that were important to her. I hoped that she would at least appreciate the honesty.

"I'm…sorry that I didn't believe you just for your word, Yang."

To my surprise, Yang actually let out a small laugh, as pained as it was.

"Fine. _You_ are forgiven, but only because you brought me evidence that I'm innocent," Yang teased, the mixture of her soft laughs and the tear tracks on her face standing out to me, not to mention her red eyes that had nothing to do with her irises.

"It's…not that simple, Yang," I said tensely. Yang picked up on that and looked up to me nervously, only making things harder. "We…we can't use any of it to prove that you're innocent."

"W-What?" Yang asked, more confused and heartbroken than angered or upset. "Why not?"

"For one, we don't _have_ proof yet. I tried to track them down, but Cinder made it to Vale before I could catch her. Even when I find her, this isn't something we can just go public with," I explained as gently as I could. "What are we going to say, that we found the Fall Maiden that no one knows about and she's trying to steal magic from underneath Beacon?"

Yang's eyes went wide, fear and disappointment flashing in her eyes as she caught on.

"You'd get put in the middle of Ozpin and this Cinder woman, wouldn't you?" Yang asked softly, her voice fearing the obvious answer. I nodded solemnly, and Yang responded by tightening her hug. "That's not an option, then, not if it gets you killed. If I have to let everyone think I'm a monster, then I'll show them exactly what their opinion means to me," Yang growled into my shoulder, finding some of the fight that had left her.

"You shouldn't have to go through this."

"It sounds like it's that, or I have to lose you. _That's an easy choice_ ," she whispered burying her face into my chest one last time before finally pushing away and breaking free of me. "I'm not losing you, especially not _now._ Everything else can go to hell."

Despite myself, her words inspired a small laugh from me.

"Feel better?" I asked, a gentle smile growing on my face as Yang proceeded to roll her shoulders and stretch her neck, bristling with a new energy now that she knew what she was up against, and what the stakes were. As much as I should hate bringing her in, and as selfish as it was, there was something that felt really good about seeing her ready to fight the world if it meant she could keep me.

"I do now," Yang answered, her eyes getting stuck on the two small tear stains on my shirt. For a moment, she looked like she wanted to go right back to that spot, but she shook the thought free. "What's our move?"

" _I_ am going to track Cinder down and have a little chat," I answered, specifying that it would be me and _only_ me. "We're still allies, though this whole thing is going to put a wrench in that. I'll see if I can't get her to tell me why _the fuck_ she didn't think to run this by me."

"Should I come?"

"She doesn't know that you're in this with me, and I'd like to keep it that way. It gives us a bit of an edge, just in case," I answered honestly. I was already planning to throw some of my cards on the table in the coming confrontation, so holding back as many as I can will be valuable. "You can go track down your team, or…just, take some time to yourself. Maybe get some rest."

Yang reacted poorly to the suggestion of tracking down her team and seemed to accept that having some time to herself might do some good right now.

"Okay. Okay, yeah, that…that sounds nice. _Rest_." Yang trailed off as her eyes got stuck on the ground, before she crashed into me for another hug without warning. I can't say that it displeased me, and I returned it immediately. " _Be safe, Jaune._ "

"Me? _Never._ "

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

I opened the window and leaned on the sill, taking in the fresh air as I tried to clear my head. It was easier now, or at least, I was no longer spiraling into a void all alone, which was a major improvement. The fact that Jaune believed me meant more to me than I could probably describe; he may have felt that it was only because he knew I was set up, but he still never even considered any other option, which was far more than anyone else had done for me. I no longer felt like the world was spinning or that everything I thought I knew was gone, and that was all because of Jaune.

But that didn't mean that I felt _good_ about any of this.

It wasn't that the crowd hated me. They don't know me and they never will, and I couldn't care less about some stranger judging me based off of this one time they saw me fight. I didn't _need_ their approval and I'd be just fine with their hatred. The world can go burn for all I care for it.

What hurt is that the people that _do_ know me looked at me differently afterwards. The first time I caught Ruby's eye, she looked so…so sad and scared, like she thought that she had _lost_ me, that I was no longer the big sister she loved. She did her best not to let me see that again, but she didn't need to, because I couldn't even bear to look in her eyes since. I was already in a fragile place; I didn't need to see that again and break down on the spot. Weiss was better than Ruby at concealing her thoughts and emotions, but there was an uncertainty, an apprehension to the way she looked at me, like she wasn't sure what to do or say. _Like she didn't recognize me completely._ She had been the firmest supporter I had on my team, but when your strongest supporter still looks at you like they're really not so sure about it, things are bad.

Blake hurt just as much as Ruby, because she didn't even _try_ to hide how she looked at me. She came right out and said that she was afraid that I was turning into a monster like her last partner, and that _hurt_. It hurt that she saw me as so close to being a monster that she _needed_ to stop me. _It was_ one _fight! Is that how she saw me, always one bad incident away from being evil?_

It was that thought that still made my stomach uneasy, weighing down on me even now after Jaune's visit. Sure, my team told me that they were all choosing to believe me, _but they had to choose._ If this had been Weiss, or Ruby, or Blake, we all would have said that there was no way that they would do anything like this. We wouldn't have to _choose_ to believe them; it would have been natural. But because it was _me_ , suddenly everyone can't honestly say that they can't believe that I would do something like that. Apparently, if someone had to go evil, they just assumed that it was going to be me, and that angers me more than I will admit.

 _How long did they think of me like this?_ Surely _Ruby_ wouldn't hold this opinion of me for so long, right? She's known me her whole life! Weiss or Blake haven't known me that long, but what did I ever do to make _Ruby_ look at me like that? Sure, I've been a bit of a wild child, what with partying and trashing Junior's that one time, but I _never_ hurt anyone. Was that all it took to lose Ruby's faith?

And why didn't they at least _say something to me about it?!_ If I was such a liability, if they saw me as the team's weak link, if I was capable of hurting someone, they should have _said something!_ I can accept that I'm not perfect. I can accept that maybe I can't see my own flaws. But if they had pointed them out, I could have _done_ something about it. Instead, they just let me walk around, one bad incident away from losing their trust. _'This is our teammate, Yang. She's a loose cannon and could conceivably hurt someone really badly and also has a nasty evil streak, but let's all just pretend like everything is okay.'_

The wood of the windowsill cracked loudly, and I looked down to find that it was because of the white-knuckle grip I had on it. I forced myself to let go and stretch out my fingers, with some difficulty.

"You know, Beacon does room inspections. They'll charge you for those damages."

"What do _you_ want?" I growled at Raven, not giving her the satisfaction of turning around. I really wasn't all that surprised that she was here, nor was I surprised that I never heard her arrive. Maybe I should have been, but I was just feeling way too cynical to really be surprised by _anything_ right now.

"To talk," Raven answered simply, taking a few steps towards me until she was about five feet behind me and to my left side. I didn't hear her sit down on the bed, but she ended up right next to it. "You look like someone who wants to say certain... _things_."

"Why would I talk to _you?_ "

"Doesn't look to me like you have anyone else willing to listen," Raven responded in her casual smugness. I could almost _feel_ her shrug as she said it.

" _Jaune is_ ," I spat back.

"Even so, I don't exactly see him here right now," Raven responded, backing down at my aggression and making it clear she wasn't here to escalate things. "I get that my outlook on life is a little more… _brutal_ than most people's, but I can guarantee that means you'll get a fresh perspective on your problems…"

"I am _not_ going to talk about this with _you_ of all people," I growled, my voice escalating as I clenched the windowsill until the wood popped again. I took a breath and collected myself as much as I could, letting out a sort of defeated sigh. "Even if I _wanted_ to, you aren't the type of person who would understand anything… _emotional_."

My fists clenched in anticipation that Raven would mock me for that, as I was ready to remind her by demonstration that anger was an emotion. It didn't come, though, instead silence falling over us.

"Is that so?" Raven asked finally, making it clear she took it as a challenge. "I saw your fight, so I'd bet I can make a good guess as to what's wrong. Let's see…"

" _Oh great_ ," I drawled, ready for whatever twisted reflection of an emotion Raven was about to describe.

"You feel isolated from your team. Your team looks at you differently than they do each other. You feel like none of them understand you, not even your own sibling?"

"How did you…?" I asked, turning around surprised. Raven was leaning up against the far bedpost of the bunk bed, arms and legs crossed lazily, with her mask already on her hip.

She raised one arm to gesture to herself dramatically as an answer to my question.

"You come by it honestly," she explained. "You're lucky that you're going through this _now_. It's _so_ much worse to have this crisis after spending years with them, especially if you have a _kid_ with one of them."

"You…?"

"I told you I was miserable before I left," Raven answered, shrugging it off. "What do you think brought that on?"

 _A crisis, she called it._ That's…that's a bit extreme compared to what I'm going through. _Right?_ This is nothing that can't be fixed, or maybe ignored once it all blows over. Team RWBY will probably be fine, but it's that 'probably' part that scares me. Raven just implied that she thinks I'm going through the same thing as her, and her 'crisis' led to her having to _leave_ her team. That wouldn't happen, though, because I wouldn't abandon my team.

 _If Blake, Weiss, and Ruby all looked at me the way they did earlier for forever, would I be able to survive that?_ At some point, I would go numb from it, because otherwise I'd be miserable every day. It'd probably stunt any emotions I have and make me into a cold person to protect my sanity.

I would look a lot like the woman in front of me.

"Jaune believes me," I admitted, dropping my head a little and staring off at the ground as I gave in, "but my team doesn't. My friends don't believe that I wouldn't do that on purpose, or that I wasn't seeing things, or that I wasn't thinking straight, or…"

"That sucks, but that's not the problem. After all, _I_ don't believe you either," Raven cut in casually, the words not even slightly hard for her to throw into my face. I gave her an angry, flat stare, which did nothing to her either. "The problem is that they see you differently, isn't it?"

"Of course they see me differently. I don't _care_ that they see me differently. I care about _how_ they see me now." Raven gave me a curious look, but was unconvinced. "What, do you _not_ see me differently?"

"Nope."

"What, so you saw me as some sort of monster who would hurt someone before this all happened? How is _that_ supposed to make me feel better?"

"Well, I wouldn't use the word 'monster,' but if you're asking me if I saw this side of you, I did," Raven admitted freely, and this time I didn't let her casual answer disarm my anger. My fists clenched and I made it clear from the glare I gave her exactly what I thought of being called a monster by _her_. She sighed and shook her head, staring off at the distance before finally addressing me again. "The difference between me and your friends isn't that they are only just now seeing you this way. The difference is that they see the way you are as _bad_ , and that _hurts_ , doesn't it?"

Raven gave me a knowing look, but not one that gloated in any way. There was a sad, almost pitying look to her eyes, and my hands fell limply to my sides as my fists unraveled.

"You're lucky, Yang, because I've been through this whole thing before, and I can tell you now that it is not easy to figure it out on your own. It took me _years_ to realize what the real problem was." Raven stared off at the ground, lost in her memories for a moment, before pushing off from the bedpost and cutting open a portal in the middle of the room. "I could tell you, but I think it will make more sense if I _show_ you."

She stood to the side, making it clear that she wanted me to come with her through the portal. I recoiled at the thought at first, not willing to give my absentee mother the satisfaction.

"Oh, what do you have to lose?" Raven asked with a roll of her eyes when it became clear I was averse to the idea. "I'll drop you back off here with Jaune when we're done. I just want a chance to help explain things to you."

"Why?" I asked nervously. "What do you get out of it?"

"Does it matter?" she asked back pointedly. "I might have the solution to your problems, and I'm offering it for free. What will it hurt you to take a chance on it?"

Nothing. That's the suspicious part, because she has to be getting _something_ out of this, right? She wouldn't be doing this out of the goodness of her heart. Maybe she's trying to control me, or maybe she's going to try to plant thoughts into my head. _I'll have to be careful not to let her give me any ideas, then, but if I can get her to talk about why she had to leave her team, I can stop it from happening to me._

Without a word, I strode forward.

* * *

Ozpin's POV

* * *

"We are out of time, Ozpin!" James said loudly, using his size and anger to try to intimidate me into submission. If it had any chance at all of being successful at manipulating me, I might have seen fit to rebuke him for it, but it was fruitless, not to mention unintentional; that was simply the way James was wired. "We have _been_ out of time. Every second, every day, every week, every _month_ that we haven't moved has been more time gifted to Salem to try to finish the job. The city is on edge and tensions are high, and I don't need to tell _you_ what that means for the Grimm. This _screams_ of a move being made."

My eyes flicked around the room, my expression remaining neutral and calm. Glynda agreed with the general, or she had no objections with what he was saying that she cared to express. Qrow had already drifted onto my side of the desk, his shoulders set squarely as he faced down James.

"I agree, James. The issue is a lack of a willing candidate, _not_ a lack of motivation on our end," I answered slowly and deliberately. "Ms. Nikos has turned down the offer."

"Then go with the next-best one," James responded, exasperation making his comment come across as rude and self-evident.

"No dice," Qrow jumped in, giving James a hard look as a warning to back down. " _'Next best'_ just knee-capped a dude on national TV unprovoked, and we don't _have_ a close third-best."

"Shouldn't you be on your niece's side here?" James asked in a low voice, cutting his eyes at Qrow and implying something better left _not_ said.

" _I am_ ," Qrow growled back, cutting his eyes back at James dangerously.

"Qrow was never enthused with the possibility that his niece would be brought into this war at such a young age," I explained, drawing James' attention enough to let things cool down. "He is correct, though. Ms. Xiao Long's actions are troubling, and while they may well be explained, that would require _time_. I do not need to tell you that we do not have that."

"Are you telling me that you don't _have_ a candidate?!"

"We have a candidate. It is a matter of pressing her to accept," I answered curtly. James caught onto the end of the sentence and gave me an expectant, confused look.

" _Nikos_ ," Qrow called out.

"You said she refused."

"I…miscalculated her priorities," I handwaved, downplaying the full effect of what had transpired. "I assumed the potential of her partner falling into trouble would be enough to motivate her. I now see that this potential must be realized, if we are to stir her to action."

"And if that doesn't work?"

"You focus on your end and we'll focus on ours," Qrow cut in. "Last I checked, one of your fights caused an uproar and now Grimm are mounting. You wanted to run security so badly, so _run it._ "

James wasn't distracted by Qrow's words, keeping his eyes locked firmly on me while Qrow spoke. I returned his glare patiently, letting a little of the annoyance I felt show.

"We're out of time and you're still playing chess with 17-year-olds," James let out exhaustedly, backing away from the table and limply waving his hand to signify that he was letting the matter go. "Fine. You know the stakes. If you'll excuse me, I have things to attend to, and I'd prefer not to put them off until it was too late…"

Qrow and Glynda glared James down as he exited my office via elevator, the mood in the room remaining tense even after he had left.

"How _exactly_ do you plan to convince Ms. Nikos to reconsider?" Glynda asked, a nervous edge to her voice indicating that she suspected how that would be done. Qrow and I exchanged a look, before making it clear that neither of us were prepared to answer her. She gave us a flat look for that. "Why do I get the feeling that this involves Mr. Arc in some way?"

"Couldn't tell you," I answered, taking a deep sip of coffee, trying to relax as much as I could.

Glynda clearly didn't believe my lie, and inferred what she already suspected from it, leaving there no point in saying it aloud.

"If that's the case, I'm sure that I have other things that could use my attention," Glynda announced, using a quite similar excuse as James to take her leave, leaving Qrow and I the only ones left.

"Yeesh, what's their problem?" Qrow drawled once Glynda was well out of ear-shot, opening his flask and shaking it disappointedly when he found it was empty. He looked up to me hopefully for a moment, and with a roll of my eyes and an unceremonious flick of my fingers, I flexed a slightest bit of magic and refilled his flask for him. Despite this not being the first time, he still grinned dumbly as he examined his new alcohol, before taking a swig.

"Our only path forward is Ms. Nikos, and I fear the only way to bring her to the table is to bring charges against Mr. Arc and offer her his freedom," I summarized absentmindedly, before pulling out my keyboard and looking for a specific program on my computer. It was a brutally simple program I had written myself, piggybacking off of Beacon's servers and routers to continuously download data from a device any time it was connected to Beacon's network. Unfortunately, there was still nothing uploaded. "My phishing attempt has come up empty. We'll have to take matters into our own hands."

Although it had been fruitless so far and looked to be dead in the water, I went ahead and added an alert that would notify my scroll and computer should anything ever be uploaded. With that added, it would be easy to forget about the program entirely and focus on more useful endeavors.

"Just tell me what's gotta get done," Qrow responded, likely doing his best not to think about what it is we were doing. It was unpleasant work, and we _had_ tried to avoid it, but that could be done no longer.

"Tomorrow, around mid-day while everyone is distracted by the fights, you are to take down Team CRDL," I answered, pushing away any frustrations I had and focusing on the plan at hand. "I'll ensure that they think they're being summoned by Ms. Goodwitch. That should be enough to lead them into one of the sparring facilities and allow you to do things…discreetly."

"Got it. Anything else?"

"From there, we'll see what we can't extract about Mr. Arc. For now, it's getting late. Go get some sleep," I dismissed.

"What about you?"

I raised my mug up in response, indicating no sleep would be coming for me.

"I need time to think."

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

"I know you're in there!" I yelled angrily as I continued to pound on the door to Cinder's dorm room. Neo had reluctantly confirmed that her, Cinder, and Emerald had returned to their dorm for the night, meaning that whatever their play was, it hadn't happened yet; Mercury was "off-site," whatever that meant. Neo said she didn't know exactly what their target was and I was inclined to believe her, but I was fairly certain that Roman knew, or suspected. He seemed to have been around enough in Atlas to know about Maidens, and in hindsight, his insistence that our situations were similar now stands out. How he knew that Raven is or has a Maiden, I don't know; maybe Neo recounting the events that got me stabbed tipped it off. But none of that mattered right now. "If you don't, I'm going to make a fucking scene that you _don't_ want!"

That was no idle threat. Being so close to the woman who went behind my back to try to ruin Yang's life had my blood boiling, and part of me wished that they'd continue to wait me out, just so I could chop down this fucking door with Crocea Mors. I have no clue whether or not any of the nearby dorms are occupied, but I'm sure rumors would make their way around Beacon fast, drawing the kind of attention that Cinder didn't want.

The door began to crack open, and a spike of adrenaline shot through me as a result. My Aura pulsed and pounded in my fists.

" _What do you—_ " Emerald began to hiss angrily, opening the door just enough to peer out with one eye like she normally did. I was counting on it. As soon as I saw her red eye, I threw my shoulder into the door, smashing it open to bash Emerald's head with the end of the door. She let out a startled cry that turned anguished as she recoiled in shock and pain. Emerald looked up at me just in time to see me get one strike in with my fists and engage her Aura.

She let out an even more shocked and pained cry when her Aura did nothing to stop the sharp spike of my Semblance-amplified Aura, which tore across her exposed stomach with a bright flash as my Aura suppressed her own. She stumbled backwards onto one of the beds, clutching the long, deep slash all the way across her stomach as she began to bleed profusely, despite the Aura she began to apply. She would be crafting no illusions anytime soon.

My eyes flicked to the side just in time to take note of Cinder lunging to attack me. Fury shone in her eyes and flames shone around one of them as fire erupted out from her hands and encased the short sword she was swinging into my gut after a powerful wind-up lunge. The force behind the blow, the particular shape of this weapon, and the fire dripping from it would be enough to pierce the Aura of all but the most resolute of combatants. With no other option, I engaged my Semblance and withstood the blow, my hardened Aura stopping the blade from piercing and thereby neutering its damage to just the force applied and the flames. I moved not an inch and used Cinder's momentum towards me to my advantage, reaching out with one hand and grabbing her by the throat, and _squeezing_ with all of the rage I had been swimming in ever since she framed my girlfriend.

With a choke-hold on Cinder and the element of surprise, I lifted her off the ground and slammed her into the wall, using my Aura and Semblance to withstand any attempt Cinder threw at me to break my grip. She tried chopping my arms, she tried stabbing my arms, she tried stabbing my stomach, but with her feet dangling she couldn't generate the power needed to even stress my Aura and Semblance. At this point, even if she encased me in ice, all she would do is solidify my grip as I choked the life out of her. Aura does you no good if you can't breathe.

"Do you want to tell me what the _fuck you were doing!?_ " The words started out as a venomous hiss, ignoring the frantic kicks Cinder threw at me as she began to choke for air more desperately. The flashes of fear in her eyes that she struggled to hide behind hateful glares were absolutely delicious. "I assume you were going to tell me and forgot. Is _that_ it!?"

Even through the tinges of red at the edge of my vision, I recognized that I would get nothing out of Cinder if she passed out from a lack of oxygen. _Though with her unconscious, snapping her neck would be as easy as a flick of the wrist._

It was harder than I expected to dispel the appeal of that. She had wronged me, had hurt someone I love; why _shouldn't_ she die? She has it fucking coming, after all. _And it would feel oh,_ oh _so satisfying to know that I'm capable of killing a_ Maiden _._ Though, that brings me back around to why I need to keep her alive. Cinder Fall is only half a Maiden, and she's also not the Maiden who poses the greatest threat to me. There's no telling if her power would go back to the other Fall Maiden, and that held the chance of her waking up and screwing me out of a chance to use the next Fall Maiden against Raven.

Cinder is going to have to die, but I need to have a half-Maiden on _my_ side before that happens.

 _Maybe next time, then._

" _Speak_ ," I commanded forcefully, letting Cinder back down to a height where her feet touched the floor and also loosening my grip enough so that air returned to her lungs. She fought as hard as she could not to cough and look weak, but after near asphyxiation, she was forced to display some vulnerability.

" _Fuck you_ ," Cinder growled, her voice hoarse now. The fight returned to her eyes as did the flames around one of them, and her body tensed in anticipation of some attack she thought would make me regret my actions. I responded by calmly bringing my non-choking hand up, the Aura spike summoned once more to gently poke into Cinder's exposed stomach.

"I wouldn't do that," I warned with my voice low, silently _begging_ for her to try something. "Not unless you want to bleed out like your lackey over there."

Cinder's eyes flicked over my shoulder momentarily to confirm that Emerald was indeed bleeding out despite having her Aura. The spike I had summoned was jagged and wild, with a sharp point and jagged edges; I had tried to make a blade of some sort but was too angry to focus, instead just throwing whatever rage I had into a crude weapon. As a result, it had pierced Emerald's abdomen and then with the momentum I put into it, it had _torn_ across her stomach rather than sliced.

When Cinder's eyes returned to mine, they very much recognized the threat to her life held by that spike, and regarded me with a newfound respect and hatred.

The sound of Neo's umbrella blade to my side kicked my instincts into overdrive. I released my grip on Cinder and jumped backwards to avoid any attacks from my side, and Cinder took the opportunity to send a wave of fire at me which I weathered and used to further propel me backwards. When I landed, I planted my back foot and drew the shield of Crocea Mors, cutting off the remaining stream of fire. The heat on my chest was unpleasant, but by no means significant or unusual—Cinder had picked a fight with likely the only combat student who was used to fighting against a Maiden.

As the fire ended, I looked over the top of my shield to find Cinder and Neo standing in defensive positions. Cinder now regarded me as enough of a threat to not press the attack, content to accept a stalemate for the moment. This might have been helped by a lack of faith in Neo's loyalty, seeing as it took the girl this long to join the fight and when she did so, she never even got an attack in.

She wouldn't be wrong to question that loyalty, either, as Neo was giving me a furious glare for potentially blowing her cover. Neither she nor Roman liked Cinder at all, but they needed to play along with her until they could bolt or until Cinder died. Had I killed Cinder like I just chose not to, Neo would be free; the fact that I didn't despite Neo intentionally letting me have the chance explained her ire.

"C-Cinder…?" Emerald choked out, clear from the panic in her voice and the way she was shaking that she was going into shock. Blood continued to spill out of her stomach at an alarming pace, staining her clothes and the bed beneath her. Her master did not so much as twitch her ear in the direction of her dying understudy, her eyes locked with mine instead.

"Why wasn't I warned?" I asked loudly, never breaking eye contact with Cinder.

"It didn't concern you," Cinder hissed back furiously.

"I have a dying Emerald that fucking says otherwise," I spat back. The green-haired girl in question weakly looked up at the mention of her name before looking to Cinder in a desperate panic. Cinder did nothing to recognize her, focused solely on me.

"You have no idea just how dead you are now, Jaune Arc," she growled, doing her best to sound mysterious and ominous, before I took the air out of it.

"What are you going to do, try to burn me with your half-Maiden powers?" I drawled back, my voice dripping with malicious sarcasm. "Or are you going to desperately flail around again as I choke the life out of your eyes?"

Cinder's surprise slipped through for a moment when I revealed not only that I knew of Maidens, but that I even knew she was only half a Maiden.

"Yeah, that's right, _I know._ " I stared Cinder down hard, taking one step forward to put her on edge. "Here's what's going to happen now. We're going to leave each other _the fuck_ alone. There's plenty of room in Beacon for us to both take what we want without pissing the other off. Do we have a deal?"

Other than the low groaning from an Emerald who had given up the fight and had laid her head back in resignation, the room was silent as Cinder and I silently calculated how long it would be before such a deal was broken. It was inevitable, since it was built on the lie that I was _not_ after the same thing as Cinder. In the end, I needed the Fall Maidenhood too; our collision was destined to happen again. I just needed her to suspect the truce would last longer than I was planning to honor it for. _Whoever can break it first holds the upper hand._

"What about _Salem?_ " Cinder asked threateningly, mixing in a smirk with her glare that let me know she was threatening to reveal my name—and therefore my existence—to the person who ordered my family dead.

"What about _Ozpin?_ " I answered back unflinchingly, threatening her with revealing her to the Wizard. My threat was certain to have a more immediate backlash than hers, and the scowl she gave me indicated that she knew that. Salem was a world away, and her only operative nearby had just been choked-slammed into a wall. Ozpin was a ten-minute walk from the dorm.

We remained silent for a few more moments until it became clear that she was unwilling to verbally agree to any terms I would offer, her pride having already been wounded far too much. This silent understanding was as good as I was going to get.

"What about the body?" Cinder hissed, angry over the whole situation and likely about how she was being forced into accepting my 'deal.' Her eyes flicked to the bed and I followed them, keeping a firm grasp on my shield just in case Cinder wanted to try her luck with an attack from my side. She didn't, and I got the chance to really take a look at the damage I had done, ripping Emerald open from her hip across to the bottom of her ribs. The wound was deep, so much so that I doubted that my Semblance alone would have saved her—all it can do is amplify her Aura, and her Aura can't put her intestines back in place. _Maybe_ if I was assisted by an actual surgical team, it could work. _Maybe._ As it were, she was dead the moment she answered the door.

I took a step towards Emerald, with the intention of gloating over her situation to further agitate Cinder, but dismissed it when I realized that it would have no effect. Cinder simply didn't care for her understudy's survival, and despite who I was raised by, this surprised me. Raven was pissed any time one of her simple Tribe members died in a battle and took it out on the offending party as a whole; I can only imagine the bloody retribution she would exact if she lost her own understudy—someone like Vernal—during battle. That Cinder was somehow a colder, less caring person than Raven rattled me, at least as much as I could be rattled, given the situation.

Emerald's eyes still held faint life, glassed over by tears as she stared off in terror and shock. I stood next to her bed—keeping a keen awareness for any motion by Cinder and keeping the bed between us—and drew Crocea Mors out of the top of my shield. Slitting her throat wouldn't make her bleed out any faster now, so instead I stabbed my sword straight through the throat, cutting into and severing the spinal cord, in the hopes that would speed things up for her. It was the only kindness she was likely to get from those gathered here, not that dying for Cinder's decision was anything akin to kind to begin with.

"That's _your_ problem," I responded to Cinder's question finally, wiping the blood off of Crocea's end using the clean edge of the bed, before sheathing it entirely and returning the combo to my hip. My voice was cold and distant, having realized that Cinder was more of a monster than even Raven, and worthy of nothing but my contempt. "I might have helped yesterday. Maybe Neo can hide it."

With that done, I made to leave, heading for the door I was just now noticing that Neo had closed while I was choking out Cinder, giving me the privacy to do what I needed. _She really had been hoping I would end this for her, once and for all._

"Where do you think you're going?" Cinder growled, tension growing in her stance as she adjusted it to face me now that I had moved.

"Wherever I want," I answered, freezing with my hand on the handle to the door, but not looking back at Cinder as I did so. Once the words hung in the air for a moment, I whipped my head at Cinder and made a show of my hand falling to my pommel threateningly. Cinder reacted by flinching ever so slightly, her eyes following my hand as if it were a threat as she slunk down into her stance further, readying herself to defend rather than to attack. Were I not still so furious, I might have found it in me to smirk at the respect paid to the threat I posed to her now, or at least the one she perceived. _If nothing else, she's not going to risk any situation where we fight one-on-one, which probably works in my favor._ The element of surprise is a hell of a thing, and now she knew that I knew about Maidens, knew how to _fight_ Maidens, and knew of two different tricks to my Semblance.

 _I can't help but wonder if I shouldn't have risked Amber waking up by killing Cinder when I had the chance._

I let myself out without another word.

The hallway was empty and remained so as I made my way further down it, likely the first good luck I've had today. If anyone had overheard what had happened, they weren't brave enough to risk checking on it.

I have a general idea of where I needed to go now, but my mind was spinning too furiously to focus on it. The silence of the hallways was perfect to let my thoughts ring out in my head. The threat I had just made. The enemy I had just made. The connections held by the enemy I just made, the power they held, the time constraint I just forced on myself... It was quite possible that, in the short-term, Raven was no longer the Maiden of greatest concern to me, and somehow, that didn't terrify me. It stressed the hell out of me, but I was too angry, _far_ too angry to be afraid of it now.

The choice was made, and there's no sense in second-guessing what can't be changed. I will have to beat Cinder to the rest of Amber's powers.

 _I need to find Pyrrha, now._

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: And here...we...go...**

 **Action, reaction. Reaction to reaction. Opportunities. Threats. Vulnerabilities. _Can you guys tell that I've been waiting for this for 480,000 words?_ You'll have to forgive me for getting a little excited. **

**So, what's changed from how canon goes down, at least so far?**

 _ **Yang.**_ **In canon, she doesn't really** _have_ **that one person who takes her side instantly. There's her team, sure, but as Yang expressed, they had to be talked into it. That's...not very comforting, to put it the best way possible. That sort of thing would rattle you, especially if you felt suffocated by it and had to deal with it for** _hours_ **while also exhausting yourself by trying to defend your own name. Yang's just...exhausted, and she feels like she's seeing who is really on her side: Jaune. And...maybe just Jaune.**

 **Of course, given time to think on it, reflect, and talk with her team more, Yang would likely get over it; in the show, losing her arm seems to have taken precedence for her.**

 _ **Raven,**_ **well, Raven doesn't seem like she's going to give her time. Raven has an interesting perspective on this whole thing, though it is possible that she's projecting what happened on her onto Yang. We'll have to see next week just exactly what her angle is, if there even is one. It feels unlikely that she _doesn't_ have an angle, seeing who we're talking about, so what's more important to judge is whether her angle is a bad thing, and if so, for whom. **

_**Ozpin.**_ **Miscalculations are not something the old man does often, but he's certainly been around long enough to know how to handle a crisis or two. Bringing CRDL down with the sole purpose of finding good leverage on Jaune is a risk, but it is one that has to be taken. If only Pyrrha had accepted that offer and come through with some dirt of Jaune, things would go a lot better.**

 **Honestly, one of my favorite things about this story is how most everyone cheers against Ozpin. In the grand scheme of things, it is probably best for Beacon, Vale, Remnant, and all the people within if Ozpin were to come out the winner here, seeing as his platform is the only one that actively puts protecting the population and fighting Salem at the forefront. Sure, Jaune mentions stuff about wanting to spare innocents and maybe protect people, but he's been over his head for so long that those thoughts seem like a distant memory. Raven's platform is steal power away and don't use it to protect innocents. Oh, and Cinder.**

 **Oz is, well, sorta in the right. He wants Jaune reigned in because he holds the potential of a threat and of a great asset, and Oz doesn't even know that Jaune is _trying to steal his Maiden too._ Oz is certainly manipulative, but it isn't as if Raven, Cinder, Salem, Jaune, Roman, even _Yang_ aren't manipulative, too, to different levels. This is less of a game of chess, and more of a game of Hungry Hungry Hippos, where Jaune, Yang, and Pyrrha are the marbles being fought over. **

**In short, we're all cheering for anti-heroes or possible villains, despite there being flawed heroes on the board too. In fact, I'd say that of the three most important characters to this story, there is one of each of those. _Perfectly balanced, as all things should be._**

 **Alright, let's talk about that last scene. RIP Emerald. Originally, Em survived that scene, with a mix of the wound being less grievous and Jaune stabilizing her with his Semblance as a sort of final peace offering to Cinder. It...was forced, to say the least. I told myself Emerald had to survive because without her, Cinder doesn't have as much of a threat to the Vytal Festival, but...that's not strictly true. There is more than one way to skin a cat. I did a test and determined that Emerald is actually my 7th-favorite character after having watched V6, although I fill those out by choosing the characters that I want to see more screentime of, not necessarily my favorites.**

 **Killing Em just works better. Besides, Jaune has a body count now, and he's going to have to rectify that with his original intentions for coming to Beacon. Gone are the days of bad things piling up on Jaune and him just taking it; that ended when he and Yang had their fight. Jaune's discovered the will to resist fiercely now, and Cinder has just learned this the hard way.**

 **Nothing comes easy for anyone from here on in. I cannot contain my excitement. Place your bets now for who comes out of this the best.**

* * *

 **For those curious, my top ten (based on who I want to see more scenes of) comes out like this:**

 **1\. Yang  
2\. Roman Torchwick  
3\. Weiss  
4\. Raven  
5\. Qrow  
6\. Neo  
7\. Emerald  
8\. Pyrrha  
9\. Jaune  
10\. Salem**

 **Big risers are Raven, Emerald, Salem, Yang, and Neo, while Qrow and Pyrrha especially have slipped down.**

 **Take this with a grain of salt, as Blake fell to five spots below her mom. _Don't judge me._ **

* * *

**To my Discord, _no_ , I did not make the decision to kill Emerald off because I was angry Thursday night about how badly I suck at For Honor. Even though I _did_ threaten to take it out during my writing, this scene was already written and the change to off Emerald was made before Thursday. **

**That said, _fuck shugoki._ **

* * *

**Comment of the Week:** by guest

"Curious, is your story gonna go beyond Vol 3 and Vol 4"

 **If enough people survive V3 for me to have something compelling to write, then yes.**

 ** _Heh_. **

(ive mentioned my plans for post-V3 in past chapters)

 **I have plans for V5. Progressing things through the aftermath of V3 up to V5 is something I'm still working through how I want to do. Honestly, I don't want V4 to last all that long, but I don't want to rush the set-up to V5.**

 **We are, definitively, beyond the half-way point for this story, though. _It will not take me another 500,000 words conclude this._**

* * *

 **To my brother, may your hunger be satiated for a few more chapters, you animal.**


	51. The Offer

**Author's Note: I don't really think I have all that much to report here this week. I had a big test over quantum mechanics Friday and got a 51, but the average was 48.5, so I don't feel that bad.**

 **The one thing that happened is that my Discord server has now rallied around a new mascot: smol!Emerald from _Relic of the Future._ This inevitably led to a discussion on the international legality of lolis and...**

 **Sometimes, I'm just not sure why I keep this thing going.**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **The irony that _Emerald_ is the icon of the server is not lost on me. **

**Knock yourselves out.**

* * *

 **Chapter 48:** _"You know, Oz, one of the main reasons I drink is all your convoluted plans. The other reason is all of everyone else's convoluted plans. So no, I will not be 'trying to go sober' anytime soon." – Qrow Branwen_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

"Jaune, I got your text. What's this about?" Pyrrha asked as she finally made it up to the rooftop I had been waiting on for a few minutes now. I didn't turn to greet her, not yet, instead keeping a keen eye out in the air around us. I had been waiting on a different part of the roof than normal, a part that didn't have any extra outcroppings that a person—or a _bird_ —could hide behind to eavesdrop. It was dark, which meant that if Qrow _was_ snooping around for some reason, it would be difficult to spot him, but it _could_ be done. He would have nowhere to hide, and I can't afford any of what's about to be said to make its way back to Ozpin. "If this is…if this is about earlier, about Yang…"

"It's not," I responded sharply, still not turning around yet. I was scanning the sky for any dark outline moving among the stars just in case, but really, I was stalling. My adrenaline from my confrontation with Cinder may have worn off, but my anger hadn't, and a new sense of urgency had seeped into me. Without that adrenaline driving me, I had been left with thoughts swirling around inside my head, putting me through all sorts of emotions and mental states. I don't _have_ the time to play things safe or to take a more measured approach to stealing the Fall Maiden away from both Cinder and Ozpin, and in hindsight attacking Cinder was a rash decision, but that can't be helped now. I only have one move, whether I like it or not. "This is bigger than that, Pyrrha. I need to know if I can trust you to trust me."

"If I can trust you?" Pyrrha repeated back, with just a bit of nervousness creeping into her voice. Her hands fidgeted at her sides. "What do you need me to trust you _for_?"

I took a deep but quick breath, letting it out sharply while working up the nerve to do this, focusing on the stakes at hand and my frustration at them in order to motivate me, all while still scanning the sky warily. There were distant howls of the wind, or maybe the far-off sounds of the airfields, but nothing that could have been nearby. No birds eavesdropping, or drones, or anything else in the air.

"Something…happened, just now. We—Yang and I—need your help," I began to explain, letting silence fill the air for a tense pause. My words weren't exactly smooth or fluid, as each time I started to speak, a different idea that needed to be said first popped into my head. " _I_ need your help, Pyrrha."

"Jaune, what are you talking about?" Pyrrha asked, concern building in her voice. There was a bit of a stutter when she said my name, apprehension creeping its way into her words. "What's going on?"

"I need you to trust me because I need to tell you _everything_ , Pyrrha. I can't keep you out of this any longer," I answered, forcing myself to turn and face Pyrrha.

" _Jaune!_ Are you okay?!" Pyrrha asked in a panic that confused me, her eyes going wide as they trailed down to my waist. "Are you hurt?"

I looked down to realize that I still had blood splattered on my shirt from where I had stabbed Emerald. It was contained to the side that had been closest to Emerald, and had spilled over onto my pants. I was fortunate not to have run into anyone on the way up here, because I didn't have an excuse for it.

"I'm fine. It's not mine," I answered calmly, that that answer didn't seem to have the same effect on Pyrrha.

" _W-What's going on, Jaune?_ " she asked nervously, genuine fear in her eyes.

"I'll tell you. I just need you to promise me that you'll trust me, okay?" I asked quietly, letting some of the nervousness I felt about the whole situation convey through some frailty in my voice.

"Y-Yes. _Okay_ , I'll trust you, I promise," Pyrrha answered finally, though it was clear to her she wasn't sure _why_ this was so important to me. She was just agreeing to get me to talk to her, and while that didn't exactly fill me with confidence, it was as good as I was going to get. "Just please tell me what's going on, Jaune."

I took another deep breath and steeled myself to take one of my largest risks yet.

"This might sound crazy, but there are these things called Maidens…" I started, trailing off to judge her reaction. Her eyes went wide with shock at the mention of Maidens, as I suspected. "So, Ozpin brought you up to speed on this part. Good, that saves me time…"

"H-How do you…?" Pyrrha asked, confused and suspicious. "Did…he tell you, too?"

"Who, _Ozpin_?" I scoffed, the notion of me going to him for _anything_ laughable. "No, I've known about this for a long time. I know things that Ozpin wouldn't tell you yet, like how the Maidens were created, and why _he_ created them."

There was a soft click from nearby, almost inaudible, and my paranoia kicked in. I swept my eyes around the rooftop, checking to see if the noise had been that of a bird landing, but I found nothing. Pyrrha hadn't even noticed the sound, so I chalked it up to nerves or paranoia, though I didn't let that stop me from being cautious.

" _He_?" Pyrrha asked, catching on to my emphasis. "The…headmaster? Headmaster _Ozpin_ created them?"

"I'm sure he wasn't called Ozpin at the time, but yeah."

"That… that doesn't make any sense, Jaune! That's—"

"Irrelevant," I cut her off, needing to get back on track. "What _is_ relevant is that Ozpin needs to transfer what remains of the Fall Maiden's powers to someone, and I need it to be _you_ that receives them."

"… _what?_ " Pyrrha asked quietly, fear and surprise flashing in her eyes as she recoiled back a step. "H-How do you know that I…?"

"I've been keeping track of Ozpin, and Qrow, and any potential Maidens," I answered, pressing on. "It's why I was stationed at Beacon in the first place."

" _Stationed?_ " She asked, her voice fragile and distant, and _scared._ "Jaune, what—what are you talking about? What's going on?"

"I was raised by a woman called Raven Branwen; Qrow's twin sister. She runs a tribe in the wilds of Mistral, and is obsessed with power and control. She sent me to Beacon to keep an eye on things, and when she found out about Amber, she had me get into place to help her take the new Fall Maiden into her Tribe," I explained, watching Pyrrha's eyes remain wide and confused.

"And _that's_ why you want me to be the Fall Maiden?" Pyrrha asked, her voice fraying with both betrayal and fear. "You want to…to capture me for this woman?"

" _No_ ," I spat out. The very idea of handing over one of my friends to Raven stirred up the pool of vitriol that had welled within me for hours now. "No, I would _never_ help her win like that. I want to be _free_ of her."

Pyrrha's expression changed, no longer looking betrayed and heartbroken, but she looked at me nervously, barely daring to breathe as she waited in silence.

"I need a _Maiden_ to do that," I continued, "because she already has one, and I can't fight that by myself."

Pyrrha's eyes went wide at that reveal, her lips trying and failing to form words a couple of times before she could finally speak.

"Jaune, I… even _if_ I h-had accepted Ozpin's offer, I…" Pyrrha trailed her sentence off nervously, not certain just how to break things to me. I took note of what that first conditional statement meant, but I forced myself to be patient and let her finish. "I would only be _half_ of a Maiden. That wouldn't be enough, w-would it?"

"It would be once we get the other half back," I answered lowly, giving Pyrrha a knowing look.

"No one knows who…stole…" Pyrrha trailed off as she realized what the look I was giving her meant. " _No…_

"You…know who attacked her?"

I didn't answer her, but I continued to give her that knowing look, before finally bringing up a finger to my lips to let her know not to tell anyone about it.

"Ozpin needs to know this!" Pyrrha exclaimed, though her voice was only barely above a whisper. "This is huge, Jaune. We can't just sit on this."

" _No_ ," I cut in angrily. " _No Ozpin._ I'm only asking _you_ for help, Pyrrha. I can trust _you_."

"Jaune, if you know… _that…_ and you need protection from this Raven person and her Maiden, why ask me for help?" Pyrrha asked, stepping in closer to me and holding my gaze with a soft, worried look in her eyes. She was trying to convince me, and from the genuine hope showing on her face, she didn't realize how fruitless that would be, or how bad of an idea it really was. "Why _not_ go to Ozpin? I-If you know about all of this, then you know that he can help more than anyone!"

" _Help_ ," I scoffed, doing a poor job of directing my disdain solely at Ozpin, causing Pyrrha to flinch. "You have no idea just who, or _what_ , Ozpin really is. Ozpin is _immortal_ , Pyrrha, and he doesn't care for the lives of those underneath him. He'd send me to die if it meant prolonging his eternal stalemate against Salem, and he _will_ send you to die at some point. His ends justify _all_ means, and I'll be damned before I trade my chains in for a _noose_. ' _Help_ ,'" I scoffed again, repeating the word sardonically. "He doesn't help you. He only controls you."

My words were aggressive, serving as a great avenue for my anger to vent through, and I let them, figuring it would be better for Pyrrha to see how I really felt about all this so she could come to understand what was _really_ going on. The reality of it hit her hard, as she recoiled back from me a step with confusion and fear in her eyes in much greater quantities than before.

"I don't want to let _any_ of my friends get pulled into his schemes, but before I can stop that, I have to be free to do so, which means dealing with Raven." Through a great show of will and effort, I forced myself to calm down and give Pyrrha a softer, more intimate look. That it took me the better part of ten seconds to force myself to breathe slowly and release my tension was not lost on Pyrrha. "Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Nora, Ren, _Yang_ … I want to protect them all from this, to keep them safe, but I…I _can't_ , Pyrrha. Not without you."

"What…what are you asking me to do, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked after collecting herself and refocusing. Her voice was still full of apprehension and fear, but it was managed and tamped down, for now.

"I'm asking you to trust me," I answered simply, though the suspicious look from Pyrrha told me that wouldn't be a sufficient answer. "I'm asking you to become Ozpin's Maiden, to accept my help to take back the rest of Fall's power, to pretend to be Ozpin's loyal servant, and then when we're ready, to help us _all_ leave his control."

"You…you want me to steal this power…the one that is supposed to _protect_ people…and what? _Run away with it?_ " Pyrrha asked, making it clear that she was not okay with the suggestion at all.

"I'm asking you not to obey Ozpin," I answered, cutting in quickly to stop that idea from taking root, or else it was clear that it would ruin everything I was trying to accomplish. "Those powers will be yours, to use as _you_ see fit, Pyrrha. I can't see a world where you would ever _not_ use them to protect people."

"Wouldn't they come after me?" Pyrrha asked, beginning to pace around and stare off at the ground, clearly struggling with the idea. Struggling, but importantly, _not_ saying no. "Neither side is just going to let those powers go."

"So? Surround yourself with strong friends who will all protect each other, and they won't be able to touch you," I answered, simplifying things. It would take more coordination than that, but over time, Ozpin might could be forced into accepting an _alliance_ with the Fall Maiden, one working together for mutual goals instead of Ozpin's vendetta taking precedence. Ozpin would not like that at all, but without a Maiden of his own, he simply wouldn't have the power to force us into his service. "Raven's had her Maiden for over a decade now, and hasn't had any issues."

 _Granted, no one really knew that Raven had Spring's power this whole time, which helped._ There were always rumors, but rumors about fairy tales might as well be fairy tales themselves.

"I…" Pyrrha trailed off, her voice wavering. "I don't know if…if I can _do_ that, Jaune," Pyrrha said softly, a mix of shame and stress weighing down on her visibly. "I don't know if I can live with knowing that I…I stole something so important to the fate of humanity."

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, mostly to hide how I rolled them from Pyrrha. _Oz has clearly given her a couple speeches on this already. 'Fate of humanity' sounds like something directly out of a fairy tale, go figure._

"I think you can use it better than he will," I reassured her, for once finding myself completely honest.

"I…I don't know. I need…I need to _think_ , Jaune. What you're asking is…is wrong…" she finally looked up, her eyes fragile and glassing over. "But I want to help you, especially if you're in danger. Can I…can I think about it?"

In all reality, no, probably not. Time was now of the essence. I wanted to reach down and tug on my shirt, showing off Emerald's blood there and explain that there _is_ no time, but I couldn't do that. My gut told me that if I made Pyrrha answer right now, she'd say no, but not because she wanted to. She _wanted_ to help me; she just needed the chance to convince herself that she _should_ help me, or that what I was asking wasn't so bad.

"Yes. Of course, Pyrrha," I gave in softly, causing visible relief in her expression. "Just…please, don't take too long. Time isn't something I have a lot of now."

"I…I won't," she answered, finding a little bit of strength in her resolve now. " _Tomorrow_. I'll have my answer after our match tomorrow night, I promise."

"I'll be waiting," I bid softly, giving Pyrrha a soft smile as she took her leave, leaving me alone on the rooftop once more. I heard her disappear behind the door to the stairwell, but nothing further.

I stared out into the distance for a few moments, before drawing Crocea Mors and spinning around, checking the whole side of the roof we were on to ensure that no Qrow-shaped avian had been listening in. That damned click I thought I heard was still playing on my paranoia, but I still found nothing. With a huff, I sheathed Crocea Mors once more. _Maybe it was nothing._

Maybe…maybe my luck really is turning. _Maybe this might actually work._

There was a buzz in my pocket from my scroll, and a wave of panic shot over me. _Had someone been eavesdropping?_ Was this going to be a blackmail message, or a declaration that I was a dead man now?

My hand dug my scroll out hastily, relaxing a bit when I saw it was from Pyrrha.

 _Pyrrha: What was the blood from?_

Despite the situation and everything that was going on in my head, her text made me smile, just a bit, in a bittersweet sort of way. She hadn't had the courage to ask about it face-to-face, instead hiding behind a text. I began to type out my response, before remembering that these were _Beacon's_ scrolls, and I would be shocked if Ozpin didn't have a backdoor into their native messaging application.

Instead, I walked over to stand just next to the door to the stairwell—I still hadn't heard Pyrrha walk down any of the stairs, and unless she levitated down, she was still right behind the door.

"I killed someone who worked for Amber's attacker," I spoke softly into the metal of the door. "It's her blood."

Silence followed, with the seconds ticking by slowly, until after almost half a minute, I finally heard footsteps descending the stairwell softly. Pyrrha didn't say a word, and I didn't get another text.

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

" _Vernal!_ " Raven called out as we stepped through her portal into a large tent of some type, where Raven's weapons were laying on a table in the middle. A short-haired woman standing there looked up at the mention of her name, only for her eyes to get stuck on me.

"Holy _shit_ , you actually convinced Yang to come here?" this Vernal person asked Raven, not caring to hide her surprise from either me or Raven. I cut my eyes to Raven out of suspicion, wondering what exactly had been said about me behind my back. Raven didn't react negatively to Vernal's surprise or disrespect, which meant that Raven either didn't care, or more likely, didn't care that it came from _her_.

"Yang agreed to view our newest project so she could get some fresh air," Raven answered before I could say anything. Whatever that meant, this Vernal person accepted it readily, keeping me from having to explain anything myself, which I was grateful for. "Things were getting a bit too stuffy and feely in Beacon. You mind showing Yang around the camp?"

"I bet they were," Vernal responded with a roll of her eyes. "Sure. Come on, Yang."

Vernal motioned with a nod of her head to follow her out the tent flaps, and I hesitated, giving Raven a suspicious look, wondering how this was supposed to be 'showing me why she left Beacon.' I had a feeling that if I objected, she'd ask if I wanted to go back and deal with my team, so I kept my reservations to myself for now.

I followed Vernal through the camp, taking in my surroundings as much as I could. There was a time not long ago where the only part of this camp that would have interested me was the woman we had just left in her tent, but now that Jaune was in the picture for me, everything else here was just as interesting. _Jaune grew up here._ Maybe not this exact camp, but this sort of place with these people, and I feel I can be forgiven for being curious about that.

Those people that were what stood out the most, too. It was dark out and I couldn't get a great view of the structure of the camp beyond tents and a fortified wooden wall around the place, but there were several fires around the camp that people were gathered around. There wasn't much else to do other than talk or drink, and all the people I could see were doing one or both while lazily gathered around the fires. Weapons hung from the hips of them all, most of them crude blades and not Huntsmen caliber, but they were usually accompanied by guns of some sort too.

"You know, you really shouldn't have even _needed_ your Semblance to win that fight," Vernal called out coyly, turning her head just enough to watch my reaction out of her periphery.

"You…saw my fight?" I asked, a chill running through me, as that meant she saw how it ended too.

"What, you think we don't get scroll service out here? Of course we saw the fight; even projected it for most the camp," Vernal answered back dismissively, ignoring my reaction. "I don't know what you know about the Tribe, but watching hot-headed kids fight to the death is extremely popular among groups like ours."

"We don't fight to the death," I grumbled.

"Could have fooled me," Vernal answered pointedly, referring to the Mercury incident. My fist clenched at my side, and she noticed it, but didn't care. "What were you thinking, playing into his hand like that?"

I stared off flatly into the distance, trying to let her words roll off me without them having any effect of me. They still agitated me, though, sliding right under my skin.

"That fight could have been over in a minute if you had known what you were doing," Vernal continued dismissively, making it clear from her tone that she was only bothered by the fact that I had nearly lost and not that I had crippled Mercury.

" _Huh?_ "

"Your style is better than his, more adaptable," Vernal explained, not even finding the topic serious enough to look back and she continued to lead me around the camp. "He features his feet. That means he can't move _and_ use his best attacks, not unless he's learned how to walk on his hands. All you had to do was use your mobility _while_ attacking and you'd slip right under his guard."

"It's…not _that_ simple," I let out a bit defensively.

"Isn't it? It's what you did when you used that little temper tantrum of yours," she countered plainly. "Ducked right under his attacks, walked right up to him, and beat the shit out of him."

"I…"

 _Huh._ Mercury was fast, but she was right when she said that he couldn't move _and_ attack with his feet at the same time. I had the chance to out-maneuver him whenever he used them, especially with the boost I can get from Ember Cilicia.

Vernal let out a satisfied sound to go along with a smirk, before turning and walking us up to one of the campfires.

"Watch out, boys, _Vernal's_ here," one of the men around the fire drawled out drunkenly, swinging around the open bottle in his hand carelessly, while being given a death glare by the guy next to him. "Hide y-your fun!"

A couple of the surrounding guys laughed. There even looked to be one woman in her twenties over on the other side joining in. Vernal fixed the offending drunk with a weak, flat glare and a soft shake of her head.

"Charming, CJ. I'm still never going to suck your dick," Vernal shot back, earning more laughter from the group at this CJ's expense.

"Then who tha fuck _is_ gonna?!" CJ cried out, the alcohol making him louder than he should have been, but also making it sound like this was an actual dilemma for the dude. It also sounded like this was a reoccurring argument or joke between those gathered, which was…interesting, to say the least. "Sad to say that it's not gonna suck itself! And n-not cuz I haven't tried it!"

More laughter shared at CJ's expense went unnoticed by the man, and it was beginning to make me wonder how drunk he actually was, and why no one else was even close. The bottle he had in his hand was over half empty, but with the way he was sloshing it around, there's no telling how much actually made it to his mouth.

"If not you, then—" he cut himself off as he spotted me for the first time. "Holy fuck, how did _you_ land _that?_ " CJ asked, giving Vernal a look of drunken shock.

I gave the man a flat look, not at all enjoying that his first assumption was that I was banging Vernal, or his second assumption that Vernal was the top. The group sniggered at this, the occasional extra glance taken at me telling me that everyone else had either recognized me or figured out who I was, further confirming what Vernal told me about them watching the fight. Everyone but poor CJ recognized me, at least.

Vernal shook her head, warning CJ to back off but obviously hoping that he would press his luck.

"Oh, she's _not_ , huh?" CJ asked as he misread Vernal's warning. He pushed himself upright and did his best to saunter over to me, ignoring the laughs of literally the whole group as he did so and the fact that he nearly tipped over into the fire at one point. He got to about two or three feet away from me before stopping and taking a swig, then looking down at me. "Heyy, I've this problem I need some help with, and—"

"Nope," I cut him off disinterestedly. It was harder to keep a straight face and a flat look than anything, especially with the laughs earned at CJ's expense from my reply.

"Okay, I'll try a different line," he grumbled, trying to keep the words under his breath and failing miserably. "Atlas Specialists are hot on my trail, and they're after… my penis. Do you have anywhere I can hide it?"

"Yeah, sure," I answered sarcastically, much to the man's surprise. "Anyone got a knife?"

" _GAH_ , 'kay, okay!" CJ let out in a panic, backing down in a hurry.

"Hey idiot, that's Raven's kid you're hitting on there," someone finally called out from the crowd. It took CJ a few moments to even track down where the voice came from and another few to process them, before his eyes went wide as he realized it. He didn't recoil back and try to pretend like that hadn't happened right in front of Vernal, as I expected him to.

" _Yoooooo_ ," he slurred out in disbelief, his head whipping back and forth between me and the guy who had been glaring at him earlier as a crooked grin began to work its way on his face. "Drake! You hear that?!"

Drake turned out to be the man glaring at CJ earlier, who resumed to do so while grumbling something under his breath. For a decently large man, Drake looked to be pouting, with his arms crossed and a sour expression on his face.

"Wha was that?" CJ taunted.

" _I heard,_ " the man grumbled when pressed.

"Ignore sourpuss o'er there, folks! He's just mad he lost our bet," CJ explained to the group, most of whom rolled their eyes, probably having heard it multiple times already. CJ turned back to me and held out his bottle, offering me a drink. "This here's _the shit_ , lemme tell you! Atlas' most expensive and most extreme vodka. This shit's _expensive._ " He held it out towards me again, clearly trying to get me to try it.

"Eh, if it cost you so much, you can keep it," I responded, turning down his offer as best I could.

"Naw, I won it in a bet!" he announced with a grin, earning a fresh glare from Drake. "Come on, I _know_ Raven's kid can toss back. Besides, I won it bettin' on your match! Only fair we celebrate with it…"

I cocked my head over towards Drake, giving him a curious, flat look.

"You bet _against_ me?"

Nothing but grumbles from the man. While staring him down, I took the bottle from CJ and took a large swig straight from the bottle, earning a couple excited yells from the group, though most of it was just to stir the pot with Drake. Which was fortunate, because it helped take eyes off me as I struggled with the strength of the drink. Vodka wasn't really my thing anyways, but this burned like nothing I'd ever had before, and my eyes started to water.

"What the hell?!" I coughed out. "Why is that so stron— _120 proof?!_ " I cried out, reading the label to find that it was 60% alcohol, which is _not_ normal.

"I said it was extreme. _And it's delicious!_ " CJ called out towards Drake as he took the bottle back and took another drink.

"It is _not_ ," I corrected, unable to get the taste out of my mouth.

"Here," someone called out, tossing me a can of some cheap beer, "wash it down."

Without hesitation, I cracked the seal and let the foam spill out after being shaken up, before going ahead and downing whatever was left in one go. Somehow, the vodka lingered, haunting me.

"Actually, Drake over there bet on you," Vernal explained with a coy smile. "The line on the fight was you winning with 20% Aura left. Drake bet you'd have _more_. CJ faded his pick."

CJ gave me a limp smile and I wiped it off his face by pelting it with my empty can.

"Better watch out for your kneecaps, CJ," Drake called out with a sneer.

I went stiff at the taunt, even though it wasn't directed at me. I did my best to ignore it and act like nothing had happened, but I looked around and made eye contact with a couple of people who saw it.

"I'd have gone for his face, personally," the woman I spotted earlier called out from across the fire. "I said so at the time, too. The kid looked too smug for my liking."

"She did say that," the guy next to her confirmed. "Wouldn't _shut up about it,_ actually."

"What'd the kid say?" one voice asked loudly, with most the group going quiet to hear its answer. "Broadcast didn't show that part on any of the replays, just the whole shattering shin part."

"He didn't say anything," I answered, doing my best to shrug the awkwardness off and say whatever would get this topic over with the quickest. To say that I wasn't exactly familiar with how things were at the moment would be an understatement, but none of them seem to hold it against me. If anything, this was the first time any had asked me a question about the incident that _didn't_ sound like a trap, outside of Jaune. "I just got too hot in the moment. Saw something that wasn't there."

"Yeah, well, we've all been there," an older, gruffer voice spoke up, quelling down the group's questions for me. I shot him a grateful look, before examining him to find that he had a much more complicated weapon and a different feel about him; a Huntsman, or at least a former one. _Not exactly the kind of person I'd expect to join Raven._

"Yeah, like the time Drake saw a Nuckelavee!" CJ taunted, pointing a finger at the man who was still glaring holes into him.

"Enough about that," the woman from across the fire cut in, leaning forward to look at me with a smile that put me on edge. "Rumor has it that _someone_ knows Jaune."

I went still again, mostly because all eyes turned to me curiously now, and the woman's smile was shared by a lot of the group. Vernal smirked and made no move to help me here.

"I might," I answered evasively, not exactly sure what sort of rumors were being spread about me in this camp. It might just be that they all knew Jaune went to Beacon and assumed we knew each other, or _someone_ might have been sharing some details they really ought not.

"You mind settling a bet for us?" she asked again, her smile really putting me on edge now.

"I guess," I answered, realizing that this was my best chance to hear some stories about Jaune growing up.

" _How long?_ " she asked, giving me a smug, knowing look.

I gave her a flat look in return and made a mental note to make an attempt on Raven's life later. _How_ or _why_ Raven would have let any details about us spread was beyond me, but the more I think about it, Raven doesn't seem like the type to be embarrassed by walking in on us. If anything, she probably thought it was funny and shared the story.

It wasn't until I noticed how many people were genuinely waiting for my answer that I got flustered.

"I am _not_ answering that," I responded flatly, hoping the dim lighting and the color of the fire would help hide the warmth in my cheeks.

"She didn't deny it, though."

"You know, I just always assumed that he'd die a virgin at the age of, like, eighty…"

"No fucking way. I refuse to believe that little prick pulled off _that!_ "

That guy got a fierce glare from me, as while I _do_ like being acknowledged as quite the catch—because come on, I am—he needed to learn I wouldn't tolerate any shots at Jaune.

"I take it most of you know Jaune, then," I called out, mostly to control the topic and get it _away_ from any details about our relationship.

"Eh, we know the prick," Drake grumbled.

"Excuse me?" I asked sharply, stepping forward and giving him a threatening glare with just a hint of a smug smirk. To be honest, I was trying to channel Raven, just a bit, and I think it actually worked. "You wanna maybe try that again, except this time choosing your words better?"

"What are you gonna do if I don't?" Drake cut back gruffly, clearly challenging me in front of the group. While I normally wouldn't back down anyways, after the day I've had, there was no way in hell I was going to.

"Well, I guess I'll start with your legs."

We stared each other down, before Drake grumbled and backed down.

"Is it weird that I'm turned on now?" CJ grumbled drunkenly, laughing awkwardly at his own joke.

" _No_ ," the woman across the fire answered for him, though flashing me a grin. "On second thought, considering how much she looks like our boss, it probably _is_ weird."

"What, you think I won't hit on Raven?" CJ challenged, locking eyes with the woman as best he could in his state. The group immediately latched on to this, with nearly all of them _encouraging_ him to try it.

While the group was distracted, Vernal's hand on my shoulder broke me from my thoughts, and she motioned for me to follow her again. I wasn't exactly heartbroken to be dragged away from a group of thugs encouraging a drunkard to try to sleep with my mother. We broke off from the group until we made it to a small tent near the center of the camp, that was filled with all sorts of military equipment. While grateful to get away from the awkwardness from that group, I wasn't exactly sure what I was looking at.

"What's all this?"

"Part of our plans to upgrade," Vernal answered. "Radios, mostly. Mid-range communication arrays, just enough power and range to keep in touch with the scattered villages in the area."

"Okay. Why?"

"Why else? Communication," Vernal answered. "These things don't have just a ton of range, but putting one at each village or settlement should create a network for us. Scrolls are fine and all, but this is infinitely more secure, even if the tech is a little outdated."

"What, and these villages are just going to let you set up your equipment there?" I scoffed.

"They'll _pay_ us to put them there," Vernal answered, shooting me a sly look. "We're going into the protection business."

"Oh, _shakedowns_ ," I grumbled sarcastically. "I had almost forgot who I was talking about."

"From what I can tell, Raven's more interested in taking this seriously than you'd think. She's put a lot of lien into this, hence all of this military equipment."

"Why? What's her play?"

"You'd have to ask her," Vernal answered with a shrug. "If it wasn't obvious, she _wants_ you to ask her about it. You remember the way back?"

Vernal shifted to face the direction to go, but that wasn't necessary; Raven's tent was the largest one in the camp. I gave Vernal a suspicious glance before leaving, not entirely sure what her role in this was. She'd confirmed my suspicious that Raven had planned this out, but this hadn't really _felt_ all that planned; at least, the drunken guy around the campfire certainly wasn't planned. Raven asked Vernal to take me around the camp, so I can be certain that everything I saw I was _supposed_ to see. It felt more like she wanted me to take a peek behind the curtain, although it was possible that I was falling for a ploy and all of this had been planned in advance.

"Alright, I'll bite," I announced as I entered Raven's tent, throwing subtlety out the window. "Why are you going into the protections business?"

"Money," Raven answered, not even bothering to correct me like Vernal had and point out that it was actual protection work and not extortion. Raven either didn't care if I thought wrong or didn't care if I knew the truth of it. "It's a lucrative field in a dangerous world."

"Bullshit. You can get money just about anywhere," I cut back.

"We can _raid_ for money, but at some point, we're going to run out of easy, safe, and _profitable_ targets. That's the problem with being good at what we do," Raven explained easily and freely. "I have a militia capable of protecting two or three frontier villages from Grimm and humans alike. The better protected they are, the more money they make, and the more reputation I gain for being responsible for their growth…"

"And then, what, you rob them once they have more money?"

"No, but that's not half-bad either," Raven answered with a bemused laugh. "The Tribe will grow in its coffers, in its membership, and in its reputation. With each village under our protection, we grow stronger and richer. It's a simple matter of strength. The richer they grow, the more valuables they need protecting, the more they have to pay for protection. Simply by being strong, we can have money and power thrown at our feet."

"I thought you weren't that big on protecting people, or being tied down," I cut back pointedly, giving her a flat look as I cross my arms.

"As for the latter, all of this is _my_ choice, and we can walk whenever we please. Just because some poor villages need us doesn't mean we need them," Raven answered, staring me down as she spit the words out pointedly. "As for the former, that's just a misread of me, probably passed on to you by Jaune. I protect what is _mine_. That's part of being strong, after all. I protect this tribe, I protect my possessions, and _if_ I want to accept their money, I will protect some groveling villagers."

"Until it's inconvenient for you," I cut in, unimpressed by her little speech, "or you've done it a single time and proclaim that you won't do it again."

Raven's head whipped at me, eyes glaring at me angrily for a brief moment, until she forced herself to look away and calm down, a reaction I did not expect.

"My decision to give my former friends one last act of protection is an act of selflessness that I do _not_ engage in under any other circumstance," Raven answered back, burying her ire underneath that forced calm. The effect made her words sound sad. "I protect what is mine, and they…they are not. I do not take protecting them lightly, even if only once."

Raven never looked up, still staring off at some feature of the tent that her eyes were stuck on.

"There has to be something else," I stated in the silence following, redirecting us back to the topic. "Even if this change _will_ make you rich, that's a lot of work, and your tribe doesn't seem the kind to like that sort of thing…"

"What are you suggesting?" Raven asked, her voice calm, collected, and a little amused once more. The forced calm was gone now, and her amusement was genuine rather than put on.

"That there's some other reason you're doing this," I answered, still working through the thoughts in my head. Raven's weak smirk let me know that I was close, or that she wanted me to think I was close—after all, she _wanted_ me to figure it out, or she wouldn't have let me see the equipment. She watched me curiously as I tried to place what was going on here, unsuccessfully. After a few moments, she began to pace around the tent slowly, giving me time to think, for all the good it did. "You're going to have to deal with the Tribe complaining about it. You have to be getting more out of it than just some lien."

Raven continued to give me the same look, patiently letting me work my thoughts out.

"Something feels off about this. This doesn't feel like something that _you_ would do," I threw out there, only remembering afterwards that Raven wasn't someone you wanted to just insult freely, but she let it slide. "It feels like something that—that _Jaune_ would do. This is about him, isn't it?"

Raven stopped pacing with her shoulders pointing at me, eyes staring off at the ground with a distant glaze over them, before closing them entirely and taking a breath. Her head bobbed softly, her shaking it to try to convince herself to go forward with something that wouldn't come easy for her.

"Do you remember, at our first meeting, what I challenged you to figure out?" Raven asked quietly, eyes still staring off at the dirt. When she did look up again and meet my eyes, they were softer and more reserved than I'd ever seen them, and I realized what she was convincing herself to do: _open up_. That, and that her reaction all but confirmed Jaune was the motivation here, left me with more questions than I started with.

"Something about a lesson," I recalled hazily. I hadn't taken her completely seriously at the time, still working off of Jaune's descriptions of what Raven was like—descriptions that now just don't seem to fit any longer. "A lesson you wanted us to figure out."

"I wanted you to figure out _why_ I sent Jaune to Beacon," Raven answered, averting her eyes and staring off at the ground once more. "To really understand what I wanted him to realize by being at Beacon. I…I underestimated how much he thinks he hates me, and how much that blinds him."

"I…I don't know if he _hates_ you, but—"

"I know he doesn't hate me, but he _thinks_ he does," Raven responded firmly, cutting me off. "You know him as well as anyone by now, so you tell me: does Jaune hate himself?"

"Does he… _what?_ " I repeated, taken aback by the question. "No. Absolutely not," I answered firmly. Jaune wasn't the mopey, self-deprecating type, except for maybe his sense of humor. He and Blake could both be like that, but at the end of the day, they both trusted in themselves to do things that they thought others couldn't, wouldn't, or shouldn't—Blake with hunting the White Fang alone, and Jaune with dealing with Raven alone.

"Then he doesn't hate me, not _honestly_ ," Raven concluded, as if it were that simple, or as if that made sense.

"You can't just…how does that make any sense?" I asked, more confused and befuddled than upset. "You and Jaune are different people."

"We're _all_ different people," Raven confirmed, though sarcastically. "But some people are the same. Jaune and I are the same, which is how I know he doesn't hate me, because he doesn't hate himself."

"That's not true," I cut in.

" _Oh?_ " Raven responded, cutting me down with a knowing smirk. "You have _never_ seen Jaune do anything I would do? You don't see any of me in him _at all?_ "

Raven's taunting drawl went unchallenged, as thoughts sprang up in my head and I realized I _couldn't_ refute those points. Jaune went and made deals with Roman Torchwick, subverted his own raid on the White Fang, contacted another Maiden, laid plans to rebel from Raven…hell, he even has a sadistic streak, if the time we fought the Malachites is any indication. _During the first time I saw Raven since she abandoned us, Jaune was the one to stab Raven first, too._

I looked up to find Raven's eyes softly gloating as she watched me give in to her point.

"I'm _amazed_ at how much of me I see in that random kid that I was obliged to rescue, and that amazement is only outdone by how incredibly dense he is to _not_ see it."

Raven bowed her head and then shook it softly, a small and sad smile on her face.

" _That_ is why I sent him to Beacon. He sees himself as different, sees everything he grew up with as beneath him, sees me as the monster who replaced his family. He thinks he _belongs_ in Beacon, away from me and the Tribe, so I called his bluff."

"You sent him to Beacon—?"

"To make him realize that he is _not_ like them," Raven finished, her words firm and her eyes locking on mine. "He might want to be, but _I_ wanted that for a time too. It didn't work for me then, and it won't for Jaune now. He's not like Qrow, a trusting fool willing to bow to Ozpin to 'be a better person.' It may take a while for it to happen—it took me _years_ to stop lying to myself—but it's _going_ to happen. Something is going to break and Jaune is going to be left with nothing except for the knowledge that he can't coexist with all of his friends."

"You…you don't _know_ that!" I yelled nervously, feeling extremely defensive because I couldn't figure out what to say to prove her wrong. She had clearly been preparing for this speech and was putting me on the backfoot on purpose.

"I do. I've seen it all before," Raven answered softly, content to absorb whatever anger I wanted to throw her way. "If it makes you feel better, _that_ is why I'm…altering the Tribe."

My anger burnt out quickly, both because it didn't have any real base to grow from and because I wanted to know what Raven meant by that. I gave her a quizzical look.

"Whenever you realize that you don't belong in your own life, it…hurts. It hurts like hell, to wake up and finally realize that everything you've been fighting to protect is hollow. I called it a crisis earlier, and even then, I was lucky enough to realize it gradually." Raven trailed off, letting that last sentence imply something, before she looked up to grab my attention. "Can you honestly tell me that you don't think Jaune is going to have a much more abrupt and brutal crisis?"

Something about her words sent a chill down my spine and my stomach flopped as my thoughts trailed over everything that Jaune was working on, and how it could all crash down around him. Ozpin, this Cinder person, Pyrrha…what would happen if they all backfired at once? _What would Jaune have left to tie him to Beacon? Just_ me

"Jaune is going to realize that he _belongs_ with the Tribe, and the longer it takes, the harder that's going to hit him," Raven said, her voice a little firmer, a little more resolved. "Beacon…it changes you, just not enough to make it possible to stay in that life. All it does is make the life you had before seem hollow, and it takes a long time before you figure out how to finally get things right once more. I'm changing the Tribe because, _yes_ , I want more lien and more power, but also because…I think it will help cushion the blow to Jaune."

"So you _do_ want him back?" I asked, drawing on the only safe conclusion I felt I could make, not yet willing to say that I agreed with Raven's assessment, even if I couldn't say I _dis_ agreed.

"I raised that kid, and I've become quite fond of him, even if it's only because of how similar we are. _Of course_ I want him back. The only reason I sent him to Beacon was so that he would realize who he really is, and come back on his own."

"…If you love something, set it free?" I asked disbelievingly, as the words fit the situation but just felt weird in the context of _Raven_.

" _Sure_ , why the hell not?" Raven asked with a laugh, finding the juxtaposition just as strange as I did. "I said that Beacon changes your desires, and I shouldn't need to explain that I know that first-hand. I'm not some monster who doesn't care about her family, Yang, I just…have a different understanding of family. Beacon shifted that definition for me, just a little bit, and it wasn't until I realized what that meant that things really felt right. I'm better off here, with the family forged out of people like me. Jaune is, too."

A lull passed between us, one that Raven was content to encourage and let me think about what she had said.

"You said that all of this was supposed to help _me_ ," I mumbled, still trying to avoid thinking about things too directly.

"Hmm?"

"You said that you had something to show me, something that would help me with—with my situation," I said again, looking up at Raven. "It was the reason I agreed to come here, because you were going to show me what you learned when…when you had your… _crisis._ "

"Isn't it obvious?" Raven asked with just a hint of a smirk. "I _just_ explained it to you."

"That was about Jaune! T-That…that wasn't…" I trailed off and Raven let me, my thoughts finally betraying me as I was forced to confront her point now that it was about _me_ too. "B-But I'm…not like Jaune. I _didn't_ grow up here, I wasn't raised by you!"

"But you're my daughter, and that seems to have been enough."

"No, that's not true. This…this isn't the sort of place I belong! I'm not one of—" Raven gave me a coy look and I cut myself off, before going forward with what I was gonna say anyways. "—not one of _these people!_ You're bandits, and outcasts, and murderers! I don't fit in here!"

"What, and you _do_ fit in with your team?" Raven asked pointedly.

" _Yes!_ We—" I cut myself off abruptly as a small gasp escaped my mouth and a massive chill ran down my spine. My breathing hitched and my eyes went wide in shock— _in horror_ —as Raven's point began to sink in. " _N-No…_ "

"If any of your friends had done what you did earlier, do you think that everyone would treat _them_ the same way they treated _you?_ " Raven asked, her words not necessary to drive her point home as my mind was already torturing me by going over everything that had happened, everything that had been wrong up until now. "If the answer is no, then I'm sorry to say that your friends already realized that you're not like them…"

"That's…that's not…" I fumbled my words, before finally finding the strength to stand against this. " _No_. That's _not_ true. My friends _love_ me."

"As did my team," Raven answered, shattering that last bastion of resolve I had with almost no effort on her part. She didn't seem to enjoy it, either. "It all comes crashing down in the end."

"What can I do?" I asked, my voice desperate and barely above a whisper. Raven looked away, unable to look me in the eyes, which only made things worse because it meant the answer was hard for _Raven_ to tell me. " _What can I do?_ "

"You can get ahead of the crisis," Raven answered finally, her voice soft. "You can go somewhere where you _do_ belong, filled with people like you…"

"You…you want me to _join_ you?!" I almost screamed, fury rising up as I recoiled at the thought that all of this was an elaborate ruse to work me up and manipulate me. That fury started to die away in the brief silence that followed. Raven's face wasn't smug, or cocky, or malicious, or even pleased; she may have wanted this, but she wasn't manipulating me.

She was actually trying to help, in her own way.

"You didn't interact for long, but did you ever feel like the Tribe was judging you for what you did earlier?"

"Y-You set that up!" I accused, using the accusation to try to ignore listening to her point. "You told them all how to act around me to manipulate me! You knew that I'd see them accept me!"

"I knew that, sure, but I did _not_ set it up," Raven answered, a bit of smugness in her answer. I couldn't find any reason to think she was lying, which only served to make matters worse for me. "I didn't _need_ to, Yang. You were aggressive. You _are_ aggressive, and here, that's not a bad thing. I told you at Beacon that your team was only just now seeing exactly who Yang Xiao Long could be, but I've seen it for a while. You need to ask yourself who approves of who Yang Xiao Long is, and if you can stand being around people who _don't_."

"I…I can't just _leave_ Beacon, m— _Raven_ ," I admitted quietly, struggling to keep my breathing even after a long, emotional day. There may even have been moisture building in my eyes as I found I just didn't have it in me to sort out the emotions and thoughts swirling through my head. "That's going to be too hard on me, to just… _leave them._ "

"It will be hard. It certainly was for me. Ask yourself how hard it's going to be to live every day knowing what you know now, about both yourself and your team." Raven paused and took a breath, and I found I no longer had the energy, resolve, or the desire to avoid giving in to her points. "Besides, the Tribe is changing to make it easier for you. You're not abandoning everything you ever stood for; you're going to be protecting people, since I know that still matters to saps like you and Jaune. _So what_ if we raid some rival bandits? Are you going to tell me that's a bad thing?"

"I-I…"

"And you'll have _Jaune_ to get you through it," Raven added, playing the final card she had left, knowing that it was a big one. "He's going to need you, too, and he may not have the option of sticking around Beacon, not if he does something stupid. Would it hurt more if you left with him, or if you let him leave to suffer on his own?"

" _I-I can't do this, mom,_ " I choked out finally, struggling to keep my watering eyes from spilling over. My hands curled into fists out of frustration as I admitted that not having the strength to go through with it was the only real objection I could muster. " _I can't leave._ They…they haven't done anything to deserve that."

"Who says this is about them?" Raven asked, keeping her voice soft but pointed. "You deserve better than them, Yang. You deserve to be somewhere you belong, somewhere that fits you, with people like you. You and Jaune both."

"I-I can't," I repeated again, finding enough strength to stand behind the decision now that it was made.

"Okay," Raven relented easily, putting her hands up to indicate that she was going to let me decide this myself. " _The offer stands, Yang;_ all you need to do is ask. If you want to test it for yourself, I won't hold that against you. I…I won't even hold failure against you, either, not since I failed the same test. If I may ask, though, what's your plan going to be _now_?"

"It…it hasn't changed," I answered softly, eyes staring distantly at the ground as I thought it over. "If…If Jaune were to rebel from you, would you…would you do anything to him?"

"You mean like he's been trying to?" Raven asked knowingly, shooting me a flat look. "If he betrays me and tries to give me up to Ozpin, then all bets are off, but…" Raven trailed off, giving me a soft shrug. "I made a bet that sending him to Beacon would make him have to come back. You shouldn't make a bet you aren't prepared to lose…"

"We're…going to try it, if that wasn't obvious. If it fails…?"

" _When_ it fails," Raven corrected pettily, "if he has not done anything I deem irredeemable, you'll both have a landing pad here. I can't say I _enjoy_ being your backup option, but I _do_ enjoy being right."

"Then this is the last we'll see each other," I answered confidently. Raven grinned, but in a way that made it clear she was going to enjoying watching us try, but didn't expect us to succeed.

"As long as he doesn't do anything stupid, then I suppose it could be," Raven responded, before walking over to the table and grabbing a scroll of it, before tossing it to me. "And when you both hit rock bottom, give me a call."

* * *

Pyrrha's POV

* * *

Sleep did not come easily for me tonight. It should have; after all, it was late when I finally got to bed. Ren and Nora were already asleep, or at least pretended to be, waiting to see if I was going to do anything. Other than brush my teeth, I didn't, at that should have been the end of it.

Jaune's words rung in my head, and that made sleep hard, but it wasn't the main reason sleep wouldn't come. They didn't help though. Jaune had at least texted our team group chat to warn us that he wasn't coming back for the night, instead going to stay with Yang and ensure she was okay. That should have helped me sleep, knowing that the source of these thoughts wasn't in the room, and it _did_ help, but not enough.

It wasn't the information Jaune had shared that kept me up. It wasn't even the past he admitted, nor was it the situation that he was in now. It wasn't even what he confessed through the door. It was the decisions I have to make that haunted me all night.

The first decision seemed like the most obvious, because it didn't feel like a decision anymore: accept the Maidenhood. Ozpin had pitched the entire idea as a way to save people, but specifically Jaune. Now, Jaune had come to me with his own version of the same thing, asking me to accept the Maiden's powers to save him. It was almost freeing to have the decision taken from me, as it was one less thing to worry about; I would become the Fall Maiden either way.

That led to the first decision that helped keep me up: what to _do_ with the Maidenhood, or more specifically, who to support. That one _should_ have been easy. Jaune was trying to steal these powers that are supposed to protect people and use them to save himself. Stealing them was dangerous and reckless, leaving people unguarded, and leaving the powers vulnerable to ambush by the enemy. What if I stole the powers, ran off to help Jaune, and died? Was risking allowing such power was used _against_ innocent people worth it?

This should have been such a simple solution. It _would_ be, if the headmaster wasn't so insistent on ensuring that Jaune wasn't going to be an issue. If accepting his offer didn't mean turning Jaune over to him, then it would be an easy choice. Was it even safe to turn Jaune over to Ozpin? Ozpin was only concerned about Jaune because he might have been a risk to me or the Maidenhood, but if he knew how right he actually was, would he still try to redeem Jaune?

Do I dare take that risk?

For as much as I knew what the right thing to do would be, I can't ignore how much I am tempted to accept Jaune's offer. He…he knows things that I don't about this, and he's been around a Maiden before, so it's not like I would be alone with these new powers or anything. And he didn't say we'd be leaving immediately, either; he seemed to only imply leaving after Beacon, and that was if we needed to leave at all. _All Jaune needs is for us to stop this other Maiden from hurting him._ Who said that we couldn't do that and then stay on at Beacon like normal?

In fact, who's to say that Ozpin can't help with that? Jaune seems so firmly opposed to Ozpin, but surely he has to accept that he can't fight another Maiden _and_ Amber's attacker at the same time. If these Maidens are this important, then surely they'll have been looking for whichever one Jaune knows, the one this Raven person has. If she's Qrow's sister, then surely Ozpin and Qrow would be interested in helping take care of that.

Jaune wouldn't accept it, not knowingly, but maybe…maybe he doesn't need to. Maybe I can take this information to the headmaster and trade it for Jaune's protection—not for _their_ idea of protection where they bring him in, but for _actual_ protection. They would leap at the opportunity the find out who Amber's attacker was, and Jaune would have to tell me once I agreed to use the Maiden's powers to help him. Jaune wouldn't have to know _why_ the attacker was found out by Ozpin. _And whenever Raven Branwen's Maiden stops threatening Jaune, he'll have no more reason to go behind our backs for anything._

It could all work out.

Or it could all backfire horribly, with Ozpin capturing Jaune after asking too many questions about why Jaune knows all of this, then deciding not to let me have the Maiden's powers. It could put Jaune in a bad spot between Ozpin, Amber's attackers, and Raven Branwen's Maiden. _And that would be all my fault._

This was the decision that kept me up, all of it personified by the pen that I was too scared to let out of my sight overnight, keeping it in my hands as I tossed and turned. Irrational as it may have been, I had this gnawing fear that if I let the device out of my hand for one second, it would run off to Ozpin on its own. There was no way I was going to risk that recording getting out and letting _this_ decision be taken from me.

Come morning, my plan was set…tentatively. I needed to speak with Jaune one more time and really get a chance to make sure I could trust him about this, to clear up a few last questions, not the smallest of which included just what exactly Jaune meant by _he killed someone last night_.

I destroyed the pen as soon as I woke up, snapping it with my Semblance and bashing the remaining pieces, just to be safe. For this to work, I would have to control what Ozpin found out, and while this sort of thing wasn't my specialty, I wasn't foolish enough to let him hear the raw contempt Jaune held for Ozpin.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Yes, leave it to me to progress the timeline by, like, 30 minutes in over 11 thousand words.** **At this rate, V7 of the show will be done before we get through the V3 events...**

 **So Raven finally lays down her reasons for sending Jaune to Beacon. She couldn't bring herself to call him a son - that would just be too sappy for a proud/stuck-up person like Raven - but this is about as close to that as you can get. She's willing to bet that if he follows in her footsteps, that he'll come to the same conclusions she did, and will come back willingly. Thus, all his petty 'hatred' and difficulties will sort themselves out as he learns to accept that he _is_ like Raven, and that's not something to hate. **

**And Yang can see it, too. She can't find anything to say to disprove it, as desperately as she wants to. Because if what she just learned is true, then it means that Raven _does_ have a softer side hidden away, and that she really _did_ miss out on a mother. That's something that would rattle Yang, _significantly_. And then Raven goes and extends that same offer to Yang, telling Yang that all the same things about Jaune apply to her too. **

**Hell, even if Yang wasn't doubting her team, that would be enticing to the poor girl.**

 **The only reason Yang says no is she can't justify just leaving her team; at least, there _are_ other reasons, but none that Yang can seem to put to words. Now, she has to go back and try to return to how things were, but with this new perspective haunting her. Will everything Jaune does just look like Raven now? It's not like Jaune did anything Raven-like while she was gone...**

 **Like, say, murdering Emerald or trying to recruit Pyrrha. _Remember all those times I said that recruiting Pyrrha can either go great or terribly depending on how Jaune treats it?_ Well, he didn't do a _great_ job, per say, but he didn't do a horrible one either. I doubt that he predicted that Pyrrha would try to carve her own path here...**

 **Join us next week when this exercise in "everyone is making bad mistakes except maybe Raven, maybe" actually progresses further than just another 30 minutes!**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _Randy the Ranger_

"Not gonna lie...I felt a wee bit of pleasure in seeing Cinder getting nearly choked out in a way that wasn't a part of a weirdly good and overly done sex scene"

 **You and me both, buddy. Has to be in my top 3 scenes to have written.**

 **I'm trying to think of what the other two are. Yang and Jaune's falling out/confrontation (Red Eyes chapter) is certainly up there. The third slot I'm not sure about; maybe "feeding a horse" or "Weiss thinks I fucked your sister."**

 **Actually, no, it's the Christmas bonus scene about Raven. That was a lot of fun to write. It definitely takes the third spot.**

 **I'm a sucker for drama, though, so here's to hoping there's more to come!**


	52. Hard to Breathe

**Author's Note: It's the end of times.**

 **For the Discord, anyways. MoNT is chugging right along, though it is certainly arguable that it, too, is nearing the 'end of times.'**

 **My greatest fears were realized this week when my sister decided to join the Discord. Within an hour, _Worshippers of the Empress Liv_ became the most populated faction. If Turquoise taking the Discord over was bad, this was worse.**

 **And then after I went to bed, they all started telling her as many secrets about me as they could. _Thanks for that, guys, I didn't need my little sister knowing about my failed Tinder account._ **

**Ugh.**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **Well, here's to you guys enjoying something.**

* * *

 **Chapter 49:** _"Qrow, cancel that task I gave you. We have what we need." – Ozpin_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

I stirred awake from a very comfortable position slowly at first, but as soon as my wits came about me, my eyes shot open. The events of the night before had me paranoid, and for good reason. As I opened my eyes, my fears subsided. The room was empty, and with Emerald out of the picture, that meant that this wasn't an illusion. Secure in that knowledge, I let myself relax, releasing a tension in my body that I hadn't realized I was holding. I didn't have to look down to know that Yang was here too, her hair large enough to seep into my vision, to the point where it felt like there wasn't anywhere I could turn my head where I wouldn't have yellow in the tinges of my vision. I found that I didn't mind, though that may have had to do with the warmth Yang's sleeping form generated, or the sensation of her curled into my chest.

"Morning," Yang mumbled softly into my chest, apparently already awake and having noticed me shifting and relaxing. She did a quasi-stretch of her own, with her legs straightening out and her grip around me tightening for a few moments, before finally turning her head so that she was still pressed against me but could look up at me with one eye.

"Morning," I answered, a smile coming over me as I watched her get situated. "Don't get too comfortable," I teased, while shifting myself slightly better fit how she had arranged herself. "We're going to have to get up before someone comes in here, you know…"

"Eh, if it lasted this long…" Yang dismissed, closing her eyes and making a point of pretending to go back to sleep.

'Here' was one of the lounges to the small, private training rooms that Beacon students had access to. The system was set up so that students could reserve a room during any time on a first-come, first-served basis, and since no one had wanted to reserve the training room from 1 a.m. to 8 a.m., it meant that this whole training room—lounge included—served as a decent place to crash. Raven dropped Yang off to me a little under half an hour after my talk with Pyrrha, and it was clear from the way that Yang stepped straight out of the portal and into a desperate hug that there was no way I was letting her deal with her thoughts alone overnight.

But after the talk with Pyrrha, I really didn't feel like trying to talk my team into allowing Yang to stay over in our dorm, and there was no chance in hell that Weiss was going to let me stay with Yang in their dorm, hence the lounge couch, which was only narrowly wide enough for us both—a condition that was irrelevant, as Yang was _not_ leaving my arms all night anyways.

"So…" I let out slowly, making it probably pretty obvious to Yang what I was about to bring up. "Not that I, _in any way,_ dislike sharing a couch with you overnight, but I do feel like there are some…things about last night that we need to talk about…" I drawled my words, intentionally coming across as a bit hesitant or nervous in an attempt to be a bit goofy, hoping that a little humor would smooth things over.

"What, you mean why Raven dropped me off with you?" Yang asked flatly, her words cutting into me playfully. "Or why I refused to let go of you from the moment Raven dropped me off?"

Clearly, she was feeling better, if she was capable of framing me as an idiot over what are very legitimate concerns.

"Those…were two of the two things I was going to ask about, yes," I answered in the same manner, before dropping it entirely and going with a much more serious tone. "Yang, if Raven said something… if she _did_ something, I need to know."

I tried to hide or contain how scared I still was about the subject. When Yang showed up last night, getting dropped off by _Raven_ , who opened and closed her portal without making an appearance or even saying a word, that had sent a wave of panic through me. Why had Raven gone to Yang _now_ , of all times? Did she assume Yang to be vulnerable, hoping to throw some ploy onto Yang when she'd be too drained or tired to say no?

Those fears had only gotten _significantly_ worse as Yang refused to speak, instead holding on to me like she would lose me if I slipped from her grip. She had held onto me for support earlier that night, gripping me with an intent to secure herself; this had been her holding onto me out of fear, gripping me with an intent to secure _me_. She eventually spoke, only to keep me from completely freaking out, and told me that she wasn't able to explain and she just needed me to be there, and that was that.

 _Prying Yang off me long enough to take off my blood-stained clothes and put on the spare workout set in my locker was no easy task._

"I'm sorry if I made you worry," Yang said softly, leaning the side of her head against me and staring off into the distance blankly. "Raven just… she got into my head, saying things that I didn't know how to handle."

"Don't believe her, Yang," I warned cautiously, subtly pulling Yang into me a little bit more tightly. "She can't be trusted. Whatever she said, it wasn't true."

Yang lifted her head up and looked up at me, the emotions in her eyes hard to read. There was some level of sadness there, almost like resignation, but there was a softness and a warmth to them too. That it was _me_ that was causing it put a pit in my stomach, and the uncertainty of not knowing what that look meant drove me to push my Aura out to meet Yang's. The feeling was familiar now, the warmth of the connection washing over me like putting on an old, favorite hoodie. Yang didn't mind, instead breaking her unreadable stare and laying the side of her head back on my chest.

"That's the thing," Yang spoke softly, breaking what was a long silence. "I… I'm not sure that you're right about either of those."

A feeling of dread sunk throughout me as I realized that Raven had gotten to Yang somehow, and taken advantage of her after I had left her to confront Cinder. My grip on Yang tightened and my mind starting whirling, trying to think of what Raven could have possibly said to rattle Yang this badly and what I needed to do to save her from this.

" _Yang_ ," I said meaningfully, letting my fear be heard plainly in my voice. There was no time for hiding it, certainly not from Yang. _And especially not when Yang is now on the line_.

I didn't continue past that, though, instead distracted as Yang pushed further into the connection between our Auras, trying her best to calm me down. It worked, although not much; just enough for whatever Yang wanted to accomplish.

Yang looked up at me again, eyes wide, gentle, and honest.

"Do you trust me?" Yang stated softly and simply, with an overwhelming weight behind them. She knew _exactly_ what my fears were in that moment, and through our connection, I knew that she knew _exactly_ how deeply those fears were held in me. Her question was asked with all of that in mind, and it was not a question that could just be answered _._

"Y-Yang, what you're asking me… you don't—"

Yang cut me off—abruptly, yet gently—by bring her arm up and lightly placing a finger on my lips, her eyes staring me down with a frailty and gentleness to them. I couldn't find it within me to shake her finger off my lips or speak over her, despite the desperate urge to explain to her why I was so afraid of Raven right now, and why she should be too.

"I _do_ understand, Jaune. I know that you're scared of her, that you're scared that she might get to me, or that she might put me in the same position you're in," Yang said softly. I was inclined to believe her, even though I felt that if she just understood like I did, that she wouldn't _need_ to ask me this. She would see things the way I see them. "I do know exactly what I'm asking you, and how much I'm asking of you when I ask you if you can trust me over all of that."

Yang held her gaze, and I found myself forced to avert my eyes out of shame, not willing to risk Yang see the dilemma there. I _want_ to tell her that I trust her over that, but she…she's asking me to do that after what happened last night, showing up emotionally fragile after spending significant time with Raven. I trust her with my life, but if I know that she's been compromised by Raven, can I honestly say that I _should?_ Shouldn't I be the one that _she_ is trusting to see things clearly right now?

"I don't—" my voice cracked, the words themselves heavy as I pushed on, "—I don't know if I can, Yang."

The words hurt to say out loud, and I could feel Yang's eyes on me, but I didn't dare look back at her. Guilt and shame began to wrack up in me, not just for saying the words, but for meaning them, as much as I may have hated it.

" _Jaune_ ," Yang said tenderly. Her words didn't yet sound heartbroken or angered at my admission, but I was still too ashamed to look her in the eyes.

"Y-Yang, I'm sorry," I let out, the words barely more than a whisper as I found keeping my composure difficult. My words began to babble together. "It's not that I don't trust you, I promise. It's just that—"

" _Jaune_ ," Yang repeated, this time with more force behind it, though still not angry. She was strangely calm from what I could tell through our connection, without any traces of a negative reaction to my admission. "Look at me."

Despite myself, I obeyed, steeling myself for whatever I would find in her lilac eyes. They were the same as before, with the only difference being that they were more focused now.

"I need you to trust that I know what I'm doing, and that I am not letting her win." Yang's eyes hardened slightly, only enough to let me know how serious she was. I couldn't find it in myself to object, though the doubt certainly lingered. When Yang was certain that I was okay with that point, she continued. "Raven is…not completely the person you think she is. She—"

"Yang—!" I cut her off, my voice pleading with her to listen to herself.

"Jaune, _please_ , trust me on this," Yang cut back in, raising herself up on her arms to stare me down from above. I hated it, but I gave in eventually, the combination of how serious she was taking this and cracks of doubt in my own abilities to perceive the world finally winning out. That didn't mean that I liked it, or agreed with it, but I made the choice to accept it and trust her despite that. Or…I at least resolved to hear her out. "You don't see her honestly. You're too close to the situation to see it, but she…she doesn't _want_ to attack you. And she won't unless you do anything stupid that forces her to."

"Yang, that's just what she wants you to—"

" _Dammit, Jaune!_ " Yang let out in a frustrated huff, punctuated by bringing her fist down on my chest in a light punch. Her eyes were desperate, a feeling matched by her Aura, and the contrast shook me. "I said I need you to trust me, okay?"

Her voice was on the edge of cracking, sounding like tears were right around the corner; her glassy eyes supported that. I found myself giving in to her without any resistance from that point on.

"That's what we talked about, okay?! We talked about you. About how she sees you. About what she wants for you. She wasn't lying, okay?" Yang trailed off, that last sentence said a lot softer and more desperately than the ones before it. Yang's arms gave out and she collapsed back down onto my chest, burying her head there once more. "I know it feels like she's your enemy, but you need to let that go and try to see things differently. She's…she's willing to let you go, but you have to show her that she _can_ do that. Can you trust that I'm leading you down the best path to do that?"

She looked back up at me again, tears having welled up in her eyes but not yet spilled over. Nothing she had just said made sense. It made the opposite of sense. _Raven willing to let me go? After all this time and effort to keep me under her thumb, to make my life miserable, to control me even from half-way across Remnant?_ It sounded foolish, and I felt that was because it _is_ foolish.

But Yang was adamant about it. More than adamant about it; she was desperate that I believe it.

"Okay," I answered dumbly, overwhelmed by what had just happened. "Okay Yang, I…I'll trust you. I don't…I don't like this, but I'll trust _you_."

Yang looked at me for a few more moments before finally finding herself satisfied with that answer, then promptly buried her face in my chest once more.

"You said that she told you what she wants from me?" I asked tentatively after letting some time pass for us both to even out our emotions.

"Mmhmmm," Yang mumbled into my chest.

"What—"

I was cut off as Yang looked up to preempt my question, her eyes having been sufficiently dried by now.

"I can't tell you," she stated simply. I opened my mouth to respond but she continued. "And not because I don't want to. Raven…told me why she sent you to Beacon, and what she wants from you…from _us_. It's all based on you, though. I…don't know what will happen if I tell you. I don't know if knowing will inspire you to make sure it doesn't happen, or…if it will get inside your head and change things…"

"Like how it got inside your head?" I asked gently, doing my best to show Yang that I was trying to see things her way. I received a nod from Yang; it wasn't an answer I wanted to hear, but if Yang felt that whatever it was is compelling enough to get in her head, then maybe she was right that I shouldn't hear it. _It kills me to let her bear any burden on my behalf, though._

"What do we do, then?"

"We stay the course," Yang answered, shifting to lay her head sideways on my chest once more. "Without having to worry about Raven, things should get a lot easier."

That was the understatement of the year, as without a Maiden's shadow looming over me, there was basically nothing I needed to accomplish. I could focus on keeping my friends out of Ozpin's reach instead of conspiring to acquire a Maiden of my own.

It would have been fan-fucking-tastic to find this out _before_ I murdered the Fall Maiden's personal assistant and asked Pyrrha to steal Amber's powers for me.

"We just have to avoid doing anything stupid…"

"About…that…"

"Jaune," Yang let out nervously, reading the chagrin in my voice. "What… did you do last night?"

No doubt, Yang was now remembering that we had to make a pitstop to change me out of blood-stained clothes, and had possibly already connected that I had left her to go 'talk' with Cinder.

"In hindsight, only stupid things…"

" _Jaune…_ " Yang let out, more nervously than before.

"Do you want the bad news that can be reversed, or the bad news that _can't_ be reversed?"

Yang took a deep breath, punctuated with a sharp huff. Although her eyes were staring off to the side, I could somehow feel her giving me a flat stare.

"Reversible first."

"I told Pyrrha just about everything and asked her to steal Ozpin's Maiden."

"…god damnit, Jaune," Yang grumbled, though without any real anger behind it. "You couldn't have put that off for _one_ more night? You've been avoiding that for weeks now."

"No, I guess not," I answered with a soft chuckle at Yang's ire. "I haven't been dragged away in cuffs, so I'd say that she isn't going to turn me in. It'll be a little awkward, but I can tell her to… _not_ do that." Yang grumbled in agreeance, but said nothing else. "That's nothing that can't be undone."

Yang took a deep breath, letting it out in a resigned sigh.

"What's the irreversible one?" Yang asked, having steeled herself for the answer.

"Well, I went and confronted Cinder—you know, the bitch who set you up?"

" _I'm aware_ ," Yang grumbled, directing her ire both at Cinder and at me for trying to distract her.

"Well, it was just her, Emerald—the green-haired girl whose Semblance is what made you attack Mercury—and Neo in their dorm…"

"…what did you do?"

"I attacked them."

"You _attacked_ them?" Yang asked, her voice a mix of disbelief and an angered hiss. "You attacked a Maiden? You _idiot!_ "

It was not lost on me that if it weren't for me, she wouldn't even know the significance of her own words, but I let that slide.

" _And I won_ ," I added on smugly, throwing Yang for a loop as she leaned up to look at me quizzically. I took the opportunity to preen. "Took them by surprise. Walked right in, disemboweled Emerald in one move, and then choke-slammed Cinder up against a wall."

Yang's expression became mixed, a mix of surprise and worry working their way onto her face.

"I thought that maybe I could force her to come to some sort of understanding. After all, I had just killed her henchman and could have killed her, but let her go…" I let out a frustrated huff, the memory only serving to taunt me now, especially since the action served no purpose anymore. "At the time, I thought that all I needed was for her to back off for a day or two, just long enough for me to get Pyrrha on our side. Cinder would still come after me, but if we had the other half of the Fall Maiden, we could use that to…" I trailed off, my frustration mounting too high. "Forget it. Letting her live was probably a mistake then, but it _really_ looks like it now."

I took a deep breath, forcing myself to release the tension I held, before finally looking down to Yang.

Who was crying. Eyes wide in shock, staring at me with such raw emotion as a tear slowly fell down one cheek.

"Hey, it's okay, Yang," I mumbled comfortingly, wrapping my arms around Yang's shoulder and head. She let me, and went back to clutching onto to me desperately, burying her face into my chest one more time. "It's okay, I promise. We're going to make it through this. If I could beat her once, I can do it again, and I'm not alone. I won't face her alone again, I'll have you and Pyrrha. Maybe even Neo. _We're going to win this, Yang._ "

Yang mumbled something in my chest too softly for me to hear. When she finally looked back up, she still looked reserved, doubts and fears still taking their hold in her, though she did not let them control her. In the end, that's what is going to matter.

* * *

Cinder's POV

* * *

"Did you miss me that much?" Mercury called out with a smirk as I entered the warehouse he was holed up in. One of his robotic legs was sitting on the workbench in front of him as he tinkered with it, doing what was needed to be ready for our move. The plan _had_ been to strike tonight, and while the time table hadn't changed, much else had, hence my visit.

"Plans have changed. Too much so to risk discussing it over scroll," I answered as I approached. Our scrolls were fine, with Watts' virus buried in Atlas' systems and Vale's CCT so deeply that I would know if someone was trying to tap the lines. I just had to make myself scarce; too much noise had been made last night, and sticking around Beacon when it wasn't strictly necessary was a bad idea.

"Gotcha," Mercury answered, not bothering to hide his disinterest as he focused back on his project. "Where's your green shadow?"

"Emerald will not be participating anymore," I answered carefully. "Hence the change to our plans."

" _Emerald_ deserted?" Mercury asked, disbelief in his voice.

"Emerald stopped breathing," I corrected him, taking a small pleasure in his confusion and surprise, though it did nothing to placate the frustration from the night before.

"What the _fuck?_ " Mercury growled under his breath. "I'm gone for one night, and…"

"Finish that sentence," I dared venomously, shooting him a glare that warned him that he would get to reunite with his partner if he pushed his luck.

"Sorry," he cowed out. "What happened? Who got Emerald?"

"A former ally," I answered coyly, "with the emphasis on _former_."

Mercury looked at me with his brows furrowed, trying to figure out my meaning.

"Arc?" he asked finally.

"It seems that we underestimated him. He took exception to how Xiao Long was used and got the drop on us."

"He got the drop on all three of you?" Mercury asked, his tone dangerously close to implying something that his health would prefer he didn't imply. "I didn't see him as the type, at least not for killing someone in cold blood. _Huh._ "

"Yes," I growled, pacing around the room. "It seems that there is much to him that was previously unseen." He knew of Salem and Ozpin, knew of the Maidens, and was prepared for when I attacked him with my limited powers. That spoke of discipline that could only be instilled by a handful of people, and he had me by the throat in a single move. There was no telling how strong he is, but it seems safe to say that I would have to be a fool to assume his Beacon spars were an honest assessment. He even possesses some means of bypassing Aura, making him dangerous if you let him get in close.

"What's the plan, then?" Mercury asked, rolling his shoulders to loosen them up. "Go after his team? Hit him in the changing rooms? Shoot down his bullhead?"

"Nothing," I answered quietly. It wasn't a plan that I was still fond of, but it was a practical one.

" _Nothing?_ " Mercury repeated, shocked. "We're just going to let him get away with killing Em?"

"Right now, Jaune Arc is a distraction. His attack on us was clearly unplanned, and I get the sense that he is _not_ ready to make any moves so soon," I explained. He will come to regret letting me go so easily, if he did not regret the action immediately. _If limiting collateral damage truly was a concern of his, then no extra attack will be needed to cause him strife._ "All we need is to make it to tonight. Once we make our move, it won't matter if he knows who we are. _Everyone_ will know who we are after tonight."

"And what if he goes to Ozpin?" Mercury asked pointedly.

"What would it change?" I asked, shrugging the question off. It certainly didn't feel like something Arc would do; if he already knew about us and hadn't turned us in before, he wasn't likely to do so now. "Ozpin already knows that Amber's attacker draws near. What could Ozpin do in the next twelve hours that would prevent us from using Watts' virus, the Festival, and the White Fang? So long as I made it out of Beacon—which I did—then nothing Jaune Arc can do will affect us."

Mercury was unconvinced, which was fine. He was muscle, nothing more, even if he did show flashes of competence from time to time.

"With Emerald dead, how do you plan on pulling off tonight?" he asked finally, though it was clear that he still had his doubts about letting Arc go. He wasn't alone in that, but there would be a better time. Salem would want to know of him before anything final was done on the matter, meaning that going after him now was off the table, if a successful ambush could even be arranged.

"Much less subtly," I answered with a coy grin. "Making Nikos the architect of the Festival's destruction is off the table without Emerald's Semblance, so instead…we'll have to go with a more direct approach."

"Adam?"

I nodded. It appeared Mercury was beginning to grasp the situation now.

"Adam knows that he is being used, but quite frankly, he couldn't pass up the opportunity to strike such a devastating blow to Atlas' reputation. _Especially_ not now that I've offered him to make him the headline of the night."

The plan was no longer so elegant as destroying Atlas' robotic experiment at the hands of Mistral's former and Beacon's current champion, but would be arguably more devastating. With Watts' virus owning nearly everything Festival-related, smuggling in explosives and White Fang soldiers will be easy enough, even on the short notice. From there, during the peak of what should be the most-watched event in all of Remnant, a strike on the civilians in the stands by bomb and blade should get the Grimm to invade. Add in Adam on a hot microphone announcing the White Fang's intent to bring Vale to its knees, and the subsequent takeover of Atlas' robot army, and Ozpin will be forced to send any forces to Amity or Vale, leaving Amber insufficiently protected. _It would have been better if Torchwick hadn't attacked early and gotten all Paladins confiscated, but at least Atlas has increased their garrison in Vale as a result—a garrison of Atlesian Knights and Paladins, the fools._

Mercury's eyes trailed off and he nodded absently as he thought over Adam's expanded role in tonight.

"What about Neo?" Mercury asked eventually. "Her role changed any?"

"Slightly," I answered, a hint of anger slipping free in my voice. The girl's implicit betrayal from the night before still stung, a looming reminder that there were no such thing as allies, only people not yet trying to kill you. "She stood by and let Arc have a free shot at Emerald and me. Her loyalties never lied with us, but I didn't expect Roman would try to make his move until he actually held enough cards to pull it off successfully." And in the girl's defense, had Jaune Arc wanted to, he could have ended things in one move. Neo was certainly cheering for my death, and while Arc may be too difficult a target for retaliation, Roman and his pet were not.

"What's the plan, then?" Mercury asked, perking up in anticipation that he would be needed for this.

"Currently, she's using her Semblance to dispose of the evidence from last nights incident. By the time anyone learns of Emerald's absence, it won't matter," I answered, recalling Neo stuffing Emerald and the bloodied sheets into a suitcase and using her Semblance to make it innocuous. She likely had experience dumping bodies. "As for retaliation, let's just say I've asked Watts to make a few slight…alterations to his coding. Once Neo frees Roman, he'll take over Atlas' command ship and clear the skies. Once the onboard radar reads that there are no airships remaining, the command ship will detonate its dust stores all at once."

"You think that'll take care of them?"

I shrugged. The original plan had been to let Roman have his petty freedom once he hijacked Atlas' fleet. So long as he wasn't stupid enough to waste his newfound freedom by attacking Beacon while I was still there, he could do whatever he wanted with that thing. There is no outcome of _Roman Torchwick_ hijacking the largest battleship in history that does not increase fear and bring more Grimm, even if all he does is turn tail and flee.

"If it doesn't, it will leave them stranded in Vale during an extinction-level Grimm attack. Either way, they'll be out of our hair."

Mercury shrugged, before returning back to working on his leg.

"What's the plan for me then?"

"Hasn't changed. You'll still be assisting me on the ground."

Mercury grumbled his agreement, and the conversation ended. I walked over to the desk against one of the warehouse walls, still strewn about with old dust-heist plans of Torchwick's strewn about. This place was one of several dust storage facilities, one of the subtler preparations for the coming attack: less dust for defense. It now played the double purpose of increasing the number of explosives that could be smuggled onto Amity by tonight.

With nothing better to do, I took a seat at the desk and pulled out a scroll, opening back up Watts' backdoor application and returning to Ozpin's private files. The Wizard was an arrogant man if nothing else, and organized to boot, keeping all his blackmail and research on Jaune Arc in one centralized location. Notes from meetings, sparring clips, security footage, Atlas after-action reports… it was everything I could have asked for on the man in question and then some.

I had already spent some time earlier reading through all of Ozpin's own notes on the subject until I felt I had a solid background of who Jaune Arc is, or who Ozpin suspects him to be. What caught my eye now was the newest addition to the collection, an audio file of about twenty minutes length that was uploaded late last night. Going by the time stamp, it was added to Ozpin's collection within an hour of Jaune attacking me. With nothing better to do, I hit play.

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

There was a weird, partial silence that fell over the table as our two teams ate—an early dinner, so that Pyrrha would have time to settle into her pre-fight routine before our team's singles match later tonight. Only three of the eight of us knew _why_ there was a strange tension at the table—Ren, Nora, Weiss, Ruby, and Blake were all oblivious to what had happened the night before. Fortunately, they tried to not focus on it, instead attributing it to awkwardness following the Mercury incident; a convenient excuse if ever there were one. Idly, I noted that between me and Yang, the only member of Cinder's team that hadn't been assaulted yet was Neo— _wait, no, I fought Neo at the docks way back at the beginning of the semester._ Make that _all_ of Cinder's team that Yang and I have terrorized.

Although silent and a bit awkward, I had kept a watchful eye on Pyrrha, studying her to see if there was any apprehension towards me after last night. Awkward though it may have been—I _had_ confessed murder to her, among other things—she didn't shy away from my gaze. She felt confident enough to at least meet my eyes, and I couldn't read any guilt there. I find it unlikely that _Pyrrha_ could go behind my back and then face me without any shred of guilt.

She had also asked me if we could talk again tonight, after her match. She seemed nervous, but I didn't detect any hints that she was setting me up. I agreed to meet her, still needing the chance to tell her to _not_ do what I had asked her last night.

"So, who's been eliminated today?" I asked, turning to my right to direct the question to the five people at the table who were not too busy, stressed, or paranoid to have watched any of the fights. Blake and then Weiss sat to my right and Yang to my left, subtly and intentionally putting me between Yang and everyone else. Yang indicated that she hadn't felt all that supported by her team last night, and didn't protest when she noticed what I was doing. On the other side of the table, Pyrrha sat on the end to my left, putting her across from Yang. From there, it went Nora, Ren, and finally Ruby.

"Sun got eliminated this afternoon," Blake announced unceremoniously, before taking a bite of toast. "It was…bad."

"Blake's being modest," Weiss chimed in. "He was annihilated. I honestly don't know how his team even made it to the singles rounds…"

Several pairs of eyes looked at Weiss and Blake in shock, wondering how Blake would react to Weiss' words. Blake and Sun were close…close-ish? They had gone to the dance together, at least.

Blake shrugged, not disagreeing with Weiss' assessment, before going back to her food.

"There were some other really cool fights, too!" Ruby cut in when it was clear that we were done talking about Sun. "No one else that we know yet. Penny still hasn't fought. _Oooo—_ " Ruby trailed off excitedly, eyes flicking back and forth between Pyrrha and me. "Maybe you guys will have to fight Penny!"

Pyrrha and I exchanged a look. That name sounded familiar, but it didn't mean anything to me.

"Who?"

"Penny! The girl from the docks?" Ruby answered cheerfully. I let out an ' _oh_ ' to let Ruby know that I was on the same page now. I remembered there being _someone_ at the docks, but I spent more time fighting White Fang grunts and getting Blake and Sun to safety. The fight at the docks had gone in our favor, though, so this Penny person was probably not too shabby. "Which one of you is gonna fight?"

"I—"

"What's it to _you_ , Ruby?" I asked, pretending to give Ruby a suspicious glare. "You planning on running off to warn Penny or something?"

"W-What? _Noooo_ , that's…" Ruby's eyes shifted to her teammates, looking for someone to come to her aid. There were no takers. "… _maybe…_ But only now that you suggested it, I swear!"

I rolled my eyes, and Ruby shot me a playful glare as she stuck her tongue out at me, making it clear that she knew full well what I was doing and was just playing along.

"We decided on our team strategy for the whole tournament before our first fight," I announced, getting back to Ruby's question.

"We thought about sending Jaune, but whenever he's involved in spars, someone tends to get hurt," Ren explained, the corners of his mouth smirking slightly. Although told as a joke, he had actually brought that up as a concern during our original team meeting, and I had to promise to be on my best behavior during the Festival, although I did so mockingly.

My eyes flicked a few tables over, catching sight of Team CRDL, as a timely reminder that I had already failed at that, and not even on purpose this time. _Maybe there was something to this._

"My job is causing injuries, so we decided that singles fights would be Pyrrha's job," I concluded for Ren.

"What were Ren and Nora's jobs?" Weiss asked from the end of the table, more out of curiosity than anything.

"I was just there as a diversion during our group fight," Ren answered simply. He wasn't wrong, as his and Nora's roles were to take pot shots at anyone while Pyrrha and I handled them.

"And my job was to break my enemies!" Nora concluded enthusiastically, if not overdramatically. "Just not, like, the way Yang—"

It was obvious that Nora regretted the words as soon as she realized what she was saying, but it didn't take a genius to figure out what she was implying. The table went dead-silent and a nervous tension filled the air as the table looked at Nora in shock.

" _Nora,_ " I growled venomously, fixing my teammate with a glare designed to physically harm her if at all possible from just a look. Nora's face was already heating up and she shrunk in on herself like she wanted to crawl under the table, but that wasn't enough.

Yang's hand coming to rest gently on my arm broke me from my thoughts and forced me to calm down a bit. The motion drew attention from the table to Yang, who was doing her best to let the insult roll off and not phase her.

"It's fine," she announced, a bit of agitation in her voice that sounded more like frustration at the group for getting so nervous over it. Despite the gentle touch on my arm, she was slightly rigid, likely from having to force herself not to react to Nora's blunder. "Seriously, guys, I'm a big girl. I think I'm tough enough to handle a little banter…"

No one said anything afterwards, but it was clear that Yang would be more bothered by the group making a big deal out of this, so everyone slowly went back to eating. There was still an awkward feeling in the air, though, and I never was one to let those hang for long.

"Oh, so _now_ you're really tough," I drawled mockingly, earning a sideways glance from Yang as she grew concerned with wherever this was going. "But you whined like hell because it ' _hurt too much_ ' when I put a finger in your—"

Yang swung her arm at me violently, chopping me in the throat with enough force to knock me backwards off the cafeteria bench. I landed flat on my back, sputtering for air in a mixture of violent coughing and laughter. Ignoring the looks from around the cafeteria, I picked myself off the ground and returned to my seat, sporting a wide grin at the glare Yang was sending my way. Her eyes faded from red back to lilac, but her red cheeks only got brighter as she looked up and make awkward eye contact with the table. Ruby, in particular, was as red as her cape, which coincidentally she looked like she wanted to smother herself in at the moment.

"You know, if you hadn't reacted so strongly, they would have assumed I was being a jackass…"

Yang's elbow dug into my ribs, but the ensuing wince wasn't enough to keep me from laughing harder.

"You were being a jackass either way," Blake supplied from next to me. She gave me a flat glare, but even she wasn't immune to the embarrassment, with a slight tinge of red in her face. By all accounts though, she was the least red member of the table, myself included.

"Pyrrha, don't you think it's time to go get ready for your fight?" Weiss asked loudly, very obviously looking for a good reason to leave the table.

"Since when does Pyrrha need _you_ for that, Weiss?" I teased, letting her know how obvious it was to see through her ploy.

"I-I think that Weiss has the right idea," Pyrrha mumbled, rising from her seat and gathering her tray. Everyone at the table except Yang and I did the same. "My fight is in an hour, after all."

Before I could make any further comments, my scroll buzzed with a message, making a loud noise as it vibrated on the wood of the table. I reached down and glanced at it out of curiosity.

"Who is it?" Yang asked.

"Ms. Goodwitch," I answered, loud enough for the rest of the group to hear as they gathered their trays. "She wants to see me about something real quick. Should I ask her about what to do with these fingers?" I asked with a shit-eating grin, waggling the fingers of my right hand in the air obnoxiously.

"You had better not be doing _anything_ with those fingers to Ms. Goodwitch," Yang growled, giving me a glare that told me that I wasn't yet forgiven.

"You do realize she _will_ kill you if you say that to her?" Blake asked me in a tone that said that only someone stupid would do it, and she wasn't sure just how stupid I was.

"You have _my_ permission to try it," Weiss grumbled, shooting me a frown and a flat look.

"I'm touched," I responded sarcastically, before standing up and collecting Yang's tray and my own. "I'll do my best not to get killed, but she did ask me to meet her in one of the training rooms, so maybe she's just planning ahead. I'll catch up with you all at Amity when I get out."

That seemed to be enough for the group, although there were a few suspicious glances at the fact that Yang wasn't immediately going along with them. Although I really did have a meeting with Ms. Goodwitch, they probably just suspected that I had made it up so Yang and I could get some alone time. It would more than explain the continued glares from Weiss. _At some point, she's just going to have to get over it, although I have no intentions of taking the high road and_ not _messing with her about it._

"Ms. Goodwitch wants to meet you in a training room…?" Yang asked, keeping her voice low and giving me a nervous look.

"Yeah," I answered, pulling the message back up.

"Do you think it's about…" her voice trailed down and her eyes flicked around the cafeteria nervously. She stressed a knowing look to me, not wanting to say anything out loud.

"Anything I told Pyrrha?" I filled in softly, earning a nervous frown from Yang, and a small nod. "No, probably not. She asked me to meet in the same room that we spent the night in…"

"…oh. Does she think we…did something in there?"

I shrugged.

"There _were_ security cameras in there—" _one of the reasons I felt safe enough to even close my eyes in there, along with the locked door,_ "—but if she read from the log that we had it reserved all night, she might not want to risk looking at those logs…"

"Are you sure?"

" _Eh_ ," I answered, downplaying Yang's concern. "It's Ms. Goodwitch. She still feels bad for having it out for me earlier in the semester. I'll be fine."

"I don't like it," Yang let out softly, letting a little bit of fear show in her eyes. "Do you mind if I wait on you here before going to Amity?"

"This isn't Atlas. You're free to do what you want," I responded goofily, leaning in to plant a kiss on Yang's cheek. "I'll be back in a few minutes. Don't worry, I'll be sure to remind Ms. Goodwitch that you are _equally_ culpable for whatever she thinks happened."

* * *

I made it through the doorway of the training room, looking up to find Ms. Goodwitch was indeed looking over security footage on one of the wall-monitors normally used for displaying Aura readings, keeping her back to me as she watched a mostly motionless video of what looked like Yang and I taking a nap on the lounge couch. The only thing that gave any indication that it was night was the time stamp at the bottom.

As soon as I was through the doorway, the door closed behind me, hissing as it sealed closed, before a soft click announced that the door had locked. A chill shot down my spine. The door locking was nothing new, nor was the automatic nature of the door, but it required user input. A quick glance behind me revealed that there was no one on the other side of the small glass window to have shut the door. _Someone just locked me in here, remotely._

"Fuck."

A chill went down my spine. My head whipped to the side and my hand fell down to Crocea at my hip—Angau was still in my locker, as was my armor and my dagger. I saw nothing to my right, and then again nothing to my left. I looked up, and—

A bird had been diving at me from the high ceiling, and I had only enough time to move on instinct, diving into a roll off to the side. Qrow's sword impacted the ground where I had been standing almost as soon as I was no longer standing there.

Mind racing, I had precious few moments to think before Qrow would be ready to attack again. I glanced around the room, curious what the chances were that this was some sort of prank, or test, or training exercise. I ruled that out, as Glynda had turned around with her crop in hand and an unreadable frown on her face, and Ozpin himself stepped out from behind one of the weapon racks with his cane in hand. It was Qrow who really ruled that out, though, as Ozpin's left-hand man had a murderous look on his face, directed solely at me.

 _He knows._

"I told you that he'd see that coming," Ozpin called out to Qrow as he and Glynda both took a few steps towards me. Oz was sporting a bemused smile and had offered the words with a distant chuckle, falling into his practiced, grandfatherly persona that was typically so effective. It _was_ effective, too, enough to cause me to doubt whether or not this was actually an ambush, or simply a meeting called where Qrow was allowed a loose leash.

The game was on.

"I'd apologize for Qrow's antics, but I'd rather not make a habit of cleaning up his messes for fear that he might get used to it," Ozpin offered to me, his face soft and neutral, though his eyes watched me curiously. More curiously than usual, which was saying something. He kept his hands folded in front of himself, one resting atop the other resting atop his cane. It was a stance designed to make him look less threatening, but knowing what he's capable of with that cane, it had the opposite effect on me. "I'm sure you're wondering why you're here…"

"No," I growled lowly. "No, I think I have a pretty good idea."

Ozpin's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly, though his face remained otherwise unchanged, almost unnaturally so. Glynda tensed at my hostile reply and Qrow still looked like he was waiting for a good reason to take my head off, both of which made me more and more certain that I was royally fucked. _Either they know about Raven, they know about Cinder, or they know about Roman._

Qrow's ire suggested to me that it was Raven they knew about, which is _bad_.

Ozpin and I stared each other down, tension slowly mounting with each second.

"I believe it's past time that we had an honest talk," Ozpin announced coyly, his words holding a smug aura of finality about them. He had a clear tactical superiority within this room, and he was leaning into that, caring less and less with each second for resolving things peacefully. Peace, after all, would be to my benefit; right now, conflict would only ensure his victory.

That didn't stop me from trying, though, as my right hand shot down to grip the pommel of Crocea Mors.

"I believe you're wrong," I answered back hostilely, mimicking the smug way he had spoken in just to add mockery.

I made to draw my sword, but it wouldn't budge, remaining stuck at my side. My eyes flicked down and verified that there was nothing wrong with the weapon, and when I looked back up, my eyes immediately noticed that Ms. Goodwitch was holding her riding crop out at me. Ozpin's expression did not change in the slightest, yet I could feel his smugness increasing as he displayed the full power imbalance of the room. As if on cue, Qrow sauntered over to stand near Oz, keeping his weapon drawn and staring me down like he was circling an opponent.

Having made it clear to me that I would be able to offer no resistance, Ozpin felt free to speak a little more candidly.

"You know, there were more than a few conversations about you that were had when you first enrolled here, Mr. Arc," Ozpin began smugly. There was a slight, sullen sadness to his voice, either based in frustration or exasperation. Possibly both, depending on how much he had learned about me. "Your background, general talent for aversion, and even your mannerisms reminded me heavily of Qrow, though often times, the question that was asked about you was: would he turn out to be a Qrow, or a Raven?" The corners of Ozpin's mouth pulled up slightly in a ghost of a smirk. " _Ironic_ , don't you think?"

 _Well, that was…subtle._ It explains why Qrow looks ready to tear my head off. The know about my connections to Raven.

My eyes flicked around the room, scanning my surroundings for anything that could be used in my favor. If Ozpin chose this room because he thought I'd come here not suspecting anything more than a lecture from Glynda, then he gets a point there, but it also means that he may not have been able to 100% ensure that there was nothing I could use. Unfortunately, there wasn't much; no windows to jump through aside from the small glass one in the door that I wouldn't fit through anyways. The weapons rack held potential, but given Goodwitch's Semblance, that was likely to work against me in a repeat of the final act of my official spar against Pyrrha: a whirlwind of steel cutting me down.

"I don't see any connection. Sadly, I'm not named after a bird," I quipped back, doing whatever I could to buy time or increase my chances later. I cut my eyes to Qrow, intending to expound upon that second part. "Nor am I named after some teenager's edgy spelling of a bird."

Qrow growled lowly at me, but his expression didn't change because he couldn't manage to look more furious than he already did. Chances are, it wasn't even the words that angered them, but the fact that I would single him out and challenge him. If it riled him up, though, it would let me use that aggression against him. That always held the risk of the infuriated party fighting better than normal, but that's not common. A good bet to take? No, but better than my current odds.

"Let's not do anything rash, now, Mr. Arc," Ozpin called out, making it clear that he understood my intention to get under Qrow's skin. "Nothing has transpired yet that cannot be forgiven or forgotten. I would simply ask that we end hostilities and that you come with us peacefully." It was not a request. "I believe the time has come for us both to lay our cards on the table, is it not?"

Qrow and Glynda both tensed, watching me anxiously, lending further credence to the notion that I was going with them, peacefully or otherwise.

I need to get a message to Yang, a warning of some sort, making sure that she won't be blindsided. There's no way that Ozpin would let me pull out my scroll and text her, though; I have to buy that opportunity. There _is_ a way to do that, and a plan started forming in my head: I have a shield, and enough Aura to buy me some time to send a message from behind that shield.

"I think we both know that there isn't much to be learned from that, for _either_ of us," I growled lowly. There was nothing that Ozpin was going to reveal to me that I didn't already know from Raven, and it sounded like he already knew about her somehow. While finding out how that happened was tempting, there really would be nothing gained on either side by us both revealing our least-valued secrets. _Oz wants more than whatever I'm willing to freely admit anyways, so the offer was pointless from the start._ A placation, an invitation to start telling secrets in order to loosen my lips and trick me into telling more… If he thinks he's getting _anything_ from me, he had better reconsider.

My hand tightened its grip around Crocea Mors. The sword was still stuck in place from Glynda's Semblance, but I have a way around that, ironically developed as a means of stopping Pyrrha's Semblance.

"I'm sure that Amber would disagree."

Ozpin's words jarred me, their implication hitting me immediately. He knew that I knew about Amber. He knew that I was hiding something about Amber. He…did he know that I know who Amber's attacker is? If so, _he_ doesn't know who that attacker is—which mean that it likely wasn't Cinder herself that tipped Ozpin off, and that would only have been if she knew about Raven. It all pointed to Pyrrha, as angering as that possibility sounded. I had only told her _last night_ , but how else would Ozpin know about Raven and about Cinder without knowing her identity? _Yang knows who Cinder is, but I hid her name from Pyrrha on purpose._ Now Ozpin shows up the next day armed with this very specific knowledge?

I've been betrayed.

"I'm sure that she said nothing of the sort," I responded venomously, meaning it in the most literal sense, as Amber was in no position to speak. My knuckles went white as I gripped Crocea Mors harder, anger boiling up further the longer I thought about how I had been betrayed.

Normally, Qrow would have snorted at a retort like mine, but instead, his anger at me grew a little louder in the form of a growl. Even Ms. Goodwitch recoiled angrily at my comment, no doubt angered that I knew enough of her condition to make such observations.

Ozpin stepped forward a few paces, his steps slow and methodical, ringing out softly on the training room floor, as did the taps of his cane. He stopped when it suited him, leaving Glynda and Qrow standing off behind him by a few feet.

"I'll admit curiosity over a great deal of things about you, _Jaune Arc_ ," Ozpin announced, saying my name slowly and deliberately, as if it held some extra meaning that he wanted to bring attention to. "Many of those things can wait, but you know the identity of two different Maidens, and I _cannot_ afford not knowing them any longer."

"Why are you asking me? Qrow knows where the Spring Maiden is, too," I answered smugly, feeling the surprise and then renewed hatred from Qrow as I ratted him out. Raven had made me aware that Qrow was under the impression that Vernal was Spring. Somehow, I wouldn't doubt that Raven told me that solely so that I could make Qrow look bad at some point.

"Even so," Ozpin said, concealing his surprise from those behind him, "I'm going to have to ask you for the other one."

There was a tense silence as I refused to answer. Ozpin's eyes narrowed on me, likely gauging how long it would be before he needed to give up on asking nicely and take the leash off of Qrow.

"She's an exchange student," I answered finally, letting out a sigh to feign like I was giving in. In reality, my blood was pumping and I could feel my adrenaline building. "Her name is _fuck you._ "

Ozpin closed his eyes and shook his head softly, as if ashamed that such an answer had surprised him. It had all but sealed my fate.

"It's Mistralian, I think."

After a soft shake of his head, Ozpin turned his head in Qrow's direction, eyes still closed. It was all the permission Qrow needed, lunging at me at full speed, winding up his sword to deliver a devastating blow. Goodwitch's Semblance held my sword in place, making me a sitting duck for the blow.

That is, until I channeled my Aura into Crocea Mors. The ancient blade conducted Aura like no other weapon I've ever used, completely coating itself in my Aura—and subsequently stopping Glynda's Semblance from having any effect on it. Qrow came in from my right and I drew my still-sheathed blade, catching and parrying the blade in the middle of my sheath with my hand on either side. I pushed Qrow across me, forcing him to follow his momentum, and I drew my sword out of its sheath as that sheath forced Qrow's blade past me. With Crocea Mors now free, I scored an easy lunge at Qrow's exposed stomach, before dropping back out of engagement range and deploying my shield.

I took Qrow's blow to my sheath directly with my Aura, it being the only way to prevent Glynda from getting a hold of the object. I could feel that hit reverberating throughout my soul, like metaphysically hitting your funny bone or receiving a spiritual nut-tap—a fucking uncomfortable feeling to say the least. The one upside to using my Aura this way was that it made my shield and sword glow a bright cream color, further obscuring the fact that I had my scroll held in my left hand, hidden by my shield.

 _Me: Oz knows.  
Me: Run. _

There was no time to send anything more substantive to Yang, leaving me praying that she'd figure out some way to prepare for this. Like the idiot I am, I mentioned that Yang is involved to Pyrrha.

 _I swear, there is not enough magic in this world to protect Pyrrha if she sends them after Yang, too._

Qrow hadn't yet recovered and Glynda was slowly making her approach, so I took the opportunity to drop my scroll on the ground and smash it with my foot. It wouldn't matter if they knew what I had done; what mattered is that it was done, and Yang would get away. The smallest of victories, but still something to be smug about as they pummeled me into the ground.

Pummeled may not have been a strong enough term, though. This battle, if it could have been called that, was simply a waiting game on their part. I had to fully encase myself and my weapon in my own Aura to keep Ms. Goodwitch from using her Semblance on me, meaning that they simply had to wear down that Aura to 0, and they'd win. And having to take every blow on my Aura meant that wearing it down did not take long at all.

Glynda and Ozpin held back as Qrow flew at me, his attacks fueled by rage and fury. From his point of view, it wasn't hard to understand exactly why he was angry at me: I was raised by his sister, who abandoned her daughter, who I was now dating. Those optics were bad, but could potentially be worse; if Pyrrha had told them that Yang was working with me, he'd have even more reason to hate me.

Fighting with his weapon in sword-form, Qrow's attacks were slower than Raven's normally are, even despite the rage fueling him. That said, the power behind Qrow's swings were staggering, his blade having significantly more mass than Raven's normal ones, and I found myself continuously being backed down. Even my best parry would allow Qrow to chip away at my Aura, making this a fight I was not capable of winning. With my scroll smashed, I couldn't check my Aura count, but I had a suspicion that I had taken more damage from blocking Qrow's opening attack than I had dealt to him afterwards.

All I could do was pedal back and try to avoid Qrow's attacks entirely. He knew this and didn't even bother trying to force me to open up, instead pursuing me and hacking away at center mass, forcing me to have to block.

The only surprising part of the fight was that Glynda stopped Qrow from attacking when it was clear my Aura had shattered. Instead, he was pulled aside, and Ozpin strode forward until he was a mere five feet away. He had something to say, and I was more than content to let him do so; I needed to catch my breath, Qrow having given me just about as much as I could handle, all while not dealing back any damage of my own. This fight was nearly over, and I had come up empty as far as plans go.

"For what it is worth, I do not believe you to be the enemy, Jaune. There's still time for this to end peacefully."

Ozpin waited, his offer hanging in the air. Tiredly, I raised my shield and raised Crocea Mors' tip over the top edge, pointing it at Ozpin and making my answer clear. ' _Peacefully_ ' was just a code word standing in for me bending the knee. He would have to force me to do that.

"So be it," Ozpin announced disappointedly, twirling his cane in his right hand before whipping it out to his side.

And then he _moved_ , and holy hell, did he move fast. He lunged directly at me, and I caught the blow on my shield, but didn't expect the sheer force behind it. I staggered backwards and Ozpin went to stab at my toes with his cane, hoping to get me to fall backwards. I stuck my sword out to catch that blow, only for Ozpin to slide his cane all the way up my sword at my body once his first target was taken away. I moved to duck my head behind my shield and Ozpin's cane brushed by my hair, narrowly missing. I swiped up at Ozpin's torso from where he had left my sword at, seeking to use his overextension against him, but he lazily sidestepped the blow and brought the full force of his cane down on my sword-arm's wrist.

The blow rattled my hand, but I did not drop my weapon, knowing on an instinctual level that to do so meant death. So focused was I on maintaining that grip that I failed to realize that Ozpin's sidestep had put him to my left side, giving him a free window to strike at my unprotected flank. I flinched and brought my shield up, ducking my head and torso behind it, only to let out a pained yelp at Ozpin's cane struck the back of my knee, sending me crumbling down onto one leg. Ozpin reared back to smack me across the head and I threw my shield up in front of me at an awkward angle, only to have the thing knocked completely free of my arm.

I tried to move over to where it had landed, but my left leg still wobbled from the blow it had taken, leaving me immobile. Ozpin calmly walked over and picked my shield up, idly inspecting the weapon and the crest on its front.

With Ozpin distracted, I made my last move, one final desperate act of defiance. Planting off the only good leg I had, I lunged forward in a bastardized fencer's move with Crocea Mors, hoping to score a stab that would deliver me a moral victory. Ozpin shifted my shield into a sheath with an ease that spoke of practice or familiarity, catching my blow in the middle of the sheath with his arms on either side in the same manner that I had parried Qrow's opening attack earlier. He knocked the blow up above him lazily, and my momentum carried me forward into him, unable to use my other leg to stop myself.

Ozpin caught me right in the throat with the side edge of the scabbard, with enough force to knock me off my feet and flat on my back. I spun around immediately upon hitting the ground, pushing myself up onto my hands and knees and coughing violently, struggling to draw air. Without Aura, I had no way of ensuring that my throat hadn't just been crushed, and panic began to set in with each second that I couldn't seem to draw air.

Ozpin's feet slowly made their way over to me, and all the strength I could muster left me only able to look up at the doorway in front of me, still panicking at the thought that suffocation was right around the corner for me. There was a small hint of yellow to the window, and panic further washed over me as I realized that Yang hadn't taken my advice to run. She had come here, and possibly delivered herself to them on a silver platter, one that would rival the one that I had served myself over on. Desperately— _limply—_ I shook my head at her, trying to impart to her on some level _no, Yang, save yourself, not me._

To my greatest relief, the yellow disappeared from the window, and after ten seconds that lasted an eternity, I was able to successfully gasp for air.

It was the last thing I remember before Ozpin's cane sent my world fading to black.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: hooo boy, are things ever getting spicy... Also, this makes over 30,000 words within the same 24-hour period of the story. _This is going to be the longest (plot) climax ever_...**

 **Let's start with the easy stuff: Jaune's been had. And Pyrrha is the reason why, at least as far as Jaune can figure while dealing with the situation at hand. Did he overplay his hand? Did he say the wrong thing? Did his partner decide to sell him out and then sit there through dinner without any emotion at all?**

 **The four different mental states around the room in that last scene are interesting. Qrow's furious, feeling duped by Jaune and Raven, which is fair. It only hurts more that Yang is so invested in Jaune, and that Qrow just decided to trust Yang's judgement on the matter a few chapters ago. Glynda has to be taking this with difficulty, too, because she had it out for Jaune early and often, and had to force herself to ignore her initial instincts and give the kid the benefit of the doubt. Jaune is, well, angered and stressed, obviously. And Ozpin? Betrayals and disappointments aren't anything new to him, but I would imagine it doesn't mean this isn't aggravating.**

 **At least Jaune doesn't have to worry about Cinder gunning for him. She's only gunning for Vale's entire civilian population, all of Amity Arena, and Amber downstairs, but with the Raven threat at least put to the back, that's a thing less for Jaune to deal with. 'Tis a shame it couldn't have happened one day sooner, but then again, everything that's developed here now is just the reactions to Cinder's first move. Cinder frames Yang, Jaune attacks Cinder and Yang goes to Raven, then Raven offers to back down. All of it or none of it, I suppose.**

 **And then Jaune and Yang's nice moment there at the beginning, which cannot have been easy for Jaune. Or, maybe it was harder on Yang. Her talk with Raven the night before clearly rattled her, even if she was able to turn down Raven's offer; she couldn't find the words to prove Raven wrong, though.**

 **Something tells me that Jaune's actions the night before aren't insignificant to her.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _Zexs_

"I'm hoping all this forces Jaune back into Ravens arms. At the end of the day Vale is going to fall there are just to many pieces on the board at this point, and narratively splitting the party with half in Ravens outer heaven allows and the other on team ozpin allows a very different story to be told. The creation of a third faction with multiple maidens is a legitimate threat to all sides that could blitz half the relics. It's a necessary one to break the stalemate and force the beginnings of an endgame."

 **Raven with Beacon's Relic _and_ Haven's Relic would be something to contend with. To be _feared_ even. That would force Raven into the conflict between Salem and Ozpin whether she wants it or not, because having two Relics out of their Vault and two Maidens under one banner is an open challenge to both sides. With all her talk of strength, Raven sure doesn't want to have to prove it by standing tall against _that_. **

**She even said as much now that securing the Fall Maiden isn't a priority and never was, just more of a curiosity. Just checking to see if the stars align for her to take it. Of course, if it was right in front of her, I'd be she'd take the opportunity and sort things out afterwards. After all, that's how she got Spring's powers for herself.**

 **Or, well, it _could_ be. Guess you guys will have to wait to see if I ever reveal how that went down. _If it's narratively or thematically important, it'll probably show up eventually._**


	53. One Year Anniversary

**Author's Note: This chapter hit 11k words before any author's notes. Nothing too horrid happened in the Discord recently.**

 **This week was the One Year Anniversary of MoNT's publishing, which means a year and two weeks ago I had an idea for some juicy drama (Jaune being Raven's adopted son, Yang finding out) and then my sister, upon hearing said scenario, begged me to write it.**

 **525,000 words later, and here we are. _Here's to the next 520-NO._ There will not be another half-million words to this. I hope. One or two thousand...well, that I can't rule out. This current Arc is on pace for, like, 100,000 by itself. **

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **Enjoy. We've earned it.**

* * *

 **Chapter 50:** _"In was in these moments, when Vale faced superior forces deep in its heartland, that a miracle seemed to take place, and one figure displayed such legendary power that the machines of war seemed to fall dead before them." – Excerpt from 'Vale's Finest Moments: a historical take on near-mythological legends in the history of Vale, vol. 2' by Bartholomew Oobleck_

* * *

Pyrrha's POV

* * *

"What is it, Pyrrha?" Ren asked, noticing that I had stopped walking with the group, which put me on the spot. I stared distantly at my scroll, unsure what the significance of the instructions I'd just received were.

"I…" I trailed off, not knowing what to say and needing to buy time to think of an excuse that wouldn't make them worry.

"Something wrong?" Nora asked, being the last of the group to realize we had all stopped and only just now catching back up. We were at Beacon's airfields and any moment now there would be a Bullhead arriving to take us all to Amity for the match.

I latched onto an idea that would work, despite hating that it would put them all on the spot.

"I…can't fight in the match," I admitted, sliding my scroll back into my pocket just in case they were trying to read who the message was from. "I just got a message from my old agent. He said that…that fighting in the Vytal Tournament violates my exclusivity deals with my sponsors, and that if I do it one more time, they've threatened to sue for breach of contract."

It wasn't hard to sound overwhelmed to sell the excuse. Ozpin summoning me and telling me to skip my singles match was…well, I don't know, but it has to be important. Suddenly, Jaune's absence from the group feels a whole lot worse.

"W-What?!" Nora let out, outraged at the lie I had spun. "They can't do _that!_ "

"Yeah, that's not fair. They can't do that!" Ruby echoed, though not without uncertainty in her voice. "Right, Weiss?"

"They probably can," Weiss grumbled, a sour expression taking over her face. Of the five of them, she was by far the one most experienced in these sorts of dealings, and I said a silent thanks to the heiress for helping me out here. "Contract law can be nasty business."

"What are we gonna do then?" Nora asked, looking to me with anger and confusion—neither of which were aimed at me, but both of which made me feel guilty.

"You guys go on ahead. Nora, you take my spot," I offered, the solution being the easiest one, making me hopeful that they'd go for it.

"You're not coming?" Ren asked.

"I need to go to the CCT and call my old agent. There's a chance I can get this sorted out before the next match."

There was a tense moment of silence and I began to worry that they had seen through my lie and were preparing to corner me over what was going on.

"Right. You take care of that, and _I'll take care of this match_ ," Nora growled, her normal destructive persona taking a darker, more personal tone as she made it clear that she was going to avenge me.

To my luck, no one else commented on the situation, aside from a few grumbles. It was clear that all of their moods had been dampened by the 'news,' and I was in the clear. I waited to see them off on their Bullhead, wishing Nora well and honestly hoping that she would win the fight. There would be questions if I dropped out and we were eliminated. _There will probably be questions no matter what._

My mind wandered as I made my way back through Beacon's halls to the Headmaster's tower. My greatest fear was that Jaune had been caught for what he did to the person who works for Amber's attacker—had they framed him for her murder? Or…he really _did_ kill her, so did they turn him in somehow? Am I an accomplice now, since I knew about it? Was Ozpin going to—

I was broken from my thoughts as I realized there were footsteps behind me in the otherwise empty hallway, but I didn't get to turn my head around before something hit me hard, knocking me through one of the doorways and into a lecture hall. My attacker pushed me down onto one of the tables, pinning me down with a forearm pressed against my throat and forcing me to look up into red eyes and burning hair.

"Yang!?"

"What the _hell_ did you _do!?_ " Yang half-screamed and half-hissed, her eyes burning into me with a fury that was unnerving.

"W-What do you mean?" I asked, choking the words out. She didn't let up any of the pressure on my throat.

"Jaune trusted you, and you just…you just fucking betrayed him!?" Yang screamed at me, sending my eyes wide in shock. I honestly didn't know what she was talking about, but the implication made my stomach flop. Something…something bad had happened.

"I didn't, Yang! I promise that I— _AH!_ "

I let out a yelp as Yang's other fist came down into my stomach, firing a round into my Aura with her gauntlet.

"LIAR!" Yang screamed, the flames on her hair crackling and bursting with a new wave of heat and energy as she attacked me. "How does Ozpin know, then!? _Why did he just attack Jaune!?_ "

My eyes went wide and a pit opened up in my stomach at Yang's words. Ozpin attacking Jaune was _bad_ , especially with what Jaune was hiding. Panic shot through me and I tried to shake my head at Yang, tried to tell her that it wasn't me.

"No, no Yang, I didn't—I destroyed the recorder, I swear!"

Yang's eyes widened at the mention of a recorder, and I realized saying it was a mistake as Yang's eyes recovered from their shock to redouble their rage, glaring at me furiously as she wound up and punched me again. The impact and shell had hurt the first time, but this one _really_ hurt, and I finally spurred into action, more afraid that I couldn't keep taking hits like that than anything.

I kicked Yang off me, locking on to her gauntlets with my Semblance and forcing her up as I did so. With her forearm no longer digging into my throat, I took a deep breath as I pushed myself off the table, bringing Yang and I to even footing on the stairwell isle of Port's empty lecture hall.

" _Recorder!?_ " Yang yelled, still seething at me but holding herself back…barely. Her eyes still glared at me and were still red, and her hair still simmered. "You recorded him!?"

"I destroyed it, Yang! I never even let it out of my sight!" I pleaded with her, desperate for her to believe me and calm down enough to explain what's going on. "Yang, please, I decided to help Jaune! I was going to tell him tonight!"

"Yeah, well, _that's_ not gonna happen now," Yang growled, her eyes trailing down towards my feet. Her hands clenched into fists so tightly that they shook for several seconds before Yang let out her anger in a violent burst that saw her smash her fist through the nearest desk to her. With her outburst over, she panted to stabilize her breathing, before taking one last deep breath to collect herself and return her eyes to mine. "If not you, then how?"

"You're asking me? Yang, I still don't even know what's going on!"

Yang's hair no longer simmered and her eyes had switched back to purple, but she still looked at me with distrust and anger, though she was at least trying to believe me now. She took another deep breath to try to calm herself, pressing her forehead up against her palm as she tried to focus. It did not come easily.

"I got a text from Jaune when he went to meet Ms. Goodwitch. _Ozpin knows_ and _run_ is all it said," Yang let out, frustration and stress heavy in her voice. "I got there just in time to see Jaune get knocked out by Ozpin. I ran from there, and saw you going back in when you should be gone, and…well…

"I can't think of any other way Ozpin would have found out, and when I saw you here when you were supposed to be at Amity, I figured it _had_ to be you." Yang grumbled something under her breath and watched me cautiously. I didn't need to hear what she grumbled to know that she still wasn't convinced it wasn't me.

"It's fine," I replied, figuring that this was as close to an apology as Yang was capable of at the moment. "I got a message from the Headmaster that he needed me to skip my match and meet with him. I think…I think it's safe to say that I know what it's about now…"

"You think it's about Jaune, or about—" Yang's head whipped around nervously, scanning the room to make sure there was no way anyone could overhear, "— _the seasons?_ "

"I…I don't know. It depends on how much he knows, and whether he knows about…" I trailed off, the same nervousness about being overhead hitting me. "…about Jaune's offer. If he _does_ know that, and I go in there…"

Yang's face twisted into a frustrated frown at the implication.

"All that would matter is that you didn't warn Ozpin," Yang added on, thinking through the scenario. "It wouldn't even matter that you never agreed to help. Even considering it is bad enough… and with everyone else at Amity, Ozpin has time to deal with you and Jaune however he wants…" Yang trailed off, her hands clenching back into fists as she abruptly cursed angrily, letting out more steam. "What would you have said?"

"Huh?"

"Don't play dumb with me," Yang shot back angrily, startling me. "If this wasn't happening, what would you have said to Jaune's plea?"

"I…" I stalled for time, aware that Yang might not like what I had decided, but eventually realized that I probably wouldn't be able to lie to her convincingly, and that would anger her more. "I guess it doesn't matter what it was now. I was going to try to help Jaune, but I wasn't going to just run away with the powers or anything," I answered, watching Yang nervously. "I was kinda going to try to split the middle, I guess."

"You realize that would not have worked, like, _at all?_ " Yang asked flatly, making it clear that she thought my plan was really stupid. Maybe it was, but it was the only thing I could bring myself to do. "Why use a recorder then? Were you planning on blackmail being a part of that?" Yang asked. She didn't sound like she believed that and was asking it incredulously, but I still felt like she suspected me, just a little.

"That wasn't my idea, I promise. I did that before I had decided what I was going to do," I tried to explain, making it clear in my voice I was desperate that she believe me. "It's just that Ozpin gave me that recorder when he first asked me to spy on Jaune, and it wasn't until after Jaune talked to me that I—"

" _Whoa_ ," Yang cut, giving me a strange look. "Hold on. _Who_ gave you the recorder?"

"Headmaster Ozpin—but it's just a recorder!" I added on quickly, as I could already see the gears turning in Yang's head. "I was supposed to give it to him, but I destroyed it. There's no way he could have recovered anything from its pieces."

Yang took a sudden, sharp breath in and pressed her forehead against her palms in an effort to remain calm, but her hands curled into fists and shook the moment she took them off her forehead.

" _Pyrrha._ Is there any way that the recorder could have sent data directly to Ozpin?"

"N-No, it was…just a recorder shaped like a pen. It had to be turned in to Ozpin manually," I answered, though my confidence in my words was dropping.

"Are you _sure?!_ " Yang asked, her voice mounting with tension. "You don't think it's odd that, as soon as you record Jaune on the device that _Ozpin_ gave you, Jaune gets captured and you're called to Ozpin's office when _none_ of your friends are anywhere close?"

"I…I…"

Words failed me as Yang's sunk in.

" _Oh gods…_ "

" _You idiot!_ " Yang screamed, her hair exploding into flames once more. "This is all _your_ fault!"

"I…I didn't mean to!" I tried to defend, but both my own sense of dread and a mild fear of what Yang might do if I drew too much attention to myself cowed my words. Yang glared a hole into the ground at my feet and tried several times to unclench her fists despite the shaking in her arms. "What do we do now?"

Yang's head whipped up to me, her ire focused now.

"What do we do? _What do we do?!_ " Yang repeated mockingly, stressing it heavily as her eyes flicked red the second time. She took a step towards me and I flinched. "You think I know how to fucking fix this!? There's a reason Jaune wanted to avoid this _at all costs_ , Pyrrha! There is no'fixing' this! Ozpin knows about Jaune, and god knows what else. Even if we could get Jaune out of this, there's no way he can just go back to being a student like the rest of us. Hell, _we_ probably can't go back either—we know too much. But we don't even know where Jaune _is_ , and if we did, how the hell would we be able to rescue him from Ozpin and all of Beacon's—" Yang cut herself off, staring off into the distance momentarily as something dawned over her. " _Fuck._ "

"What is it?"

"Give me your scroll," Yang demanded, walking over to me. Her eyes and hair were normal now, but to say that she looked anything but furious would be a lie.

"Where's yours?" I asked stupidly, not even sure why I said anything. The words left my mouth more to fill the silence than anything.

"I took the battery out in case they're looking for me—now _hand me your scroll_."

Somewhat nervous, I pulled my scroll out and handed it to Yang. She took it and turned her back to me, typing some numbers in and dialing, before turning back to face me. She held the scroll out in front of her and waited, with each passing moment creating more and more tension.

The scroll flickered to life, and an image of someone in a Grimm mask flickered to life. _Maybe one of Jaune's contacts with Torchwick?_ I didn't see how that would help, but maybe there was something left up the criminal's sleeve.

" _Yang,"_ a female voice acknowledged from behind the mask, _"I just gave you this number last night. Did you already change your—_ "

"Shut up," Yang hissed, eliciting a surprised head-turn from the woman. "I need a portal, _now_."

There was another tense silence as Yang stared down this woman, before the call was terminated from the other end.

Then a few moments later, a red hole opened up in the space off to our side. I looked at Yang wide-eyed, but she didn't seem surprised by it. She was seething once more, and I couldn't tell where the brunt of her anger was focused anymore.

"I would say I'm sorry about your Aura, but I'm really not," Yang grumbled as she handed me my scroll back. The counter on my scroll had my Aura in the forties, a testament to how bad of an idea it was to let Yang have two free shots at you while enraged and powered by her Semblance.

"It's fine," I mumbled, not wanting to make things worse. "Wait—!"

Yang stopped feet short of the portal, looking back to me with a flat glare.

"What do _I_ do?"

"You want to help Jaune, right?" Yang asked, her voice low and flat. I let it go that it shouldn't need to be asked and nodded in response. "Go to your meeting with Ozpin. So far, you only seem to make things worse, so why don't you go help the Headmaster for a change?"

Yang's words dripped with venom and she didn't even bother to hear me respond before walking through the portal, which closed behind her immediately.

* * *

Ozpin's POV

* * *

"Speak," I bade forcefully, not bothering to look up from my desk at Glynda, who had been standing in front of me in silence for a few moments. "You clearly have something on your mind, and I do not have time to waste by indulging your hesitance any longer."

I did not bother looking up at Glynda, eyes remaining fixed on my monitor as I continued to sort through files, but I could feel her surprise at my abruptness. Quite frankly, it had been a long time since I was this frustrated, angered, or stressed.

"I want to speak with him when he wakes up," Glynda answered.

"No."

"Then give me something to do that will help," Glynda tried, her agitation less concealed than usual.

"I have," I answered curtly, still not having looked up from my screen.

"You have me playing administrator when I am more useful in other capacities," Glynda growled, her voice growing louder as her frustration mounted. "I do not understand why I am being sidelined for this."

"You are not _being_ sidelined," I cut back, shifting my eyes from my screen to hers for the moment. "You have simply lost your faith in me."

"And what does _that_ imply?" Glynda asked angrily, missing the point and finally forcing me to set aside what meager work I had been trying to distract my mind with. Her anger and insubordination were problematic, because under the pressure of the current state of affairs, I cannot afford any more misfires or mistakes, and to have subordinates second-guessing commands was to court disaster.

With that in mind, I set to fixing this problem.

"It implies what it states, and nothing more. You are not being separated from this because of your clear lack of implicit trust. You are, in fact, not even _being_ separated from this ordeal at all."

"Then why am I not being utilized—"

"You _are_ being utilized."

"—effectively?"

"I do not have time for this, Glynda. I need to keep this school running, I need to coordinate logistics for the festival with Atlas, I need to hunt down Amber's attacker, I need to keep Amber safe, and I need to squeeze information vital to accomplishing those other tasks out of Mr. Arc." My words were stern, and I let some out some frustration, hoping that it would help sort out this issue Glynda was having. "It is entirely possible that you could accomplish that last one, but that would leave me spending all my time accomplishing the first two. Where you are needed most is running this school, because that allows me the flexibility to deal with the situation at hand. _Is that clear?_ "

Glynda did not answer, and I grew tired of this game. I had not lied when I said that Glynda's clear lack of faith had not motivated my assignment for her, but it _would_ have been a lie to suggest that it would not be a hindrance to assigning her a different task. She could sense that, and bristled under the distinction, although there was currently nothing to be done about it.

She would simply have to get over herself. There were things in motion greater than any one person.

"We are done here."

Glynda still didn't say anything, and I didn't bother looking up to see if she were pouting over it. I had larger problems than an uncooperative assistant to deal with, and my patience had run thin enough that I had no issue letting her know such. Had she not been so confrontational, I might have been willing to inform her of my plans for Ms. Nikos, and that I would be sending the girl to Glynda for safekeeping later. It might have smoothed over ruffled feathers had I shared this, but to do so would have been to reward insubordination, and now of all times, that is not something I can afford.

Glynda walked off, and the elevator she embarked down on had also brought Qrow up.

"Where do things stand now?" I asked Qrow eagerly, minimizing the work I had been distracting myself with from my screen. I had been waiting for his return.

"The bastard's secure downstairs. He's not going anywhere, and we're not going to have to worry about anyone finding him. I had his locker brought down, too; thought he might be hiding something interesting in there, but came up empty. Are we sure that's going to hold him, though?"

"If you're referring to the chance that your sister will show up to take him, it _is_ a risk, but not a large one," I answered. "Those restraints are designed to cage a Maiden. Even if she brought Spring to free him, it would take time to break him loose—enough time for us to get down there. And _that_ is only if she finds out that we have him…"

I trailed off, looking at Qrow expectantly.

"I haven't been able to get a hold of Yang," Qrow admitted. "Her scroll is off, so no tracking, either. I got a hold of Ruby, and she said that Yang had stayed behind with Jaune when they all went to Amity."

"We're going to have to assume she knows and is a flight threat," I announced grimly.

"Oz, this is _Yang_ we're talking about, not some unknown kid who showed up out of the blue," Qrow defended, his voice pleading with me. "Whatever he dragged her into, she's not some unknown enemy we can't predict or understand. This is my _niece_ we're talking about."

"Do not presume that I have lost sight of the situation, Qrow," I cut in sharply, making sure to stunt any hint of doubt or subordination before it cost me my other most trusted lieutenant. "Your niece or not, she's involved with a plot to steal the Fall Maiden's powers. She—"

I cut myself off as the elevator door chimed, revealing Pyrrha Nikos to have finally arrived.

" _Find her_ ," I whispered, making sure to soften my features so as to not spook Ms. Nikos. I raised my voice to normal so as to be heard once more. "That is all, Qrow. Do me a favor and try not to lose your month's rent betting on the fights again."

Qrow gave me an uncertain look, but bowed out and played into the angle, grumbling some good-natured insult to try to play into the innocuousness of our actual conversation, before taking the hint and leaving me with Ms. Nikos. It was good to see that _some_ loyalties still remained.

Ms. Nikos, however, looked to not have been fooled by the cover. There was a distant fear in her manner, given away by the nervous tension in her body as she strode forward and the way her eyes were just a little too wide at all times. She never had been good at hiding her thoughts or emotions. A shame, too, as she could have learned a lot from her partner on the matter.

"Please, Ms. Nikos," I announced, watching her carefully and taking equal care not to give away any of my thoughts via my manner, "take a seat."

She did as bade without so much as a word, slouching her shoulders nervously as she settled in, looking rather uncomfortable. She almost looked defeated already, and I began to suspect she knew what she had walked into.

"Do you know why you are here?" I asked simply, watching as the girl before me sheepishly kept her eyes on her lap.

"I…have an idea, yes," she answered quietly.

"You are here because of an offer," I stated, choosing the words carefully, causing her to flinch in on herself. "As I understand it, you have been fielding a lot of offers recently, have you not?"

I stared at the girl flatly, and she looked up at me out of surprise, though it was more muted than I would have expected if my knowledge of her conversation with her partner was news to her.

With a click of a mouse, I played aloud a rather damning soundbite I had prepared.

" _I'm asking you to become Ozpin's Maiden, to accept my help to take back the rest of Fall's power, to pretend to be Ozpin's loyal servant, and then when we're ready, to help us all leave his control."_

She seemed to shrink further into her chair with each word, her eyes never daring to leave her lap.

"There are people who would call what they just heard _treason_ , Ms. Nikos, if not of a nation then of humanity. I would certainly be among them, though I would go so far as to suggest that anyone complicit in such activity is also guilty. What are your thoughts on the matter, Ms. Nikos?"

Wisely, the girl did not respond, although whether intimidated by the growing ire in my voice or the fear of where I was going to take this, I know not.

"The pen…?"

"A device of my own making, and one that streams to my computer, yes, but I believe we were talking about how you were going to enable Jaune Arc to steal the Fall Maiden, were we not?" I asked loudly, pausing to let her answer. "I said, _were we not?_ "

"We were," she answered limply, her voice hardly anything louder than a whisper.

"I'll ask you this once, Ms. Nikos: is there anything that you wish to tell me? Anything, perhaps, that will provide a new perspective on this recording?"

Her eyes remained on her lap and her posture continued to slouch, but she didn't have anything to say.

With a few keystrokes, I switched tactics to a much more heavy-handed approach than I normally prefer. The projection monitor on my desk grew larger and played over footage from our arrest of Mr. Arc not long ago, with the soft glow of the screen attracting Ms. Nikos' eyes away from her lap. Her eyes were wide as she watched the clip until it ended with Mr. Arc being knocked unconscious, and she looked up at me nervously to see what I wanted to say over it. I motioned for her to wait and that there was one more thing to see, before switching to the live feed.

Ms. Nikos gasped quietly as the screen displayed the security camera from the Vault, showing Jaune's still-unconscious form secured in a metal restraining chair designed for Remnant's four most powerful mortal beings. His arms all the way up to his elbows were encased in metal clamps, his chest was restrained to the chair-back in a similar manner, as were his legs. The entire system worked on an analog mechanism, meaning that there was no way to hack it to release the prisoner; the only way he would be getting out is if my cane was inserted into the mechanism to let him out.

"Is there _anything_ you'd like me to know, Ms. Nikos?" I asked again with an edge to my voice, letting the security feed stay up to unnerve the girl. Frankly, there was a voice in my head that said I was being too lenient with the girl, that I had been wrong to be so lenient with her and Mr. Arc so far and that it had backfired once. I am inclined to agree that my mishandling of the situation was a failure of my own volition so far, and no options are off the table now. The stakes have grown too high for anything less.

"I…I wasn't going to steal the powers and run like he wanted to," she answered finally, her voice sounding scared enough to pass as honest. "I-I was going to try to help him, but I was going to try to pass along what he knew to you."

"Well, that is certainly comforting to hear, even if I find myself struggling for any reason to believe you," I answered, taking her by surprise if her widened eyes were any indication. "I said that you have been fielding a lot of offers recently—namely, my offer of the Fall Maidenhood and Mr. Arc's offer to _steal_ said Maidenhood. Neither of these offers are why you are here, though."

"Why…am I here, then?"

"You are here because I have one more offer, one that you _will_ accept," I answered harshly, cowing Ms. Nikos with a glare. "You are going to work for me, Ms. Nikos. Together, we are going to protect Vale and all of its innocent lives. You are going to be my Fall Maiden, and you are going to do it because it is the right thing to do.

"And, if for some reason that is not enough for you, then you will also do it because of what will happen with your partner if you do not."

"You…you're going to…to blackmail me?" she stuttered out, fear and confusion wracking her as my harsh glare persisted.

"Such an ugly word, ' _blackmail._ ' I am going to protect hundreds of thousands of innocent lives from the Grimm and those who would see them murdered, and I am going to do this by empowering a young Huntress capable of using said power to keep those innocent lives safe. _Unfortunately_ , to do this, I will have to keep alive, or even release, a subversive agent who was caught trying to make off with those same powers that are in place to protect humanity. Call it what you will, Ms. Nikos, but do not dare try to tell me that _I_ am the one with misplaced priorities. _I_ am not the criminal here, nor am I the thief, nor the murderer, nor the coward."

The girl was speechless, stunned by both shame and fear. I would have liked to make her stew in that, to give her time to really reflect on whether she really thought resisting was of anyone's benefit, but my patience was already worn thin, and I had a sneaking suspicion I would want it saved for when Mr. Arc woke up.

"I am going to need your answer immediately, Ms. Nikos."

"When…" she trailed off, staring down at her lap once more, before finally looking up with a defeated, cowed look. "When do we do the transfer?"

With the press of a key, the elevator dinged and the doors swung open, and I made to stand.

" _Right now._ "

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

I awoke to a headache and a feeling of pressure all over my body. I kept my eyes closed and focused on nursing my headache, until my most recent memories came flooding back to me. My eyes shot opened to reveal me to be in a dark, musty place with high ceilings, and upon glancing down I discovered the reason for the pressure across my body: I was strapped down to a chair with more braces and chains than was strictly necessary. They weren't taking any chances on me.

But there was no one here yet. No sounds around me, no voices or footfalls telling me that there was someone else nearby. There was a small camera on a camera-stand, thrown up hastily and pointed at me as a makeshift security camera, and there was my rocket locker, leaning against the side wall with its contents strewn about a wooden table. Crocea Mors lay there too, the sword and shield already separated out.

So I sat there and waited, stewing in my emotions, letting my anger and disappointment simmer.

 _Failure._

The word echoed in my head, taunting me. I had always told myself that I expected to fail. After all, I was trying to break free from a controlling Maiden and a controlling Wizard at the same time, all the while trying to outplay them both so that they would _let_ me walk. I had known from the start that I was betting on bad odds, and I always had told myself that I needed to be prepared for things to go badly. I had accepted that I would fail.

Or so I told myself. From how much it hurt me to sit here, a captive with no power left in this fight, I came to realize that deep down, I had never truly believed I was destined to lose. I had always, _always_ held out that spark of hope, a flicker of belief that I _could_ be free.

I still do believe that I could have been free, that the odds were not impossible. _I just… failed._ I hadn't been strong enough, or maybe it was that I wasn't clever enough, or that I wasn't ruthless enough. Maybe I was too trusting. Dust knows that trusting Pyrrha put me in this situation, so maybe that was my greatest flaw, that I trusted my 'friends' too closely.

In the end, though, all that matters is that I lost, and that I am a lamb awaiting slaughter. Crocea Mors and Angau Glas lay on a table not ten feet from me, but they might as well be a world away.

 _Failure._

No one to blame but myself, right? That's what they always say. _"You have no one to blame but yourself."_ But that…that's not right, is it? No, that's a naïve way to look at the world. Everything has consequences, and just because you do something, that doesn't make you responsible if someone does something in response. Blame is to be assigned, not assumed.

So who is to blame?

 _Pyrrha, obviously_. My fists clenched at the thought, or they would, were they not confined to this infernal shackle that leaves no room for movement for anything below my elbow. I had been so certain that she wouldn't turn on me, and I have been even _more_ certain that she hadn't turned on me; we had just had dinner as a group, and there were no tells! Some of the blame falls to me for being played, but more of it goes to that backstabbing bitch. She had looked me in the eyes and didn't flinch! I had thought she was different than all the women I had ever known growing up, kind and gentle and non-backstabbing. Even Yang has a few of those tendencies, not that they could really be held against her given who her mother is, but _Pyrrha?_

Of all the ways for this to come crashing down around me, failing to sniff out betrayal from someone as obvious as Pyrrha Nikos was just embarrassing. It was an insult to injury, a kick to the face of a man already kicked in the groin. How _had_ she fooled me?

My arms started cramping from trying to curl up into fists so hard for so long, and I forced myself to put the thoughts out of my mind, burying in there some sort of vague promise to myself that I would get even when I get out of this. _If_ , my mind reminded helpfully. _If I get out of this._

 _Raven, then_. Oh, yes, she certainly deserves blame for this. Everything that she'd ever done to raise me put me on this path. Were it not for her keeping me hostage for years, I wouldn't be so damn desperate to be free. If Yang was right, _if_ Raven really was willing to let me leave, then she deserves blame for waiting so fucking long to tell me that I went and got tangled up in this mess. She gets no credit for releasing me once it was clear that she wouldn't be the one holding my chains. Yang may not have seen through it, but I do. Any offer of hers is an illusion.

But that's not what angers me about Raven. It should be, because it's the most grievous thing, it's the thing that deserves my anger and hatred for, but it's not what bothers me.

What bothers me is the vision I have in my head of her staring down at me, a failure wrapped in chains. She's not even here and I can feel her damn smug grin, and the hint of pity in her eyes she would try to hide, shaking her head softly before turning away to leave me to my fate. I can almost hear her mumble some sort of excuse about a lack of strength and unworthiness when asked why she won't help. _Mother of the fucking year, ladies and gentlemen._

Imagining her finally giving up on me after all these years hurt so much more than it has any right to.

This all fell on Raven's head too, just not as much as it did on Pyrrha's, or even mine. The reason Raven's philosophy on strength is so annoying is that it leaves no one to blame but yourself for your lot in life. Either you are strong or you lose what you care about; looking around right now, it wasn't hard to pick which of those fits me.

And that just leaves blame for Ozpin, although if the distant sound of footfalls on the marble floor is any indication, I might get the chance to say it to his face. Ozpin was frustrating beyond belief, since he was the force that toppled my house of cards, but it was hard to assign blame to him. Can you _blame_ your enemies for their actions taken against you, or can you only blame yourself for letting them succeed?

No, I can't give Ozpin my blame. Anger, hatred, resentment, scorn, rage… _those_ I can give him, though. _That will have to suffice._

And so I waited. The footfalls grew closer, until eventually, I realized that there were two people, not one. I couldn't see anything of the main hallway, my chair being placed just behind a corner, and they were still too far away to pick out any words spoken. They _were_ speaking, keeping their voices quiet, but I couldn't recognize anything said yet, or their voices.

They kept getting closer, though, until eventually, I could hear one of them.

"This process is sure to be uncomfortable, though it may help you to imagine that you are receiving the better end of the deal here."

 _Ozpin_.

Whoever he spoke to still responded too softly for my ears to pick out any words, only picking up that it was a soft, female voice.

Ozpin's words were more than enough to reveal what was going on. They were transferring the Maidenhood.

 _That has to make the other voice Pyrrha._ My blood ran cold at the thought.

So, this was her play? Turn me over to Ozpin and then become his Maiden? It didn't feel like something she'd do, but then again, neither did stabbing me in the back, and we saw how that worked out. Clearly, she wasn't in it for the power, right? I had offered her that same power, and I had offered it to her free of Ozpin's control. If she was after power, then she should have accepted my offer. The only other difference was the motives behind who was offering it to her.

 _Had it really come down to whether or not she wanted to help me be free?_ Had that really been the tipping point, that she didn't want to help me, or didn't think I deserved it?

The very thought hurt too much to focus on. Instead, I shut my eyes and focused on the confrontation I had once had with Raven in the Emerald Forest, or the confrontation I had recently had with Cinder. _The two times that I had nearly killed a Maiden._

And then I let my imagination take that a step further.

* * *

The second voice—Pyrrha's voice—was gone now. There had been startled cries as their soul-transferring machine had ripped the Aura from Amber and given it to Pyrrha, but she was gone now. Ozpin had sent her away, before making his way over to where he had me hidden away. She may not have even known that her handiwork was sitting right around the corner.

Ozpin's footsteps stopped a few feet to my side, standing before that table with the contents of my locker, remaining there for a few moments.

"You're not fooling anyone, you know," his voice called out evenly, feigning disinterest. "I saw you wake up on the footage earlier."

I didn't give him the satisfaction of a reply. I didn't even give him the satisfaction of opening my eyes.

"Have it your way," he dismissed nonchalantly, using the words in an attempt to get under my skin. It would take more than that.

From the sound of it, he was going through the possessions of my locker, as meager as they were. Two swords, sheathes and belts for them both, a dagger, some spare dust rounds for Angau's handle, a back-up scroll. Nothing incriminating was stored within the encrypted app on my scroll, it instead accessing the data from a secured server each time. Besides, this scroll was a burner scroll, and one that hadn't yet been used; I hadn't even bothered to download my hidden app to it.

"A ceramic dagger? I hope you realize that owning such a weapon is illegal…"

 _Oh, so_ that's _how he wants to play this, then._ Drag it out, act like nothing bad happened, and annoy me into begging him to take things seriously. There's nothing I can do about him doing things to piss me off, but if he thinks I'm going to take this lying down…

"In that case, why don't you turn me over to the police?"

I opened my eyes to give Ozpin a flat glare, and his eyes met mine as he weighed my reaction.

"You know, it's been a long time since I've seen one of these," Ozpin announced, shifting gears and changing the subject as he picked up Crocea Mors and its shield, collapsing and expanding the shield a few times for effect. "Do you even know what this is?"

"A sword," I answered flatly. "A shield. An heirloom."

"Maybe now," Ozpin commented with a soft chuckle. "I remember when I had these commissioned. These were officers' swords, of a sort; weapons made of such expensive materials that they were almost never used, only displayed. Quite the vanity piece, wouldn't you say?" He looked to me curiously, but I said nothing. Ozpin dismissed that with a shrug and flowed his Aura into the sword, causing it to glow a soft green color. "The paint job is new to me, as is the reworked pommel, but other than that, it appears to be all original."

" _Of course_ you would be related to me somehow," I groaned, noting his admission that he had commissioned my heirloom, presumably in a previous life long ago. "Fucking fantastic."

Ozpin pulled his Aura out of Crocea Mors, before the sword burst into flames, powered by whatever magic Ozpin had. I flinched in surprise, which Ozpin apparently found funny.

"What, you didn't think I would commission something so expensive unless it had some fun tricks, now, did you?" I didn't reply, and Ozpin sheathed Crocea Mors and laid it back on the table, before turning back to me. "As to your comment, if it helps, you're not directly related to this particular version of me. I have, however, been incarnated into your family before. _Twice._ "

"Twice?" I echoed, unable to stop myself from expressing my surprise.

"I suppose it is inevitable that it would happen eventually, but statistically, it is remarkable that it happened so soon," Ozpin quipped, giving me a smug, coy look. "Yes, several hundred years ago, I spawned into the body of a boy training to be a militiaman under the command of some small-time knight, protecting a village from Grimm. By the time of my next reincarnation, I had united half of Vale under one banner and established the Arc family as the most prominent defender of those banners. The great _Charles Arc_ , not that there's anything surviving of his name other than scattered legends. Your sword was one of several that I had commissioned and gifted to various lieutenants at the time."

He walked back over and examined the weapon once more.

"Honestly, I had thought them all destroyed or lost. It appears they managed to hide one from me…"

"They?" I asked, taking his bait before I could realize that he had begged the question.

"Your family. Around, say, one hundred and fifty years ago, we had a falling out over, well, a great many things, not the least of them my willingness to draft every generation of Arcs into my war. They all went to ground, becoming spies and keeping tabs on the various tribes and fiefdoms of Remnant to their own ends. It was this that originally inspired me to seek out those who were willing to fight the Grimm, instead of drafting people I knew held potential."

"Are you accusing my family of being the reason Huntsman academies exist?"

"Not yet," Ozpin answered cheekily. "Not until I reincarnated into Julius Arc. Despite leaving my service, the Arcs decided to continue a pursuit of the four scattered Relics. I had no idea if they were getting close until I woke up a member of the family and found them with _two_ , Destruction and Choice."

Ozpin looked smug as ever, pausing to see if he could get me to ask any more questions. I realized then that he was trying to soften me up, and I resolved not to let it work anymore.

"The King of Vale's name isn't 'lost to history,' as we're often told. The Great War was only eighty years ago, after all; that's far too short a time for the name Julius Arc to fade from existence." Ozpin waited to watch my reaction, but I caught myself and showed no surprise this time. "In fact, I was quite busy at the time, founding Huntsman Academies and creating Vaults for the Relics, but I was able to set up embargoes in all four Kingdoms: it would be illegal to print the name 'Arc.' Those embargoes hold to this day, though they were not worded strongly enough to prevent the name from being spoken on television. Not even I foresaw our current technology."

"What's your point?" I growled, getting tired of being toyed with. I was in no position to do anything, but lashing out still felt good.

"I was under the impression that you've been hunting for information on your family, Mr. Arc," Ozpin answered coyly. "Here I thought I was doing you a favor."

"I don't care about ancient relatives," I spat out at him. "I wanted to know about my parents. About my sisters."

" _Oh?_ "

"Forget it," I growled, realizing from his smug reaction that he was pushing me to ask him about it. I refused to give him the satisfaction. "I know what I need to."

"I honestly doubt that you do, Mr. Arc, but if you wish to speak of other topics, I'm more than willing to oblige. Who stole Amber's powers?"

" _That_ was subtle."

"And _that_ was a deflection," Ozpin countered. Gone was his smug smirk or any sense of humor in his eyes, replaced with a harshness and an anger. His voice was agitated, indicating that his patience had run thin, and he did not care if I knew just how fed up with me he was. "See, I can state the obvious as well as you can, and I am not nearly as hostile when I do it. Now, _about that Maiden_ …"

"And exactly why would I give that up so freely?" I asked pointedly, making it clear that there was no pretense of friendliness or cooperation between us.

"How about the thousands of innocent lives put in danger should this person succeed?" Ozpin asked redundantly, or at least he _thought_ it was redundant. I was prepared not to grant him an inch.

"As I recall, my own plans involved taking this person out, too," I answered evasively, taking care not to let on how much I was watching for a reaction from Ozpin. He did not seem surprised by the information, which is consistent with my running theory that Pyrrha sold me out. Either she had recorded me— _had she worn a wire, of all things?_ —or recounted my plans to Ozpin. That he was not surprised was only more evidence against her. "So it's _your_ action of taking me out of play that allows her to still be a threat. Don't try to guilt me, Ozpin. I know how you operate."

Ozpin's lips pulled together into a thin frown, no doubt disappointed that it was clear I would not allow him to use his typical 'greater good' rationale. We both knew that his other motivating factors were less than compelling.

"By withholding the information, you're still putting them in danger," Ozpin tried again, not willing to give up on his best angle.

"Indirectly," I admitted, before pivoting against him. "But you stopping me _directly_ puts them in danger."

Ozpin watched me with that same frown on his face for a few moments, weighing his options. I made sure to glare back at him the entire time.

"A more comfortable chair, perhaps?" Ozpin suggested mockingly. "I can't release you until we've come to a fuller understanding of each other—" he said, meaning _he can't release me until he's certain that I'm his,_ "—but if I felt you to be cooperative and invested in preventing a calamity, I would not find such… _restrictions_ against you necessary."

"Creature comforts?" I asked incredulously, not bothering to stifle a laugh at just how poor of an angle Ozpin was taking here. "You think that being chained up in the annals under Beacon is what bothers me? I was raised by _Raven Branwen_ ; this is really unimaginative as far as punishments go. _Comfort_ ," I scoffed again, still finding it hard to believe that he would even try the angle. "What I hate is being captive. _How_ I am held captive isn't the point."

"Easy words to say, Mr. Arc, but given the choice between Atlas torture or house arrest, I'm sure you would have a preference, wouldn't you?"

"Is this hypothetical or not?" I answered.

"If you give me the name, I'll see to it that you're released into the custody of your team. Consider all of Beacon to be your 'house,' if you will," Ozpin offered, trying to put on his smug look. It honestly looked as if it was cracking, and though I was unsure if that was because he didn't put any faith into the idea that I might want to accept this offer, I had the suspicion that he was holding out on me.

"Skip to the end, Ozpin," I growled out lowly.

"Hmm?"

"I said skip to the end," I repeated in the same tone. "House arrest? You wouldn't settle for that, not when you have leverage left. You're trying to wear me down, continuously offering new things to sweeten the pot until, finally, I give in. Frankly, it's pissing me off, both that you think it will work and that you think you've actually offered anything I want. So why don't you just save us both the time and skip to your final offer, huh?"

Ozpin's features drew into a tighter frown, if for nothing else than disliking having the wind torn from his sails. After so many years of controlling people, I doubt he enjoys having someone resist. I'm not doing this because I enjoy seeing him frustrated, but it would be a lie to say that it wasn't a bonus.

"I understand that you are in a precarious situation with the Branwen Tribe…" Ozpin trailed off, looking to me expectantly for my affirmation.

I remained silent, giving him a flat glare, but otherwise didn't deny it. I did make a note that it seemed even more than everything he knew about me overlapped with what I told Pyrrha.

"I also understand that you are in a precarious position _in general_ ," Ozpin continued, gesturing with his cane to the chair I was restrained in. "I can alleviate both of those concerns."

"What, and risk letting me out? Do you think you can control me?"

"I think I can incentivize you," Ozpin corrected. "I do not believe my read of you was entirely inaccurate, Mr. Arc. I believe there yet exists overlap in our interests that is significant enough to justify intervening between you and Raven Branwen. Certainly, your team and your friends would be interested in what I have to offer them, and I have a suspicion that you're aware that they'll be offered similar roles in time."

" _No_ ," I growled, not at his words but at what he was building towards.

"A man of your training, skills, and instincts would be invaluable to the world, Mr. Arc. Like it or not, this is the life that all of your friends signed up for. Would you really abandon them to that fate without your hand there to protect them?"

"Dammit, I said _no_ , Ozpin," I growled, not buying a fucking word he was saying. I knew this pitch. I knew what this was, what this _really_ was. "You aren't offering to give me a 'role,' you're offering to use me in your war. You're trying to _blackmail_ me into it. I'm not some naïve, seventeen-year-old with a hero complex who thinks they can save the world. I don't _want_ to be sacrificed for a world that I've never even been able to be a part of."

"And whose fault would that be?"

"The same woman with the leash around my throat. You know what, though? A leash is better than a noose," I spat out, glaring Ozpin down. "For all the terrible things Raven is, she wouldn't sacrifice me on some suicide mission all because my eyes were special. Yeah, _that's right_ , I'm talking about Summer, asshole, and all the other Huntsmen and Huntresses you've doomed, fighting your impossible war. At least Raven will tell me what she intends to use me for, and doesn't pretend to have some moral authority that no one granted her.

"Leave me out of your crusade," I spat out, out of breath after my outburst. I continued to seethe, glaring at the man before me the whole time.

"You seem to have taken after your adoptive mother well," Ozpin noted idly, downplaying my outburst and letting it pass by as if it had no effect.

" _Petty insults_? Is that all you have left?" I mocked exasperatedly. "Don't get your feelings hurt. You should have known that I was never going to accept your offer."

Ozpin didn't respond, remaining cryptically stoic. Something… something felt off.

"…you _did_ know I wasn't going to accept your offer, didn't you?"

A tiny, barely perceptible smirk accompanied a soft chuckle from the old man.

"You have something else," I growled as I recognized what that chuckle meant. He had let me say my piece and get my shouting over with so that he could play his ace once I had nothing left up my sleeve. "You were holding out on me. _Dammit._ "

"Yes, I was. Would you like to hear it?"

"Not at all."

"As I said, I do not believe that my impression of you was completely wrong. You value your friends and their protection. I can…" he trailed off, frowned, then resumed. "I won't mince words, not under the current circumstances. I can use that against you."

"You already tried," I pointed out. "I turned that offer down."

"Perhaps, but I hold faith that, given more time around your friends, you will eventually come to accept my terms if it means remaining with them or keeping them safe." He paused, giving me a coy look. He may very well be right, but he was leading this somewhere else. "However, there is a more immediate concern, and a more immediate circumstance accompanying that."

"So, we're back to the Fall Maiden, then…"

"Indeed. You _will_ give me the identity of Amber's attacker, because as of tonight, your partner contains the rest of Amber's power. If you do not cooperate, you are inviting the blame for whatever may befall her."

Ozpin's expression was smug, but in a much more vicious way than his normal, coy smirk. He grinned like a man who had just won a chess match by using his opponent's own pieces against him, reveling in smug satisfaction.

I laughed in his face, and that grin twisted in confusion.

" _That_ is your lynchpin?!" I scoffed indignantly, almost not even believing it. "You fucking fool, do you think I care if the woman who betrayed me is put in danger? If I had any way of getting back at her for this, what on Remnant makes you think that I wouldn't _want_ to do it?"

Ozpin's smug grin soured quickly as concern and shock flashed across his face.

"I can assure you that Ms. Nikos played _no_ active role in your incarceration, Mr. Arc."

"Yeah, I'm sure you could," I spat back. "What sort of idiot would I have to be to believe _anything_ you say anymore? You have _nothing_. I have no reason to help you, trust you, or talk to you."

"You're condemning thousands to die if Salem's Maiden wins," Ozpin growled angrily, his patience having run out and desperation creeping into his voice. He was going back to his best point, his so-called moral authority, but it would get him nowhere with me.

"Am I? I've already killed one of her agents. Tell me, how much have you done to stop her?" I paused, giving Ozpin a shit-eating grin. "By my count, all you've done is capture the man who killed one of her operatives. How does that make _me_ the guilty party here?"

Ozpin's grip tightened around his cane, and I prepared my Aura to resist any strike he wanted to throw, if only to frustrate him more that he wouldn't be able to make me hurt.

The blow never came, as Ozpin's scroll buzzed at his side. He seemed surprised by this, as if he had made himself unreachable except in the case of an emergency.

"Qrow?"

" _Get up here, now! They're trying to bring the entire Arena down!"_

"Qrow, what's going on?"

" _White Fang. Dozens of them. I don't know how, but they've got full access to all of Atlas' and Amity's systems, and they set off bombs. Atlas airships are dropping out of the sky and they're trying to bring this entire thing down on Vale. We need_ everything _we can get, Oz!"_

Ozpin's eyes shot up to me, glaring at me hard to see if I had known about this. I hadn't, but I cursed the gods that my arms were chained down, or else I would be doing my best imitation of Raven's cocky shrug.

"I'm on my way."

* * *

Alone with my thoughts once again, though with the added distraction of picturing what was going on up above. If Cinder was already striking, then it is a good thing that I'm no longer betting everything on getting to Ozpin's Maiden before her. That said, it would be preferable to being a prisoner, trapped down here while who knows what was going on out there.

The sound of shattering glass from just down the corridor caught my attention, coming from the same direction that Ozpin had left, and from the same direction that the transfer had taken place earlier. The shattered glass was followed by a female voice, grumbling some word too softly to be understood, though it did convey frustration.

Then footsteps slowly grew louder.

And Cinder Fall walked around the corner, her eyes roving over me with a smugness to them that was echoed by a small smirk.

She walked over to where the security camera stood, before pulling out the power cable and letting it fall to the ground.

"They're going to notice the feed going dead," I called out flatly, hoping that she would be worried about being caught.

"I doubt it," she said, holding up a scroll to show that it was playing that same security feed still, despite the fact the camera was dead. _She's looped the feedback._ "As of right now, I own every camera, scroll, and computer in this school, as well as all those belonging to Atlas' military. Even if I didn't, they'd be too busy anyways."

"The White Fang?"

"That's what the news will report, I'm sure," she answered back coyly, grinning at her handiwork. "A Faunus supremacist who hacked his way into Atlas' command servers. It'd be a miracle if Amity itself doesn't crash into downtown Vale."

She caught the grimace on my face with a curious expression on her own.

"Oh, that's right, your whole thing was limiting collateral casualties, wasn't it?" she cooed, reveling in the implicit insult there: she had never intended to allow me to limit her anyways. "Perhaps it will help if I tell you that nothing you could have done could have stopped me."

"I could have killed you."

"Then you were a fool not to," she replied, silently admitting that I _could_ have done something to prevent this. "I find it hard to believe that you learned mercy from your mentor…"

"You knew—?" I began to ask, confusion and surprise showing on my face.

"I learned at the same time as Ozpin," Cinder answered, holding her scroll up as explanation. "I know of her by reputation, and some fun stories I've heard in Mistral. Nothing about her having a _Maiden_ , though; that is certainly interesting."

My blood ran cold. Cinder works for Salem, or has implied as much. If— _when_ —Raven finds out that I am the reason that Salem knows about Spring, I'm a dead man.

I'm already a dead man, what with how I was utterly defenseless against a woman I had ambushed and humiliated once before, but somehow, I feared Raven more.

"Get on with it," I growled at Cinder, tired of being toyed around with.

"Oh, believe me, I'd love nothing more than to slit your throat and watch the life drain from your eyes, but I have a more…pragmatic use for you. How would you like to get out of that chair?"

I stared Cinder down, studying her to find out what her angle was. From what I could tell, she was smug and coy, but there didn't seem to be any deceit. I would have to be a fool to trust that, but that didn't change the fact that she appeared genuine.

"I'm listening."

"The fact that you're even in this situation means that you didn't give me up to Ozpin. Honestly, I struggle to think of any good reason why you wouldn't do that. We left on hostile terms, after all. Why wouldn't you given up your enemy to save yourself some trouble?" she asked, her voice making clear that she had an answer to it. "The only reason I can think of is _spite._ Spite towards Ozpin, in particular, and now that I know who trained you, that makes a lot of sense."

"What's your point?" I growled.

"That I can trust you to be spiteful. That if I release you, you're not going to oppose me by joining Ozpin. That I can safely trade your freedom for what I need."

"And what is that?"

"I've been a little busy this past hour, and Ozpin changed his Maiden. I need to know _who_."

I laughed bitterly.

This was too perfect.

"If you can figure out how to get me out of this, I'll do you one better than just finding her." I met Cinder's eyes, letting her see the rage that had been building up in mine. "I'll kill her myself."

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Have I mentioned before that I've been waiting to write this arc since I started creating an outline for this story?**

 **The Battle of Beacon begins.**

 **Cinder has implied that Adam made his move on against Amity.  
It sure sounds like Roman is having fun with Atlas' airfleet.  
Pyrrha was made Ozpin's Maiden(!), but now she has both Jaune and Cinder gunning for her.  
Jaune's Aura is likely still low from his beating earlier, but Pyrrha's isn't going to be much better.  
Cinder still has to get Jaune out of his restraints.  
Yang has run off to Raven for help.  
And then there's all the fighting that's going on outside. **

**Oh, yes. This is going to be fun.**

 **Also, Ozpin's Arc-xposition here has been planned for a long while now. That line Oz mentions about having measures in place to stop the name Arc from being printed was added as proof of just how long. Should you happen to ever reread the story, maybe keep an eye out for that...**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by a guest

"Shit's gotten real. Looking forward to next week's chapter.

In times like this, we gotta appreciate the fact that Ike has a frequent, consistent update schedule."

 **Why would you tempt fate like that? Do you _want_ me to miss an upload or something? **

**Also, I'm pretty sure that the Discord would hunt me down and execute me if I missed a chapter now. We even found out that one of the guys lives, like, 15 mins up the road from me.**

 **Guess we'll see...**

* * *

 **Also, _ZHsteven_ , I see you there, pumping up those review numbers. _Atta boy._ **


	54. An Unfriendly Spar

**Author's Note: Here we are. Here we go.**

 **It has been 377 days since this story was first published. 377 days and 50 other chapters, and _somehow_ , this chapter has two of my favorite three moments of the entire story, both written and planned.**

 **Let's ride.**

* * *

 **Chapter 51:** _"I'm not better than her." – Jaune_ Arc

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

"What happened?" Raven asked as I stepped out of her portal and into her tent. I ignored the looks I was getting from her and Vernal, the only other person in there, and walked straight over to the table where Raven's weapon was laying. I grabbed it and tossed it to her wordlessly.

"It's Jaune. We need to get him out, _now,_ " I commanded.

"What happened?" Raven repeated forcefully as she strapped her weapon to her hip.

"Ozpin found out. He has Jaune. We need to move _now_ , while he's distracted," I barked out angrily, getting frustrated that it felt like Raven was dragging her feet. Pyrrha was likely arriving at Ozpin's office right around now, which meant that Jaune was unguarded—or he wasn't guarded well enough that a Maiden couldn't free him. "We don't have time to sit around!"

Raven and Vernal shared a wary look, something unspoken passing between them. Each second they wasted only tightened the knot in my stomach.

"Yang, slow down," Raven called out, trying to calm me down, which only had the opposite effect. "What _exactly_ happened? What _exactly_ does Ozpin know?"

"What does he _know?_ " I repeated, zoning in on that last word. "Are you worried about your own precious secret!?" I accused loudly, before forcing myself to bite down my emotions long enough to explain things to her. "Look, Jaune tried to recruit his teammate to take Ozpin's Fall Maidenhood, and Ozpin found out. He might know about you, or he might not; I'm not really sure. But what I _am_ sure of is what's going to happen to Jaune if we don't stop stalling and save him!"

" _Shit…_ " Vernal tried to mumble under her breath, failing to do so. I whipped my head at her, but she was watching Raven with concern.

When I followed her eyes back to Raven, she was staring off at the ground, a disappointed and frustrated look on her face.

" _Raven…_ " Vernal's voice pleaded, as if she knew what Raven was thinking and didn't like it.

"What are you waiting for!?" I screamed.

"No," Raven stated softly, distantly. "Jaune will face his consequences."

" _What!?_ "

Raven looked up finally, her red eyes locking onto my own. Her eyes were set firmly, but there were several emotions evident there. Disappointment. Frustration. Anger. Resentment. Loathing. Sadness. Pity.

But it was the resignation there that angered me the most, that she was allowing herself to be _content_ with letting Jaune suffer. I activated my gauntlets, cocking them back to load a round into each of them.

"I don't think I heard you," I threatened, glaring at my mother with no care in the world to hide my anger. "Say it again," I dared.

"Vernal," Raven's voice called out evenly, though a little bit of the tension in the air seeped into it, "leave us."

She didn't want to, if the nervous glance she shot between us was any indication, but Vernal obeyed, silently exiting the tent flap.

" _I warned you_ ," Raven hissed bitterly, anger and contempt dripping from her voice now that we were alone. "I warned you what would happen if Jaune did something _stupid_ , Yang."

"You said that you'd take him back!" I yelled back, taking a few steps towards her. "You said that you were preparing for this, that you were going to make sure the Tribe was there if he needed it! He… he _does_ , okay!? You were right! Jaune doesn't belong in Beacon; he's too much like you. Is _that_ what you needed to hear?" I screamed as best I could, despite my voice failing me and cracking at least once. My fists shook and my eyes were starting to water, but I ignored it and focused on my anger. There was plenty of it, after all, and I was shaking.

"I _said_ ," Raven growled at me, fixing me with a firm glare of her own, "that if he didn't betray me—"

"We don't know that he did!"

"—or that if he didn't do anything _irreparable_ , then I would take him back. I _never_ said that I would rescue him from his own actions."

I nearly exploded, only steps away from her now.

"What the hell does _that_ even mean!?" I screamed at her. "You won't rescue him? Whatever happened to giving him 'one,' huh?!"

"He used it," Raven answered, her voice low and tense, "when he got captured by Torchwick."

I'd had enough of her condescending bullshit and finally snapped, swinging at her with my right fist and attempting to blow a hole in her face with Ember Cilicia. Her head ducked to the side to avoid the blow and her knee came up into my exposed ribs, knocking the wind out of me and before she shoved me back.

I was left panting from having the air driven from me and shaking from the anger. A chill worked its way down my spine, either from my tumultuous emotions or from the draft caused by the hole in the tent that was just created.

"You told me that you would protect what's yours," I stated after I had enough time to catch my breath, switching tactics. I couldn't afford to leave any angle untried. "Well, now's the time to prove it. Jaune doesn't have anywhere else to turn. He's yours for the taking."

"That's not enough."

" _Then what is!?_ " I screamed again. "Because all I can see is that you just don't want to back up your word! Are you scared or something?!"

"I am _not_ going back on my word," Raven hissed, her hand falling to her weapon tensely. She removed it a moment later, before closer her eyes and taking a breath to calm down. "Yang, has Jaune figured it out yet?"

"He—" I cut myself off, finding that I was too worked up to answer. It might have been why she asked the question, because it forced me to take a deep breath before I could reply. "He…hasn't. I didn't tell him."

"Do you see the position you're putting me into?" Raven asked now that I was no longer so enraged that I shook. "I told you that I would accept him back openly if he came to terms with who he is and came back on his own. Unless you can _assure_ me that this is going to force him to that realization, then all bringing him here would do is make him resent me. Can you honestly guarantee that?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but the words died in my throat as doubt crept in. Jaune might just as easily blame Pyrrha, or Ozpin, or even Raven, for the position he was in now. Even if he took this hard and blamed himself, would that be enough to make him see himself differently? If killing Emerald didn't make him realize just how much like Raven he is, then what would? _How bad would something have to be for Jaune to see it?_

"I thought not," Raven commented, though her words weren't gleeful or satisfied. "You're asking me to risk a lot just to have Jaune spit in my face and walk out again. Do you think Ozpin would take this lying down? Even if I make it out without them knowing I'm a Maiden, Qrow knows that I at least _have_ Spring. They might come after us now that they have Jaune, but if I attack them to take him back, they _definitely_ will. You would have me risk everything I have to save someone who's going to hate me for it?"

I could find no words, a combination of my adrenaline and anger still pumping through me crossed with a sense of being lost and not knowing how to respond, how to tell her she was wrong.

"I'm sorry, Yang. This is something I just can't do."

Her words… they weren't happy. They were resigned, disappointed, frustrated.

"You're just going to let your son die like that?"

Raven froze as my words hit her, choked out as they were. We both knew how likely Jaune was to cooperate with Ozpin, and just how bad this situation really was for him. Her eyes didn't meet mine, instead staring off into the distance at the dirt once more, her mouth slightly agape in shock from my question. After a few moments of contemplating it, Raven's eyes closed and her head dropped a little lower in shame.

She didn't deny it.

" _Fine then_ ," I spit out angrily. "Take me back there. At least let _me_ try to save him."

"No," Raven replied after a pause, before finally opening her eyes. "Not till you calm down. All you'll do is join him if you go in there like this."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I was under the impression that you didn't care if your kids died," I spat again, trying to hurt her with any words that I could. "What are you going to do, keep me prisoner here? If you're so afraid of Jaune hating it here, do you think this is going to be any different!?"

"I'm not going to keep you hostage," Raven answered, putting on a calm that I wasn't buying and crossing her arms. If I didn't know better, I would say she was channeling the image of an adult or, gods forbid, a real parent. "I'm just going to keep you here long enough to cool down so that you don't do anything _stupid_ like Jaune. Once I'm satisfied, I'll drop you off with Tai."

"No, it needs to be Qrow or Jaune!" I cut in angrily. "Dad's on Patch. That's too far away from Beacon!"

"I know," Raven replied. "That's the point. There's no reason for both of you to go down. Tai will agree with that, I'm sure."

Tears rolled down my face now, and I tried to ball my hands into fists once more, tried to get angry and ride that rage again, but it felt hollow now. I felt helpless. My only real chance of saving Jaune had just given up on the idea before my very eyes, and only wanted to make sure that I didn't waste my time trying to save him myself. I thought that coming here would be my best chance to save Jaune, and instead, all it did was stop me from helping him at all.

"Raven, you need to see this!" Vernal and a few others busted into the tent, scrolls in hand playing some footage, but I didn't care to stop and listen.

I was already out the tent, running to get as far away from that bitch as I could. I didn't make it far, though, as what looked like the entire Tribe was gathered around a projector playing the Vytal Festival's broadcast. What caught my eye first was that this was supposed to be the singles round, but there were four people fighting in the center ring. As I got closer, I noticed two had White Fang masks.

"What's going on?" I asked one of the faces I remembered from my visit last night—Drake, I think, but I wasn't sure.

"No clue. Broadcast has been hijacked and the White Fang set off bombs all through the stands just a few moments ago."

" _What?_ "

I looked again more closely. Penny and Nora were two of the four people fighting on the plain floor of the arena, and there was smoke everywhere. Spatters of dark crimson were seen the closer you got to the stands. Nora was fighting a White Fang member who had a chainsaw, and Penny was fighting one with a simple red katana-ish sword. The camera panned out, showing off the carnage in the surrounding stands as if the cameraman _wanted_ it to be seen. There were whole sections that were missing chunks where bombs had been set off, bodies slumped all over the place, and skirmishes between the White Fang, Atlas, and other students were scattered about. Except… Atlas' soldiers were fighting _with_ the White Fang, or some were.

"Yeah, they broke in before the match started and started fucking shit up! That Taurus guy started talking about judgement and karma for humans before they attacked those girls."

" _What?!_ _What's going on?!_ "

I pulled my scroll out hastily, hoping to see if I could find out anything more about what was going on. A weight that I hadn't even noticed lifted from my shoulders as I did so: I had texts from all of my team from the past few minutes. _They weren't taken by the bombs._

I looked up as the camera zoomed back in on the fights on the main floor. Penny, at least, seemed to have this Taurus guy— _wait, Taurus as in_ Adam _Taurus!?_ —on the ropes, as she pinned him in place and blasted him down with a laser beam shot from the combination of her swords. I had yet to really see anyone in the tournament able to handle Penny's assault, and fortunately, that looked to apply here too.

Some of the members of the Tribe around me cheered, though not necessarily because it was Adam that was going down. They cheered because they enjoyed the fight. A majority of them just watched in stunned silence, either shocked or just surprised by the scale of things happening.

Dust cleared after Penny's attack, and to our surprise, Adam was still standing, his sword half-drawn where he had taken the brunt of Penny's attack. That sword was violently glowing red and causing the camera to blur around it from its intensity, and Adam cocked his head to the side slightly; it was almost imperceptible, but it sent a chill down my spine. _He has something up his sleeve._ He charged forward at Penny, taking care not to use his blade to deflect her attacks as he charged in closer. Penny was forced to pull back all of her swords to form an impenetrable wall to block Adam's attack. Adam jumped into the air and brought his sword straight down into Penny's defense.

After a violent explosion of red that reached blocked out all sight of both Penny and Adam, all of Penny's swords fell to the ground, cleaved cleanly into two pieces. As did Penny herself.

The broadcast continued to play the same background sound of panic crowds rushing around, but now everyone in the Tribe had gone quiet. Even Adam looked surprised, taking in the two severed halves and staring at the wires and tubing that stood in for organs and blood.

" _The arrogance of humanity,"_ Adam monologued once he finished staring inquisitively at Penny's mechanical nature. He inspected his handiwork by poking Penny's lifeless shell with his blade, before sheathing it once more. _"You believe yourselves to hold the power over life and death. You believe it is your place to decide right or wrong, good or bad, worthy or unworthy, to create life and to take it. You will be shown just how wrong you are. Consider Vale your first lesson, and the White Fang your tutor."_

His attention turned towards his comrade, who was pinned down by Nora's grenades. Adam's hand fell to his weapon and I went stiff, praying for all that was within me that Nora would run while she could.

Adam was distracted by something above him, a giant nevermore that had arrived and was trying to break into the arena. When the camera panned back down, Nora had fled, only the pink smoke of her grenade remaining where she had been.

"This is _her_ move," I mumbled to myself as I stumbled upon the realization. I ignored the funny look from the guy who I had been talking with as I backed away from the screen, a loose plan forming in my head. I _have_ to get back there to get Jaune out, before either Cinder or Ozpin decides to kill him during the chaos.

A bellowing, albeit muted, roar played over the projection's audio, commanding everyone's attention as the camera panned up from the arena to stare off into the horizon. It was dark, but the camera seemed to adjust as a _massive_ black mass hovered through the sky, drawing closer and larger until it was clear that it was a massive Grimm.

A wave of inspiration shot over me instead of the panic I felt I _should_ see at such a large monster being released onto Vale. An idea took root in my mind, one that would work because it had to. It was too good for Raven to pass up.

I stormed into her tent once more, where several of Raven's lieutenants were gathered around a table, with a scroll playing the broadcast laying in the middle.

"Trying anything in Vale was a bad idea beforehand, but with a fucking dragon flying around, it's suicide!" claimed some man I didn't know.

"Think of all the unguarded loot in Vale!" another chimed in.

"Think of getting eaten why trying to haul it back," Vernal cut back at the man, who had been the only one who really still seemed on board with going to Vale. "There's nothing in Vale valuable enough for us to risk protecting, and it's going to be too chaotic to do any real looting with the Wyvern flying around."

"Vale's too risky," Raven added on in agreement. "If we go and establish ourselves as a legitimate defense force, we all die to the Grimm. If we try to loot the place, we risk harming our brand, _and_ we all die to the Grimm," Raven summarized, making it clear that she was leaning towards no. That was good, because new idea of mine or not, if she had been planning to go loot Vale after having just told me that she wouldn't save Jaune, I was going to personally tear her head from her body.

"With your portals, we don't have to get bogged down fighting any Grimm—"

"My portals only lead to the places with the _highest_ concentrations of danger, I can assure you," Raven cut back. After that, no one had anything else to add, and it looked like the decision was settled. Raven looked to me curiously. "Have anything to add, Yang?"

"I accept."

The others around the room seemed confused, but I kept my eyes locked firmly on Raven, and she understood immediately. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"You offered me a spot here, and you told me the offer stands. Well, this is me accepting that offer."

The room went, eyes shifting back and forth between Raven and me. I made sure to show my resolve, and I could see the gears turning in Raven's head.

"I assume that your condition is that I save Jaune?"

"Sure, but you would anyways, now that you have me," I responded, trying to give her a smirk. It was hard to put on, given how frustrating it was to be so desperate as to be going through with this. This was not a move that I enjoyed being forced into, and it likely showed on my face. But I gave her a smirk nonetheless, as hollow as it was. "You have _me_ now. Do you think Jaune is going to let me stay here alone? If you save him, he's not going to leave. If you were worried that he'll hate you, or he won't see who he is, then I'll make sure you don't have to. Whatever you need me to do to make this work, I'll do it! You have no reason to let him rot anymore!"

Raven's eyes gave away nothing. She didn't even react to the words, remaining silent. As the moments dragged on, my gut sunk further, as I became more and more worried that even _this_ wasn't enough, and that she was dead-set on abandoning Jaune. It shouldn't have surprised me that _she_ would abandon him, but I was betting everything here that she didn't want to do that. Maybe I had a higher opinion of her than was warranted. Maybe Jaune was right, that she had fooled me and really was this monster that he saw. Right now, all I have left is a desperate plea to that 'monster,' and I'll beg if I have to.

"Don't you get it!? _You win!_ You get what you wanted! Jaune Arc and Yang Xiao Long, willingly joining you! Is that not what this was all about?! _Is that not enough!?_ " My voice threatened to crack and I could feel my eyes watering again, as this was truly the last thing I could do. If this didn't work, Jaune was gone.

Nothing. No reaction. No change. She continued, watching me through her narrowed eyes as she weighed my words.

"Vernal," she said finally, not taking her eyes off of me. The feintest hint of a smile could be seen on her face. "Get the men ready, and have them on stand-by. We've got an extraction to take care of."

* * *

Pyrrha's POV

* * *

"Ms. Nikos, if there were ever a time to test whether you have inherited Amber's abilities, I believe—" Ms. Goodwitch was cut off as she strained and focused on her Semblance, which picked up a pillar of rubble to smash it into an Ursa "—that now would be the time."

"I'm trying!" I called back defensively, as I took out a small patch of three Beowolves. They were small and weak, and I found gouging them on Miló to be effortless. Honestly, I hardly even considered them, as there are so many other things on my mind. "It's not…easy."

I hadn't activated any of her abilities, but I knew the transfer had been successful. I could feel Amber's Aura stirring restlessly from within me, thrashing around like a blinded animal or a fish out of water; it—she?—didn't know where it was anymore. Fortunately, that hadn't manifested in magic being shot off randomly from me, but it still forced me to go through the uncomfortable feeling of hosting such panic. She had been gradually settling down ever since the transfer first finished, and was noticeably less restless now.

Perhaps, if I were a bit calmer myself, Amber's soul would resonate to that, and start to settle in better. With everything that was going on, I was the exact opposite of calm. Jaune is a hostage, I'm being blackmailed with that, Ozpin accused me of betraying humanity, I'm now half a Maiden, I have a target on my back from an unknown enemy, Jaune knows that enemy but hasn't shared, and now all of Vale is under attack! _I think I can be forgiven for being panicked!_

Nothing I've done has made things better, for anyone.

"Pyrrha, behind you!" Ms. Goodwitch shouted, her eyes going wide at something just past my shoulder that I had been too lost in my own thoughts to notice. I spun around frantically to find an Ursa reared on its hindlegs, barreling down to smash me. With no time to dodge, I desperately heaved Miló up at the underside of the beast's neck, hoping to pierce it as its weight fell down on me; I would take the hit, but the Grimm would evaporate enough to get out from underneath eventually.

Right as my adrenaline spiked and my arm fully extended its attack, a wave a fire jettisoned out of the arm holding Miló and hit the Ursa with enough force to counteract its stomp and knock it flat on its back. Though the flames dispersed outwards upon hitting the creature's body, they didn't burn me, or even feel warm to me, despite clearly burning away at the Ursa. A small flame hovered around my left eye momentarily, only noticeable because of the light cast down on my nose.

I was so surprised by the action that I never even capitalized on the downed Ursa, but I didn't need to, as another floating pillar of rubble crushed it, piercing it with jagged rebar and ending the Grimm's life.

"—rrha! Ms. Nikos!" Goodwitch's voice snapped me back to attention, the panic there only subsiding once I made it clear I was with her once more. With my attention garnered, her tone immediately turned inquisitive. "Are you okay? Did using that hurt you in any way? How is your Aura?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," I reassured, taking a breath to steady my reserves and pulling out my scroll as I did so. "It didn't even feel like me that was doing it. My Aura is just under half still."

"Under half?!"

"That's not from exertion! That's from—" I cut myself off before I could give away Yang's name. "That's from earlier, before the transfer. I guess this whole process has been too stressful to recover much."

Ms. Goodwitch gave me a wary look, before forcing herself to accept is as she turned her attention to the chaos around us. We had barely made it to Beacon's airfields before having to stop and fight, and now that the arena was clear enough for the evacuating students and Huntsmen to handle, we could continue on to Vale proper, as had been Ms. Goodwitch's intentions.

"I need to go!" I called out to Ms. Goodwitch as I finished reading the message I had just received on my scroll. "It's Ozpin. He said he needs me with him to guard the Vault."

Her eyes widened slightly as she took in the information, likely knowing better than me what other things might be hidden down there. To be safe, I handed her the scroll and let her read the message from the Headmaster for herself.

"Hurry, then!" she commanded, nodding once before turning to find a bullhead—or any other means—to Vale.

* * *

Beacon's Vault was significantly more depressing now, I found, as I stepped out of the elevator to find myself down here alone. My footsteps echoed on the marble floor making the only sounds in the entire Vault. The candles on the walls only served to cast long shadows off the square pillars to each side of the pathway, making the place seem even more ominous. The knowledge of the carnage, bloodshed, and terror that was being experienced above my head only served to make things worse.

The atmosphere did nothing to help my frayed nerves, only exasperating the fears and uncertainties I felt. I tried calling out for the Headmaster, but was left to assume that I was the first to arrive when nothing but my own voice echoed back to me.

Up ahead, there was a sudden noise, a soft clack on the marble caused by something I couldn't see behind one of the pillars in the distance. My nervous mind jumped into overdrive and I drew Miló and Akoúo̱, slowly and cautiously stepping further ahead, keeping my footsteps muted.

The unmistakable sound of soft footsteps heading towards me came from my right, just far enough back that my periphery could see none of it. My body tensed, and I turned my head just enough to see a large white object barreling towards me. It was too close for me to spin all the way around and get Akoúo̱ up in front of me, so I instead released the tension in my body into a jump up and slightly towards the oncoming object, which turned out to be a shield. With a boost from my Semblance, I cleared over most of the shield and let it clip my shoulder, providing me with just enough torque to spin around and complete a sideways flip over my assailer.

A sword shot out from behind the shield as it passed by underneath me, but struck my own shield dead center as I had made sure to keep it between me and the attack as soon as I could spin enough to do so. I was already shifting Miló into its rifle form with my free-hand while airborne, and as soon as I landed in a crouch, I fired three rounds at my attacker.

My attacker had recovered easily, spinning around and crouching to keep as much of themselves hidden behind their shield as they could. All three shots landed dead-center between the crests of the twin moons on the shield.

"Jaune!?" I called out in confusion as I recognized the symbol.

If the long, dark form of Angau Glas sticking out from on his back or the crest of his shield didn't confirm it, then the blonde hair that slowly emerged from behind his shield did. His eyes— _they're almost unrecognizable_. They're still… the same, in a way, but I've never seen them so angry, so hateful before.

 _And they're glaring at me_ , I realized as my stomach flopped and a pit opened up in its place. This… this is bad. Something is wrong. My blood ran cold and panic swept over me, as it wasn't hard to guess what could make Jaune so angry at me.

"J-Jaune, I didn't mean to—" I flinched as Jaune reacted to my voice by sinking into a defensive stance and pointing the tip of Crocea Mors over his shield at me, his body rigid in a way that matched the rage in his eyes. "You have to believe me, Jaune! I never meant for Ozpin to find out! I _tried_ to hide it from him! I— _Jaune!_ "

I yelped as he charged forward at me, still refusing to say a word. He lunged out at me, pulling his shield back and stabbing down from above his head at my chest, making sure his momentum was too great to allow the blow to be knocked aside. Instead, I forced it up and over my left shoulder with Akoúo̱ at the last moment, but Jaune continued to charge into me, swinging his shield into my side. I caught the edge of the shield on the flat of Miló to stop it from digging into me, but this still transferred the full force of his charge plus his swing into my torso. I picked my feet up and let the blow knock me back out of melee range, deploying my feet back down to slide across the ground, firing Miló in Jaune's general direction for a small extra boost of separation. Any rounds that found their mark glanced harmlessly off his shield.

"Jaune, please—!"

He let out a yell and redoubled his effort to come after me at the sound of his name, a reaction that shook me to my core. _He hated it that I would even say his name._ What had Ozpin told him that I did? Did he think that I willingly sold him out, or worse, did he know the whole truth and still hate me?

I didn't have time to think, and the thinking I had done cost more time than I could afford, as Jaune had already closed the distance and was upon me once more. He recognized my distraction and raised his sword up, winding up for a large diagonal blow to throw his momentum behind to try to overwhelm me with power. I flinched and braced myself, dropping one foot back in the direction his blow would come from and raising my shield above me to catch the blow.

It never came.

The blow was a feint and I realized this too late to do anything about it, as Jaune's full weight crashed into me from behind his shield, knocking the air from my lungs and forcing me to skid backwards on the marble floor once more. This time, I ran out of room and my back crashed into one of the square pillars, softly indenting the plaster.

Panic shot through me as my instincts began to roar to life. I had been knocked out of measure, but not by much, and with one step Jaune was within striking range once more, going for a powerful back-handed up-diagonal aimed at my midsection. The blow was coming in too low to be ducked by traditional means, so I dropped all the way down to the ground, narrowly avoiding Jaune's blow, his sword kicking up dust as it sliced into the plaster. From my spot on the ground I spun and swept Jaune's legs before kicking off the wall and leaping away to safety, returning to my feet before Jaune had fully hit the ground.

I had created significant separation before I dared to turn back around to put eyes on Jaune, expecting him to be picking himself off the ground, but not putting it past him to try to hurry to his feet and rush to me once more. What I did not anticipate was that he had turned to land on the flat of his shield, and then kicked as hard off the wall as I had. His smooth, polished shield glided near-silently across the polished marble flooring like a child's sled. I had turned around expecting him to be near the pillar and had missed him entirely until he slid into me and spun to take my own legs out from beneath me.

Taken by surprise, it had not occurred to me to steady myself with my Semblance and I landed flat on my back, which knocked out any air that I had managed to get into my lungs since having it all driven out not moments ago. Despite the mounting feeling of not being able to breathe, I reacted in time to Jaune's next attack. Standing above me to my side, he brought the full weight of his body down behind the point of his kite shield, and only by a desperate surge of my Semblance did I manage to veer it off course. It crashed into the marble floor, parallel to my head, not two inches from my ear. The force of the blow shattered the marble, sending large cracks out for several feet in any direction; I could feel the ground under my back shatter from the blow meant for my head. _That isn't the sort of attack that Aura can save you from._

Briefly, my mind flashed back to a time when I had tried to bash in Jaune's head in a similar manner, and I couldn't help but wonder if that blow wasn't intentional.

With an aggravated and frustrated cry, I surged my Semblance forwards and knocked Jaune backwards several feet into the air, giving me more than enough space to get to my feet.

"Jaune, say something! _Please!_ "

"Why?" his voice answered venomously. "What's it going to change now?"

"Jaune, please, just listen to me!" I pleaded desperately now that I at least had gotten him to respond. "I didn't want this—Ozpin tricked me! I never wanted to turn you in!"

"Oh, he tricked you, did he?" Jaune mimicked my words angrily. "I guess he just tricked you into that chamber and tricked you into those new powers, too, didn't he?"

"I—"

" _Don't try to lie to me_ ," he cut me off, glaring me down. "I can feel both of your Auras. I know what you did."

"He blackmailed me, Jaune!" I cut in finally. I was starting to get really nervous, and the way Jaune was acting was scaring me. It was like he had already convinced himself of what he was going to do. "He had me record our conversation, but when I wasn't going to give it to him and he found out, he blackmailed me into becoming his Maiden. He threatened to hurt you if I didn't do it!"

"Whose fault is it that Ozpin found out?" Jaune growled lowly, ignoring what I was saying and glaring me down when I didn't want to answer immediately. " _Who_ , Pyrrha!?"

"It…it was mine," I muttered softly, averting my eyes and staring off down at the marble floor. "Ozpin lied about the recorder he gave me, and when I used it, it sent it straight to him. I-I didn't _mean_ to betray you, Jaune, I promise—"

"But you did," Jaune cut in aggressively, before backing off and taking a deep breath, eyes closing as he did so. When they opened, the cut into me once more. "Even _if_ I believed you, even in the best possible light, all of this is happened because of _you!_ " Jaune finished in a shout, his voice growing angrier with each word. "It's all over because of you!"

"J-Jaune, we can still save you!" I fumbled out as he took a step towards me and I flinched, thinking him ready to attack me again. "Ozpin is on his way here to meet me, but we can get you out of here before Ozpin comes down. It's not too late for you to escape!"

"Ozpin's not on his way to meet you," Jaune cut back so confidently that I found myself believing it. Maybe it was just that I didn't want to do anything to contradict Jaune and upset him, trying not to set off a powder keg.

"Then we can get you out of here unnoticed! It's not too late to escape!"

"Don't you get it?" Jaune asked coldly, distantly. "The game is up, Pyrrha. My chances ended the moment you started recording me. I _can't_ escape now."

"Jaune, listen to me!" I practically shouted. "There really is a way out of Ozpin's control. Yang already left to get help. All we need to do is get out of here and get away from Beacon!"

Jaune perked up at the mention of Yang, his features softening for the first time. _Of course mentioning Yang would snap him out of it._ Why hadn't I lead with that?

"She got away?" he asked, relief palpable in his voice. I nodded, and finally started to relax. That didn't last, though, as some new thought came over him and his face contorted in suspicion and dread. "Pyrrha… what do you mean she went to get help? _Where_ did she go to get help?"

"I-I don't know exactly," I answered, which did nothing to help the tension Jaune was displaying now. "She called someone with my scroll and a…a portal opened up. She left through that. I…think the person was wearing a Grimm mask—"

" _No…_ "

"—were they…White Fang?" I trailed off, watching nervously as Jaune muttered in horror. " _Jaune?_ "

"No. No no no…" Jaune muttered, his voice growing louder, but also sadder. I couldn't tell if it was disbelief or heartbreak, but it sent chills down my spine to hear such raw emotion from him. " _Fuck._ No. Pyrrha. _Pyrrha._ Please tell me you're joking. _Please_ tell me that you didn't just do that."

"I… that's what happened, Jaune; I'm… I'm sorry." The words felt strange as I still didn't know what was actually wrong, but his reaction was beginning to scare me. "What's wrong with—?"

"WHAT'S WRONG?!" He screamed at me, hatred and rage returning to him. "I'll tell you what's wrong! I was an idiot and trusted my partner, _that's_ what's wrong! I thought you giving me up to Ozpin was bad enough, but you managed to outdo yourself, Pyrrha. Take a fucking bow." Jaune glared at me, the tip of Crocea Mors shaking from how hard he was gripping its handle. "Not only did you deliver me into Ozpin's clutches, but you also managed to do maybe the _only thing worse_ than that! Now Raven has Yang!" He trailed off and frantically rubbing his sword-hand through his hair, unsuccessfully calming himself down. "I have no idea how you managed to fuck my life up so spectacularly, but you did. I hadn't even thought of Yang going to Raven like this. I don't think you could have destroyed everything I hold dear any more completely if you had been _trying!_ "

"Jaune—!"

" _No_ ," he cut me off furiously, taking a step towards me and pointing his sword at me threateningly, "you don't get to speak. Every time you do, you make my life worse. Do me a fucking favor for once and die in silence!"

He charged at me again.

* * *

Ozpin's POV

* * *

Less than ten seconds after the Alpha Wyvern's roar shook Vale, I received three scroll calls. I answered them all simultaneously and put the calls on conference.

" _Oz, we're going to need a fucking miracle. Tell me you've got one stored up for us."_

"Ms. Nikos is only at half strength, both in terms of Aura and Fall's powers," I answered Qrow quickly, not caring at the moment if I was overheard by any of the evacuating civilians I was guarding. "If we can deal with her attacker and get her to full strength, she and I might be able to take the Wyvern down before it destroys the whole city. That's going to require knowing where that attacker is. James, what's going on with Atlas?"

" _It's not us!"_ James' voice replied, an element of panic in his voice. _"Something has infected our entire system. My flagship's been commandeered and has shot down most of my own air fleet, and all of our mechanized infantry has gone rogue!"_

" _Oh, you mean bringing your_ whole fucking army _to Vale backfired?"_ Qrow cut back in angrily. Softly, Ironwood mumbled something about this not being his _whole_ army. _"Oz, we need to know who the other Maiden is,_ now _."_

"Agreed. Glynda, have Ms. Nikos meet me downstairs in the Vault. It's past time to pull out all the stops."

" _What? She already—"_ Glynda cut herself off, but her words sent a strike of panic through me.

"She already _what?_ "

" _You already told her to meet you in the Vault earlier. I saw the message from you myself…"_

"Glynda, I have been facilitating evacuation of Beacon's fairgrounds this whole time. I assure you I did not."

There was a brief pause as the severity of the situation hit us all.

" _Ozpin, they're already in my system. Consider yours compromised, too,"_ James cut in finally.

I ended the call right there, leaving the airships and civilians under my care unguarded as I sprinted back towards Beacon Tower—their lives were forfeit if we lost the Maidenhood and allowed that Wyvern to roam unchallenged anyways. Overhead, the black form of the Grimm Wyvern blotted out a large chunk of the sky as it flew past the school, dropping fresh Grimm puddles as it aimed for the highest congregation of negative emotion: Vale's suburban districts. If I didn't make it down to the Vault in time, all of Vale was as good as dead and I could add a hostile Fall Maiden to the growing list of mistakes made this time around.

* * *

Pyrrha's POV

* * *

Jaune's weight crashed into me again, forcing me to brace his shield with my own and lean into him to avoid giving ground. He had been doing this consistently, leaning on me and trying to tire me out while also keeping our engagements too close for my spear to be of use, forcing me to keep Miló as a short sword. Every time he hit me, I could feel his anger spike all around me, and it felt like the very air around me radiated the rage he felt at all times, which did nothing to help my confidence.

I tried to force him back, surging with effort from my legs and combining that with my Semblance as I used it to shove his shield back, and once again it failed. Every time I tried to move his shield or sword, it would glow with his Aura and refuse to move—and I had already tried to use this against him, but had been unsuccessful. Every time I tried to surprise him with my Semblance, he always coated his weapons just before, and any time I tried to deal damage to his Aura while it covered his weapons, he retreated it back before I could.

My surge failed, doing nothing but wasting energy and tiring my legs out, unable to overcome his slight height and significant mass advantage. Seeing this, he did a surge of his own, forcing me off-balance and causing me to stumble backwards. I got out of range of his sword and he charged forward in pursuit, reversing his sword grip as he did so. He put all his momentum behind a massive left hook with his shield, and I dodged to the side and let it pass by me. With his back exposed to me, I brought Miló down on him and sliced into his Aura, before looking down and realizing that he had reversed his grip so that when his back was to me, he could stab backwards at me. I pulled up on my strike before it could do enough damage to matter—his Aura was broken not an hour ago when Ozpin captured him, too, so it's not like he has any more than I do. His sword still stabbed into my stomach, and I let out a yelp as I twisted to try to lessen the damage to my Aura.

Now, with his back to me and his sword stabbed blindly behind him, I had a chance to capitalize. Instead of holding his sword in place with my Semblance, I reached down and grabbed onto the blade to lock it into place, forcing him to either let go of the sword or remain with his back to me. I brought Miló back down hard into his shoulder, biting deeper into his Aura this time. It held, though, and before I could get a second strike in, Jaune made a move.

He let go of Crocea Mors, leaving me holding it with one hand and holding Miló up with the other, before spinning back around, shield first. It caught me on the side of the head with the full force of his spin and launched me onto my back, sending me skidding across the floor. My vision faded to black for a few moments and my ears rung, but I refused to let myself sit still, acting on pure instincts as I pushed myself to my feet.

I found that I had no weapons, save for Akoúo̱ on my back. My grip had faltered on both swords I had been holding, and I struggled with focusing my eyes until I could finally see clearly enough that Jaune had them both, and was coming to finish me.

Akoúo̱ slid into place on my arm as I brought it up to defend from Jaune's first strike, swinging from my left with Crocea Mors in his right hand. I brought my shield up to block the blow before it could get going, then brought it to the other side to cut off where he was swinging Miló low at my waist. Crocea Mors swung high for my face at the same time, and I ducked backwards enough to see the tip pass by my eyes, inches away. With his right arm overextended after the miss, I stepped in under his arm on that side and put what force I could into a punch with my shield against his ribs, but without the proper wind-up it ended as more of a push to create separation.

A dust round pinged off my leg and I looked up to find Jaune firing Miló one-handed, and I silently cursed all of those training sessions we had spent together. We taught each other everything there was to know about fighting each other, even going so far as to train the other how to use our weapons—or at least, I had _thought_ he taught me all of his tricks. My dwindling Aura would suggest otherwise.

I yanked Miló out of his grip with my Semblance, with him unable to put up much resistance now that he was gripping with only one hand in rifle-form. As soon as it was back in my hands, I shifted it to a spear and aimed it over the top of Akoúo̱ aggressively, before deciding that this needed to end.

"Enough!" I screamed, gripping my weapons till my knuckles turned white as I built up my Semblance. He saw it coming and his sword and shield were bathed in white, but everything else on him that was metal was ripped away: Angau Glas, all of his armor, even his scroll. Angau and his armor didn't rip off so much as they came unstrapped, all of them looking to have been only secured loosely, so that if I had tried to stop Jaune by holding his armor in place, it would have failed. It only went to show how much more prepared for this he was.

Jaune didn't stop immediately, but did once he saw what I was threatening him with. Angau Glass and his armor swirled around him menacingly, and I released Miló and Akoúo̱ so that they could join the ring I was forming around Jaune.

"Don't make me do this again, Jaune," I pleaded as it became clear to us both that we knew why this was familiar, harkening back to our first spar. "We don't have to do this! There's still time."

The feeling of hatred in the air around me only intensified, only serving to make the glare he gave me that much more terrifying.

"You don't get it, do you?" Jaune spat out, his voice dangerously low. "You don't get just how desperately I needed this all to work, do you?! This wasn't just about Ozpin, you idiot!

"This was my only chance, Pyrrha! I could have been free! I could have gotten away from Raven, from Ozpin, from everyone!" Jaune was shouting now, not fazed in the slightest by the weapons swirling around him that held him back. "But it's _over!_ Ozpin knows, and there's no place for me in all of Vale now. The only thing I have left is to beg for Raven's mercy. Do you know how awful it feels to know that my best hope is _that?!_ "

" _Jaune—_ "

"I did all of this to get away from her!" Jaune screamed, tears starting to fall down his cheeks. "This was my once chance to control my own destiny, to prove that I'm better than her by breaking free of her. _And it failed._ I… I'm not better than her."

Jaune's eyes trailed down guilty. He was shaking, and the feeling of hatred and anger that had surrounded me was cracking, with fear, hysteria, inadequacy, and hopelessness seeping into the cracks.

"Do you know how much that hurts to say? Do you know what it's like to have your future shattered in front of you?" Jaune closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath as he wiped his tears dry. His hands fell back to his sides, and clenched into fists as the aura around me turned back to anger once more. " _You will_. I failed because of _you_ , Pyrrha; my life is over because of _you_. Allow me to return the favor."

He started walking towards me, calling my bluff about the weapons swirling around him. His Aura shone all around him as his Semblance amplified it, making it clear that he was betting on making it through my attacks before his Aura broke.

"J-Jaune, stop! _Please!_ "

Another step.

"J-Jaune, don't make me hurt you!"

Another step, and I brought Akoúo̱ in to smack him in the back of his head, damaging his Aura. He didn't so much as flinch.

"Jaune, I don't want to kill you!"

Another step.

"You already did."

Then he charged at me and, despite myself, I brought the swarm of metal down on him, tearing into his Aura without mercy. I _had_ to break through his Aura and stop him before he made it to me.

It wasn't working, though. There was no way his Aura had recovered this much, yet no matter what I did, it wouldn't break. It should have been draining as it powered his Semblance so much, but it didn't so much as waver. I even began to become fatigued by using mine far quicker than I should have, and found myself struggling to keep all of the items afloat with my Semblance, which should only happen when I get close to running out of Aura. I let Jaune's armor and scroll fall out of the air, since they were taking up too much Aura to lift and did little damage.

I abandoned my strategy altogether and rolled out of the way at the last second, dropping all of Jaune's weapons and bringing Miló and Akoúo̱ back to me. Jaune was no worse for wear, and I felt like I was about to lose my Aura entirely—and I still hadn't figured out how to utilize Amber's Aura, which would have been extremely helpful right about now.

Playing defense hadn't done anything for me, so with no other option remaining, I went on the offensive. Jaune didn't have time to collect his weapons from where they had scattered, and he made the split-second decision to go after the closest weapon, Angau Glas, and left both parts of Crocea Mors lying on the ground.

I was on him moments later, slamming my spear down forcefully where he was standing and forcing him to roll away to safety. Ice shot out from my arm at the peak of my exertion, the frost just narrowly missing Jaune. Both of our eyes went wide in recognition of what that meant and Jaune's locked on to the flames around my left eye, and I took the moment to note that both times I had used Amber's powers had been when I was striking with some amount of desperation or adrenaline. _Only for offense._ Maybe Amber resonates more with lashing out then with defending.

Jaune didn't waste any more time staring at the magic ice deposit, rushing to put me on the back foot once more. He charged in, swinging high at my head with Angau's heavy blade, forcing me to bring my shield up and then brace to block it, cutting off my vision so that my follow-up stab with Miló would be blind. I stabbed out with the spear, taking care to do so overly-aggressively and putting desperation in the force of the blow; sure enough, flames erupted and traveled down my spear, shooting a blast just past Jaune. He had frantically spun out of the way of the blow and backed up a step, and this time, hadn't charged back in immediately.

I kept my spear pointed out towards him and he charged in suddenly, swinging the tip of his sword down from above his head to knock Miló aside, taking care to keep it between him and Akoúo̱ so that I couldn't counter-strike with my shield. Once past the end of my spear, he tried to bring Angau Glas' tip up to swipe at my throat as he ran past me, half-swording as he did so to guide the blow better. It was a standard pass, so he would be counting on me either trading the damage or blocking his attack and losing the chance to counter as he ran out of measure; with my Aura so low, I chose the latter, bringing Akoúo̱ up across my chest to guard my neck and face. His blade scratched across it as he made his pass.

Akoúo̱ blocked my vision and Jaune took advantage of that, winging me with his elbow as he passed by. It caught on the flat of my shield and his momentum smacked Akoúo̱ into my nose, sending a shooting pain through my face as my Aura had been unprepared, and that was if I even had enough to have done anything about it. I staggered back and reflexively brought my hand to my nose, before my instincts screamed at me not to take my eyes off Jaune. My head whipped around just in time to find Jaune stabbing Angau Glas at my stomach, still in that same half-sword grip.

I panicked and summoned whatever energy and Aura I had left, stopping his weapon outright with my Semblance, before yanking it from his grip and throwing it aside.

Jaune didn't miss a beat and before I had even flicked my eyes back towards him, he was already underneath my guard, delivering a sharp punch to my nose, going for the same spot he already knew he had weakened. I staggered backwards and he kept pace, making sure to stay so close to me that I couldn't use Miló or Akoúo̱. In fact, holding on to both made trying to counter or avoid Jaune's punches more difficult, and in frustration I dropped them as I continued to backpedal under Jaune's furious assault.

Jaune threw a right hook and I swatted it across my body, taking a step backwards as I did so to make sure the tail-end of the punch didn't reach me. Jaune took one step forwards to keep pace and threw a left cross. I caught this on my right elbow and took another step back. Jaune took another step forward and attacked.

Step back. Punch avoided.

Step forward. Punch thrown.

Step back. Punch evaded.

Step forward. Punch thrown.

Step back. Punch negated.

Step forward. Punch thrown.

Step back. Punch blocked.

Step forward. Punch not thrown. Hand reached behind back.

Step back. Prepare for whatever he was reaching to grab.

My back hit the plaster wall of one of the square pillars, taking me by surprise and disrupting my defense momentarily. Jaune had led me into it, cornering me. He hadn't thrown a punch because his hand reached behind his back and grabbed something there. _A hidden weapon_ , I realized, as it dawned on me what his plan was.

Jaune's arm twitched, grabbing a dagger from behind his back and lunging forwards with it, knowing that he had timed everything and had a window to strike while I was staggered. Unable to defend, I closed my eyes and drew on all of my Aura once more. Despite being so low, it responded, surging to life and pulsating as I powered my Semblance, pushing out to stop Jaune's dagger.

There… there was nothing there. There was nothing for my Semblance to grab onto. Nothing to stop. No metal to interact with, nothing magnetic to stop.

I opened my eyes in horror, just in time to watch the ceramic dagger bury itself in my ribcage.

A sharp breath of air was forced out of me, accompanied by a shooting pain in my chest. Every little breath I tried to take only sent new waves of pain as it jostled the knife, made worse by how I was sputtering for breath.

"J-Ja—" I tried desperately to call out his name, but a new level of agony shot through my chest as I tried to speak with a knife in my lung. All that came out were sputtered, pained coughs, the last few of which contained slowly increasing amounts of blood.

Jaune backed away slowly, eyes wide in shock and uncertainty plastered on his face, leaving the dagger in me. I slumped against the wall, doing my best not to disturb the wound and cause myself any more pain.

"P-Please, don't do this," I croaked out through the sharp breathes and the inability to see through the tears that had formed. "I'm sorry, Jaune. I'm so sorry. _Please_ don't do this."

I couldn't see Jaune's face through my tears anymore. All I could see was that he was staring down at his hands, not saying a word. He looked back up to me and I couldn't bear to even try to look into his eyes, leaning my head back against the wall in despair and letting my tears fall unchallenged.

"I… I really am no better than her." Jaune's head dropped low, and he stared off at the ground in silence. "This—this was a mistake. I shouldn't—Pyrrha, I shouldn't have—"

"Now, now," a new, female voice called out from somewhere off to the side. I tilted my head in that direction, blinking to try to see this new person—anything was better than trying to meet Jaune's eyes right now. "That was quite the performance. Don't tell me you're having second thoughts…"

Jaune stiffened at the sight of this new person. She strode forward arrogantly, walking with what looked like a gray replica of Ozpin's cane. She twirled it around, making a show of it, before it dissolved away in a flash of orange. There was a clear tension in the air between her and Jaune, belied by the way their eyes locked on each other.

"I would say you more than delivered on your end, Jaune. Collect your things and run along before I change my mind, and before you do anything you'll regret."

She had meant that he would regret saving me, but Jaune's feet stayed rooted where he was, unwilling to leave me to this woman. I had finally gotten through to him! Jaune was unarmed, but this woman wasn't paying any attention to me, and Amber's Aura was still fine. If I could be aggressive enough, I maybe could use Amber's powers and hit this woman with enough of a blast to buy Jaune time to—

Jaune stepped aside, dropping his head guiltily as he turned his back on me and let her have me. He sulked away, cowed. Any will to go on I had remaining died right there.

She gave me a smug look and began monologuing over me, but I didn't bother listening to the words she said. I didn't care if she was gloating over me, or pitying me, or mocking me. She got angry at my indifference and grabbed me by the chin, forcing me to look her in the eyes and pay attention.

Her anger soon died out as she realized that I just didn't care anymore.

"You… didn't want these powers, did you?"

I weakly shook my head.

"A shame, then. Giving such power to someone with no will to utilize them? Ozpin has grown careless, or senile. I suppose decades of peace will do that to even the best of us." The woman took a step back and looked over me, a trace of pity in her eyes, but only a trace. "It's unfair that you were dragged into this by authorities you thought you could trust. Rest assured that Ozpin will share your fate."

Jaune walk by behind Cinder on his way to the elevator, fully armed once more. He even had Milóand Akoúo̱, though his arms drooped and his shoulders slouched as he carried them. His head hung low as he walked by, and I tracked him with my eyes, desperately holding out hope that he might change his mind and forgive me, that he might still come to my rescue. He did his best not to even look my way, avoiding even looking at the same half of the room.

His feet stopped for a moment, though his head remained hung despondently. He turned just enough to see me, to make eye contact once more. He opened his mouth to speak, but the words died in his throat. I hung onto hope for what he would say, that his words would signal my salvation. It was the only thing I had left to hang on to.

Cinder's eyes watched mine, noting that I had stopped moving them and, thus, Jaune too had stopped moving just behind her. A knife formed in one hand at her side, hidden from Jaune's view and tensing up in anticipation of a move.

Jaune tried to speak again, but the elevator door pinged off in the distance, cutting him off. All of our heads turned, watching as the doors opened to reveal a furious Ozpin. Panic washed over Jaune and Cinder.

She hastily slit my throat the very next moment.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: _Not the Redheads!_**

 **Things are happening. Non-canon things. Things have shifted. Big things are different. That's all I have to say about that.**

 **Those two moments were Yang desperately offering herself to Raven to try to save Jaune, and Jaune taking Pyrrha's breath away, by force. Originally, I was going to have Pyrrha panic as Jaune tried to kill her with his Aura projection, only for Pyrrha to shatter his Aura and leave him unarmed, _then_ have Jaune break out the ceramic dagger. Sort of a false-Chekov/flag, but it didn't fit the shape of the fight. **

**Cinder had better hope that Pyrrha bleeds out quickly. I can't imagine that she wants to face Ozpin (with or without Jaune against her too) as only a half-Maiden. Full Maiden Cinder kills Ozpin and makes it seem pretty easy, since she handles Pyrrha afterwards without being tired, so I would say this is actually an even fight. _Which is not what Cinder wanted when she planned this all out._ **

* * *

**Author's Note:** by _Eating Upside Down_

"Oh I get why I don't like the story, it's over dramatic and over analytical on angst and feelings. I was hoping for an adventure story when I read the summary instead of a corny melodrama filled affair. I mean causing a broken ankle in combat school for monsters is not a big fucking deal. A lot of this story is just drama to have drama. It's not meaningful or purposeful at all. And the humor is for weebs or the socially awkward. I can't tell if I'm reading either middle schoolers having lunch, preschoolers at the playground, or a self insert Rwby fic.

Also the word count is super misleading. A lot of content is author notes that reek of needing attention. Like, reply to comments via pm. Only reason you'd write so much additional content is if either there is pressing questions that the story itself can't answer, or if there's confusion or misleading information.

This author writes so much about their opinions and justifications for elements in the story, that they should tag themselves as an OC. Not to mention that there's bashing in the story that's pretty tasteless and immature, a wannabe edgy plot, bullshit empty drama, literal chapters discussing the drama, and 2D characters that all seem to react and feel the same way.

I will say I thought the fight scenes were dope. I think that's the part that makes me mad the most, because it's like finding a diamond in mountains of shit. You have to ask yourself if it's worth it, and I'm sure there's someone who's willing to. But I'm not willing to dig up half a million words of edge lord emo Jaune and his very important problems to find 10 or so scenes."

 **Fuck me, if this isn't the best thing to have come out of MoNT, I don't know what is. This surpasses normal hate reviews and transcends to its own plane. I honestly want to frame this thing. I'm not really being facetious about that, either.**

(As a rule, don't harass this guy or anyone else who leaves negative reviews. _Or leave reviews trolling this guy, unlike the shits in the Discord, who I cannot control anymore._ )

 **This review is the absolute perfect takedown of my ego. A few of these things would have really stung, but the fact that they _all_ nailed the mark is just down-right incredible. This deserves a full breakdown of just how great it is:**

 **Paragraph 1:** "over dramatic and over analytical on angst and feelings"

 **Yes. Right off the bat, you've hit the nail on the head. I am dramatic. I like drama (that doesn't involve me directly). I feed on the edge.**

"the humor is for weebs or the socially awkward"

 **Okay now this fuckin' hurts because it hits too close to home. I am _not_ a weeb, dammit, because RWBY is still _not_ an anime. Technically. This one throw-away insult absolutely nails the mark, although to be fair, you are accusing me and anyone who likes the humor here to be a weeb and socially awkward. _Was that not established by the fact this is RWBY FANFICTION? _**

**lmao this review is so great and we haven't made it to Paragraph 2.**

 **Paragraph 2:** "Also the word count is super misleading. A lot of content is author notes that reek of needing attention."

¯ **\\_(** **ツ)_/¯ Sorry, I guess. I'd say it's fair to assume that a solid 15% of the story length are ANs. That leaves you guys with, what, only 450,000 words of story? _My bad._ lmao**

 **Reeks of needing attention? _Me?_ What ever made you think that? **

**Paragraph 3:** "This author writes so much about their opinions and justifications for elements in the story, that they should tag themselves as an OC."

 **This is, quite possibly, the single most effective burn I have ever been subjected to. I hate OCs. Can't stand them. In one sentence, this man has revealed that I should hate _myself._**

 _ **Too late there,**_ ** _buddy!_**

 **Dammit all, this review just keeps giving.**

"Not to mention that there's bashing in the story that's pretty tasteless and immature, a wannabe edgy plot, bullshit empty drama, literal chapters discussing the drama, and 2D characters that all seem to react and feel the same way."

¯ **\\_(** **ツ)_/¯**

 **Paragraph 4:** "I will say I thought the fight scenes were dope. I think that's the part that makes me mad the most, because it's like finding a diamond in mountains of shit. You have to ask yourself if it's worth it, and I'm sure there's someone who's willing to. But I'm not willing to dig up half a million words of edge lord emo Jaune and his very important problems to find 10 or so scenes."

 **Man, the absolute roller-coaster of emotions these few sentences sends me on is awe-inspiring. The funniest part is that the fight scenes had _nothing_ to do with why the story was created. It was entirely for the "edgy, bullshit empty drama." The fight scenes were just an accidental byproduct of me having watched a lot of HEMA videos on YouTube around the time I started writing this, combined with how much I play For Honor. Wish fulfillment in writing, and - _aww fuck, I really am a weeb._ **

**Also, _Edge Lord Emo Jaune and his Very Important Problems_ would have been a fucking fantastic name for this story. The current title was just a hold-over name I put down because I couldn't really think of anything at the time and it sounded profound. Fortunately, it fits the narrative, but oh boy, did I miss the opportunity there. **

* * *

**Yes, I felt that the only appropriate way to respond to his review complaining about my long Author's Notes was to write a long Author's Note about it.**

 **I really do want to print this out and frame it. I'll keep you guys updated on how that goes.**


	55. Nerf handcannons

**Author's Note: My god, a chapter underneath 10,000 words? Incredible.**

 **There's a character who does some fighting in this chapter, whose weapon we have seen in the show, but it has not been named. I took the liberty of naming it, as well as fleshing out how it operates, just a little bit. Consider it as much of an OC as I'm willing to commit to, outside of myself in the AN's. _I'm never letting that review go._**

 **Speaking of that absolute banger of a roast I featured as last week's comment of the week, I really did frame it. I took out a picture of me with my family to put up a hate-review/roast from my fanfic. If that doesn't scream "mentally stable" then I don't know what does. If you want to see my frame job, we've got a picture of it pinned over on the Discord:**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **That was a good segway, huh?**

 **Speaking of segways, let's see who dies this week. _Enjoy._**

* * *

 **Chapter 52:** _"I used to think that the characters Spruce Willis played were all exaggerated stereotypes. Now that I've seen the General in person, I'm beginning to think that they might have actually based those characters on a watered-down version of General Ironwood." – Neptune Vasilias, who would not shut up about the topic, to the dismay of his teammates, who were there with him the whole time_

* * *

Ozpin's POV

* * *

The elevator ride down to the Vault was excruciatingly slow, or at least felt like it. It has been a long time since I've had anything major backfire in my face—Summer's death or the disappearance of the Spring Maiden coming to mind as the most recent, and the latter falls more on Leonardo's shoulders than mine. But the last time that I let this many things backfire all at once?

Well, you would have to go back to before the current kingdoms were organized, at least. Likely even further.

Letting Atlas run the Festival has backfired. Their machines have gone rogue and are firing on the innocents they're designed to protect.

Using Ms. Nikos to get to Mr. Arc has backfired. Now, I have a half-Maiden on a leash, and can't guarantee that she's going to be content to stay that way, if she survives.

Everything regarding Mr. Arc has backfired now. For all the comparisons to Qrow, he turned out to be Raven in more than just figurative ways, and that cost me dearly. He even refused to turn on Salem's agents, deciding it better to shut his mouth and take his chances.

All of Vale was suffering those mistakes right now, and this damned elevator is going so slow that things might get significantly worse.

I shook any thoughts free from my mind and gripped the handle of my cane tighter, trying to clear my head and focus on the task at hand. There would be plenty of time to dwell over my recent failures after this, especially if this night forces me into a reincarnation—which may very well depend on how late I am getting to the Vault.

With only a few seconds remaining on the ride down, I closed my eyes, concentrating on whatever magic I still have. I had to reach deep inside to find it, and latching onto it made me feel weak and feeble, a reminder of just how old I was getting, and I don't mean this current body—though that was another thing. The magic was there, though, springing to life and invigorating me.

The elevator door chimed and my eyes snapped open, my body surging with the energy I had just tapped into.

Three people were fifty feet down the hallway from me. I recognized two, Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos. The scene was a bad one; Pyrrha was slumped down against one of the pillars and was wounded, and her partner was mostly turned away from her. The third person I did not recognize, but I did not need to know her name to figure out that she was Amber's attacker.

All three of them looked my way with different amounts of shock and panic, and I was already rocketing towards them when the unknown woman slashed Pyrrha's neck, a panic to her motions as she realized that she would want all of Amber's power to take me on and was willing to risk Pyrrha's powers going elsewhere.

" _No!_ " Jaune Arc cried out suddenly, snapping out of a stupor at the sight of his partner's throat being slit. He dropped the girl's weapons from his arms and drew his Arc's sword into a swing at the woman, which she blocked on a blade she summoned into her hand. Whatever truce there had been between them before was certainly gone now, and she had not been caught off-guard by his attack.

She could not block his attack and avoid mine simultaneously, and I shot towards this woman at an unnatural speed, leading with the tip of my cane and building up a fireball around me that bristled with magical energy. Her eyes went wide as she realized this and she braced herself as best she could, trying to throw up something in front of her with her powers to absorb the blow. It was a futile attempt and I crashed into her violently, pushing even more power into the point of contact, which sent her flying down the hallway, bouncing and skidding across the floor for almost a hundred yards.

" _Mr. Arc—_ " I growled, turning around to confront the man, only to find him already on his knees by his partner, trying desperately to undo the damage done.

" _I'm so sorry, Pyrrha_ ," his voice choked out quietly to the girl, who herself was gasping for breath as panic and fear overtook her face. His hands glowed as they applied pressure to the cut in her neck. "This was a mistake."

"Mr. Arc!" I yelled, getting the boy to at least turn his head enough to see me. "Can you save her?"

"I… I don't know. M-Maybe. The cut wasn't clean, and she only cut through one side of her neck, but—"

"But what?!" I yelled impatiently, keeping my eyes downrange and locked onto the woman who was picking herself off the ground.

"I'm almost out of Aura," he replied meekly. "I…I won't be able to fix it all. It…it won't be enough."

An arrow whizzed through the air at us. Mr. Arc pulled his shield up and made sure to shield Pyrrha and himself with it. The arrow struck dead-center in the shield, it obviously having been intended to finish the job on the half-Maiden.

"Get her out of here!" I yelled as our attacker began running towards us. "I'll hold her off."

"You're just going to send her with me, after all I've done?"

"Lesser of two evils, Mr. Arc," I replied gruffly, making it clear that we were by no means on friendly terms. "The sooner she dies, the sooner her attacker recovers the other half of her powers, so _get her out of here._ " It didn't matter if he _did_ save her, only that he prolong her death.

Realization dawned over the boy, and he scooped Pyrrha into his arms, taking care not to disturb the knife protruding from her chest. I did not miss the fact that it was his knife, but even with that as it is, him getting her out of here was the best of a pool of suboptimal options. His Semblance still caused her Aura to shine around her neck, but it was clear that she was still bleeding there faster than she could afford to—and she could hardly breathe, if at all. With her secured, he sprinted for the elevator, leaving behind the girl's weapons.

" _No!_ " the assailant screamed, trying to rocket past me by riding a wave of flames propelling her. My cane caught her in the gut and I absorbed the energy she had been riding, knocking her back far enough to allow Mr. Arc to make it aboard the elevator.

She summoned a bow and began desperately firing arrows past me, and I knocked the first few away with my cane, preventing them from finding their mark, much to her frustration. By the time she finally got one past me, the elevator doors had closed, and her prey had escaped.

The woman seethed, glaring at me as her shoulders rose and fell.

"You're going to regret that."

"I'm going to regret a lot of things about tonight," I answered back, putting on a calm façade. "We'll see where that ranks once the dust settles."

The woman morphed her bow into two swords and held them down at her sides, ready for me to make a move at any moment, but content to wait as long as I was. The longer things dragged on for, the greater chance that Ms. Nikos would bleed out, and while it wasn't guaranteed that Amber's remaining powers would seek out their other half, it was plausible.

"I don't believe we've met, miss…?"

"Fall," the woman replied, hesitating for a moment as she decided that engaging me here would at least buy her more time. Surely, I would find her name out eventually, so using it to buy more time her was reasonable enough. "Cinder Fall."

"Ms. Fall?" I repeated with a patronizing chuckle. " _Subtle_. Did you come up with that yourself, or did your master designate it to you?"

She bristled at my insult, her patience very clearly running thin. _At least I am not the only one whose plans seem to have run awry._ Perhaps Qrow's Semblance has been putting in significant overtime.

"Are you just going to stand there the whole time, or are you going to attack me?!"

"Impatient, are we?"

"The longer you wait, the better chance there is that Pyrrha will die and I'll get her powers," Ms. Fall replied, sounding like she was trying to convince herself to be patient. "Do you really think you have enough power remaining to kill a Maiden?"

"No," I answered, keeping my tone simple, "I doubt that I do. As it stands, even a fight with half of a Maiden is more of a coin flip than I'd like to admit." In all likelihood, it was probably an even fight. Our magics were probably at the same level, and she had the advantage of a youthful body while I had the advantage of skill and experience. It could go either way. "That's why I'm hedging my bets."

Her eyes narrowed at that, a healthy dose of skepticism and suspicion in them.

"Explain."

"Look around you," I called out with a smirk. "You at least were effective in destroying Vale. If Beacon falls, this Vault will become a tomb… our tomb. And both of our powers will seek out new hosts..." Her eyes widened as she caught on, which may have caused my smirk to deepen just a bit. "But only you will truly die here."

* * *

Ironwood's POV

* * *

Ozpin's line went dead as he rushed off to the Vault in the hopes of saving our current best chance to take down the Alpha Wyvern and save what remains of Vale. Even if by some miraculous series of events Ozpin is able to save his Maiden, a single Maiden against a beast such as that was no guarantee.

"Qrow, can you make it to Amity? We need to take out the White Fang here as soon as possible."

" _You want me to fly through an army of Nevermores?"_

"Grimm don't target animals. You'll be fine."

" _Grimm don't go out of their way to target animals, but I'm not sure I want to test that theory,"_ Qrow retorted. _"Fine, I'll get there as soon as I can."_

"Good. I'll be busy in the meantime," I replied, hanging up the call.

The Grimm Wyvern had bypassed Amity Arena and gone after the heart of Vale instead, which presented an opportunity for this whole mess to be resolved. Outside of magic, the only thing with enough firepower to hurt that thing would be the Atlas fleet, or what remained of it. Even just my flagship possessed the firepower to turn this fight, and regaining my ship would also allow me to figure out who had hijacked control of my machines and shut them down. To take back my ship, I would need bullheads to assault it, and to free up bullheads, I would need to finish Amity's evacuation. _Or start it._

That the Wyvern had passed by Amity in favor of Vale spoke of the dire straits aboard the coliseum: there simply weren't enough survivors left to generate as much fear as Vale proper. The damned White Fang was determined to make the most of this attack, and not only had they bombed the stands and killed hundreds, but they had been waiting at the exits, greeting the fleeing civilians with either gunfire or wild Grimm they had released onto Amity.

The coliseum had been a warzone ever since. The exterior shields had failed when Nevermores and Griffons overwhelmed the system—that, or the Fang's control over my systems also extended to Amity and they had simply shut them down. Not even the White Fang exposed themselves out in the open there, and currently Oobleck and Port were posting up and keeping the skies distracted. That left everyone else in a bloody, chaotic skirmish for the several different self-contained or sheltered levels of Amity.

Conveniently, it put them all in my way.

I had already cleared the press-box level by the time the Wyvern had announced its presence, and once I was off the scroll with Ozpin, I could double-down on taking back this arena. The upper-most level wasn't highly populated by either White Fang or students—only bodies. The fighting had all made its way down to the lower levels, likely because of one side retreating, and all that was left now were a few students tending to their wounded or White Fang doing the same. Any thoughts of taking mercy on those Fang were washed away by the countless lifeless bodies of civilians that you had to step over just to reach them; the bastards had preyed on innocent lives, and found no quarter from me.

A level below that and things became more involved. This ring was half-empty, and the other half was occupied by a standoff between students and a small squad of White Fang gunners. The Fang were trying to overrun a defensive stand by the students—some of whom didn't even have a proper weapon with them—behind which a small crowd of civilians were taking shelter. The students were losing ground fast, as the White Fang bastards had come prepared for an assault and simply had more means at their disposal.

I made sure to reverse that trend, jumping directly into the fray and cutting a massive hole into their assault. Falkemond slipped free of its holster cleanly, the hand-cannon humming to life and linking with my cybernetic arm, letting me know that it was loaded to capacity. Ten high-caliber rounds plus three anti-armor piercers that would shatter the arm of a non-Aura user, scattered throughout the magazine at random so as to be unpredictable to opponents.

Not that I needed to keep such grunts guessing. There were six of them, five if you discount the one unlucky enough to be pistol-whipped as I drew Falkemond. The next one I fired point-blank into his chest, the first shot ringing in our ears with a massive **bang** as the first round came out as one of the enhanced rounds. He had Aura but the shot knocked him back on his back and bought enough time for my personal guard to jump in at both of my flanks, taking two of the remaining four targets.

The last two left to me shared a look before charging in at me, as if that was somehow a good idea. One pulled up to fire at me with a dust rifle and the other charged in with a polearm, slashing it at my head. I switched my gun to my left hand and swatted the weapon aside with my robotic one, firing four rounds point blank into this man's Aura from my hip as I did so. I stepped in and caught the man's arm by the bicep with my robotic hand, before stepping up and behind him and dislocating the joint with a sickening pop and a snap, forcing his torso to face his buddy and his arm to go behind his body with me. He let out a painful scream and his buddy held his fire now that he didn't have an angle, and that was the last mistake either of them would make. Falkemond put a round through my hostage's chest now that he wasn't engaging his Aura and the blood spray out the other side blinded and distracted the other one long enough that the next round fired split his forehead wide open. The Aura in my left arm tingled as the enhanced round's recoil hit me.

"Students," I called out, turning back around to address them and I reloaded, popping out the side-loading dust canister and inserting a new one. "What's the situation down here like?"

"That's the last of them on this level," a blond boy with a staff responded. I recognized him as one of the finalists in the tournament, and absently noted that he seemed to have no confliction about fighting the White Fang despite his obvious Faunus features. "We tried to get most of the survivors to the lower levels, but the Fang was determined to go after them!"

"Then let's hope the other students held out as well as you have." I looked over the small group of about ten civilians, not content to leave them unguarded should any more Fang reveal themselves here. There were four students total, only two of which even had proper weapons, and I kicked the fallen White Fang grunts' weapons over towards the other two. "Two of you stay here and protect them. The two of you who are in best shape to fight, _on me._ "

As expected, the two with proper weapons fell in with me, as did my two personal guards. We made a beeline for the stairwell.

"What are your names?"

"I'm Sun. That's Neptune."

"General Ironwood."

"We know. What's with the whole 'evil robots' thing?" the one called Neptune asked as we made our way down the stairs.

"What he means is—"

"He's fine," I waved off, though the gruffness of my voice likely undercut that statement. "I've somehow been entirely locked out of my own systems. The only way to shut down any Paladins or Knights remaining requires me to get to my flagship, which means we need to take back this arena fast. _Eyes up_ ," I called out as we burst out the stairwell into a scene of pure chaos.

Amity's self-contained levels got wider the further down you went, and this was the first level that looked like an actual battlefield. Bodies were scattered everywhere, and not limited to just civilians anymore. The fighting was bogged down and it was clear that this skirmish was taking its toll, and instead of scattered fighters there were scattered pockets of two or three Fang members taking on a student or two at a time.

"What do we do?"

"Divide and conquer," I answered immediately. "Save someone, overwhelm the Fang together, and then do it again."

"What makes you so certain that the five of us can change this whole battle?" Neptune's voice asked, apprehension clear in it.

I drew my weapon and emptied six rounds into two Fang members who had pinned down a student, killing one outright and knocking the other to the ground, allowing the student to knock him out easily. Following that, I drew my arm up and brought it back down behind the back of Sun, firing out from behind him at a different skirmish off to our side; the first round that came out was an enhanced one, piercing through the standing Aura of a Fang member and putting a hole in the side of his head. The next two shots pinged off the wrists of two more Fang members who had been backing down another student with the now-deceased assailant, which forced them to drop their weapons in surprise. The student's eyes lit up now that her attackers were unarmed and she surged forwards, and my next two shots hit the knees of the Fang members and caused them to stumble.

None of those last shots were enhanced, meaning the last two rounds in the mag were.

Off in the distance, two students were trying to handle an Ursa that was there—for _some_ reason—and a White Fang pikeman was sneaking up behind them. After taking a moment to line up the shot, the man slumped to the ground limply as the enhanced round pierced through his neck, severing his spinal cord as it tore through. The blood spatter surprised the two students and made them take their eyes off the Ursa to look back behind them, and when the Ursa reared up to attack them, my last round found the soft underbelly of its chin, shooting all the way through its head.

I turned back and gave this Neptune kid an annoyed look and I dumped out the spent dust cartridge and slammed a new one into Falkemond.

" _Oh,_ " he mumbled, as he looked around to find that thirteen bullets had just unpinned two students, put down six Fang, and destroyed a Grimm—a nine-combatant shift in our favor.

* * *

Blake's POV

* * *

This was all a nightmare specifically tailored to torment me. I had run from Adam and the White Fang because I was terrified by what he was turning into, that he was becoming a monster who wanted to hurt people. Not only was I right, but he took it so far that he was here, attacking innocent people in Vale and killing indiscriminately. I ran away because Adam was becoming something I couldn't bring myself to support, but he became so evil that he came back to haunt me, throwing all my decisions in my face. _If I had stayed, could I have stopped this, or slowed Adam down, or at least limited the damage?_ All of this was because of Adam, and no one could have stopped Adam from going down this path.

Except for me.

I failed to stop Adam then, and I did so again now, though not for lack of trying.

"Why must you hurt me so, Blake?" Adam asked, his mask hiding his eyes as he looked down at me, Wilt held lazily at his side now that I was disarmed, beaten, and Auraless.

"You're a monster, Adam," I spat out, my voice wavering slightly.

"Humans use that word to describe their fears," Adam responded, unaffected by the term at all, holding his blade up against the underside of my chin to force me to look at him, "and it has been made painfully clear to me that they fear the Faunus. I _am_ a monster, one that all of humanity will dread. What matters is that the Faunus will call me their deliverance…"

"Adam!" Ilia yelled, bursting through the stairwell and running over to where we were. "It's time to leave. They've rallied behind Ironwood and control all the other levels. We need to get out while we can."

Adam pulled Wilt back and sheathed it, leaving me on the ground and turning towards Ilia— _another friend I let go down this path who has come back to haunt me._ His eyes scanned over what remained of his forces now, a couple dozen uniformed White Fang gathered around, setting the last of their dust charges. With how many White Fang there had been in the upper levels, Adam had to have brought everyone loyal to him here, which meant that if they didn't escape now, there would be nothing left of his movement. _If I could stop him now, no one else would die._

"So be it. The world has been put on notice." Adam pulled Wilt out once more, turning back to me. "One thing remains to be done, though."

"L-Leave her, Adam," Ilia called out weakly, grabbing his arm. "She should have to watch us fix the world…"

The look Adam gave Ilia told us both that he knew that wasn't Ilia's reason to let me live, which forced Ilia to blush slightly and drop her head in shame.

"Very well. You must suffer before you can die for your betrayal, Blake."

Adam sheathed his weapon and began walking towards the edge of the level, where a few Bullheads were waiting to evacuate the White Fang. Ilia shot me a look mixed between longing and sorrow, before turning and walking after him.

" _Coward_ ," I spat out at Adam, which was just enough to get him to stop in place for a moment. "Who's running away now?"

Ilia turned back towards me wide-eyed, shocked by my apparent death wish. Adam did not deign to turn around and face me, but stared off into the distance stiffly.

"Don't try to compare me to _you_ , Blake."

"You're right. _I_ came back to face you. You get one word that a human who is capable of standing against you is coming, and you tuck your tail between your legs and let your men die so you can escape."

I could almost hear Adam scowl. He turned around, his hand falling to Wilt's handle as he slowly walked back over to me.

"I know what you're trying to do, Blake. The opinions of traitors mean nothing to me."

"It's not just going to be _my_ opinion," I answered back, staring him down hard. "You brought all of your might against humanity, and all you could do was kill defenseless civilians before Atlas cut you down. Do you think this is a _victory?_ "

Adam's scowl deepened, and he remained silent as he made it to my spot on the ground.

"You've crippled Vale. Congratulations. Now there isn't anything left of your forces to show for it," I continued, doing whatever I could to needle him where it would matter most. I could hear noises in the stairwells and knew that it wouldn't be long before everyone had fought their way down here, so I just needed to keep him fixated on me a little longer. "You attacked with everything you had, and you couldn't even take over this arena. Ironwood, a _human_ , is showing the world that he's better than you…"

"Enough!" Adam screamed, drawing Wilt and slicing across my stomach. The wound wasn't deep and was more of a large scratch, but it stung. Adam placed his boot on the wound and pressed down, pointing his sword inches from my face. My own blood dripped off the edge onto my chest.

The sound of gunfire erupted nearby, a sign that help was finally coming. Adam ignored this, locked onto me and seething too hard to care about anything else.

"You're just scared of a human," I choked out defiantly. Adam took exception to this and jammed Wilt down into my stomach with an aggravated yell, before kicking me away with his foot, making sure to aim for my new wound.

I clutched my side and my breathing came out ragged, but I _could_ breathe, so Adam probably hadn't meant to kill me just yet. I tried my best to crawl away with the hand I wasn't clutching my stomach with, but Adam's footsteps followed me effortlessly. He kicked me in the side again before stepping down on my stomach, pinning my arm there.

"You deserve this, B—" Adam was cut off as a bullet caught the flat of his blade, knocking it away from where it had been pointed at my head. Adam whipped around, only to find that general Ironwood had emerged from the stairwell, flanked by several students, including Ruby, Weiss, Sun, and even Yang. Even more were pouring out of the other stairwells now, and the White Fang was beginning to be surrounded.

"If that isn't the perfect image of what happened here tonight, I don't know what is," General Ironwood called out upon seeing Adam trampling me underfoot, his sword still dripping with my blood.

Adam's eyes shifted towards me from underneath his mask ever so slightly, before they settled back down on the general. He saw the moment as his chance to prove me wrong, and there was no way his ego would let him leave that challenge unanswered.

"What happened here tonight is the first step towards a better world," Adam retorted, kicking off me and sheathing Wilt before turning to face down Ironwood.

"Yes, I heard you earlier. I haven't heard quite that much bullshit in one speech since I left Atlas," the general spat back, walking forward into the space between Adam's remaining forces and the ring of students surrounding them. "Tell me, what is it that you think you accomplished when you murdered thousands of innocent civilians?"

" _Innocent_ ," Adam spat the word back. "There are no innocent humans. Only complicit ones."

"And what of the Faunus you killed tonight?" the general yelled back, his voice escalating. All fighting between the two sides had stopped now, their eyes on their leaders. Somewhere behind Ironwood, someone was recording the events with their scroll. "Hundreds of those people you attacked were Faunus, and that's nothing to speak of the White Fang you've sacrificed."

"Sacrifices have to be made in any war. They died so that their brothers and sisters might see the weakness of humanity, and finally rise up to kill their oppressors."

"No, they died to feed your ego," the general spat back, his voice a combination of contempt and disgust. Ironwood drew his gun and pointed it out at Adam. "This ends here, Taurus."

Adam's lips curled into a smile and his hand fell to Wilt.

"I couldn't agree more."

Adam charged the distance remaining between them, and the general fired on him as he did so. Adam grinned, taking care to either dodge the shots or absorb them with his blade and his Semblance, but Ironwood seemed to have recognized this. He _had_ been present at the arena earlier during Adam's opening attack, and he might have deduced some of Adam's Semblance during his fight with Penny. Ironwood's hand dropped down and he fired two rounds into the concrete ground, spewing rubble and dust up in Adam's face, obscuring the two men's vision of each other. Ironwood fired blindly into the dust, keeping Adam from being able to see the shots coming so that he could block them.

Frustrated, Adam pulled up short and let out the energy he had built up in a wave sent towards Ironwood, who ducked forward under the attack. Adam stepped in to engage, though now without the advantage of his charge's momentum or his Semblance's energy. Wilt tore free of Blush once more, slashing at Ironwood's chest, but the man was more agile than anyone his size should be, leaning back to allow the blade to pass by and hip-firing his pistol as he did so. Adam brought his blade back to slice the bullet away and the general switched his gun to his left hand, grabbing it by the barrel to use it as a club.

His anger clearly mounting, Adam unleashed a fury of attacks, leading each one with Wilt and firing rounds out of Blush to try to force Ironwood into choosing which source of damage he wanted to tank. Adam was able to finally force the man into committing towards dodging to the side to avoid taking a round from Wilt to the chest, which left him unable to reach his left up across his body to catch the blade with his pistol.

Adam snarled, but that expression wiped itself off his face as Ironwood reached out and caught the blade in his right hand, the blow not causing his arm to waver in the slightest. For good measure, the general made sure to wipe the snarl off Adam's face by clubbing him with his pistol, yanking Wilt from Adam's hands with his right arm as he did so. Adam staggered a step and Ironwood threw Wilt down to the ground before bringing that right arm up and delivering a devastating punch into Adam's chest, sending him skidding backwards for several yards.

"Tell me again, Taurus," Ironwood called out with righteous fury in his booming voice, as he stooped down to pick up Wilt and examine it. "What was it you said when you killed Ms. Polendina? I believe you said you would show the world who determines good and evil, and who controls life and death. The only right I can think of for you to determine this is that you were the one holding the sword." Ironwood held Wilt up to make a point, before snapping the blade over his knee and letting the shards fall to the ground.

Adam tried to back away as he realized this was going to end badly for him, but was cut off by Mr. Branwen, who had somehow gotten into the middle of the White Fang's ranks unseen. None of the Fang tried to help Adam, though, as everyone's eyes were watching the exchange too nervously to do anything.

"You're not a revolutionary. You're delusional. You're a child with a sword, who thinks that makes him a king." Ironwood began walking forward slowly, loading new rounds into his pistol in a deliberate manner. "You were willing to kill anyone who didn't agree with your new world order, and egotistical enough to believe that you were right to do so, and that you actually _could_ do so. So tell me, do you _feel_ superior anymore?"

Adam's fists clenched at his side in rage, but without Wilt, everyone here knew that he wasn't going to win this fight. Even with the blade, he was outnumbered, outgunned, and outclassed.

Adam charged forwards once more and the general mirrored him, the two fighting with their guns as clubs now. Adam pulled up short as Ironwood was larger and would have barreled over him had they collided, and Ironwood put his momentum into a right hook. Adam ducked behind it and used Blush to parry the blow away, but was staggered by the sheer force behind the blow and was unable to capitalize. Ironwood's arm snapped back with unnatural speed, catching Adam's cheek with his elbow along the way. Ironwood's other arm fired his pistol into Adam's stomach twice, the second bullet coming out noticeably louder and forcing Adam to buckle backwards. His Aura shimmered and nearly cracked, only barely holding itself together.

Ironwood stepped in and jabbed the barrel of his gun into Adam's gut, pulling the trigger and shattering what remained of Adam's Aura altogether, before rearing back and delivering a right cross to Adam's face that shattered Adam's mask and sent him sprawling onto his hands and knees.

" _Blow it all!_ " Adam screamed to his assembled White Fang. "Detonate everything!"

None of them even moved.

"What are you doing?! I said _detonate everything!_ "

"They heard you," Mr. Branwen's voice mocked. He held up what looked like a detonator, shaking it at Adam tauntingly. "Something tells me they're _finally_ hearing you."

"Adam Taurus, you are under arrest for terrorism, mass murder, and crimes against _all_ of humanity, Faunus included. Surrender peacefully, or—"

"Fuck you!"

Ironwood's gun fired again, the powerful round going straight through the 'D' of the SDC brand on Adam's left eye, blowing a hole the size of an apple out the other side.

"—or don't." Ironwood took a moment to inspect the body, making sure he was dead, before turning to the crowd of White Fang. "Who here purports to be Taurus' second in command?"

The crowd was silent, until finally, Ilia stepped forward, her head bowed in shame.

"Me."

Ironwood's gun pointed at Ilia as soon as the words got out of her mouth.

"I accept your unconditional surrender," Ironwood stated, daring Ilia to challenge it. She did not. No one did.

* * *

Raven's POV

* * *

"What's our plan?" Yang asked impatiently.

"Shhhh," I hissed in reply, keeping my eyes closed and my hand on my weapon's hilt. My Semblance was on the cusp of activating, allowing me to feel all of my connections and get a loose sense of where they were. Yang's portal obviously led only a few feet away, and there were five portals all roughly the same distance away, presumably in Vale. This wasn't an exact science, but I could focus in on those five and determine how far they were from each other.

Tai and Summer's connections were close by, which meant that Tai was on Patch. Summer's final resting place wasn't something that could move, after all, and my portal for her had been locked onto that cliffside for years at this point. It was weird, and it didn't make sense that I would still have a connection, but… well, it's not anything to waste time dwelling on now.

Qrow, Jaune, and Ozpin were all clustered separately from Tai and Summer, which made sense: they should all be at Beacon, or at least in Vale. Focusing in closer told me that Ozpin and Jaune were close by, with Jaune slowly moving away from Ozpin. Qrow was off on his own, moving away from them both at what felt like the speed of flight.

"Get ready," I grumbled to Yang, focusing in on Qrow. "I'm sending you to distract Qrow."

"What? Why?"

"Because if I have to beat back Ozpin to get Jaune, I can't afford Qrow showing up to interfere," I cut back, focusing on the rate that the distance between Qrow and Ozpin changed.

 _There._ He stopped moving. I drew my blade and cut open a portal.

Yang tried to walk forward into it, but I held her back with one arm, silently motioning for her to wait a moment. Sure enough, once Qrow recognized my portal was there, he fired into it at me. I caught the bullet on my blade, before turning to Yang.

"Say something," I whispered, low enough for only Yang to hear. "He thinks I'm showing up to attack him."

"Uncle Qrow?" Yang called out nervously.

" _Yang?!_ "

I nodded to Yang, nudging her to go through the portal. There were distant sounds of gunfire and fighting off in the distance in the portal, but given what was going on in Vale, that didn't really narrow down where Qrow was at.

"Yang—" I called out, getting her to stop just before walking through. "When I pick you back up, it's going to be final. If you have anyone you need to talk to before then…"

Yang's eyes met mine, understanding shining there and she nodded solemnly. She couldn't bring herself to say thank you, but she needn't have.

She strode forward through the portal and I shut it behind her, sheathing my sword and focusing on my links once more.

"Vernal," I called out, knowing that the girl was still watching from the side of the tent. She was the only one who would refuse to be dismissed so easily.

"Hmm?"

"Go prep the medical tent."

"You sure?"

I took a deep breath, steadying myself. "One way or another, _someone_ is about to get hurt. I'd prefer it not be us, but…"

"Play it safe. Got it," Vernal called out, not needing me to finish that statement. "Bring him home, boss."

The sound of the tent flap being softly shifted to the side told me that I was alone. It was now or never. I steeled myself for whatever I was about to have to do, enjoying these last few moments where I wasn't a member of Ozpin's games. After tonight, holding on to things was going to be a lot more difficult, especially if I had to pry Jaune out of Ozpin's claws by force.

I focused on my Semblance. Jaune was a few hundred yards away from Ozpin, a few hundred yards above Ozpin. He had escaped the Vault, then, _somehow_ , and Ozpin was still down there. Now would be my best chance.

I cut the portal to Jaune open, stepping out cautiously, my hand ready to redraw my blade on a moment's notice.

That turned out to be unnecessary. We were in the lobby of Ozpin's tower, and there was no one else here. Outside, the distant signs of a war being waged could be seen, but for the moment, it was just me and Jaune, and the girl he was crying over in his arms.

She was in rough shape, her torso stained in a dangerous amount of blood. There was a gash in her neck that was partially closed and a dagger still sticking out of her ribs, and she fought to keep her eyes open. It was a losing fight, though, and Jaune did what he could to put pressure on her wounds. It was clear from the tears in his eyes and his own struggles to breath evenly that he had done all he could, and knew that it wasn't going to be enough.

I walked up to him slowly, going out of my way to stand directly in front of him and make my presence known. He hadn't seen me and only looked up as the sound of my boots on the hard floor finally distracted him. His eyes went wide in shock, then fear, then despair.

" _No._ No, R-Raven, I swear, I—" Jaune panicked as he saw me and figured out what my presence meant. He dropped his head, giving up on begging altogether. "I-I'm sorry. I… I failed. I thought that I was better than you…" he trailed off, bowing his head in shame and defeat. He had been broken, and it…it hurt to see. "Whatever you're going to do to me, just do it, but _please_ —" he forced himself to look up at me, meeting my eyes with desperation welling up behind his tears, "—help me save her first. She doesn't have to die too."

I… I had no words. I was stunned by the fact that Jaune thought I was here to kill him. It was eye-opening to how different we saw each other, to just how blind we both had been. I had always assumed that, deep down, on some level, Jaune knew that the Tribe was his family—that _I_ was his family. Twisted, flawed, violent, and with no shortage of vices, but that was the way we liked it; that was what family _was_ for us. But now, Jaune only saw someone here to kill him, and I was left second-guessing a lot of things I had assumed.

Jaune took my silence as a bad sign, likely that I was angry with him and was refusing his request.

"She—she can be useful, Raven! You could use her," he blurted out desperately. His best chance of getting through to me—at least as far as he could see—was offering me a tool to be used. "S-She's got half of Amber's powers. She's Ozpin's Maiden. You could have another Maiden!"

"I don't… _need_ another Maiden," I mumbled softly before I even realized what I was saying. Ozpin and Qrow already had more than enough reason to come after me, and all adding another Maiden would do is make me an even bigger target to Salem.

Jaune's eyes went wide at my words. He started shaking, even.

"P-Please, don't do this to her. I'll do anything, Raven. What do you want from me!?" Jaune screamed hysterically, new tears falling from his eyes as his voice cracked. "I don't have anything left to give! I don't have _anything_! You already have Yang, and there's nothing I can give you that you're not going to take from me anyways!"

Jaune's outburst burnt out as quickly as it had come on, leaving him crying as he held onto the girl in his arms. It was all he had left, and even that was quickly fading.

" _Please…_ "

"What happened to her, Jaune?" I called out, finally stirring myself out of my stupor. Jaune looked up at me confused. "Who did this to her? Who attacked her?"

Jaune wasn't thinking straight and couldn't figure out why I was asking. If I was going to help him, I needed to know who was coming for her so that I could prepare if they showed back up.

Jaune flinched inwards on himself at my question, bowing his head further in shame and going silent.

" _Jaune!_ " I yelled. "Who did this?!"

" _I did._ Okay?! This is my fault!" Jaune went into hysterics again, though this time it was obvious that his rage and hatred wasn't aimed at me. "She hurt me, and I thought she should die for it. Are you proud of me now?! I'm just as bad as you, and it took me murdering my partner to see that. _I get it now, okay!?_ " Jaune screamed with every last bit of energy he had left, before finally breaking all the way down.

He fell into sobbing uncontrollably as he dropped his head down one last time.

"I deserve everything you're going to do to me, but please, _please_ don't make her die for my mistakes."

" _You stupid kid_ ," I choked out, struggling to keep my own breathing even and struggling to watch Jaune in so much pain of his own making. This was not a feeling I was accustomed to, and one that I never thought I'd really have to go through, not since leaving STRQ behind. "You really are an idiot, you know that?"

" _I know_ ," he choked out in shame. "Believe me, that has been made clear to me tonight."

I walked forward and knelt down in front of him, not that he even noticed in the state he was in. Not until I reached out and squeeze his arm.

"What do you need me to do?"

Jaune looked up, shock shining through his tears, slowly replaced by a glimmer of hope.

"Y-Your Aura," he sputtered out. "I'm out. I need to use yours. All you have to do is supply it," Jaune mumbled out as best he could through his difficulty breathing and his disbelief that this was even happening.

"How do I do that?"

I felt the connection to Jaune's Semblance, making clear by the gut-wrenching wash of fucked-up emotions like despair, self-hatred, helplessness, regret, and guilt that flooded over me.

"Just flex your Aura. I-I can do the rest."

I engaged my Aura like I would to block damage and Jaune's connection took hold, locking into my Aura and slowly drawing from it. His hands began to shine and the girl's Aura began to glow a dark gray color.

Sealing those wounds wouldn't be enough. Even if they closed up, she was at risk of drowning in the blood she'd already spilled or dying from blood loss, two things that Aura just couldn't fix.

Jaune flinched when I tried to move the girl out of his arms, but he let me do it, either trusting me to help or resigning himself to be unable to stop me if I wanted to hurt her now.

I turned the girl over and tilted her to the side, forcing any blood in her lungs to drain out the hole that the dagger had made. In one swift motion, I pulled the dagger back out as cleanly as I could, finding myself relieved when it wasn't barbed or serrated, which meant that it hadn't cut anything too badly on the way out. The drain wasn't perfect, and would only drain one side of her lungs, but it would be enough to keep the girl going. After a few moments, less liquid poured out of the wound, and I turned the girl back over, shutting off my Aura flow to Jaune for a moment as I summoned a small flame to cauterize the hole. It wasn't a perfect fix, but it would stop the bleeding and leave less for Jaune to heal, and I flooded more Aura back into the connection to make up for it.

It was hard to tell if it was working, and I started looking for a pulse when a wave of orange energy washed over the girl. She cried out, her eyes shooting open as she lurched forwards, but it was the flames around _both_ eyes that caught my attention. She fainted moments later.

Jaune and I shared a look, each thinking the same thing, but not willing to say it aloud just yet.

"I've got a pulse," I said finally. Jaune's breath hitched several times, and a wave of relief washed over the connection between us.

I stood up and cut a portal to Vernal, before turning back to Jaune. I made a show of sheathing my blade and taking my hand off it, making it clear that I was not here to shed blood.

"Come on. It's time to go home, Jaune."

"I… I don't understand."

" _Vernal!_ Get the blood packets ready, we're going to need an emergency transfusion!" I yelled into the portal. Jaune didn't realize just how lucky he was that we were giving the whole private military thing a try. Previously, our first-aid kit had been some gauze and alcohol, and that was if we happened to have gauze. "I know you don't, Jaune. You'll figure it out. Now _hurry_."

He didn't need to be told twice, stumbling to his feet and carrying the girl in with him.

"Tell Vernal to help you however she can. I have one more stop to make."

I closed the portal behind a very confused Jaune, pausing for a moment to steady my own breathing and wipe away any moisture in my eyes. _That stupid kid._

I opened another portal to Qrow, jumping in before he could notice it and fire at me again.

I stepped out into what looked like the lower-levels of an arena—so, Amity, more than likely—and immediately noticed that I was surrounded by what had to be twenty or thirty students. Most were standing around idly, waiting at the edge of the arena where bullheads were loading captive White Fang. Ironwood was organizing it.

My attention was brought back in front of me as Qrow swung his sword at me, aiming for my neck and swinging with a fury that he normally didn't show. I ducked under the blow and caught his follow-up backhanded strike on my own blade as I drew it, leaving us in a stalemate. Since I wasn't here for a fight, I kicked off from him and allowed myself to fall back out of measure.

A crowd of students had formed now, a carbon copy of Summer who had to be Ruby. Yang was off behind the crowd, tending to a dark-haired girl who was getting a stomach wound patched up.

"It's time," I called out to Yang, not that anyone but her realized that.

"I couldn't agree more," Qrow growled, adjusting his stance and readying himself for a fight. I rolled my eyes just to piss him off, before looking past him to Yang.

Yang hugged the girl she was tending to and then another girl who was helping her, both of them confused by the actions, before giving a _very_ confused Ruby a crushing hug. The girl had no clue what was going on and Yang mumbled something softly to her, rubbing a hand through Ruby's hair before making a show of walking past Qrow over to me.

" _Yang_ , what are you doing?" Qrow called out, shocked and unsure of what was going on. Yang stopped halfway between Qrow and me, looking back at her time and her uncle before turning to me once more.

"Did you get him?"

"Jaune is safe," I answered, speaking loud enough to be heard plainly. All of Yang's team looked surprised at name drop, as did several other students in the ring around me.

"What did you do!?"

"I protected my family," I spat back at Qrow, choosing the words very deliberately so that they would sting Qrow the most. "Let's go, Yang. Before your uncle does anything he'll regret."

Yang bowed her head under the confused and fearful looks she was getting from friends and her uncle, but steadied when I placed a hand on her shoulder. With a flick of my wrist, the portal closed and one to Vernal opened in its place.

Yang walked through, sucking the air out of the room as she left, leaving a dangerous tension behind.

" _Raven!_ " Qrow screamed furiously, grabbing my attention just before I walked through myself. "This is a line you can't uncross. If you do this, Tai is going to kill you, and if he doesn't, I will."

I smirked at Qrow, which infuriated him even more.

"I guess I'll be seeing you around, little brother."

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Bet you didn't see _that_ coming.**

no i didnt write this chapter just to be unpredictable and yes this is still going according to plan k thanks bye

 **There's been a lot of vocal support for Pyrrha dying in the last few months leading up to this, but there's been a pretty even distribution this week of "Jaune done fucked up," "Fuck you, Pyrrha," and "Well, shit's fucked all around." A good compromise leaves everyone angry, amiright?**

 **More importantly, in the several-way struggle coming into this arc, it appears that Raven has come out the best. Not perfect, since she's now painted a huge target on her back and has the Fall Maiden(?) as a hostage/guest, and she's likely going to have to deal with some emotional fallout from Jaune and Yang, but her plans blew up in her face _the least._ **

**Ozpin? Well, he seems to have killed Cinder. Yet to see if she took him out with her, but his Maiden is now MIA and Vale's destroyed (or in the process of being so).**

 **Cinder? lol RIP. Less monologuing, more Maiden-murdering next time. I find it hysterical that in V3 she hits Ozpin with that "such arrogance" line. Apparently, they do not own mirrors in the Grimmlands.**

 **Yang? Well, she survived with her arm and got Jaune back. That's good. Had to join her mother to do it, though...**

 _ **Jaune?**_ **:D**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _Veraq_ (but abridged, because I'm already being accused of padding word counts...lol)

"...On a side note, I wonder, how Jaune got so much aura back. He could have drained some of Pyrrha's, maybe even through her semblance. In theory, he could have gotten some aura from Cinder, but I highly doubt, she'd go for that.

CoTW's OC burn is awesome. Admittedly, the guy isn't exactly wrong. I think with 15%, our new OC Ikedawg43 has the most lines out of everyone in the entire story, which makes him pretty well established. Personally, as long as the author notes don't cut into the chapter length, I'm happy..."

 **Okay, by 'abridged,' I mean that I'm picking and choosing a few lines. Sue me.**

 **Wait no, don't do that.**

 **Just about got it in one for your point about Jaune's Aura. Pyrrha _might_ know about Jaune's Aura-draining trick, if he's told her about it since he discovered it. Remember, Jaune didn't even get it to work until his big fight with Yang, where he tapped into her Aura while she was powering her Semblance. He's borrowed Aura when it was freely given before, which Pyrrha helped discover, but actively stealing it was a new development.**

 **That's what was going on last chapter. Pyrrha noticed that the very air around her felt angry, as if Jaune's rage was projected around her. Were she in a better state of mind, she might have recognized that as Jaune's Semblance bleeding his emotions over to her. The trick Jaune pulled here was subtle, but negated Pyrrha's advantages: Pyrrha couldn't use her Semblance with powering it with her Aura, and Jaune could siphon off her Aura when she did this.**

 **That's why Jaune was able to stop Pyrrha from moving Crocea Mors; he felt her Aura building up and pushed his own into his blade in response. During the fight's climax, Pyrrha got tired of using her Semblance because she didn't know that she was powering her own Semblance _and_ powering Jaune's. Each time she hit him, she was only draining herself further. **

**All in all, Jaune only had maybe an hour to rest and recover Aura while captive, but he didn't need much to level the playing field.**

 **As for our new OC Ikedawg43, I think he is easily the worst-written character so far. Nothing about him seems realistic. It's like the author is trying to downplay the character's pure intelligence and sex appeal, because otherwise it just wouldn't fit in the story.**

 **15% might be overestimating, but it was a safe guess. The AN's don't have any bearing on the actual chapters anyways, so don't worry. Chapter gets written, edited, sent to the Discord mods for spellchecking, and then once it is done I go and write the ANs. For example, this chapter was about 8600 words when it was finished. Now, it's at around 9800.**

 **Wait, have I really been rambling for 1200 words? _Jeez_ , someone's gotta warn me when I start going on for to long...**


	56. Hello again

**Author's Note: What's that? Oh, just the sound of the story chugging right along...**

 **Discord:** discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **Alright, alright, alright.**

* * *

 **Chapter 53:** _"Neo, I'm going to have to ask you to_ not _lock your weapons system onto that dog or the bird it's chasing when we are trying not to be seen. I'm sure there will be plenty of innocent creatures for you to shoot once we escape Vale." – Roman Torchwick_

* * *

Qrow's POV

* * *

Keeping the spirits high of the people trying to fight the Grimm invasion is kinda important, and the spirits of these kids were already low after Raven showed up and dropped her bombshell before taking Yang from us—myself included, though I was more infuriated than downtrodden. From the confused looks from both Teams RWBY and JNPR – or RWB_ and _N_R as it stands currently – Raven dropping Jaune's name did not go unnoticed. The Belladonna girl had gone pale and went quieter than normal, which instantly put her at the top of my list to look for answers from…later. Fortunately for her, Mini-Schnee and Ruby either didn't notice or took it as her way of expressing concern, and the other two were too busy worrying over their own teammates too much. If they knew the trouble that Nikos was probably in right now, well…

Keeping spirits high was damn near impossible beforehand, but after the signal went up to abandon and evacuate Vale, it became officially a lost cause. It didn't help that there was no official, organized declaration to abandon Vale. Sure, Vale's defense forces had the ability to issue such a message to every scroll in Vale, but with how completely overwhelmed the city was, there probably wasn't anyone alive or left over to hit the button to send that message.

No, the message was much less subtle than that. Ironwood's command ship exploded with a sound that was heard for miles in all directions, probably just serving to stir up more fear and inspire fresh waves of Grimm. _Just our luck, too_. The giant dreadnaught was split into two pieces by the explosion, with both halves falling out of the sky unceremoniously. The sound of the ship hitting the ground wasn't as loud as the explosion, but we could hear it plenty well on Amity.

Everyone on Amity went still, all eyes watching the fireball and coming to the realization that Vale was lost.

The only people who moved at all were the very few Atlas personnel from Amity who had survived the White Fang's attack, and they only moved because not even seeing their flagship blown out of the sky stunned them enough to not back away from Ironwood in fear. James wasn't known for lashing out, but the man was furious. I'd have backed away in their position too, just in case.

The White Fang prisoners who had yet to be loaded onto a bullhead flinched and tried to get away from the general as well, though that was just smart on their part after watching Ironwood tear through their comrades like paper.

"Jimmy!" I yelled out, running up to the man in question. The sea of people around him practically parted, but his eyes remained locked out in the distance where his ship had just been.

"Any suggestions, Qrow?" he asked solemnly as I made it to him. He kept his arms clasped behind his back and his gun in hand, looking frustrated and, for the first time that I had seen, overwhelmed. Not completely overwhelmed, but enough that he wasn't certain of his next move.

"You've got the only working bullheads that I see, and you don't have to worry about getting shot outta the skies now." That last part was an attempt at dark humor, but given the situation, the humor went unnoticed and the advice was actually decent. Go figure.

"No," Ironwood agreed darkly, "we only have to worry about being taken down by swarms of aerial Grimm."

"Then, I don't know, have the passengers sing a happy song or some shit," I growled, not really having any patience left at this point in the night. "Doesn't fucking matter at this point. Stay up here and eventually that dragon is gonna come for us. We've got some bullheads and people that need evac. You do the math."

"Where are we evacing them to?"

"North," I answered glibly, "or south. Maybe east. West works too. Anywhere that isn't Vale is better than Vale at this point. Just get any civilians as far from the fighting as you can."

"What about the Huntsmen?"

"Leave some to escort the civilians and let the rest fight it out in Vale – _and when they need to fall back—_ " I cut James off before he could cut in and ask, "—take them to Patch. It's an island close enough to act as a staging ground and far enough that it shouldn't be swarming with Grimm. Ask Ruby how to get there if you need the help. _RUBY!_ " I called out, getting her to hurry over to us.

"Where are you going then?"

I made a show of putting my sword on my back and walking over to the edge of the arena, turning to put the swirling winds at my back.

"I'm going to find Oz." _Or what's left of him._ Jimmy's eyes went wide as he realized what exactly I meant, before tightening back down to his normal pleasant expression and giving me a firm nod.

"Uncle Qrow, what's going—" Ruby cut herself off as I winked at her, before falling backwards off the edge of the arena. "—on?"

* * *

The boat ride from the outskirts of Vale to Patch was just long enough for me to realize how tired I was. It had to be pushing two in the morning by now, and while that meant the world had been going to hell for well over four hours, this hadn't been the _most_ physically exhausting night of my life. Hell, I've been in tighter scrapes in the past year; all I did was take out some small Grimm packs, knock out a few White Fang soldiers, and a lot of flying in between. Nothing in there is particularly new to me. I was fresh enough that I could fly to Patch from Vale, if it weren't for the cargo I was carrying back. It seemed to be everyone else in Vale who was hit hard tonight.

Carrying around the weight of what was happening was what really sapped your energy. If we were lucky, _only_ tens of thousands of people died tonight. When the sun rose in the morning, it would rise on a city owned by a Wyvern Grimm, or the ruins of a city at least. It sucks to say it, but Vale is as evacuated as it's going to be; they're aren't going to be any survivors in the city come morning.

When the boat docked, everyone grabbed their things and shuffled off without saying a word. You didn't have to be Grimm to sense the negativity in the air anymore. It at least seemed that Jimmy had gotten the message about Patch being a staging ground across, as most to all the people who rode the ferry over with me had weapons of some sort that identified them as huntsmen or quasi-huntsmen. In truth, staging grounds may have been the wrong term, because it implied that Patch was just going to be the place that we got ready to launch an attack from. Really, it was the safest place for huntsmen to rest that was the closest to Vale; to say that we had any ideas of taking back Vale in the morning would just be wrong. _We would need a Maiden to even risk going after that Alpha, or at the very least a Summer Rose._

And I'm not willing to sacrifice Ruby in the hopes that she triggers her mom's gift at the miraculously perfect moment, Vale be damned. Doubt that Tai is, either.

Speaking of, the homestead was more peaceful than the little port town that technically constituted 'Patch.' Although the lug would probably let every spare Huntsman and Huntress sleep on his floor if asked, it seemed that Tai got lucky and that the refugees and spare fighters were staying in the town proper.

The door was unlocked, and I didn't even bother trying to be quiet on my way in. Tai was sitting on a chair to the side of the room, positioned so as to watch both the TV and the door. All that the TV was playing was static with the words 'MANDATORY EVACUATION OF VALE' overlayed. As I understood it, the CCT went down at the same time as Atlas' last ship and all of their robots, probably to ensure that we were left as defenseless as possible. Local communication still held up, but only as far as scroll-to-scroll range would permit; there was no contact with distant cities or foreign kingdoms. The TV probably just had no one alive capable of broadcasting.

Tai glared at me as I walked in, looking for all he was worth like he was about to lay into me. Only reason for that would be he heard about Yang, which means that at least Ruby made it here safely. _Probably the first thing to go as planned all night._ The stack of weapons laid up against the far wall that included a red scythe helped to confirm that.

"… _Zwei?_ " Tai called out in confusion at the sight of the dog I was carrying under my arm. He quickly recovered and went back to his angry papa-bear routine, though it didn't quite have the same punch now. "What, you bring home my dog but not my _daughter_?"

"Hey, I got Ruby and Zwei back here. That's two out of three," I answered defensively, though without much energy put into it. Not a ton left in the tank there, and we both knew our conversation was about to turn a lot more fun than it already was. Zwei must have read the mood in the room, because as soon as his short little legs hit the floor, he had scampered off down the hallway towards Ruby's room. _Smart dog._ He only made it to just past the corner of the hallway, before stopping altogether and staring up. "Honestly, that's not bad for me."

"If the stories the kids told me are true, it sounds like you're batting more 2-for-100,000," Tai shot back. "Not even _you_ can dismiss that as just bad luck."

"Hey, what happened to Vale doesn't fall on _me_." There was a bit of resentment in my voice, and I made a show of reaching behind me and pulling out Oz's cane to implicate who tonight's tragedy fell to first. If I had a picture of Ironwood, I woulda held it up too; maybe taped it over the head of Oz's cane. _They'd both appreciate the symbolism there equally as little._ "It's not my fault that we lost so much."

"No, just Yang."

I didn't respond; just didn't have any real way to object to his point. I dropped Ozpin's cane on the couch unceremoniously, and let the Nikos girl's weapons drop on the ground by the door. My hand pulled out my flask instinctually, but the sight of the engraving caught my eye. _STRQ_ on one side, my sigil on the other. All it served to do was piss me off further, as each side taunted me now. The other half of my sigil was Raven's sigil, and I wasn't exactly feeling too fucking warm towards the _R_ of the former team _STRQ_. I chucked the flask at the couch, before slouching down into a recliner opposite Tai.

"What, you're not even going to deny that you lost my daughter to Raven?"

"Can't." Amity fell on Atlas, just like all of Atlas' systems getting hacked did. Letting the White Fang grow large enough to attack like this was on Ozpin and Vale's police. Letting Raven interfere with our Maiden selection was on Oz, but letting Raven interfere with _Yang?_ Well, Tai wasn't wrong to blame me on that one, and he wasn't the only one here to do so. I'm sure I could figure up all sorts of excuse for why I let myself get played by that Arc kid – Yang asking me to trust her judgement, me actually doing so, the kid genuinely seeming like he cared for his friends – but at the end of the day, he was a fucking plant from Raven and I didn't figure that out in time. Now Raven had them both, and was well out of reach for the moment.

 _If I ever see that blond bastard again…_

"What happened out there, Qrow?" Tai asked sternly. He was pissed, though saying that is about as obvious as saying that Vale is boned.

"We _all_ got outplayed is what happened. We—" I cut myself off before I could get too worked up, forcing myself to take a breath and try to calm down. It failed spectacularly and I reached for my flask, only to find it gone. _That's right, tossed it away._ Damn, why did I do that? "Where do you want to start?"

"Ozpin," Tai answered after taking a breath to calm himself down in response. If nothing else, we both were so used to butting heads that we hardly needed to fight or yell anymore. We had seen it all before, so now most of the anger and bitterness just went unspoken. I assume he's pissed, he assumes I'm pissed, and we save having to go through that part of the conversation. _Used to piss Summer the hell off that we could have legitimate fights and then move on without so much as saying a word, 'specially when she had to script out whole speeches just to express what she wanted for dinner._ "I take it by the cane that you didn't find him?"

"Found what's left of him, more like," I answered gruffly. "He was technically alive when I got down into the Vault. Grimm Wyvern's been going after the populated areas of town, and while Beacon's fairgrounds were popular, the school itself was nearly empty, except for maybe Zwei. The place was mostly still standing, and the elevator shaft was intact enough that I could fly down."

"He was in the Vault?"

"Mmmm. This whole deal was just so Salem's assassin could get another shot at Amber." Tai frowned, clearly remembering the part he'd played in Amber's rescue – namely, that he was a portal location for Raven. _Which brings up that the only reason Raven knew about Amber's condition and could even send Arc in to interfere was because I went to her to escape in the first place._ This had to be my Semblance's pièce de résistance. "Wasn't dead, either."

"He wasn't?"

"Nah, but was about as close to it as you could be. Had an arm blown off and was bleeding out from more than a couple stab wounds. Managed to take out Salem's Maiden, though."

"I thought he didn't have that much power left…"

"He doesn't. She was only half a Maiden," I answered glibly, for no other reason than to watch Tai's reaction. His face scrunched in confusion. "After Amber got jumped and part of her power stolen, Jimmy and Oz built some machine to take Amber's remaining Aura and give it to someone else. Suffice to say, she's got the full Maiden's powers now… _if_ she survived the night."

"Who'd Oz choose?" Tai asked, taking the whole _stealing someone's soul_ thing in stride.

I nodded towards the spear and shield I had lugged back with me.

"I don't know whose weapons those are, Qrow."

" _Pyrrha Nikos_ was Oz's choice, though… not without her difficulties."

"Nikos… as in the girl whose teammates are crashing down the hall in Yang's room?" Tai asked incredulously. "As in the girl whose partner _you knew_ was dating Yang, which I only found out about a few hours ago?"

The edge in Tai's voice in that second question felt disproportionate to me. Seems to me there were bigger things to get hung up on, which leaves it up to me to fix Tai's perspective.

"More like the girl whose partner was fucking your daughter _and_ was working for Raven since before Beacon…"

" _WHAT!?_ "

"If it helps, Ruby was hiding their relationship from you too. Who do you think told me?"

There was a soft, indignant squeak from behind the nearby wall, which went unnoticed by Tai.

Tai was not taking any of that well, and several different globs of angry sounds fought each other to tumble out of his mouth. That wouldn't last forever, though, and I needed a decent distraction ready for when he collected himself enough to _really_ get mad. My Semblance may not be a precise thing, but I pushed my Aura into it, hoping that something would give—

And it did, as a body fell over from where they had been hiding just behind the corner to the hallway. Their grip probably slipped and sent them tumbling to the ground. How unfortunate. Nevermind that Zwei had given them away by stopping and staring at them earlier.

"Uhhh…" Ruby mumbled nervously, not exactly used to seeing her father look like he had eaten a lemon while stepping on a thumbtack after having stubbed his pinky toe. She cut her eyes at me in mock-anger. " _Traitor._ "

"The rest of you can come out, too," I answered with a shrug. Honestly, I was still more surprised that Ruby hadn't told Tai about Yang and Jaune than anything.

After a few moments of silence, the Schnee, the Belladonna, and the last two members of JNPR came out and joined Ruby.

"Uncle Qrow… what's going on?"

"I—"

" _Qrow,_ " Tai's voice cut in. I looked up to find him glaring at me, a clear warning to leave Ruby out of all of the deeper conspiracy stuff.

"What, you think they're going to stay out now that their teammates are involved?" I asked Tai pointedly, though the real question underneath that only Tai would pick up on was _do you think that Oz won't bring them up to speed if they're willing to be useful?_

Tai relented, though it was crystal clear that he was on the record as against this.

"Go ahead and have a seat, kids. This could take a while…"

* * *

 _Now_ it was late. There was no shortage of things that had to be explained just so that telling the kids what had happened tonight would make any sense, and once it hit four in the morning, I sent them all to bed. Not really for their sakes, since I had a feeling none of them would really get much sleep now—or maybe they would after the day they've had. Either way, what mattered is that _I_ needed to get to sleep, so I cut them off with an assurance that they'd get to ask as many questions as they wanted to come morning.

I wasn't done, though. Tai waited patiently the whole time, standing off towards the back wall and watching everyone take the information in. Once they had all left for their rooms, he very calmly asked me to meet him outside.

"So?" Tai asked expectantly once we had walked to the trees nearest the house. It wasn't really far away at all, but would be just enough to keep our voices from carrying too much.

"So what?"

"I'm waiting, Qrow."

"You do realize that I've had one hell of a day, and that the sun's about an hour or two from rising again," I grumbled snarkily, letting how tired I was make me come off as more frustrated. "Just ask the damn questions, Tai. What do you want from me?"

"I wanna know whatever you didn't tell the girls," Tai responded, giving me a flat stare and a frown. I almost pointed out that they weren't _all_ girls, since that Ren fellow was still kicking around, but decided that I was too tired to split hairs. "I _know_ that you didn't explain everything to them just now, not that you even could in, what, the hour or two you had. Just tell me what you're keeping from them and we'll be good."

"You mean we'll be good to move on to talking about Yang?" I asked, pointedly. Tai's flat look was enough of an answer. "Not like I wanted to get some sleep or anything anyways. Right, so… when I found Oz," I started off quickly, making sure I had Tai's attention, "he wasn't actually dead…yet."

"But he is now?"

"Mmmm. There wasn't any way I was gonna get him out of that Vault, through Grimm-infested territory, and to a hospital in time to save him."

"You did it with Zwei," Tai pointed out.

" _Zwei_ ," I cut back, "is an animal, which means he doesn't draw attention from the Grimm. I'll remind you that I can _also_ be an animal, and let you figure out how I got Zwei back safely." It was a decently slow trek through the edges of the Emerald Forest, what with having to have a corgi chase after you the whole way, and then cutting through Vale to get to the docks didn't help things. At least whatever I'm carrying stays with me in bird-form, meaning I didn't have to try to lug around that cane and those weapons as a crow. "I'm surprised the Vault wasn't caved in on itself after their fight. Oz managed to pass along a few things before he went."

"Such as?"

"Name of the attacker he killed, Cinder Fall—not that it matters much now. She was a student, or posing as once, so Oz told me to go back and dig through whatever records could be recovered and find out where she's from. Or where she claims to be from, whatever; point is that when Oz reincarnates, he'll meet up wherever that is."

"How's he gonna know?" Tai asked. "If he already knows, why not tell you that?"

"I'm gonna find our heading, I'll give that information to Glynda, and as Beacon's acting Headmistress, she'll make sure that any investigation into the attack reveals it to be planned by Cinder Fall, an ex-student of _blank_ ," I emphasized. "So no matter where he respawns and no matter how long it takes, all he has to do is turn on the news."

"Clever," Tai surmised. "Too bad you weren't this clever any sooner, or else—"

"Or else Raven wouldn't have Yang, or Vale wouldn't be destroyed, or I wouldn't be single—spare me the riot act, Tai. You're not the only one pissed about this."

Tai grumbled something under his breath, not appreciating his snarky comment getting cut off like that.

A tense silence fell over us for a few seconds, until Tai finally broke it.

"How did this happen, Qrow?" Tai asked again, though this time not as angry at me as the previous times. I wouldn't say he was resigning himself to face it, but he did sound like he was bracing himself for it. "Start from the beginning. Who exactly is this Jaune kid and why the hell am I only now hearing about him?"

"Kid's name is Jaune _Arc_ ," I answered, putting obvious emphasis on the surname. Tai didn't seem to recognize it, though, and I gave him an incredulous look for not remembering it. " _Arc_. You don't remember that name from working with Oz?"

"Nope."

"Raven's last mission with us was looking for the Arc family," I explained, still giving Tai a somewhat incredulous look.

"Eh, I was on my way out of Ozpin's inner circle around that time. That's around when he put me at Signal," Tai answered with a shrug. It was a good enough explanation, but it still felt like something I would have remembered if Tai didn't have any briefing over the Arcs at all.

"Anyways, suffice it to say that Raven and I didn't find any Arcs still breathing, and none were unaccounted for. At least, until this blond-haired, blue-eyed kid showed up from the wilds of Mistral with that name…"

"I take it the ones who didn't make it were also blond?"

"Blond hair was hereditary, as well as apparently making Ozpin's life difficult and getting involved with magic…" I trailed off, staring down at the grass. When I snapped out of it and looked up, Tai's curiosity had certainly been piqued by that last part. "Relics, mostly. Up until a hundred years ago, they had been hiding two. Since Oz took those back, they'd been mostly quiet, though it seems the most recent generation has had an affinity for Maidens."

"What's that mean?"

"Raven's already got Spring, and we caught Jaune trying to steal Fall."

" _Fuck_ , Qrow, how the hell did you even let this dude into Beacon, much less let him get so close to Yang?!" Tai asked in exasperation, reacting to the severity of Jaune's actions with what was probably a good reaction.

"We didn't know that—"

"You didn't know that something was wrong when the kid showed up with a name that you _and Raven_ confirmed was dead? That right there should have been an indicator that maybe Raven was up to something!"

"Give me a break, Tai! I was still undercover when Oz admitted the kid to Beacon," I cut back defensively, throwing someone else under the bus without hesitation. "Oz had his eye on the kid the whole time. We figured that maybe Raven hadn't actually done her part of the mission and used it as a smokescreen to contact the Tribe, but we didn't think that she'd be looking to pick up kids back then!"

"Why not? It sounds like that's what had to have happened…"

"Because it's _Raven_ , Tai! The kid would have been the same age as Yang at the time!" I answered back, my voice raising a bit. "Her taking in the Spring Maiden makes sense enough; she stumbled across the new Spring Maiden before we did and wanted that under her control. But you'll have to forgive me if the sound of Raven taking in a new four-year-old didn't sound batshit insane considering she left you and Yang at the same time. We figured that it was more likely that some toddler survived alone in the woods for thirteen years than being taken in by the benevolence of _Raven Branwen._ Give me a fucking break here, Tai…"

"You let a seventeen-year-old play you, Qrow," Tai growled out flatly, as if that alone was significant and embarrassing enough.

"Kid didn't just play _me_. He played Ozpin, and played him well. Played Yang too, from the looks of it, and all those kids you've got in your house right now, and they're no dull bunch. Even _Ruby_ liked this kid, Tai; they all covered for him in front of Ozpin and Ironwood once. The kid was _good_."

"Not good enough not to get caught," Tai shot back.

"Yeah, well, Oz is good at the game too. Though considering how tonight went, I'd say the point goes to Jaune."

Really, the point goes to Raven, but hell will freeze over before that gets admitted aloud.

"You speak awfully highly of this kid, considering what he just did," Tai pointed out, cutting his eyes at me. His implication that I wasn't as angry at Jaune as I should have been really got under my skin, though; it wasn't that I wasn't mad as hell, it was that I had had time to stew over the last several hours.

"Trust me, Tai, I want to rip his head off more than you do."

"I doubt that. It's not _your_ daughter being held by _your_ ex that he's responsible for."

"No, but you're not the one the kid fooled into letting that happen," I cut back. "This kid is responsible for my bitch of a sister taking my niece, and Yang convinced me to let it happen."

Tai gave a funny look, locking onto my eyes and trying to figure out what that was supposed to mean.

"I tried to warn Yang, before all of this went down. Tried to warn her that we were investigating her boyfriend and that she might want to prepare herself for that to come down." I paused to see if Tai had anything to add, then continued again a few moments later. "Of course, we didn't know that the kid was a fucking spy from Raven; we just thought he was tangled up with some rotten eggs. Oz was gonna use it to press the kid into the fold, but there was always the chance that it would go poorly. Hence warning Yang."

"And you _still_ didn't think this was something I should know?" Tai asked, still clearly pissed at me for that part in particular. "The guy my daughter was dating was under investigation by _you_ and you didn't think ' _oh, hey, maybe Taiyang might appreciate a little heads up here, too._ '"

"Yang… Nothing I told her changed her mind about the kid. She didn't even seem surprised. She looked me dead in the eye and asked me to trust her."

"And you did?" he asked, semi-incredulously.

I shrugged. "What can I say, I've always had a soft spot for those girls."

"…and you _still_ didn't think that, oh I don't know, her _father_ should know that she was dating a criminal?"

"You're _really_ hung up on that part, huh?"

" _Yeah_ , Qrow, I'm really hung up on the part where my kid's secret boyfriend just recruited her into her mother's service," Tai mocked in retort.

"Honestly, I figured that Ruby would have already told you," I answered with another shrug, "so I told her I'd hold off telling you for a few days. I have a reputation as the 'fun uncle' to maintain, after all."

"You—" Tai cut himself off when he realized just how loud he was being. Last thing we needed was for him to catch the Wyvern's attention from all the way across the water. "They don't _have_ another uncle! You're the fun uncle by default!"

"Hey, what sort of uncle would I be if I showed these kids that they could make it through life without putting effort towards things?" I quipped back.

"The kind that lets his niece get corrupted and kidnapped, apparently."

"…yeah…"

The conversation dropped off after that, both of us staring off at something, lost in our thoughts. He had stirred up the memory of the talk I tried to have with Yang, and just how resolved she was to stick with that kid. She already knew what I was trying to warn her about, but in hindsight… she had probably known a lot more about him than I did. Hell, she probably already knew about his connection to Raven. There's no way that Yang would be convinced to leave her team and choose Raven in front of all her friends in the short time since our talk. _She would have had to have known for a while, which is going to make getting her back difficult._ What had Raven told her to sway her away? How much did Yang know, or was she being led blindly? Worse, did she actually know the truth and still side with Raven?

"What are you going to do now?" Tai asked finally, breaking me from my thoughts.

"I'm going to tell Glynda to report that the attackers were from Mistral," I answered back firmly.

"You already found that out?"

"Nope."

"Then how—"

"The people responsible for the attack are either dead, in Atlas custody, or probably sitting on some sort of twisted throne in the Grimmlands," I cut him off, giving him a coy glance. "The only people I'm interested in hunting down right now are in Mistral."

It dawned over Tai what I was getting at a few moments later.

"What are you going to tell Ozpin when he shows up?"

"That our lead was a dead-end, so we decided to hunt down the Spring Maiden, conveniently putting the people who sabotaged our Maiden in our sights. Hell, with the way things are going, she might have our missing Fall Maiden, if she survived." I gave Tai another coy look, cutting my eyes over towards him. Shockingly, he did not seem to oppose my plan at all. "In fact, something tells me that Signal is going to be out of commission for a while. Having the city destroyed will do that. What are you planning on doing?"

"It sounds like I'm going to Mistral."

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

The confused looks on the faces of my teammates hurt, but they didn't stop me from going through with it. I had already made my choice. I wasn't going to abandon Jaune, and just because I was leaving didn't mean I was abandoning my team. I wasn't leaving them because it was hard to stay with them, and they didn't _need_ me, not like Jaune did. It wasn't like I wouldn't have my scroll or anything; we'd still be in touch. It's just that staying in touch via scroll wasn't going to be enough for Jaune. So when Raven confirmed that she got him back, that was all I needed to hear.

I stepped through the portal and into a tent that I hadn't been in before. It was some sort of medical tent, where Vernal was standing next to a table that Pyrrha was laid out on. Pyrrha was… well, Pyrrha was in bad shape, but at least seemed to be stable, though not conscious. She was hooked up to what looked like a saline drip, and discarded bags on the small stand next to the table suggested she had received a blood transfusion.

My eyes scanned the room, and a weight lifted from my shoulders when I spotted Jaune sitting on a chair at the edge of the tent. He looked to be in rough shape, his eyes staring ahead at the ground aimlessly as he held the sides of his head in his hands. His clothes were blood-stained, and his hands were too, but none of that seemed to faze him. He looked lost. None of that mattered, though, because he was here. He was _safe_ now. The rest could be fixed.

I fought off the urge to run across the room and wrap myself around Jaune, feeling Vernal's eyes watching me. Before I could decide that I didn't give a damn what she would think about me doing that, Raven walked out of the portal and closed it behind her.

"Is she stable?"

"Looks that way," Vernal answered, turning to look down at Pyrrha. "There's not a lot that anyone here is trained to do, though."

"Hmmm," Raven hummed, taking in Vernal's words as she stepped in closer to take a look at Pyrrha. Her breastplate had been removed and thankfully someone had at least wrapped her tits with gauze, mostly to save her any embarrassment when she woke up. There was the faintest hint of a scar just under her left boob and what looked like another on her neck, which was strange; with Jaune here, she was no doubt healed with his Semblance, but that usually didn't leave scars. Not unless he didn't get to finish the job. "We need to invest in an actual doctor."

"Sounds expensive," Vernal replied casually. "Unless you're planning on kidnapping one, but I don't think you want a hostile doctor using scalpels on your men."

"I don't think the cost is going to be an issue," Raven answered calmly. "Something tells me that after tonight, there's going to be no shortage of people willing to pay through the nose for safety. What all did you do to stabilize her?"

"Just lent some Aura. Jaune's little trick did the rest," Vernal replied, nodding her head towards him. He didn't look up, or so much as stir at his name being mentioned. "Had to give her some of our universal blood packets. _Someone_ fucked her up, that's for sure…"

The way Vernal's eyes slid over to me made me feel like those words were targeted at me. _I_ sure didn't do this, but as my eyes roved over the empty blood packets again, I noticed what was sitting next to them: a ceramic dagger, with dried blood three-quarters the way up the blade. I looked up at Jaune again, and this time, the distant, lost expression he wore as he stared at the ground with his head held in his hands took on a new meaning. As did the blood on his hands.

Vernal smirked at me, before rolling her eyes and leaving the tent.

"Yang…" Raven called out softly, keeping her voice low enough that it wouldn't garner Jaune's attention, not that he was in any mood to be responsive anyways. I looked up at her and met her eyes, before she shifted them over towards Jaune, taking in the state that he was in. Her eyes returned to me with a distant, sad look in them. "Good luck."

Just like that, she left the tent, leaving me alone with Jaune.

I did a good job remaining composed as I walked over to where he was sitting and took a seat next to him, unsure of what to say or even what I wanted to say.

"Y-Yang, don't—"

He hadn't looked up, but cut himself off when I wrapped around him from the side, planting the side of my head on the back of his shoulder.

"Yang—"

"Shut up," I cut him off, hugging him a little tighter.

"Yang, I—"

" _Shut up_ ," I cut him off again. "Just let me have this for a moment, okay?"

He didn't answer, but he also didn't make a move to push me off of him. _Not that he even could._

"What are you even doing here, Yang?" Jaune asked, making it clear from his voice that he expected the worst. I knew that he would hate my decision to join Raven to save him, and while I was not going to regret that, I didn't feel like starting that argument just yet.

"Hugging you," I answered instead, defusing the situation a little.

After a minute or two I finally release Jaune, pulling myself back upright, though I made sure to remain all the way over on the edge of my seat, brushed up against Jaune. I didn't want him to feel like he was alone right now.

"Okay," I let out softly once I was ready. "What happened with Pyrrha?"

Jaune went stiff and his head hung a little lower than it already was, and he dropped his hands down into his lap, staring at them instead of the ground.

"I tried to kill her," Jaune admitted lowly.

"Yeah, I think I figured that part out," I tried to joke. The words fell flat, though, and Jaune flinched in on himself at them, which only made things worse. "What happened, Jaune?"

"She… she sold me out to Ozpin," Jaune answered uncertainly, "or she did but didn't mean to…? I'm still not sure what I believe, but the point is that she's the reason this all came crashing down."

Before I could respond, he cut me off forcefully, his voice growing angry all of a sudden.

" _No_ , that's not true. She's how Ozpin found out, but she's not the reason I failed."

It didn't take an expert to realize who Jaune was blaming that on now.

"I found out it was her earlier, too," I cut in, hoping to give Jaune a distraction. "I attacked her at Beacon before her meeting with Ozpin, which… may have been an overreaction on my part. I don't think she meant to do it, Jaune."

"Yeah, well, that doesn't matter, because I meant to do what I did," Jaune responded, still not having looked up this entire time. "Ozpin chained me up in the Vault, and tried to blackmail me into working for him. He transferred Amber's Aura to Pyrrha and made her his Maiden, and told me that I would work for him because I wouldn't risk letting her die. I laughed in his face," Jaune said, chuckling darkly once at the memory. "Oz left, and Cinder came down. She offered to release me if I helped her kill Pyrrha."

"And you accepted?"

"I told her to stand back and watch," Jaune answered darkly, his fists balling up. "And I won. Stabbed Pyrrha with my dagger and let out all the rage I had, before turning her over to Cinder. I did everything I could to kill her right in that moment."

"Why didn't she, then?" I asked Jaune softly, trying my best not to come across as confrontational, though it was hard not to given what I was asking. "What changed?"

Jaune's took a deep breath, huffing it out in frustration as his hands started to shake from balling up so tightly. Without warning, he brushed me off and stood to his feet, pacing around the room for a bit with his back to me. He eventually settled for standing next to Pyrrha's bed, head hanging down to look at her with his back to me. His hands gripped the table, knuckles already turning white.

"When my rage wore off, I… I had to face the truth. The truth was that I didn't hate Pyrrha. How could I? Just last night I trusted her enough to tell her who I am. I can't just go from that to hate so quickly."

He paused, taking a deep breath again, his head still hanging low.

"I didn't hate her. She was still my friend. And I _wanted_ to kill my friend. I wanted it _badly_ , Yang. Who does that sound like, Yang?"

 _Damn._ I dropped my head in shame for a moment, as the hope that Raven's prediction wouldn't come fully to bear finally died. She was right after all.

"Who does it sound like, Yang?" Jaune repeated, his voice on the edge of cracking. "Because it sounded a whole lot like Raven to me. Murdering your friend because you're angry or because they wronged you once sounded a whole lot like the woman I had spent my entire time at Beacon telling myself I was better than! Do you know why I saved Pyrrha?!"

I didn't answer, instead walking forwards to put myself just behind Jaune, but stopping myself there. I wasn't sure what to say. I wasn't sure what I _could_ say.

"I did it because I didn't want to be like Raven. I did it to spite Raven, not because I wanted to save Pyrrha. And even _that_ sounds like her!" Jaune cried out angrily, bringing his fist down on the table. He turned around and looked me in the eye for the first time, tears already falling down his face. "The whole point of it all was for me to get away from Raven. How am I supposed to do that if I _am_ her?!"

Jaune broke away out of frustration, walking around the table before sending the bedside stand flying across the floor out of anger, scattering scalpels, empty blood packets, and his dagger.

"So I fled the Vault with Pyrrha bleeding out in my arms, and I didn't have enough Aura to save her. She's just going to die on me, and not only will it be my fault, but I'll be powerless to stop it, too. That's already bad enough and my world is collapsing in on itself, but then _Raven_ shows up. I'm sitting there, my life in shambles, my friend dying because of me, and then my final reckoning steps out of a portal to make my death as painful as the last moments of my life. And do you know what she does?!

"She fucking saves her. _Raven_ saved Pyrrha. I didn't think the metaphors could get any more heavy-handed after I stabbed Pyrrha, but then _that_ happens?!"

Just as Jaune was about to burst out in frustration again, he caught himself, forcing himself to take a breath and internalize the anger. His eyes clenched shut and his fists shook, but he was able to wrestle control over himself.

" _That_ is what happened, Yang. I almost lost Pyrrha, but instead lost myself. And to top it off, Ozpin walked in on us in the Vault, so I can't ever go back to Beacon or my team. _And_ you're stuck here with Raven now, all thanks to me."

"Jaune, I—"

" _Please_ , Yang, don't do this. Don't insult me by trying to tell me it's not true. All you're going to do is make it worse."

"Jaune, she raised you. Of course you're going to be like her. But what's important is that you're _more_ than just that."

"You sure about that?" Jaune asked lowly, his eyes staring down at Pyrrha. "I have a nearly-murdered friend who was saved by _not me_ who might beg to differ."

"I am sure of it," I answered confidently, stepping forward and staring at Jaune, desperate that he look up at me and see that I mean it. "Why do you think I'm still here for you? Why do you think I chose to come here, Jaune?"

He did look up into my eyes at that, his still welled with tears but staring at me distantly now. He only held it for a few moments, before tearing his gaze away guiltily.

"Honestly, I was wondering the same thing."

My breath caught in my throat. I thought I had prepared myself for whatever shape Jaune was in, but this… this exceeded it. This was bad, and I'm not sure if it is something that I can just fix. It's something he'll need time to heal from, and maybe all I can do is be there for him during that, to help guide him to a better place.

 _If he doesn't let me help, though, I…_

Silence fell over us, but it was broken by low mumbles coming from the table between us, catching us both by surprise for the moment. We looked down to find Pyrrha stirring to life, and a new well of hope sprung up in me. Pyrrha may not have the best opinion of Jaune after what happened, but her being alive has to at least help Jaune out a little.

"Where…?"

"It's okay, Pyrrha," I answered, leaning forward to let her see me. A familiar face to help calm her down, hopefully. "You're safe."

"Who's Pyrrha?" she asked groggily, pushing herself up a little. My eyes met Jaune out of surprise and concern for a moment. She had been hurt pretty badly, and lost a lot of blood from what I gathered. _Amnesia, maybe?_

Jaune went to work with his Semblance, stretching his hand out towards Pyrrha to use whatever little Aura he could muster.

"Something's wrong," he mumbled, concern building in his voice. His eyes were closed as he focused in, but his face scrunched up.

"It's okay," I reassured Pyrrha, who seemed a bit panicked at Jaune's words. "You just took a big hit earlier, so remembering things might be difficult for a bit. Can you tell me your name?"

Pyrrha closed her eyes, trying to focus in to remember.

"Yang, I'm serious," Jaune's voice called out, panic ringing through it. "I don't feel her Aura anymore. Only—"

"I think my name is… Amber?"

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: That's right, this arc had _one more_ little surprise for ya. **

**Don't you just love cliffhangers, too? Now we get to ask fun questions like ' _did Amber just take over Pyrrha's body?_ ' or ' _are they going to have to share like Oz and Oscar?_ ' or ' _is Tai going to impregnate Jaune as revenge?_ ' **

**See y'all next week.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _Zexs_

"Well at least a Tai and Ruby can bond over their abandonment issues now."

 **Well, that is certainly not the ship that was intended, but hey, if the boot fits...**

 **Move aside _Jaune x Raven_ and _Jaune x Raven x cuck!Yang_ , we've got competition for the Discord's new favorite MoNT ship...**


	57. Necromancy 101

**EDIT 3/31/19: No, I'm not dead. No rest for the wicked, it seems, and sorry to get your hopes up...  
Chapter will be a bit late today due to the country of Germany. Should be up tonight.**

* * *

 **Author's Note: Somewhere along the way, we finally broke 1k favorites and 1k likes. I only noticed it this past week, after spending months watching the likes tick up slowly from 900.**

 **Neato.**

 **I'm too lazy to go copy and paste the link to the Discord this week, so if you _really_ want to join, go back a chapter... lol**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 54:** _"And to think that Ozpin makes taking over someone's soul look easy..." – Raven Branwen_

* * *

Raven's POV

* * *

I didn't really have time to sit around and wait for Jaune to mope, or for the new Fall Maiden to wake up. The attack on—and likely fall of—the city of Vale was certain to send the world into chaos. While a group such as the Tribe isn't exactly prone to being overcome by fear just from watching such events on TV, the same can't be said for most of the rest of the world. The fact that the broadcast spent so much time showing the attack by the White Fang but then never showed their defeat told me that whoever was running the camera was complicit in the attack—after all, I had shown up at Amity myself to find an entirely different scene that I had expected. No, the coverage shifted to show the destruction caused by the Grimm before going out entirely. That's certainly no coincidence.

There's no telling just how much negativity tonight generated across Remnant, but it wasn't a stretch to assume that if Vale could summon an Alpha the size of that wyvern, then other kingdoms could at least summon large hordes of Grimm to their gates. And if you assume that Salem's hand was involved in this, then there's a very real possibility that there were fresh hordes that have been prepared just for this purpose.

All in all, this is very, _very_ good for business. After all, it was going to be difficult to convince settlements to pay the price we would ask, given our recent history of raiding some of those same settlements, or at least their neighbors. Our strength was never in question, though; only our intentions and trustworthiness. Desperation alleviates a _lot_ of concerns, or makes you overlook them. When the Grimm come knocking on your door, what concern of yours is the trustworthiness of those swinging a sword for you, or for that matter, what does lien do for you if you're dead?

The world is about to have an insanely high demand for protection, or in other words, people are about to be so desperate that they'll pay anything to rent power. _It's almost as if this moment was made for me._ I should pay Ozpin a visit whenever he reincarnates to personally thank him for fucking up so royally; I'd send Salem a fruitbasket too, but of the two immortals in this world, she's the one I'd rather _not_ antagonize.

Capitalizing on that did require that the settlements already paying for our protection made it through the night. We're only contracted out to three right now, all three of which are mainly farming communities in some of Mistral's most fertile farming land—which also happen to be some of the furthest from major civilization. Not a few moments after I got back to the Tribe with Yang, the television broadcast from Vale went dead, as did all forms of long-range, CCT-based communication. Although I've put some good money into getting our private communication relays, they're still a day or two away from coming online, so we were in the dark with what was going on at those three towns.

All three already had a few of my people more or less 'stationed' there, mostly as representatives for the Tribe. That meant they were all of the more cool-headed members of the Tribe, more than a couple of whom were washed-up Huntsmen who were just looking for work. Two of the towns had someone there who I had a portal to, just from having known them and sharpened them as Tribe members for so long, and to those two towns I sent immediate reinforcement by way of portal.

The third one, though, I didn't have any direct portal access. During the hour-plus it took me to fly there just so I could open up a portal back to the main camp, I resolved to implement a much better system for this, one that ensured that I would always have at least one portal to each place paying me. After all, other groups might crop up to try to fill the market. Sure, none of them would have the raw power that having a Maiden gives you, but why stop there? People will pay through the nose for protection, so how much more will they pay for protection that can show up at a moment's notice?

It would combine nicely with the plan to begin a rapid expansion of our ranks, which was another thing that would be bolstered by chaos around the world. I'm going to need to establish a stricter hierarchy than what I have now, with something resembling a chain of command. Our strength isn't necessarily in numbers—I'd prefer to take in Huntsmen or quasi-Huntsmen fighters over just floods of footsoldiers—but by spreading out over so many places, not even with my portals can I be everywhere at once. Instead, I can recall all my strongest fighters, spend a few days training them personally and building camaraderie, and at the end of it, any of them who I've formed a portal to will get promoted to a sort of lieutenant position.

It would also be an effective way to solidify my position over the Tribe even further, and would be a nice excuse for a little ceremony and dramatic flair. Maybe make them swear fealty in front of everyone or some shit. _Hell, even just in initiation where we all get drunk._

I have just the idea for who needs to be the first to publicly pledge their loyalty to the Tribe and to me.

That wasn't the only idea I worked on during my flight. Expanding our ranks was a somewhat important goal before tonight, but it would take top priority after tonight. Refugees from Vale, washed-up Huntsmen, military veterans, orphans of war or Grimm… all would not only be welcomed into the Tribe's ranks now, but recruited. _Especially_ Huntsmen and Huntresses, as even the lowest of their ranks were capable of dealing with Grimm and had Aura; finding capable duelists wasn't really going to be an issue for us anytime soon. Of course, expanding ranks would create its own supply issues, namely food, dust, and housing. Food would be more than fine with the farming settlements we protect, leaving housing and dust. As far as housing goes, there might be a town or two that the Tribe might have sacked in the past month or two that would serve as a suitable, semi-permanent central operation location. I know the men would anoint me queen— _not that I'm not already—_ if we moved somewhere with running water. All it would take is dust to run it.

As for dust, well, Jaune has connections to Roman Torchwick, who _was_ an infamous dust thief, one who single-handedly drove up dust prices across all of Remnant. _I would know, too, because we stole dust from him._ There exists the chance that Jaune knows more about Torchwick's operation than he's indicated, and if so, that could provide us with a _lot_ of dust, provided we could smug it out of Vale safely.

Yes, I had quite the plans in mind by the time I landed in this stupid backwater farming village. When I arrived, there was some minor Grimm activity, enough that all the scattered farmers and their families had gathered in the village proper instead of their own homesteads. From what I scanned on my way in, it seemed that most of the Grimm were going after their negativity and leaving their properties untouched. It was hard to predict when the Grimm would attack the constructions of man and when they would ignore them, but the rule of thumb was that if the Grimm could attack people, they'd do that first. As such, it made defending the place easier for the local militia (or the pitiful excuse for one, with one sorry Huntress paid to live there full-time) and the men I had here. They weren't overwhelmed, but they readily accepted the support after an hour of constant combat.

With a quick portal to Vernal, I was able to drop off about fifteen extra men and woman, more than enough to defend this paltry little town. They didn't have hardly any lien to offer, so they'd agreed to pay via a percentage of their crop yields and in spreading positive word about my Tribe.

I didn't leave through my portal immediately, though. I stayed to watch over things for a few minutes, and I came to the realization that Vale's capital had just been destroyed—that is, Remnant's largest exporter of _food_ had been crippled. Suddenly, the payment this town was making was about to be significantly more valuable, and since they were to give us a percentage of their harvest, in was in my interest that their harvest be very good.

It would be convenient as hell should they have a miraculously large harvest this year, one that _magically_ dwarfs previous years.

I excused myself from the town center and wondered off to one of the grain farms, wading out into the middle of a field and taking a seat among the grain. A chilly breeze reminded me that the fall harvest was a week away at most, meaning that the field I was in was almost ready.

I took a seat on the ground, crossing my legs and concentrating on the power of Spring. Fortunately, the names of the four Maidens are all technically interchangeable, meaning that I didn't need to be the Fall Maiden to have any harvest-related magical abilities. That said, though, as I focused on pushing the power out and amplifying the grain around me, I wished that maybe those specializations _did_ exist. It was working, but it was exhausting as hell to boost just this small field around me. If Fall _was_ better at this, then maybe a deal could be made with her: we'll protect you if you boost the crops around here. It would technically be a good thing to boost food production, especially after Vale will no longer be there to feed the world, so if she's ideologically committed to Ozpin, she might still be persuaded.

If not, well, there would be other options at my disposal, both for growing food and for dealing with her.

* * *

Taiyang's POV

* * *

This was probably one of the most awkward lunches ever for everyone else at the table. It was noon, but since everyone had been up so late and the previous night had been exhausting in every sense of the word, the kids were only just now waking up. That made this sort of a hybrid of breakfast and lunch for them, even though it was just some simple PBJ sandwiches I had made for them—the only food that Ruby was confident _wouldn't_ poison them all. _Seriously, I've been cooking for myself and the girls for_ years _now, but all she or Yang ever seems to remember is the_ one _time that I tried to make a casserole…_ As if it's _my_ fault that casserole is flammable when Yang is the one who's hair set it on fire.

Anyways, it wasn't the food itself or the fact they all were still in the process of waking up that was awkward for them. They were all silent, eyes huddled over their food as they continued to process Qrow's ' _magic is real and Ruby even has some herself_ ' talk. And that was on top of Yang leaving them confused to go join Raven—someone that they didn't even know about yet. And _that_ was on top of the destruction of Vale that they'd lived through.

It still wasn't the most awkward lunch I'd ever been a part of. That title went to the lunch with Team STRQ the morning after Raven and I hooked up freshman year… in Qrow's bed. Really, this wasn't even the _second_ -most awkward lunch I'd ever been a part of, as that one went to the lunch with Team STRQ the morning after our STR three-way… that we kicked Qrow out of the dorm for. _This is certainly a solid third-place, though._

Gods, looking back, I sure was a dick to Qrow. Good thing he deserved it.

"Are we… _sure_ about this whole magic thing?" Ruby's partner—Weiss, as I recall it—ask the table uncertainly, breaking what had been a thick silence. "I mean, I get that dust and Semblances don't really make that much sense either, but… _magic?_ "

"Yeah, it sounds a little crazy at first, until you think about just how crazy the world is," I answered, looking up from my sandwich to catch her eye. There was only barely enough room at the table for the five of them, so I was eating my sandwich while leaning against the long kitchen counter, and I soon had five pairs of eyes turned my way. "Grimm? You mean 'Magical evil monsters that evaporate once killed?' Honestly, that should have tipped you off more than anything…"

"But Grimm aren't magic! We've been fighting them for centuries. We know… a lot about…" Weiss trailed off, probably going over what she _did_ know about Grimm in her head and realizing how weird and limited it was.

"Trust me, kids, it all sounds weird—and it _is_ —but it's true. I've seen a lot of magic firsthand, actually."

"Like what?" Nora—the one who'd already eaten two sandwiches and was eyeing those of her friends—asked, perking up a bit. Of them all, she seemed to be accepting this part the easiest.

"Well, I've met a Maiden before, so I can promise you that those are real," I answered, taking a moment to stare off at the ceiling and think. "Ozpin has magic, too, and—"

"Headmaster Ozpin does?"

"—he gave Qrow a little bit of it—"

" _Uncle Qrow_ does?"

"Yeah, I noticed he left that part out last night," I commented, knowing full-well that Qrow probably hadn't done that on accident. Maybe if he hadn't lost Yang, I would have helped him out with that. "You should ask him to show you when he gets back. It's kinda funny, actually."

"What about Ruby?" Nora's counterbalance, Ren, asked in the brief silence that followed. "Mr. Branwen mentioned that her eyes were special, but didn't explain it."

All their eyes shifted curiously to Ruby, who through her hands up in defense sheepishly.

"H-Hey, that was news to me, too!"

"Ruby inherited Silver Eyes from her mom, but she hasn't activated them yet," I answered a little louder, drawing their attention back to me, letting Ruby relax a little. Her eyes did perk up a bit at the mention of her mom, which struck a sad chord in me like it always does. It was a hard enough subject to dwell on _without_ Ruby's puppy-dog eyes, and the fact that she looked so much like Summer just made it harder. "Summer didn't discover hers until her sophomore year at Beacon. It wasn't until graduation that she was able to use them naturally, and that was after having training sessions with Ozpin every couple of weeks for legitimately years by that point."

Ruby relaxed a little further, safe in the knowledge that she wasn't behind in her development or anything like that. Even if she was, that wouldn't be _her_ fault. Qrow and I tried to avoid forcing Ruby into her mom's footsteps, after all. _For all the good it did, somehow getting her into Beacon two years ahead of average._

"What do they do?" Nora asked, a hint of excitement building in her voice as she looked deeply into Ruby's eyes. While Ruby was bad at hiding any sort of excitement at having magical powers, she was overwhelmingly uncomfortable with being Nora's object of study.

"They kill Grimm," I answered simply, not really wanting or needing to get any more specific than that, "which is a really convenient trait, especially for a Huntress."

"Is that why mom used to go on missions?"

"All Huntresses go on missions, Ruby… but yes. Summer used to go on special missions for Ozpin because she could clear out Grimm like no other."

Instead of soaking up any new information about Summer, Ruby ducked her head away guiltily. "So I could have stopped that Wyvern…?"

The other four went tense and quiet as the implications there no doubt hit them.

" _No_ ," I answered firmly, making sure to cut off that notion before it tortured her. "If that thing is as big you all described it as, then there's no way you could kill it in one shot, even _if_ you had been training to use your eyes for years. Even Summer would have struggled to stop that thing, let alone kill it."

"Are you sure?"

"Look, all of you, I get that last night was rough, but you shouldn't blame yourselves for anything. You all came back here exhausted and depleted, not to mention injured." I gestured loosely to Blake, who was still sitting somewhat stiffly as she tried not to jostle her wound. It wasn't too serious from what she'd said, but since she ran around with a top that didn't even make it to her belly button, you could easily see the bandages and wrapping. "I think it's safe to say that you all left everything you could out there. Anything more and you might not have come back at all."

Five sets of eyes settled down guiltily on their sandwiches again, making it clear that my words weren't exactly agreed with. Not yet, at least, though it was hard to blame them. They seemed like good kids. Ruby and Yang weren't _totally_ shit at picking their friends, it seems.

"What about Yang or Jaune?" Ruby asked, looking up with wide, nervous eyes. "Or Pyrrha? We still don't know if she's—"

"She's probably fine, Ruby," I cut in, not wanting to cross that bridge without Qrow here. If this Nikos girl _was_ the Fall Maiden now, that meant she was MIA at the moment. That, or dead, and the only person who might know which disappeared with Yang and Raven.

"Her Aura was going crazy last night," Nora added in, her voice tense too. "We got a notification that her Aura hit 0, but when we checked, it said she was at half—and then later it started spazzing out! A-And we still haven't heard from her!"

"Look, she's—" I cut myself off, deciding against telling them what I had gathered from Qrow, at least not until he was here to explain it. I have my questions, too.

"Uncle Qrow brought her weapons, too," Ruby mumbled darkly.

"Yeah, but he didn't bring _her_ ," I countered Ruby. "And he never encountered her body, which means she got out alive. Trust me here, guys, I'm sure she's okay."

"Her Aura doesn't show up on our team link anymore," Nora pointed out glumly.

"Which just means her scroll is dead or out of range," I countered again, this time without anyone having any other points to make. Yang and Jaune's Auras were similarly absent from their respective links, and since the CCT didn't seem to be working, that just meant that they were out of range.

That, of course, led everyone to the other elephant in the room. They all went silent again, no one looking up from their sandwiches once more. I was beginning to wonder if the sandwiches really were _that_ bad, since most of them had barely touched them. _Nora is my new favorite then._

It was Ruby that finally spoke up.

"That woman that Yang went with… was that… aunt Raven?"

"Mmhmm," I confirmed with a frown, crossing my arms.

"She has Yang _and_ Jaune? Why?" Weiss asked. "I-I mean, Yang I get. If she's Ruby's aunt, then that makes her Yang's… mom?"

She looked to me tentatively, and I nodded once.

"Yang's mentioned that she has a… distant relationship to her mom before, but there at least _is_ a connection. How does she know Jaune?"

"Could it be from his time with Torchwick?" Nora asked to Ren, but loud enough for the table to hear.

"No…" Blake mumbled softly, ignored or unheard by most the table. She didn't look up from her food either, unlike everyone else, who were looking between themselves for answers.

"His time with _who?_ " Weiss asked pointedly, taking the words right out of my mouth.

"That…could do it, maybe," Ren answered Nora, ignoring Weiss. "She had a Grimm mask at her side, and Torchwick did work with the White Fang. It could fit."

"She wouldn't be White Fang, would she?" Nora asked, locking eyes with Ren and almost assuredly ignoring Weiss to antagonize her. "I mean, if so, she wouldn't work with Jaune anymore. Not since he killed those people during the Breach…"

"Uh, Nora, didn't you _also_ kill—"

"Uh, _Ruby_ , were we talking about me? _No?_ " Nora snapped at Ruby semi-playfully. "Didn't think so."

"Hold on just a minute!" I called out loudly, tired of trying to piece together what the hell was going on. "Before we get too far away from it, let me get this straight: this Jaune dude worked for _Roman Torchwick_ , the criminal responsible for the White Fang's dust heists in Vale, and he's _killed_ before—more than just one person, from the sound of it—"

I scanned over the five of them with flat glares, making sure that they didn't have any objections. Nora and Ren seemed to sink in on themselves a little, Weiss and Ruby shied away but were also curious about the Torchwick part, and Blake shoulders sagged as she still stared at her plate.

My eyes settled on Ruby, giving her a firm, flat glare.

"—and despite all of that, _no one_ thought it was important to tell me that he was dating Yang?"

To hell with Qrow's complaints about my priorities here. They're totally where they should be.

"Eh… heh heh… you see, dad…" Ruby stammered nervously, as the others gladly gave her inquisitive looks to avoid scrutiny for themselves. For good reason, too, because Ruby immediately tried to deflect. "I didn't know about the Torchwick part!"

"But you knew about the dating part," I countered firmly, making Ruby stammer nervously more. "And you knew about the murder part."

"I-It wasn't _murder!_ " Ruby defended. "It was against the White Fang, so… uh… self-defense! Yeah, self-defense."

"Yeah, but Jaune did say that before Beacon he had—"

" _Nora, shut up!_ " Ruby squeaked out, giving me a wide-eyed look and cutting her words at the girl to her side.

"I'm sorry, are we going to gloss over the part about Roman Torchwick?" Weiss cut in.

"Oh, yeah, let's talk about that. Nora?" Ruby piled on, giving up on defending Jaune to shift the focus off of herself.

"Uh, he used to work for Torchwick. Then he stopped when he could."

"That's all you have to say?" Weiss drawled, cutting her eyes at Nora.

Nora and Ren both shrugged.

"There isn't much _to_ say. He was forced into it against his will. Yang—" Ren cut himself off as soon as the name left his mouth, but it was too late.

"Yang _what?_ " I prompted.

"Yang… helped Jaune get out of Torchwick's service," Ren answered slowly, looking to Nora for help that she did _not_ want to provide. "So I doubt that Jaune knows this Raven person from that, since he and Yang both worked to free him from that."

" _That's not it_ ," Blake confirmed, still not looking but at least speaking loud enough to be heard now. What was interesting was that she cut them off before I could. They'd no doubt get a better picture of things once Qrow got back from tracking down Glynda, but I was at least going to explain some things to them before then—if for no other reason than to make sure they're prepared to ask Qrow as difficult of questions as possible. That can certainly wait so I can see exactly what it is that Yang's partner here knows.

"How do you know?" Weiss asked, not snippily or in a stuck-up way, but honestly asking instead.

"Yang's my partner," she answered, looking up to meet the table's eyes guiltily. "And Jaune and I are… pretty close."

" _Oh my god_ ," Nora mumbled, staring at Blake with a wild expression, "you had a threesome?!"

"No."

" _Four_ some?!"

" _No,_ " Blake cut back. "Who would the fourth even be?"

"Shadow clone?"

"That's not how— _never mind_." Blake let out an exasperated huff. "I thought that the 'Blake and Jaune' jokes would end, but I guess not. _No_ , Nora, the only one sleeping with Jaune is Yang."

" _Ahem,_ " I faked a cough loudly, drawing Blake's eyes and making her freeze momentarily.

"Could we get back to the topic on hand?" Weiss asked impatiently. "How does Jaune know this Raven person, Blake?"

"He said that she raised him," Blake answered sheepishly, working up the nerve to glance my way once. I made sure not to react, since this wasn't strictly new information to me, which emboldened her a little. The rest of the table looked at her in surprise, though.

" _Yang's mom_ raised Jaune?" Ruby and Weiss asked simultaneously. The rest of the table looked up to me in shock. I begrudgingly nodded my head to confirm it, frowning as I did so.

They all shared concerned glances, and the table had just gotten that much more awkward. I had absolutely no intention of clearing things up any further. That would all fall to Qrow when he got back. Anything I could do to make that experience worse for him, I wouldn't hesitate to do.

"Apparently, she runs a group of bandits," Blake added on eventually.

"And you were just… going to sit on this information?" Weiss asked, a bit of an edge to her voice. "Were you ever planning on warning us about this?"

"What, you would have me just break their trust like that?" Blake asked back defensively. "I didn't know that it would actually matter, Weiss. It should have just been something between the two of them. If I had known that… that this all would have happened, I would have told you, but I don't think it would have made a difference."

"We could have…" Weiss trailed off, failing to come up with what they could have done differently.

"I was just a surprised as you were, Weiss," Blake mumbled softly, eyes trailing back down to her food despondently again. "It wouldn't have changed anything."

The table fell silent again, no one feeling like eating or talking any more.

"So he _was_ a pirate…" Nora mumbled to herself, as if she'd been overwhelmed with the secrets to the universe or something.

"Nora, I think that there are more important revelations than… _that_ ," Ren said softly.

"You're right. This practically makes them siblings," Nora responded, making everyone in the room cringe a little, "in the banjo-playing, Menagerie sort of way…"

"What the hell is _that_ supposed to mean?"

* * *

Raven's POV

* * *

"Ugh… no rest for the wicked?" I groaned sarcastically as Vernal prodded me none-too-gently.

"Shut up," she grumbled bitterly. I made her stay awake all night to supervise the installation of our communication arrays and, should any of them come online early, to supervise the situation out in the field. If anything were to come up, she would wake me so that I could make a portal, that way I could stay fresh for whatever may come. Other than waking me up once at around four in the morning to do a routine check on all our men, the night had been quiet for me. Draining my strength to boost that stupid field certainly helped me sleep. _Next time I'm only going to go boost the fields next to a brewery to get some free beer instead._

"You can crash here if you don't want to head back to your tent," I offered, pushing myself up and onto my feet. All I got was a _hmph_ in reply, as Vernal was one step ahead of me and took my spot as soon as I vacated it, yanking a pillow over her head to block out the light.

It wasn't that bright in the tent, but Vernal knew my morning routine well enough to know that wouldn't last. This hair didn't fix itself each morning, and over the years I've come to care less and less that it takes literal magic for me to tame it. Of course, whenever we stop somewhere with running water, I can just shower normally, but I've come to prefer my method. It's significantly faster to summon water to rinse out your hair, then dry it out by lighting it on fire—that part being the reason Vernal preemptively put a pillow over her eyes. Depending on my mood, I would also air it out with some wind, and today felt like it was going to be one of those days where I wanted everything in its best shape possible, what with how the rest of the world was going to shit.

"Any recommendations?" I called out to Vernal idly as I tied my hair with my usual red bandana, letting most of it fall freely out the back, with the wind-swept action trailing out behind me almost like a bird's wing.

"You're gonna want to check on Fall," she groaned back through the pillow. "She woke up and… well, you'll see."

"You're awfully helpful this morning."

"Bite me."

"I just might," I quipped back, strapping on my weapon and hooking my mask to my side. My eyes got stuck on the small patch of exposed thigh just above Vernal's right boot, and I fought down the urge to summon a tiny flame or a small, prickly ice cube. Under normal circumstances, I probably wouldn't have hesitated, but I decided that I'd want her rested just in case. "Fine, be that way."

I exited the tent to find the camp nearly deserted. The tents were all still here, but with most everyone out defending our three charges, there were only a few people to be seen.

I made my way to what passed as our medical tent—just a regular tent with a table in it and boxes of first-aid supplies. The redheaded Fall Maiden was laying on the table in the center of the room, but what caught my eye was that my daughter was in here too, sitting in a chair off to the side and staring off into the distance.

"Yang," I called out, stirring her from her thoughts as she looked up at me. "Did you sleep in here?"

"I… yeah…"

"I told someone to pitch a tent for you and Jaune," I remarked, wondering if my words had gone unheeded. If so, today was going to start off a little more fun than I had anticipated. "There's no soundproofing a tent, so I told them to put you two at the edge of camp—for _my_ sake more than anything…"

I knew something was off when Yang didn't rise to my comment, or even react to it at all. Didn't take a genius to figure out that Jaune was off somewhere moping, not after the state he was in last night. _That will need to be addressed, but I'll let Yang have a chance to do it first._ If anything, she might save me the effort of doing it, or having to finally break through to that dense kid.

I can't say I'm looking forward to that talk, though it does seem like it is long overdue.

"I-I can't find Jaune. He's been avoiding me ever since Pyr—ever since she woke up last night," Yang caught herself, gesturing to the redhead in the middle of the room. I took note that she cut herself off from using her name. "Could you… make a portal to him for me? I _need_ to talk with him. He's… he's hurting right now, and—"

"You don't need to convince me," I cut her off, holding up one hand lazily to stop her. "Tell me about her, and then I'll make you a portal." Yang followed my eyes to the table where our guest slept, her gaze lingering there for a few moments, before she agreed.

"Her name is Pyrrha Nikos. She was Jaune's partner at Beacon."

" _Was?_ "

"What, do you think they'll be accepting him back anytime soon?" Yang asked in a dark, sarcastic tone. I shrugged and yielded the point. "She was the best fighter in the whole school," Yang continued, eyes roving over Pyrrha and settling on the blood-stained dagger that was laying on the ground, "…or second-best, apparently. Ozpin wanted her to be his Maiden and Jaune wanted her to—" Yang cut herself off tensely, looking at me nervously.

"Jaune wanted her as a counter for me, I assume?" Nervously, Yang nodded, watching my reaction intensely. I chuckled, both at Jaune's plan and Yang's apprehension, and rolled my eyes. "Not the worst plan I've heard. What went wrong?"

"Pyrrha got caught in the middle, trying to help both Jaune and Ozpin, and accidentally revealed who Jaune was to Ozpin."

"I take it Jaune didn't appreciate that?"

"Neither of us did," Yang answered lowly, her head dropping. "I attacked her before I came here. I let her go because she didn't… she didn't _mean_ to do it, but I still took a lot of her Aura. And then Jaune…" She looked up at me, eyes wide and emotional. "Why did you save her?"

"Does it matter?"

"It does! He's tearing himself apart right now because _you_ are the one who saved someone he cares about. Was it for her powers?"

"No… it wasn't," I answered truthfully, though I doubted it to be taken seriously. I have a reputation, after all, and an overwhelming one at that. _Jaune had really expected me to kill him on the spot, so why wouldn't Yang think the worst of my intentions too?_

"Then why?" she asked, not disbelieving me, but certainly not accepting that as a good enough answer.

"I did it for Jaune, and… for myself," I answered after looking over Pyrrha's still form for a few moments. I've had to deal with a teammate dying before, and I didn't particularly care for the guilt that came with it, and the questions about whether there was something I could have done differently. It was the nail in the coffin in regards to my opinion of Ozpin, and also served as the final wedge between my old team and me. Quite frankly, I didn't want to see the cycle repeated, and there were already so many similarities between the two situations.

Plus… well, I didn't _want_ that stupid kid to suffer. He would have had it far worse than I did. After all, _I_ didn't put a knife into Summer; I just failed to be there when she needed it.

"You should tell Jaune that," Yang commented softly, judging me cautiously and finding my words to be truthful.

"I'll tell him what he needs to hear," I dismissed, choosing my words carefully, as I turned back towards Pyrrha. "Anything else about her?"

"She—" Yang cut herself off, looking to Pyrrha uncertainly. "She woke up last night for a few moments. She seemed confused and didn't remember what had happened, and I made her go back to sleep and rest some more, but…"

"But…?"

"She… thought her name was Amber, not Pyrrha," Yang mumbled, standing up to look down at Pyrrha worriedly. "Amber is—"

"The previous Fall Maiden, I know," I cut Yang off, looking over the unconscious girl with a new appreciation. This… this could certainly get interesting. "Jaune have anything to say about that?"

"N-No. All the blood drained from his face, and he ran out of the tent a moment later," Yang answered dejectedly. "He's scared that he really did kill her. I haven't been able to find him since then."

"This should help, then," I called out, dropping my hand onto my weapon's hilt instinctively and starting up my Semblance. I released my hand without drawing the blade, pointing it off behind Yang. "That direction, just over a hundred yards. He's not moving, either, so you should be able to find him. Bring him here when you can."

Yang looked at me curiously for a moment until she realized what I was doing, accepting the directions with a nod and heading off to find Jaune. That location would put him out of the camp and about fifty yards into the forest, and I had a hunch that I'd have a few minutes before they came back.

"We're alone now. You're not fooling anyone," I called out, waiting a few moments until the girl on the table gave up pretending to still be asleep and sat upright. She opened her mouth to speak, but stopped when her face twisted slightly upon seeing me. A flash of recognition shone across her eyes, and her head tilted sideways just slightly as she tried to place the memory. It didn't seem like she ever came up with it. "So, you recognize me, huh?"

"I… do, but I'm not sure from where. I have no… no memory of meeting you."

Interesting.

"I've never met Pyrrha Nikos, not really."

"That name, it—" she cut herself off, staring down at the ground momentarily. "That's my name in every memory I have, but… but my name is _Amber_. I don't have any memory of that but it's who I am. Does that make any sense?

"Like, I have all of these memories of my life, but each time I remember them, it feels like the first time I've ever experienced them. What's going on?!"

 _Interesting._

"I'm not entirely sure yet. Jaune is currently our best chance to get some information about what happened," I answered cautiously, watching the girl with a very interested gaze. I recalled something Jaune had mentioned about this Pyrrha girl possessing half of Amber's power, and it seemed as if that bastard Ozpin had gone ahead and transferred away Amber's Aura.

"That name, I don't recognize it," Amber—for if that's what she claims she is, it's what I'll go with—said, concerned. "I feel like I should know it, but it means nothing to me."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll recognize him," I responded cryptically. "Do you remember anything about Amber?"

"…maybe? It's all… instinctual stuff. I don't have _any_ memories of being Amber, but I _know_ that I am."

"What's your last name?"

"I don't have one," she answered quickly and confidently. "Orphanages didn't assign them to you if you didn't have one they could track down, not where I'm from, at least."

"So you grew up an orphan?" I asked, a grin cracking across my face. What could I say, this was _really_ interesting now; Amber _was_ an orphan without a last name, as far as I could remember.

"I… I guess so?" she answered, all her confidence drying up immediately. "I don't know why I said that…"

"It was right, if that helps."

She gave me a curious, strained look.

"You…? You know who—?"

" _Amber_ I have met before, yes. I was a few years her senior at Beacon, and we worked for the same person for a bit. My brother even tried to hit on her once." I smirked at the memory, almost having forgotten it among all the other conquests of Team STRQ. He had no clue just how bad things would have gotten for him had he actually gotten something going between the two of them. It may have been one of the few times his Semblance worked in his favor.

"Is he cute?"

" _No._ "

"Was he successful?" Amber followed up, a bit of concern in her voice.

I smirked again. "Also no."

"Well, that's good, then. I have a standard to uphold…" Amber mumbled to herself, not even realizing that she meant what she was saying. She _did_ uphold a standard, and seeing how she was Ozpin's roaming Maiden for years, she got around. _It's a miracle she didn't end up having one of Tai's kids at that rate._

"…it's okay, Jaune. We have to face this sooner or later…" Yang's voice echoed from just outside the tent flap, alerting me that she'd finally apprehended her man. Jaune mumbled something in reply, and whatever it was it was enough, as the tent flap was pushed aside and they strode forward from behind me.

Amber's eyes remained cautious as they scanned over Yang. She'd already met her, so there was no reaction from Amber that was worth noting. Once Yang moved aside and Jaune moved into view, her eyes widened shock, glassing over for a moment before snapping back to reality with fear and hatred.

She shot forward off the table, both eyes lined with Maiden's flames, and was on Jaune before he could react, delivering a punch to his stomach that exploded with flames, knocking Jaune to the ground. Two long ice spikes formed in her hands as she brought them above her head and stepped over Jaune.

They never made it down, with Yang jumping into action to catch one wrist and myself drawing my sword and cutting the other one in half.

"He…! He tried to _kill me!_ " Amber yelled frantically, though she let herself be restrained by Yang for the time being. "Him and that other woman; he handed me off to her! He stabbed me!"

Jaune froze, not moving from his spot on the ground with his eye dangerously. They stared at Amber petrified and horrified, and with each passing moment he seemed to sink in on himself more and more.

Yang watched Jaune nervously, fear for Jaune shown plainly on her face.

"Hmmm," I hummed, trying to calm down Amber, "do you remember anything else about him?"

"He… he…" Amber fumbled her words, adopting flashes of a distant look on her face as she sorted through memories as they were recalled—or lived, as Amber described it. "She— _I…_ betrayed him. He hates us for it." Amber's expression was still distant, and a flick of my eyes to Jaune showed me that was staring down guiltily, refusing to meet anyone's eyes. If you looked at it just right, there was maybe a hint of that guilt on Amber's face, too, as she relived the memories. "Ozpin… he put us through this. He put me into that machine with Amber—with _me!_ " Amber's eyes locked in suddenly, looking at me in a frantic panic as she made that connection.

"What machine?" I asked, keeping my tone even to keep Amber grounded.

"They said it transfers Aura. That it would…" Amber trailed off, her face slowly tilting down in confusion as the blood drained from it. "…that it would kill Amber, but let her Aura live on in me… _theoretically._

"I… I _am_ Amber, then… right?"

She looked to me for guidance, and I deflected to Jaune, looking over to him hopefully. He wilted under the attention, leaving Amber's question hanging in the air.

"It would appear so," I answered finally. "You should have both your Aura and Pyrrha's Aura, I would think. I know that Jaune healed your body by amplifying Pyrrha's Aura last night, meaning it was still there. Do you… feel her?"

"I don't… think so?" Amber answered, looking down over her body awkwardly. "I don't really know what I _should_ feel. This all feels so familiar and so foreign at the same time."

"She doesn't have Pyrrha's Aura," Jaune asserted, finally breaking his silence only to sound so dark and cold. He had picked himself off the ground, but still stood at the edge of the tent, as if he might duck his tail between his legs and run at any time. I scoffed at the idea, but a nagging bit of doubt reminded me that my own track record of running from things isn't exactly unblemished either. "I checked last night. Any trace of Aura Pyrrha had left that I used to heal her with was just… gone. It wasn't even being produced anymore."

"What does that mean?" Yang asked, stepping out from behind Amber to approach Jaune cautiously—the same way one would approach a wounded animal. I wasn't 100% certain how that analogy would play out beyond that, whether Yang was approaching to rescue or put down for the kill. _Not entirely sure which Jaune would think is kinder at the moment._

"I… I don't know, Yang."

"What do you _think_ happened, Jaune?" I asked pointedly, knowing how to get him to share his suspicions. _And fears_ , though those probably overlapped.

Jaune's eyes fell to the floor, and he took a few breaths before answering. "I think that Aura Transference is an untested experiment and that it pits the two Auras against each other. Once Amber's Aura encountered what was left of Pyrrha's…"

He trailed off, his voice tightening up too much for him to go any further without losing composure or his voice cracking. Yang and my eyes both turned to Amber, taking in the girl in a new light.

"You think Amber's Aura supplanted Pyrrha's?" Yang asked tentatively.

"…I think Amber's Aura _killed_ Pyrrha's."

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Well, that could certainly have ramifications...**

 **We are approaching a bit of a time skip in the story, though not a six-month jump like happens between V3 and V4. Should just be one more chapter to tie this arc up before the time skip, as there are still a few strings left frayed at the moment.**

 **We'll get more information on Amber/Pyrrha's condition as time passes and more becomes apparent, because what's happening here has no precedent, especially not for those dealing with it. For now, it appears the best summary would be to say that we have Amber Software running on Pyrrha Hardware.**

 **Things are, of course, slightly more complicated than that, and we shall see what that does to the landscape long-term...**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _SilverReaper45_

"I feel like you're setting this story up for another arc just to put off having to DM a game."

 **I'm sure that I have no idea what you're saying. Me? Extend a story simply to avoid social interaction? Especially one that would put me into an unfamiliar position in which I have no other option than failure?**

 **Perish the thought... :P**


	58. Wizard arrives precisely when he means 2

**Author's Note: Yeah, yeah, a bit late this week. I didn't have time to write the chapter this week, since the week before was Spring Break, which meant that I put all my homework off till this week. Combine that with a test Friday that kicked my ass and a Sweet Sixteen match Thursday that broke my heart, and I was a little overwhelmed this week. Oh, and I spent two hours on Thursday practicing a presentation for a German exam that I took, like, 2 hours ago (passed, flying colors, surprising everyone involved).**

 **Oh, I had a lab report due Wednesday that I had to write too. And my family drove up this weekend and monopolized a lot of the only time I had to write.**

 _ **Sigh.**_

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **No chapter next week. I'm taking a week off to rest, not go insane, and sort out the next arc a little more. There... might be something else uploaded next Sunday, though. We'll see.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 55:** _"I'm just saying that Jaune and Yang both have bright,_ bright _blonde hair, they both seem to lose their tempers and explode, and they have the same mother… sort of. Are we_ sure _that they're not twins?" – Nora Valkyrie  
"Yes." – Taiyang Xiao Long, for the seventh time_

* * *

Raven's POV

* * *

" _Jaune_ ," I called out, freezing him in place. He had tried to duck out of the camp again, tried to slip away into the woods while we were too busy examining Amber. I left Amber in Yang's care and made it clear that we were not to be interrupted as soon as I saw Jaune back out of the tent.

I approached Jaune from behind casually. He still hadn't moved from where he had first stopped, and that put us within sight of the gate to the camp. No doubt, anyone still in the camp would be curious enough to watch whatever was about to happen, but we were far enough that we wouldn't be overheard, which was the important part.

Jaune still stood there unmoving, his shoulders held tensely as he let me approach him from behind.

"Yes?" Jaune asked, trying his best to sound annoyed that he was being questioned and not like he was still reeling from the previous night and the most recent developments with Fall.

"Something on your mind?" I asked knowingly, sounding just a little coy. Right now, it was better to come across as smug or bemused than angry or vindictive. He was likely to default to assuming I was either being malicious or obnoxious, and he might do something stupid if he felt threatened. After last night, I can't really afford to push him without knowing exactly what it was I am dealing with.

"…yes." The honesty in Jaune's answer surprised me slightly, but the defeated sigh he let out as he said it did not. Had he simply lost the ability to care about looking weak in front of me anymore, or at least lost the will to deny being weak, especially when it would be so futile?

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked politely, going out of my way to do him the curtesy when we both knew I could squeeze answers out of him at any time, should I wish to. To do so would only damage whatever frayed relations still exist between the two of us, and when I've spent so much time and effort getting him to this point—profiting my daughter and possibly another Maiden along the way, though that's beside the point—it would be foolish to destroy it all now.

"No," Jaune answered, dropping his head down a little, "I want to forget about it."

"Bad answer, kid," I tisked dismissively, though I didn't mean it as a threat. Jaune took it as one, if the tension in his shoulders as he braced himself was any indication. I rolled my eyes, making a note to myself that we had some work to do between us, if that wasn't perfectly clear before. I made a conscious effort to keep my voice soft and relaxed. "Turn around, Jaune."

Jaune remained still, his head still pointed down at the ground. As he loosened from where he had braced himself, his shoulders began to sag, which told me that even _if_ he was defying me right now, he wasn't doing so very enthusiastically. _Is 'despondent resistance' a term? Because it might be now._

"Just turn around and look at me, Jaune. Let's not do this," I pleaded somewhat condescendingly. It took a few more seconds, but Jaune did eventually turn around, looking up to meet my expectant look. His eyes looked tired and sunken back, shrunken in a sad sort of way. It didn't speak of the hysterics he was going through when I found him last night, but instead of a soul who had time to internalize that grief, and turn it into a poison that ate away at him. " _There_. Was that so hard?"

"Yes."

"Hilarious," I deadpanned, hiding a scrutinizing gaze behind how I cut my eyes at him for his 'joke.' "Let's get this over with. Whatever it is that's bothering you, get it off your chest."

"Why?" Jaune asked, a bit of an edge creeping into his voice. Before I could respond with something sarcastic to take the piss out of him, Jaune expanded on it, showing me that he was tired with our usual quips and word play. He wanted to jump straight into it. "Why would I tell _you?_ "

I was reminded of his words last night, specifically how devastated he was to realize how similar we are. Putting the inherent insult there aside, if he blamed himself for everything that had happened, and then blamed that on not knowing that he was like me, then it wasn't hard to see why he didn't want to discuss that with _me_ : either out of embarrassment, chagrin, or fear of insulting me further. Probably all three.

"Because you've got to tell someone," I answered with a shrug, "and you're clearly not confident that whoever you tell won't judge you for it. Might as well tell it to someone you don't care for their opinion of you anyways…"

Jaune's eyes widened a little bit, apprehension showing there, but I waved my hand lazily to dismiss any such notions. He wasn't exactly fooling anyone, and if it was a _new_ revelation, it might have hurt my pride. As such, I've known for quite some time that his perception of me is skewed; it was the reason we were going to have this talk, after all.

"I… I don't think that it's a good idea for me to explain it to you," Jaune said, trying his best not to emphasize that last word as he searched for a way out of this. His eyes nervously flicked to my weapon hanging at my side. "I think it might just… upset you…"

"I'm touched that you're looking out for my feelings here, Jaune. I really am," I drawled sarcastically, letting the words hang in the air tensely as I stared Jaune down. This clearly wasn't going to go anywhere without something changing, and I bit my lip as I thought over a couple different ways to go about that. The mental image of spanking him over my leg like a child was hilarious, but wasn't exactly a practical solution— _not to mention the fear that he may enjoy it._ Yang might never forgive me for that, too.

I settled on a plan, abruptly drawing my sword, which caused Jaune to flinch and his eyes to go wide. Before anything else could happen, I promptly stabbed the weapon into the ground between us, off to the side slightly to show that it was both out of the way and not a threat to him.

" _There._ You have free reign to say anything you need to until I pick that sword back up," I announced, a little agitated that I needed to take such dramatic measures—and this is coming from myself, someone who is no stranger to being dramatic. "Whatever you need to make me understand, I suggest you do it now."

Jaune watched me cautiously, his expression never settling into just one mode. Apprehension was the most obvious, but uncertainty, fear, and maybe even a little hope all mixed across his face. His eyes trailed down to my sword, staring at it as he tried to figure out what my angle was.

"I-I don't… I don't know where to start," Jaune mumbled, averting his eyes to look over at the dirt opposite my sword. "I don't _know_ what's wrong. I—"

"Oh, bull _shit_ ," I cut him off with a drawl, fighting the urge to roll my eyes at the way he tried to feign surprise. "Don't pretend like I don't know. I was _there_ last night. I _saw_. I'm not asking for _my_ sake, Jaune; I'm trying to give you an outlet here, kid."

Jaune's mouth froze half-way open as he tried to respond, but swallowed the words as they wouldn't come out. His expression turned a little guilty and he dropped his head slightly, ashamed at both being caught so easily and even trying such a bad line in the first place.

"Even if that's true, I really don't see how _you_ could help me…"

 _That_ line set me off, despite my better intentions. I showed up to find Jaune hurting— _seriously_ hurting—because of a crisis of identity last night, one that I _knew_ he would go through because _I_ went through it too. And I've been doing a lot of things behind the scenes to try to help him, to make this hurt less for him, because I know _exactly_ how much of a piece of shit you feel like when you're the odd one out in your own world. I sent him to Beacon, I didn't even make him acknowledge or thank me for his new weapon, I've saved his ass from his own messes twice now, I changed the structure of my whole fucking tribe just so this kid would fit better, I put a target on my head by saving his Maiden friend and by bringing Yang here with him, and now I'm trying to make him realize that I want to help him get through this, and he has the fucking nerve not to realize that I actually _can_ help him!?

Some days I wonder if I should have let this kid burn in that fucking cabin with his sisters.

"You're a fucking idiot, Jaune," I spat out through gritted teeth, doing an incredible job bottling up my anger. There was no such thing as a perfect job, though, and my thoughts were telegraphed very clearly on my face because Jaune picked up on my frustration. His eyes widened in surprise and nervousness flashed into them, and the tension to his shoulders and body returned as he waited to see what I was about to do.

Through sheer will, I fought down my anger and did _not_ strike the stupid boy. I did not trust myself to speak without saying something designed to make things worse, though, and instead I stared off to the side, trying to make the grass there shrivel up and die solely from my wrath. It did not, though the concentrated effort did help to even me out faster; I made a note to come back later and burn that patch of grass to ashes, just to prove a point to the world.

"Humor me, then," I said finally, returning to our previous conversation as if nothing had happened. I shifted my eyes back to Jaune, tilting my head slightly to one side to give him a somewhat knowing look. "What have you got to lose?"

Jaune accepted that with a soft, sad chuckle under his breath, though he may have only been persuaded by it considering how much better it was than getting me angry.

"You were there. You already know…" he trailed off, trying to gesture loosely to something with his hands but coming up empty. "…last night, what happened, and what I…"

As he fumbled through his explanation and kept his eyes to the ground, only looking for brief moments at a time, I finally realized why he was trying to avoid this so much: embarrassment. It wasn't that he didn't want me to know, or didn't think I would understand, and maybe not that he didn't think I could help; it was that he didn't want to have to admit it to _me_. It was amusing, and I might have even laughed in his face for it, but for the fact that I was kicking myself for just now seeing it. _The kid really is a mirror image of me sometimes, so of course_ pride _would make this difficult._

Jaune noticed that I was smiling at how stupid he looked while trying to explain, and cut himself off to try to gather his thoughts. With a frustrated huff, he tried again.

"Last night, I realized that… that you and I are…" his hands gestured back and forth between us suggestively, trying to convey what his mouth refused to say aloud.

"…similar?" I supplied mockingly. "Identical? The same?"

"Yes," he confirmed, his eyes falling to the dirt between us. "That we're… the same. That I wasn't the same as my friends, that I didn't fit in Beacon, that…" Jaune trailed off, still not looking up at me yet, "…that I was only just now seeing it when you had already known it."

Where he had been just averting his eyes, now he actively looked away from me out of guilt, turning his head to the side. His breathing hitched and his jaw clenched shut, as did his eyes. When they opened again, the glared at the ground with rage.

"I feel like such an idiot!" Jaune let out, finally doing that venting that I had come here for. "It's so… so fucking _obvious_ in hindsight! I was never like them, and I even knew that, but I… how could I even _be_ so blind as to not realize that if I wasn't like them, then I _was_ like you?!"

Jaune continued trying to glare the grass to death— _I might as well burn that spot while I'm at it_ —but if he had looked up, he would have seen me give an honest shrug. Fourteen years later and even _I_ don't know how the kid could be _that_ dense.

"Yang—yang knew, too," Jaune let out lowly, as if he was only just stumbling across the realization himself. "What she told me yesterday morning, t-the way she looked at me… she—" his head whipped to me, the anger in his eyes dampened by confusion and shock, "—she said it was something you told her. You… you told her that I was…?"

"Yes," I answered honestly, seeing no usefulness in lying about it now. "Evidently, she didn't tell you."

"N-No, she didn't. She told me that she was worried that if I found out, it might… get in my head," Jaune seemed to recount her words, struggling to focus as his mind seemed to be whirling. " _She… she could have warned me?_ I could have known!? I-If I had known, then Pyrrha wouldn't be—?"

"That's not her fault, Jaune," I cut in, looking to put that line of thinking to rest before it consumed him. "She didn't _actually_ want to hide it from you. I made her do so. I wanted you to figure it out on your own—really, I wanted you _both_ to figure it out on your own, but she was in a rough place—" _just like you are, actually,_ "—and I tried to help. You shouldn't blame her for this."

"Shouldn't… but can?" Jaune asking, scrutinizing the language there intentionally.

"I mean, you _can_ blame anyone for anything," I answered with a shrug. "I can blame you for the sun setting at night, but that doesn't mean it's your fault."

Jaune gave me a mistrusting look, but he came to accept the logic there eventually. It wasn't exactly true to suggest Yang was blameless here, and it wasn't exactly true to say that I swore her to silence on the matter, but it would only hurt them both if I let him think that. It may be a bit selfish on my part to lie to him just so things in my camp run smoother, but I _am_ letting him blame me instead, I'm sure I won't lose too much sleep over my dishonesty.

"How long…?" Jaune asked after a brief silence that I let hang in the air. I gave him an expectant look, waiting for him to expound upon his question. "How long have you known about…?" he trailed off, gesturing between us once more.

"Years," I answered, taking some pleasure in how shocked he seemed to be by that.

"But… why send me to Beacon then? If you knew this whole time—?"

"Because I went to Beacon," I answered, cutting him off, "and Beacon helped shape me. I'm not _just_ a bandit, and I'm not a Huntress; I'm something in between, and in a category all my own. I thought that years of training you might help you make that category a little less lonely, but you stubbornly refused to acknowledge the influence I'd had on you. I figured maybe the cycle just needed to repeat itself for that to happen. So… Beacon."

"So what, you sent me to Beacon knowing that this would happen?"

"I sent you to Beacon _hoping_ this would happen," I corrected, ignoring the betrayal in his voice that not even he really bought into. "There was still the chance that you might have ended up like Qrow, and if that was the case, then getting you out of the tribe would have been better for both of us."

"Then… why did you threaten me while I was there? Why keep pressuring me?" Jaune asked pointedly. "Why make me help you at the docks, or spy on Ozpin, or attack me after Torchwick, or stab me, or—?"

"Those last two were _your fault_ ," I cut back, somewhat playfully to soften the accusation. " _You_ were the one who got involved with Torchwick and revealed my Semblance to him, and _you_ were the one who _stabbed me first!_ " I let that last part out exasperatedly, really beginning to feel like I had to repeat that point a lot. "As for the other points, maybe I didn't actually think you _would_ turn out like Qrow and I just wanted to keep you involved. Maybe I didn't _want_ you to turn out like Qrow; is that so hard to believe?"

I swear, if this kid makes me say it any more plainly, I may just have to kill him anyways. _Jeez._

Jaune bit his tongue and held whatever he was going to say as the realization came over him. For once, it looked like he finally got it.

"What do we do now?" Jaune asked, avoiding discussing what he had just finally realized.

"I have a tribe to run. You probably haven't heard yet, but the tribe is kinda changing at the moment, and the world seems to be changing too. I have that to deal with," I answered with a sigh, pushing thoughts of any of the many things I needed to do out of my head for a little longer. " _You_ have a decision to make."

Jaune looked up at me, surprise and confusion on his face.

"Let me see your swords."

Confused, Jaune unstrapped Crocea Mors from his hip, holding it out to me. I took it and pulled the blade out, before stabbing it into the ground between us, opposite from where my blade stood. As a garnish, I unfolded the shield and propped it up against the sword. I held my hand out and Jaune took his claymore off his back, offering it out to me.

I did much the same as I had before, expect this one I placed directly next to my sword, so that on one side sat his family heirloom, and on the other sat both of our blades—heirlooms without history. The charcoal color of his blade contrasted with the red of mine, but it still fit well side-by-side. _The way it was designed to_. They complemented one another, not identical, but very clearly meant to go together. One blood red and black, sharp colors that gave off a sense of danger. The other, a more subdued color, more even and relaxed, but still dark and strong. Even their shapes played into this just a little, one being curved and dangerous, the other exuding more of a silent strength to it.

Now, on one hand stood the white and bronze blade from his family, and on the other stood the red and black blades from his tribe. The contrast between them and the choice presented were clear. Subtle? _No, but subtlety is overrated anyhow._

"You need to decide what it is you want now. I'm done forcing you to be here. Now that you know exactly who and what you are, you need to decide for yourself what you're going to do. If you want to leave, to try to be someone else and go back to your friends and Ozpin, do it. Don't look back, and don't expect any mercy should we cross paths again. I don't know if they'll take you back, but this time, I won't stop you.

"Or… you can stay here. Be my right hand. Grow strong, grow rich, learn to love this place like I did. If you stay, then I'll help you figure this mess out as best I can, but that means that you have to let the other stuff go. Either way, you have to cut off whichever path you don't choose."

Jaune stayed silent, his eyes trailing down to the two choices in front of him, occasionally looking up at me to make sure that I wasn't fucking with him. He wasn't sure of really anything at the moment, and while it was tempting to fuck with him here, that would damage things too much. As much as he might suspect otherwise, this was a legitimate choice posed to him. Of course I suspect what he'll pick, and of course I _want_ him to pick me and the tribe, but if he wasn't going to finally commit then it would be best if we established that now. Hell, I could drop him, Yang, and that Fall Maiden off with Qrow and have all of this out of my hair entirely.

It was his choice, but that didn't mean I wouldn't push him to make the right one. That's what a parent _should_ do, right?

"You can either try to become the Jaune you always saw yourself as, or you can stay here and learn who it is you've really been this whole time."

Jaune wavered back and forth, his eyes flicking between one sword and the other ever few seconds as he tried to make sure of this all. His hand started to reach out, but hitched only a few inches away from where it had been resting at his side, before dropping back.

He looked back up into my eyes, trying for all he was worth to look into there and see if he could find anything that would help him find an answer here. I kept my expression neutral, having already laid my cards out. His eyes flicked back to each weapon one last time, before he closed them entirely and took a deep breath to steel his nerves.

He reached out and made his choice.

"Welcome to the family."

* * *

Blake's POV

* * *

"N-No, I… I refuse to believe this!" Nora broke the silence finally. "We all _know_ Jaune! He wouldn't just… do all _that_. A-And Pyrrha! She wouldn't betray Jaune like that! Guys, help me out here…!"

Nora turned her head side to side frantically, looking for support from the rest of us. She was saying what all of us wanted to believe—there wasn't anyone here who didn't want to give Jaune the benefit of the doubt, or didn't owe him in some way, but despite that, no one was rushing to Jaune's defense. We were still digesting Mr. Branwen's full recounting of what had happened with Jaune, Yang, and Pyrrha. That Jaune was a subversive agent for Raven Branwen, that he recruited Yang, that he knew about the attack on Vale and said nothing…

I _wanted_ to jump to Jaune's defense too, but I was biting my tongue for some reason. It didn't completely make sense with what I knew. Jaune told bad lies often, but was shockingly honest if you pushed him to be, and I don't think he was lying about the things he told me. He claimed that he was trying to be free of that woman, that Yang knew that, and that she was helping him willingly. For _both_ of them to end up with her meant that something weird had to have happened, right? It just didn't make sense otherwise.

As far as not stopping the attack on Vale, I… I don't know what to think.

"Jaune…" Ren spoke up tentatively, much to Nora's elation to have someone backing her up, "…spoke often of trying to leave his past behind, in… unspecific terms, of course. As far as I could tell, he seemed genuine about it. Are we sure that he wasn't forced into anything?"

I nodded along enthusiastically with Ren's words. They were exactly what I wanted to say, or maybe what I wanted to hear.

"Got something to add there, _Blake?_ " Qrow called out sharply and accusingly. Apparently, he'd been keeping his eyes on me, and had caught me nodding along to Ren. Calling me out had been a good way to avoid answering the question, too.

I went still and began to wilt under the attention, especially the hard look I was getting from Mr. Branwen. He clearly knew that I was hiding something, and I tried to avert my eyes and wait for someone to take the attention away from me.

" _Blake?_ " Ruby asked, her voice confused and emotional in a way that only Ruby can do. It got to me.

"It doesn't make sense," I mumbled, a bit of courage returning to me as I decided _screw it, what's the worst Qrow could do?_ "Jaune told me about this before, or at least a lot of it. He _hated_ Raven. He said that the first time he showed Yang her mom, that he walked away wounded! I-I don't see how he would willingly go to Raven."

"You knew about this?" Qrow asked, zooming in on the part I feared he would. There was an edge to his voice that was dangerous for me.

"She told us earlier, Qrow," Taiyang cut in on my behalf, cutting his eyes at Qrow. "Back off a little."

Qrow and Taiyang exchanged tense glances, with Qrow glaring at Ruby's dad, who did the same in return. It only lasted a second, and I made sure to give Taiyang an appreciative look afterwards. _For all I care, the man is a saint, his cooking notwithstanding._

Qrow crossed his arms and cut his eyes at me, not bothering to hide his suspicion. "What did you know, exactly?"

"Not a lot about this Raven person. I was a bit more upset that he was working with the White Fang," I admitted somewhat sheepishly. Qrow's eyebrows betrayed his surprise before he cut his eyes over at Taiyang once more. "You… didn't know about the White Fang?"

"So much for investigating Jaune…" Weiss drawled dismissively.

"Hey, we thought the White Fang was small time compared to what Jaune was tangled up in. He was working to make all our intel sources go dark; a few White Fang robberies weren't really on the radar as much."

"How'd that end up for you?" Weiss sniped.

"Hey, I don't need to take any snark from you brats, _and for the record_ , we knew about little miss White Fang heiress," Qrow shot back agitatedly. My ears flattened as I glared at him for the nickname. "Besides, we all worked to stop the White Fang before this all went down—" He cut himself off, eyes flicking back over to me as a new thought came over him, "—he worked for the White Fang when he killed those grunts?"

"N-No, he only worked with them during the White Fang rally we all busted. He stopped working with them after that. Just… not Torchwick."

"Jeez, what sort of background checks do you people even _do_ at Beacon?" Taiyang jabbed, throwing Qrow a look. "You've got an ex-White Fang terrorist— _no offense, Blake_ —and Raven's prodigy who also worked for the White Fang and for Vale's number one most wanted criminal…"

Everyone looked to Qrow for his retort. He shrugged and took a drink from his flask. "Ozpin and Glynda vet the students."

"Can we get back to, uh, Jaune?" Ruby asked nervously.

"Look, I know this isn't easy to digest, but Jaune Arc is not who you all thought he was," Qrow answered. "If he's anything like my sister, he's going to throw your relationship with him in your face if you ever meet him again."

"But are we _sure_ that he wanted this?" I asked again. "It doesn't make any sense! He wouldn't just join her after talking about how much he was trying to get away from her! He had to—" I cut myself off as the realization dawned over me, and I shifted my eyes to give Qrow a suspicious look of my own. "…he had to have felt forced into choosing her…"

"Hey, don't try to blame this on _us_ ," Qrow growled back.

"What, you don't think that getting investigated by you and Ozpin didn't help things?" I asked, looking around the room to gauge reactions. Ren and Nora were slightly nodding along, as was Ruby. Weiss looked…unconvinced, but she was at least willing to hear it out, more so than she had been. "Jaune was trying to get out. He told us that often. He really wasn't shy about telling us that he wasn't exactly a great person, but he _could_ have left if Qrow hadn't interfered!"

"Uh huh, _sure_ ," Qrow drawled back. "He seems to have gotten involved with every single party who is responsible for destroying Vale and killing thousands of people. I'm not exactly sure how we could pressure him into doing that _and_ going back to my bitch sister."

"That—"

"Well, that's just mean."

Before most of us had even registered where the new voice had come from, Qrow had drawn his sword and fired a dust round at it. We followed the shot to the front door, where the red woman who Yang had left with last night was standing—Raven Branwen. She had her blade freshly drawn in front of her, having blocked the bullet with the flat of it.

"What the hell are you doing here!?"

"…booty call?" she asked, playing dumb to get under Qrow's skin further. It was very clearly working, and the smirk on her face told us that she knew it, too. "What do you say, _Ruby_ , feeling up for it?"

Qrow fired another two rounds at her angrily, more to shut her up than anything, as she blocked one and let the other whizz past her lazily.

" _Qrow_ ," Tai snapped, getting the man to calm down enough not to launch himself across the living room. The rest of us sat in our same spots, though a lot more nervous than before, and more than just me were eyeing where their weapons lay against the wall. "At least make her say something clever before getting so worked up."

"What do you want, _Raven?_ " Qrow spit the words out contemptuously.

"You know, it's awfully bold of you to walk into a room full of your enemies, Raven," Tai called out when it became clear that Raven wasn't going to acknowledge Qrow. "You do realize you're a little outnumbered here…"

Raven's eyes lit up with humor as she stared down Taiyang.

" _Cute_. I think I'd take my chances," Raven drawled, her eyes roving over the five of us that weren't full Huntsmen or Huntresses yet. Even with Qrow and Taiyang added in, her reaction showed nothing but contempt and amusement. It left us feeling like, if we did all attack her, maybe things wouldn't turn out so great. "I _was_ coming here to negotiate, but it appears that no one here seems willing to hear me out…"

Taiyang stepped forward, subtly placing himself between Raven and half of us sitting on the couches. Qrow had already moved forwards slightly to somewhat block the other half.

"I think it goes without saying that there won't be _any_ negotiations that don't involve Yang's return," Tai snapped at Raven. I exchanged tense looks with Ruby and Weiss, who were bracing in anticipation of making a dash for their weapons. Nora grumbled something to the effect of _and Jaune_ under her breath, and Ren a decent job of pretending to be relaxed when he was also coiled like a spring.

"Yang is free to leave at any time—"

" _Have fun walking home from across Mistral_ ," Qrow mocked Raven, throwing his voice to mimic her.

"—and all she has to do is ask for a portal, jackass," Raven finished, glaring at Qrow. "Yang is where she chooses to be right now."

"And I'm sure that there was no one interfering with that choice at all," Tai responded with a thinly-veiled accusation.

"Yes, because you wouldn't have sought to influence her at all—"

"She's _my_ daughter, Raven! You _left!_ " Taiyang's voice boomed suddenly, and Raven at least had the decency to wipe the smirk off her face. "Don't try to claim that you have any right to her. You're only taking her in to try to indoctrinate her to be just like you."

"Oh, I'll try, sure," Raven admitted freely, almost taunting them with how easily she copped to it. "It won't matter, though. She's too headstrong to be talked into anything she doesn't believe in. If she ends up strong like me, it's because she always would have."

" _Strong_ ," Taiyang snorted contemptuously at the word. "Sure."

Qrow didn't seem to completely buy into that line either, and had nothing against making sure Raven knew that from the look he gave her. A quick glance to my sides told me that no one here bought it either, though we weren't as certain. Ruby seemed the most confident in her older sister, but even she had a slightly distant look in her eyes as she worried over it. I was no better; after all, Yang already did choose to go with Raven once…

"I'm not here to negotiate with you, Tai," Raven let out in the silence that followed, changing the subject back where it started.

Raven shifted to look at Qrow, who took exception to that. " _Fuck you._ "

"I'm not really into the whole twincest thing," Raven shrugged, cutting her eyes coyly at Qrow at the very end. "Really, I'm here to negotiate with Beacon, and I assume that Goodwitch has taken over what's left of the school's duties. I just don't have a portal to her, so you'll have to do."

"How'd you portal here?" Qrow asked pointedly. "I didn't see one. Don't tell me you have a portal to another one of these brats…"

"No," Raven answered, amused by the suggestion. "I have one to the cliffs outside."

Qrow looked confused at that, as did the rest of us now that we had been told about her Semblance.

"Summer's grave," Taiyang filled in for us softly. My eyes flicked over to Ruby, who was somewhat taken back by the answer. Even Raven's expression turned slightly somber. "Why would you want to help Beacon _now?_ "

"I'm not here to help out of the goodness of my heart, much to the surprise of everyone gathered, I know. I'm here to strike a deal with Beacon that's mutually beneficial, if such an accord can be arranged," Raven answered, speaking deliberately and carefully, almost mocking us by how precise she was answering. "As for why I'm here now, well…" her eyes trailed over to the wall where our weapons sat, singling out Ozpin's cane, "…let's just say it's a lot easier to negotiate from a position of power."

"What do you want?" Qrow growled lowly, Raven's point having been made clear to him.

"You see, I have a particular item in my possession—you know the one I'm referring to; they say it's always just around the corner?"

"The Spring Maiden," Qrow confirmed, an edge still to his voice that made it clear that he was not enjoying having to actually negotiate with Raven. Her eyes widened a bit, more out of surprise than anything, and they flicked past Qrow and Taiyang to where the five of us were sitting. "They've been filled in. What's your point?"

"There are diametrically-opposed parties in this world hunting for the Spring Maiden. One of them, I suspect, is also hunting me for personal reasons, or is about to start to." Raven gave Taiyang and Qrow a suspicious glare. They didn't bother denying it. "If they ask nicely and promise _not_ to waste their time looking for me, I'd be willing to make some commitments regarding the Spring Maiden."

"You'd turn her over?"

" _Hell_ no," Raven barked out, almost laughing in Taiyang's face. "I'd commit her as an ally for you, though. Guarantee that she _doesn't_ end up on the other side, and maybe loan her out to you on special occasions. I hear she likes a good fight every now and then."

"That's it?" Qrow asked aggressively. "After all the shit you just pulled at Beacon, after taking Yang away, you think _that_ is enough to make up for anything?"

Raven shrugged nonchalantly, and it set Qrow off.

"You get the hell out of here with your bullshit, Raven!" Qrow growled, taking a step forward aggressively. "Your days are numbered. You crossed a line when you took Yang, one that I didn't think even _you_ would stoop to. If you think you can hide behind your tribe and your Spring Maiden, then you don't realize what's coming for you."

"I see," Raven answered curtly, expression unreadable until a small, victorious smirk spread across her face. "And what are you going to do about my _second_ Maiden?"

Her words took the wind out of Qrow's sails, and he stopped in his tracks as he looked at her in confusion.

"So you _do_ have Fall?"

"Not by my design, actually; put's me on Salem's radar more than I'd like," Raven answered dismissively. "But yes, I have Nikos."

"Pyrrha?" Ruby called out, perking up at the name. Nora and Ren did the same, but only Ruby stood to walk towards Raven enough to catch her focus. "Is she okay?"

Raven didn't answer immediately, instead taking time to examine Ruby.

"Yes and no," Raven answered finally. "She's… recovering, for now, but she was at death's door when I found her."

"What happened?"

"It's not my place to say," Raven dodged the question. "Only four people really know what happened in that Vault. Two are dead—though one won't be for long—and the other two are at my tribe. One of them is too mopey to give anyone a straight answer, and Pyrrha herself is having… a crisis of identity."

"What did you do to her?" Qrow cut in aggressively, not very subtly taking a step towards Ruby to make sure he could get between those two should something happen.

"Why must you insist that _I_ have been doing things this whole time?" Raven drawled. Finding no belief from Qrow, she turned to Ruby instead. "In this case, it _wasn't_ me. Your friend had been experimented on by Ozpin. It's possible she could recover, but there's hardly anything left of her mind…"

"W-What?"

"Raven." Taiyang's voice was stern enough to get his point across, and Raven turned away from Ruby and back to him. Ruby didn't sit back down, but also wasn't disappointed not to be the center of attention right now. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that Ozpin's games effectively cost Pyrrha Nikos her life," Raven answered back firmly. A shocked silence fell over the five of us as the words sank in. Nora particularly had a blank look in her eyes. "Though, they did somewhat preserve Amber's…"

" _Amber?_ " Qrow let out surprised.

"More or less. The situation's still developing."

"And you think that _Amber_ is going to willing work for you?"

"Maybe, maybe not. But she'll be safe with me while she recovers, and she's probably not going to feel too warm towards Ozpin…" Raven trailed off, cutting her eyes at Qrow. She flicked them over towards us, checking to see how we were taking the news about Pyrrha. We… weren't taking it well. "If you're not feeling very negotiable, then I think I'm done here."

With a shrug, Raven turned around and walked out onto the porch, where she cut open a portal with her sword.

"Raven—!"

"If you're still thinking of coming after me, bring the kids with you," Raven called back tauntingly, a shit-eating smirk on her face. "Maybe we can arrange a play-date."

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

I could feel that someone was climbing up the ladder of this lookout platform, softly shaking the wood with each step. I had a pretty good idea who it was. Most of the Tribe's members were still defending towns right now, with Raven having recently checked in on them all once it had gotten dark out. Those who weren't gone were gathered down in the center of the camp, where Raven was giving a speech to those gathered. As it went on, it seemed less like a speech and more like a ritual, or a rite of passage; that Jaune was waiting off to the side of it worried me.

"Yang?" Pyrrha— _Amber_ , I kept having to remind myself—called out as her head poked over the edge of the platform. "Do you mind if I…?"

"Not at all," I answered. "Come on up."

She did so, standing up on the platform and walking over to lean against the railing next to me. We watched over the ceremony down below for a few moments in silence.

"Something on your mind?"

"No," Amber answered, lying badly but not really caring to hide it. I didn't feel like trying to talk for both of us, so we continued to watch in silence.

" _The world's changing. Power is shifting. It's there for the taking!"_ Raven's voice carried over the ten or so members of her tribe that were still left in this main camp for the night. Her words were practically music to their ears, an ability I very quickly noticed Raven seemed proficient at. She _liked_ being the one in control, whispering sweet nothings into the ears of her soldiers to persuade them. There was power in it. _"And I intend to take. I intend to take until I'm so rich and powerful that no one will ever dream of telling me what I can or can't do again. And I intend to take until all of us can say that."_

I wasn't sure if she was being honest to them or not, and I don't know which I would dislike more. She had told me that she was changing the Tribe so that Jaune and I would fit better in it, so that we wouldn't feel like we were doing horrible things every day. That's why she was investing so much into her new protection schemes, not because it was an untapped well of money and power. If it had been that before, she would have already taken it. Of course, she hadn't known that Vale would be destroyed and that a new market of people desperate for protection would open up, but it all worked out a little too conveniently. She was able to keep her promise to me _and_ can promise power and wealth to her men. _Maybe that's just a sign of how good she really is at all this; it still leaves me feeling uneasy, though._

"I take it that you're not in it for all that?" Amber asked from my side with a gesture towards Raven, breaking me from my thoughts.

"No, not really," I answered with a low voice. "How'd you know?"

"Your face," she answered lightly. "You didn't seem to enjoy her speech so much."

"Yeah, well… you're not wrong. I'm here for something else."

"Mind if I ask what?"

" _But there is more to be taken than we can carry. If we want it all, then we have to expand. To change. To evolve. Just being a tribe is not going to be enough for all the riches we're going to win; we're going to have to be bigger than a tribe."_ The crowd quieted down a little, more out of intrigue than anything. _"We're going to need new members. Stronger members. We already have no rivals in the area, but I'm thinking no rivals in all of Mistral. Maybe even further! So tonight, we start off that expansion by welcoming back one of our own. Jaune, step forward…"_

"Oh. I see," Amber mumbled in response to her own question. I could only assume that my face soured when Raven called Jaune forward enough to make the answer obvious to her.

"Not just that, though… yeah," I responded, keeping my eyes on Jaune for now. "I'm here because… maybe I belong here. I'm not sure about that, yet. I'm sure that if I wanted to, I could fit right in here; I'm wild enough to be right at home. Raven said that the tribe isn't going to be a bunch of criminals so much as it's going to be a bunch of soldiers for hire. That might suit me well, but I just don't know yet."

"You sound skeptical," Amber pointed out, though not in any sort of accusatory way, "yet you're still here."

"Yeah, well…" I flicked my eyes towards her and caught hers for a moment, before looking back down below, "…just because it was the best possible outcome doesn't mean it's a _good_ outcome. Does that make sense?"

"Yes," Amber replied somberly, dropping her head down, "it certainly does."

" _Jaune Arc. While you certainly aren't new to us, you've never really been all that committed. Perhaps it's fitting, then, that your commitment should commence a new era for us. You've demonstrated that you're strong, but not strong enough on your own. We'll have to change that. Kneel."_

"Sorry," I mumbled, averting my eyes. "I forgot about…"

"It's okay. It's like you said: I got the best possible outcome, but that doesn't make it any less shitty."

I cut my eyes at Amber at that, mostly because the words sounded funny coming from Pyrrha's voice. We hadn't figured out much about exactly how much of the girl next to me is Pyrrha and how much is Amber, but there were occasional moments like that where you could clearly tell that the personality wasn't Pyrrha's. It was strange, in a refreshing but startling sort of way.

"It _does_ have the opportunity to get a lot better in the coming days," I added on, feeling like at least one of us needed to not act so depressed and mopey. Dust knows that we don't need _another_ mopey seventeen-year-old running around. "If I can get Jaune to talk about it what happened and get over it, then things wouldn't suck all that much."

"Maybe sucking would make him feel better faster," Amber said coyly, giving me a cheeky glance from the side. _Forget what I just said,_ that _is something I never would have heard from Pyrrha._ I turned to give her a flat look, and she nodded with her head back towards Jaune, who had complied with Raven's most recent command. "Just saying that maybe _he_ shouldn't be the one on his knees, if you get what I mean…"

"No, I got what you mean," I grumbled, giving her a healthy amount of side-eye and hoping that the low light would obscure the way my cheeks had slightly heated up.

A few seconds later, Amber burst out in a few soft laughs. "Sorry, I couldn't help myself. It's just that it's hard for me to separate out which parts of me are me and which parts are Pyrrha. Whenever you react like that, I _know_ that it's not Pyrrha."

"You're fine," I brushed it off. It wouldn't really bother me either way, but I definitely didn't want to rob her of her identity, not if I could help it. "I just wasn't expecting it. Pyrrha _certainly_ wasn't like that…"

"I'm thinking that I should expand on those urges then. Maybe doing things that Amber would do and Pyrrha wouldn't do will help me remember who I was…"

"It's a good place to start…" I added on idly. The idea that I was helping her _not_ be Pyrrha felt weird to me, like I was giving up on my friend, but it felt just as wrong for me to wish for Amber to be dead so that Pyrrha could come back. She was her own person, and she didn't ask for any of this any more than Pyrrha did. In this situation, there wasn't even a 'best' option; all of them were equally as shitty.

Amber trailed off, thinking over what those urges might be, if the low humming she was making was any indication. I tried to focus on the events down below, but I felt her eyes on me once or twice.

"So, would you be down for a threesome?"

" _With Jaune?_ " I let out in surprise, before realizing that Amber was looking at me expectantly. "No! After everything that's happened recently, do you think _that_ is a good idea?" I asked, gesturing up and down to Amber's body as if to remind her she was still wearing Pyrrha's body, which would complicate things. Not to mention the fact that in a threesome, Pyrrha may be one of the few girls that could challenge me to be the main focus _._ _Stupid exotic red-hair, green-eyes combo and stupid Amazonian body with legs long enough to land an airplane on…_

"Yeah, you're right…" Amber replied quietly, eyes trailing down. I looked at her funny for a few more moments before returning to focus on the tribe once more. My focus was broken a few moments later, as Amber slowly floated over behind me, using her height to feel like she was towering over me from behind. Her arms suddenly snaked around my waist and I froze—out of sheer shock and confusion, thank you—as she rested her chin on my shoulder, lips whispering into my ear sensually. "What about just us two, then? I'll even let you be top…"

"What the _fuck?_ " I let out as I shook myself free of Amber's grip, a shiver running down my spine from where her breath had tickled my neck. I turned around with a confused expression and eyes red, not sure if I was ready to beat Amber back or jump from the platform and flee.

Amber was laughing at my expense, thoroughly enjoying making me react so hard. I felt heat creep into my cheeks again, and I told myself that it was from being made fun of.

"Okay, one: _not funny,_ " I growled, though Amber clearly disagreed. "Two: nobody just ' _lets'_ Yang Xiao Long be a top. And three: you are _never_ allowed to bring this up with Jaune. Got it?!"

"Why? Afraid he'll wanna watch?"

" _Never,_ " I repeated, ignoring her taunt. " _Got. it?_ "

"Fine."

With a huff, I turned back to the events unfolding below, now finally able to focus for once. We had missed a few things—Raven had Jaune's claymore now, and was swinging it around to test it while Jaune stayed on his knees with his head bowed.

" _All of this isn't enough, though. You wanted to leave us. You tried to betray us. It's nice that you've come to your senses, but the traitor Jaune Arc doesn't deserve to be welcomed back. I say he deserves death. What say you all?"_ The crowd, although not sure where this was going, did love the sound of death or bloodshed. They were behind it the whole way. Jaune kept his head bowed, never looking up.

Raven brought Jaune's sword down suddenly, making the crowd flinch as she implanted it into the ground, just off to the side of where Jaune knelt.

" _What say you, Jaune?"_

"… _I agree…"_ he answered, barely audible all the way up here. His words were solemn, but they didn't sound forced.

" _Then let it be known that Jaune Arc is dead!"_ Raven called out to the crowd. _"If anyone has anything to hold against him, they can take it up with me. As for you,"_ Raven turned back to Jaune, _"We have a gift for you: a name. One that is not bestowed often._

" _Jaune… Branwen."_

I felt Amber's eyes on me again, but any brevity or lightheartedness that had existed between us was gone now. My face remained remarkably straight, though I'm sure my disdain for Raven's stunt shone through my eyes. The fact that I gripped the rail hard enough to make the wood pop did not help.

"I take it she didn't run that by you ahead of time," Amber noted cautiously.

"Nope." My eye twitched just a bit.

Jaune didn't seem to accept the name immediately, which gave me a spark of hope that went out when he did eventually accept it. He was slow to stand up and reclaim his sword, but I was too far away to see his expression. Hopefully, he is equally as un-thrilled with this as I am, but if not…

"That's going to be awkward, what with your boyfriend having your mom's name and all…" Amber mused. I could tell that she was trying to lighten the mood, but it really was not helping things right now.

"I am _not_ going to call him that," I growled back, keeping my eyes locked on Jaune and Raven.

"What are you going to do, then?"

"What I have to," I answered to myself as much to Amber, "to keep him from losing himself. To keep me from losing him."

"Raven doesn't strike me as the kind of person to make that easy," Amber pointed out, dancing around the point she wanted to make. "Especially not if you're directly competing with her."

"If she wants to get between us, then to hell with her," I answered angrily. "I didn't leave everyone I knew behind just to have her rip him away from me."

I could feel Amber's eyes boring into me from the side, and when I finally looked over at her, she was looking at me in contemplation. Something about her seemed reserved, like she was trying to figure out what it was she was looking at, and what she thought of it.

A small, reserved smile worked its way across her face as she decided what that was.

"Anything I can do to help?"

"What would you get out of it?" I asked back, not feeling too trusting at the moment.

"Honestly? Just a friend," Amber answered in a soft voice. My anger couldn't sustain itself, especially when it wasn't aimed at or meant for Amber, and I sobered up quickly. "I _hate_ feeling like a parasite who stole someone else's body. Every time I trigger one of her memories, it gets harder to distinguish between Pyrrha and me, and that… it's awful. I just need someone who knew what Pyrrha was like so that I can figure out what parts are me and what parts aren't. Jaune… I know it hasn't even been a full day, but Jaune is avoiding me—and I don't blame him for that. Maybe that's for the best, given that… _yeah._ " Amber's eyes got stuck as she stared at the wooden railing, lost in thought, or maybe reliving a memory that wasn't hers. When she came out of it, she shook the memory loose and distracted herself by summoning a small flame in her hand. "If you'll help me, I'll help you. Raven doesn't ever need to know."

"Can I ask what your plans are?" I asked, making sure to find that out before I agreed to anything. "I'm sure you realize that you can't be 'recovering' for forever."

"I don't know what I'll do," Amber admitted freely. "I don't really know much about who _I_ am, other than bits that I've been told. Maybe I'll go off searching for those answers, but honestly, I've got too big of a target on my back to wander around trying to find myself. If Raven offers me a job, I might do that for a while, at least until I get my feet under me." She cut her eyes at me coyly, giving me a smirk. "Maybe I'll require you being my bodyguard as one of my terms. I've always wanted to sleep with a bodyguard watching from over me."

"That—"

"Or _under_ me."

"Are you trying to talk me _out_ of agreeing?" I cut back sarcastically. "Jeez, my life's about to get a whole lot weirder, isn't it?"

"Probably," Amber agreed shamelessly. "What do you say? Quid pro quo?"

Amber held her hand out expectantly for me to shake.

"You don't have to make a deal with me for me to be a friend, you know," I admonished without any real effort put into it. Amber shrugged it off carelessly, and with a roll of my eyes, I shook her hand. "Fine, it's a deal. Do you want friendship bracelets to commemorate it or something?" I drawled sarcastically.

"Depends," Amber answered with a smug look that I already didn't like. "How do you feel about handcuffs?"

" _No friendship bracelets, then._ "

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: I'm tired and this chapter is already late, so fuck the closing thoughts. lmao**

 **Amber might be too much fun for me moving forwards, though. _Oh, the omakes I can make now..._**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by an impatient guest account

"No new chap this week :("

 **Bitch, you thought.**

* * *

 **Omake**

"I have things I need to do. You probably haven't heard yet, but the tribe is kinda changing at the moment, and the world seems to be changing too. I have that to deal with, and quite frankly, I need to start adding to the tribe's numbers," I answered with a sigh, pushing thoughts of any of the many things I needed to do out of my head for a little longer. "You need to decide what you're going to do now."

Jaune looked up at me, surprise and confusion on his face.

"Let me see your sword."

Confused, Jaune resigned himself to his fate with a shrug, and began to drop trow.

"Wait, that-" I cut myself off, deciding to see just where this was going. After all, it's not every day you get to one-up Summer Rose...


	59. One Lazy Timeskip Later

**Author's Note: Well, here I am. It is hard to believe it has been a whole two weeks since anything has been uploaded for this story. It's too bad that there was _nothing_ uploaded last week. Nope. Nothing at all.**

 **I did actually write a one-shot last week that I published, more because it scratched that creative itch for me. Actually it is more accurate to say that it _was_ the creative itch and it drove me crazy, so I had to write it to get it out of my head. It's up on my account and it is 8k words about Emerald, so shameless plug is shameless.**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **That's the Discord link. Anyways, on with the time-skip!**

* * *

 **Chapter 56:** _"A threesome? Why would I want to disappoint_ two _girls at once?" – Taiyang Xiao Long, moments before discovering his hidden talents_

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

Amber charged into me shield first, trying to topple me over and grapple me to score an easy win. I was shorter and had better curves, which was both a point of pride and is to say that I have more mass lower than Pyrrha's body has. I held my ground behind my shield and Amber bounced off of it, staggering backwards from the force of the impact. I jabbed out with my sword underneath the curve of my shield, keeping myself safe and sticking the pointy end right at Amber's chest.

The annoying thing about fighting Amber is she would occasionally have flashes where Pyrrha's muscle-memory would take over, and in those moments I would go from feeling good about the fight to realizing just how far I had to go before I could even call myself 'good' with a sword.

This was one of those moments. While on her back foot, Amber's blade flicked down and intercepted my stab, forcing my blade to the side as her own trailed up it towards my hand. I brought the edge of shield down against my sword to stop her blade from traveling up far enough to reach me, and Amber stepped in to hit me in the side of the head with her shield, now that mine had been lowered.

"Grrrrr _aaaahh!_ " I let out angrily, letting my eyes turn red and releasing whatever little energy I had built up in my Semblance. It was hardly anything from just one blow, but I threw the sword to the ground in anger and charged forwards, throwing my fist at Amber's face. My Semblance was fueled more by frustration than any damage I had absorbed, meaning it was mostly for show.

" _Yang!_ " Jaune's voice yelled out, admonishing me. I pulled up before I hit Amber, and fixed Jaune with a glare that could have been confused for a pout. "How are you supposed to practice swordplay if you keep throwing away the sword?"

Amber had the gall to smirk at me, knowing that there wasn't much I could do to retaliate. Without Jaune around, it wasn't safe to attack her to retaliate, and _with_ Jaune around I wasn't allowed to attack her with my gauntlets. Attacking her with the sword wasn't working.

I grumbled some choice words directed at Jaune under my breath, making a show of _not_ picking up his stupid sword as I walked back over from Amber.

"What was that?" he called out, picking up on my mood and challenging it outright.

" _I said_ that when I asked you to teach me to use a sword, I envisioned less actual swordplay and more of us sneaking off into the woods alone to 'train,'" I huffed back at Jaune angrily.

"I'm with Yang on this one," Amber chimed with a grin. "That sounds better than this. Can we go do that instead?"

" _No_ ," Jaune and I answered simultaneously, although I answered angrily and he just sounded tired.

"Come on, you'll kill me but you won't have the decency to let me in on a little action?" Amber asked, doing a remarkable job of keeping a straight face as she stared down Jaune. He wilted under the pressure fast, as he normally did when Amber brought up anything about her… predicament, and how it came to get that way. Having spent about a month now as Amber's only real confidant, I can say that the three biggest differences between her and Pyrrha are a darker sense of humor (though that _could_ be from the rough situation she's in), a _very_ wild (read: unpredictable) sex drive, and a talent for getting under your skin. When she combined all three against you, it made you want to pull your hair out, and suddenly her previous life as a Maiden that wandered the outskirts of Vale alone made more sense. That didn't mean she got a free pass from me, though.

"If it helps, I can arrange for you to be killed again," I grumbled at Amber, much to Jaune's horror.

The bitch laughed in my face.

"By who, _you?_ " Amber taunted with a crooked grin. "You can't even touch me with that sword."

"Then I won't use a sword," I retorted, unfolding my gauntlets to make a point.

Amber's eyes narrowed slightly as she took in my threat, though she didn't seem to take it too seriously.

"Neither will I," she responded, with flames encircling her eyes. We glared each other down for a few moments, neither of us willing to be the one to back down, though I had a feeling that Amber would do so if it meant she could take a parting shot at me.

"Alright, this is not the smartest thing I've ever done—" Jaune called out, stepping directly between the two of us, "—but I'm gonna put a stop to this right here. This is supposed to be swordplay practice, not… simulated cat-fight murder."

"It's not murder if she agrees to the duel," I grumbled. Jaune shot me a look that told me I wasn't being helpful—which I wasn't; that was the point. I did raise my hands to show that I was giving it up, folding my gauntlets back into bracelets. "Can we be done for today? I just… don't think that we're getting anywhere with this."

"She's just upset that she keeps losing," Amber added in unhelpfully.

"I'm upset because of a lot of things," I shot back at Amber. She _knows_ what I'm trying to do, and even agreed to help, which means she's just dragging this out because it's fun for her. Honestly, it's not that far off from how Jaune and I used to get along. I would be concerned about Jaune and her developing something similar if Jaune wasn't absolutely terrified of setting me off and if he didn't feel guilty for… well, everything about Pyrrha. "Getting embarrassed in a fight because you have some magical reflexes that only come out _when I'm winning_ doesn't help, though."

"Hey, for only a month of training, you're doing really well," Jaune cut in, giving me a nervous look. He couldn't tell if I was joking anymore and was being sincere just in case it actually bothered me, which was a sweet gesture. I found myself disarmed from my little faux-outrage because I felt bad that I had made Jaune wonder if I was actually upset. I didn't _actually_ need the gesture to calm down, but… it didn't hurt. "You can already take on Grimm without wasting any of the dust for your gauntlets, which is the important part. It would be crazy to expect you fight other Huntresses after barely a month."

Jaune walked over to hand me back my sword. He froze for just a few seconds as he picked up the separate sword and shield of Crocea Mors, staring down at the weapon. It only lasted for maybe a second, but it reminded me of the whole reason for these training sessions. It wasn't really a joke to say that I wanted them to just be him and me training alone, but the purpose wasn't to just get him alone in the woods. I could—and often do—get that at any time. This was more important. I wanted to show him that I remembered who he really was by taking up his own blade, if he wouldn't take it up himself. I wanted to get him away from Raven so that I could remind him that he didn't have to give in to what she wanted from him, to help him try to figure out how to balance things. Ever since Raven pulled that stunt by giving him the Tribe's title to use as a name— _I refuse to accept that he actually wants to be named after Raven_ —I've wanted to make sure that whatever damage Raven was doing to Jaune, that I was counteracting it. Getting him alone, showing him that I _want_ him to be Jaune Arc by taking up his weapon, reassuring to him that he didn't _have_ to follow Raven's footsteps… those were the reasons I wanted to learn swordplay.

 _And if Jaune and I did find ourselves alone in the woods with a bunch of energy to work off, well, that would just be a tragedy, wouldn't it?_

"I'll be honest, I thought that was a pretty lame line there, Jaune," Amber called out, walking up next to Jaune and making a point of turning to look at me. She gave me a smirk that made me uneasy about where this was going. "But it seems to have worked pretty well on _someone_ …"

It only took me a moment to realize that my cheeks were a bit warm. I shot Amber a flat glare, but didn't have any comeback. I sure as hell wasn't going to tell her that she had caught me thinking about blowing my boyfriend while playing with his sword—I mean, while he taught me how to use a sword and while I used his— _fuck it, it makes sense no matter which way you mean it._

"Right, well, are we done?" I asked impatiently, looking to Jaune and giving him a look that told him that we had _better_ be done.

"Uh…"

"Dude, just say yes. You're about to get laid."

"No he's not," I cut back at Amber. Believe it or not, I had other things I wanted to do, though none of them were important enough that they couldn't be put off for that. I just didn't want to practice stupid sword fighting anymore.

"Oh, trust me, _he is_ ," Amber responded, shooting Jaune bedroom eyes. Wisely, Jaune did not say anything to this, but probably because he seemed to be struggling to formulate any words at all. It felt like I was going to dislocate my jaw from how hard I was jutting it out to give Amber a _back the fuck off, bitch_ look. It must have been what Amber was looking for, because she burst out into laughter and backed down almost as soon as she saw my reaction.

"A-Actually, I think we should still train. It doesn't have to be swordplay. If you have something in mind, I'm open to suggestions," Jaune jumped back in after Amber had backed off, eager to return the subject to something safer that I _wouldn't_ end up killing him over if he said the wrong thing. His eyes did trail over me nervously, though. "I think that we have too much… energy built up right now. It might not be safe to go back into the camp without burning that off."

I picked up on Jaune's actual meaning there, and could not believe that he actually thought I was angry enough to go pick a fight with someone. I made sure to give him a look that said exactly that, and he cringed slightly as he recognized the error of his ways.

"You do seem pretty wound up, Yang," Amber called out, distracting me from plotting how Jaune would be paying for his comment. Her voice was… honest, actually, and she didn't seem to be messing around anymore, which was a welcome change. "I know how to fix that, though."

Something about the giddy way Amber said that last line gave it away and broke the illusion.

"If you say the word _threesome_ , I swear to god—"

Amber caught herself just before she was about to speak, the words she was about to say seemingly dying in her throat as I glared at her. "…foursome?"

"…who would the fourth person be?" Jaune asked confused.

"You're not actually taking this _seriously_ , are you?"

"N-No, I—" Jaune cut himself off, either from the edge to my voice or the glare I shot him. He was smart enough to realize that his next words needed to be chosen very carefully. "Normally, I find it hard to believe that someone as hot as you would want to sleep with me. I'm struggling to wrap my head around the idea that _three_ such people would even be willing…"

… _fine, he lives. That was a good answer._

Jaune smirked softly to show me that he knew it too, and I decided that if I was going to let him keep his life, he could keep that little smirk as well. For now.

"Who said the fourth person would be a girl?"

Jaune opened his mouth to say something, but closed it as he gave Amber a weird look. He looked like he was coming to grips with that and opened his mouth to speak again, but Amber beat him to it.

"I'm messing with you. I'd say Vernal would be the most likely to agree to a foursome after the other night. I could ask if you two are down~~"

Again, the words died in Jaune's throat, sending him through a whole array of weird and confused looks.

"…the other night?" Jaune asked weakly and confusedly.

" _Vernal?_ " I asked skeptically, talking over Jaune. "What makes you think that she'd agree to anything involving Jaune? They grew up together!"

"What, is that weird or something?" Amber asked, a predatory grin starting to spread on her face. "He's like your brother or something now, and _you_ still fuck him…"

"Oh, here we go again…"

"He's _not_ my brother!" I burst out. "Just because he accepted the stupid _title_ of the Tribe's name doesn't make him Raven's— _Jaune_ , tell her!"

"Tell her what?" Jaune asked, scared to death that I was going to direct my outburst at him. _As he should be, for putting us all into this mess in the first place by going through with that stupid ceremony._

"Tell her that the Tribe gives that name out to its members, which means you _didn't_ get adopted by my mother!" I cut back at him.

"Oh, uh, _yeah._ The Branwen Tribe gives awards that name on a rare occasion to those who are permanently members. Raven and Qrow didn't even have last names before they got it. It's more like a brotherhood thing…"

"Thank you!" I let out, exasperated.

"…which puts Raven and I sort of on equal footing, which would make me Yang's…uncle?" Jaune turned to me with a cringed face that matched my own. Neither of us really liked that analogy either.

"So you went from fucking your step-brother to getting diddled by your uncle," Amber summarized, almost not even believing the incredible material she was just gifted with. "Yang, you're like… the personification of pornos."

"With her body, I could see it," Jaune mumbled. I turned to Jaune slack-jawed, shocked that he would ever risk the future of his sex life for a comment as dumb as that.

"Yang, as the matron saint of porn, are you _certain_ you don't want a threesome?"

"Matron saint of…?" A new voice, Raven's, called out from behind me as it walked up to us. "Should I even ask what I just walked into?"

"It's really safer for us all if you didn't," Jaune answered back nervously, shooting Amber a glare to tell her to settle down. He didn't need to, as Amber always brought her guard up around Raven. She wasn't the only one, not since Raven pulled that stunt trying to get Jaune to give up his own name. In an ironic twist, Jaune was now the one willing to hear Raven out, and I'm now the one suspicious of everything she says or does.

"Apparently, the ghost that possessed Pyrrha is a whore," I grumbled. Despite stiffening now that Raven was here, Amber still flinched at my insult, and I would have felt bad about bringing up Pyrrha like that if Amber didn't totally deserve it right now.

"We were just sparring to see how much muscle memory Amber has access to," Jaune cut in, bringing us back on topic. "Yang and Amber get a little carried away sometimes."

"Is that safe?" Raven asked, zoning in on the sparring and ignoring everything else.

"Uh…mostly," Jaune answered with a shrug. "I stay connected with Amber the whole time and make sure she doesn't block anything without my Semblance. As long as I overclock it, her Aura remains unaffected."

"I see." Raven shifted her eyes to Amber, watching the girl for a few moments while lost in thought. Raven's eyes cut towards me once, before she looked back to Jaune hesitantly. "Is it safe to leave those two alone with each other? I need to speak with you."

I reacted to that with a funny look, not exactly sure how to take the implication there. Was Raven worried that I was going to be stupid enough to actually hurt Amber over our little verbal spars? Or worse, did she mean that if Amber and I were left alone with no one around, I'd actually end up agreeing to Amber's advances? The fact that I couldn't rule that out as what Raven meant was insulting, honestly. Putting aside that I _have a boyfriend standing right there_ , I know that Amber only does it to rile me up—even if I'm pretty sure she'd be serious about it if she thought I was _actually_ receptive to it. Amber and I just try to rile each other up and/or one-up each other. It's just like—

 _It's just like how Jaune and I were for a while, right before getting each other alone at Neo's apartment…_ It's… not _exactly_ the same, but suddenly the knowing smirk Raven wore around us took on a whole new meaning. Was Raven just watching to see how long until something happened? Maybe I underestimated how badly Amber actually wants that threesome…?

"… _well?_ " Jaune asked me, agitated that he had to ask twice. Or I assume from the way he said it that he was asking something twice. His voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and I missed whatever came before.

"Huh?"

"Forget it," Jaune grumbled, rolling his eyes and turning back to Raven. "Yang's not stupid. She won't lose her cool just because Amber knows how to push her buttons. _Right_ , Yang?"

"Uh…right."

Jaune gave me a flat glare for not being exactly helpful in proving his point, but other than that, turned to Raven. With a dismissive shake of her head, Raven turned away from Amber and me.

"Walk with me, Jaune."

Jaune looked back at me before leaving, shrugging to signal that he didn't know what this was about. I gave him a quick shrug in return, then a quick wink, just to send him off well.

"You two are adorable," Amber drawled teasingly as Jaune turned and followed after Raven. "He's like a puppy sometimes. Totally wrapped around your finger."

My eyes lingered for a few seconds on Jaune and, more importantly, who he was following away from us.

"Not as much as I'd like."

"Yeah, well," Amber's voice dropped down a little, no doubt picking up on my meaning, "never said you were the only one trying to train him. The problem with puppies is when you have two people trying to teach them the same trick."

"…really? _That_ is the great problem with puppies?" I asked mockingly, cutting my eyes at Amber coyly.

She shrugged. "Hey, the shoe fits. You try coming up with a better puppy analogy on the fly."

"When did you start speaking in riddles? Is that one of the new things you're trying out?" I asked teasingly. "I can't believe I'm saying this but I think I prefer the other Amber."

"Oh, you mean the ghost-whore who stole the body of your dead friend?" Amber asked back, a bit of an edge to her voice as she gave me a stern but flat look. I had the decency to cringe and avert my eyes down to the dirt.

"Yeah, that… that was not the best thing I've ever said, was it?" Amber's expression only got flatter. "Sorry about that one."

With some effort, Amber shrugged it off by rolling her eyes.

"Don't be. It was low, but it wasn't that far off… You do have a pretty detailed list of my conquests, after all…"

"Ugh, don't remind me," I groaned. The downside to being Amber's confidant—not to mention being tasked by Raven to keep her safe, almost like a body guard—was that it put me in the position of a hybrid wingwoman and security check. Thank the gods I didn't need to vet anyone Amber was thinking about flirting with from the Tribe, not that there were that many who caught her eye. Going to the villages were my nightmare, though. I swear Amber is only expanding the notches in her bedpost just to make me have to try to keep her safe while she's out of the camp. "By the way, if you _ever_ meet anyone from Beacon who knew Pyrrha, you're not allowed to mention _any_ of what you've been doing in—"

"What I've been doing in her body?" Amber asked flatly. I cringed, regretting the poor choice of words, which gave her a great opportunity to make it worse. "Or who I've been doing in her body?"

"…I really do hate you. You know that, right?"

"Wait, wait, I have a better one…" Amber cut in with a laugh, ignoring me entirely, " _or what other's have been doing in her body?_ "

"Your puns need work," I admonished flatly.

"I hear you're pretty good with puns. Maybe if we hooked up, it would rub off on me…" Amber said with a grin, giving me a smirk.

"Your pickup lines need work too, apparently."

"Hey, I've been batting a thousand on everyone except for you or Jaune. I'd say my pickup lines are working great!"

I gave her a flat frown and made a show of looking her up and down.

"Yes, I'm sure it's your pickup lines that are doing it, not the fact that if you spread your legs you'd have a line of willing participants stretching all the way to Vacuo," I drawled. " _And don't get any ideas_. There is no way I can vet that many people. The last thing we need is to lose the Fall Maiden because she tried to fuck her assassins."

"Okay, Yang, I was kidding about being a whore. You don't actually think I'd do _that_ , do you?"

I shrugged. "Hey, the shoe fits."

Amber's eyes narrowed at me. "Just remember that I'll get you back for this."

"As long as you don't _actually_ hook up with Jaune behind my back, knock yourself out," I responded. I was getting a sneaking suspicion that I might regret endorsing whatever she was planning, but I really didn't want to push my luck after bringing up Pyrrha the way I did earlier. She might have downplayed it, but it was still a shitty thing to bring up. I didn't want to push her and make her actually get mad at me for that.

A lull fell in the conversation. Amber stared off in the direction that Jaune and Raven had walked, which was back towards the settlement—or fort, or camp, or whatever you wanted to call it. _City that was conveniently 'abandoned' only a week before the Fall of Vale that made a perfect semi-permanent base for the Tribe._

"What do you think they're talking about?"

"I don't know. Tribe stuff, I would guess. I'll get Jaune to tell me about it tonight, and he'll try to leave some things out, and it will get awkward when I call him out, then I'll guilt trip him by laying my head on his chest and telling him that I trust him, and then he'll look away shyly and admit things I already suspected anyways," I let out cynically, feeling tired. Amber's eyes shifted to me and softened, with a slight frown on her face. "Just like every other time Raven talks with him."

"Things are that bad, huh?"

"They're not really _that_ bad. Raven's been too busy teleporting over all of Mistral to really sink her fangs into Jaune that much. He hasn't taken things as badly as I had feared. He's not that awkward around you anymore, for example."

"He's still looks like he wants to curl into a ball and die whenever I mention something about Pyrrha."

"Yeah, but have you _met_ Jaune before?" I asked dramatically. "Or Raven, for that matter? I was afraid Jaune was going to dress in all black and start an emo band. This really isn't as bad as I thought he would take things." Amber laughed at that, and I let myself join in a little. I was mostly joking, after all. Mostly. The image of emo-band Jaune with black mascara haunted me, though. Somehow, I knew that banjos would get involved, too. "And _you_ don't help things, you bitch! If I didn't know better, I'd think you go out of your way to make Jaune as uncomfortable as possible."

"Who? _Me?_ " Amber asked sarcastically. "I'll have you know that I have not even mentioned to Jaune that I banged—er, _got_ _banged by_ —Vernal, despite how hysterical the look on his face would be. You think _I_ would do something to make Jaune uncomfortable? You must have the wrong ghost-whore."

"I'm not living that one down, am I?" I asked after a sigh.

"Probably not," Amber agreed with a grin. "Though I'll forget it ever happened in exchange for—"

" _I'm not agreeing to a threesome_."

"…just us two?"

I glared at her.

"You're no fun, you know that?" Amber fixed me with a glare that I refused to let affect me, forcing her to give up with a roll of her eyes and a soft shake of her head. Her eyes trailed down until they got stuck on the sword she wore at her hip, and then her plain shield that lay on the ground near her feet. "So are we…. done out here?"

"Well, now that they're gone, we could work on—"

"Come on, Yang, _again?_ " Amber whined, already knowing where I was going with this.

"Your Aura is never going to get better if you don't at least try, Amber," I tried to coax gently, though Amber was buying none of it.

"We both know that's not why you want me to do this," Amber accused sternly, giving me a harsher glare than usual. "You're hoping that I'll find some part of Pyrrha while I'm doing it, that she might be able to come back."

"I— that's not—" I lost any nerve to deny it under the glare that Amber was giving me. If nothing else, that could be clarified later, even though it wasn't completely wrong. "Look, even if that's true, it doesn't mean that you don't still need to do it for yourself! You can't survive forever like this, Amber. You need to at least _try_ to connect your Aura with Pyrrha's body."

"I… don't want to."

"What?"

"I'm not stupid, Yang. With the Maiden's powers and my… condition, I'm not going to survive very long. I don't like it, but I… I get it. I'm making the most of the time I have left, and I've made a little peace with it." Amber's voice was low, and her eyes trailed down guiltily. "I don't… _want_ to risk what time I have left."

"What do you mean 'risk' it?"

"If I meditate or whatever it is you've had me trying, it might heal my Aura, or it might…" she trailed off again, looking away at the dirt out of shame. "What if the only reason that I'm here and she's not is because I'm suppressing her? What if I manage to let her out, and her Aura does to me what I did to her?"

I started to say something, but stopped when I wasn't satisfied with what it was. There wasn't anything I could think of to say, nothing that would help, at least. Amber's Aura had, as far as we could tell, suppressed or destroyed what was left of Pyrrha's Aura when it was weakened. She wasn't wrong to be scared that the reverse could happen, especially not now that Amber's Aura was, for lack of a better term, functionally crippled.

"It might be selfish, but I don't care. I don't have much time left, and I don't want to lose that time any sooner than I have to. I-If bringing Pyrrha back means killing me permanently, I… please don't ask me to make a choice like that if you're going to be upset by what I choose."

* * *

Raven's POV

* * *

"So, not that your very presence doesn't make my day brighter or anything, but is there a reason that you wanted me to come with you?"

"There is," I answered glibly, content to say nothing more just to annoy him. The way he cut his eyes at me told me all I needed to about whether it was successful.

We continued to walk back through the woods towards camp in silence, at least for a few moments until I decided to end it.

"Before we do that, it's been a bit since you've updated me on Amber's status." I looked at him out of my periphery just to make it clear that there was an underlying command there, but he had picked up on it easily enough.

"Still not great. Her Aura is at thirty-three percent still, and—"

"Thirty-three?" I cut in suddenly. "I thought you said she was at thirty-four?"

"She was. It's been almost a week, and she's lost about a full percent in that time," Jaune answered, a bit defensively. He seemed more concerned that I believe him than he was worried I would be upset by Amber's condition. "When you're used to your Aura regenerating, you don't notice all the little things in life that you use your Aura for. I can't always be there to protect her Aura from every papercut or stubbed toe…"

Jaune trailed off, and I let the silence hang in the air while I thought about the problem. We learned after Amber's first spar that something was wrong when her Aura never recovered. She only had around fifty percent of her Aura to work with in the first place, and that made things difficult. It _did_ convince her to accept my offer of working for me in exchange for protection, since she needed protection now, but the fact that her Aura doesn't regenerate? That only complicated things further. _Too complicated, if you ask me._

"What is going to have to happen with Amber?" I asked Jaune, making it clear that I was testing him and not asking for my own curiosity. "Think long-term for her."

"She's vulnerable," Jaune answered slowly, "and she's only getting more vulnerable by the day. As soon as anyone finds out where she is, it's only a matter of time before someone takes her out."

"She's still a Maiden, Jaune, and I have some of my best people guarding her." I peaked at Jaune from the corner of my eyes to see if he would object to that. He and Yang were guarding Amber, acting more or less like body guards for a month now—which was kind of annoying, not being able to use those two for anything else. The point was that in order to take Amber down, someone would still have to get through a Maiden, and two rather skilled duelists. "You're right, though. All it would take is two good hits and Amber is at the mercy of a stray bullet. No Maiden would survive long in that situation once they're discovered, and Amber's secret is already out."

"What?" Jaune asked, whipping his head to me in surprise.

"Qrow knows," I answered back in a half-growl. "Our negotiations just after Vale didn't go well. I made sure that he knew that if— _when_ —he comes after Yang or you, he would know just exactly how much firepower he was up against. That was before I knew the extent of Amber's condition."

"Not your best move."

"It wasn't, no," I agreed, cutting my eyes at Jaune just to make sure his little remark didn't go unchallenged. "But back to the point: what's your final solution to the Amber problem?"

Jaune didn't answer immediately, staring off ahead intently instead.

"We can't let anyone else be the one to kill her."

I gave Jaune a funny look, more out of surprise than anything. The option had crossed my mind, and it had its drawbacks, but it was a brutally efficient plan. I just did not expect _Jaune_ to suggest it, especially since he had a bad experience the first time he tried to kill that girl.

"I-I didn't say I _liked_ this plan," Jaune backpedaled, catching the meaning of my curious look. "You asked for the long-term plan. Amber probably doesn't _have_ a 'long-term' ahead of her. It's just that… We need to make the decision before it's made by someone else."

"Does it sting?" I asked, giving my voice just a bit of seriousness. Jaune looked up at me with a slight look of confusion, so I elaborated. "Knowing that you've essentially killed this girl twice?"

"It only hurts if I think about it," Jaune answered back with an edge to his voice, making it clear he didn't appreciate me bringing it up. That was a better reaction than internally curling up into a ball of self-pity, which was a good sign. Anger or indignation I could work with. "Technically, I haven't killed her twice. I-I killed Pyrrha once, and Ozpin's machine doomed Amber."

"Have you convinced yourself of that yet?" I asked knowingly, and Jaune didn't answer. "You know, there's a pretty strong case to blame them both on Ozpin. _He_ is the immortal wizard here, after all; stopping all this shit was his job." Really, there were a lot of different ways to shift blame. Amber's condition could be traced back to Ozpin's Aura transfer machine, which was only used because Amber wandered around on her own and fell to an ambush. That put the onus of her impending death on Amber and her attacker. The combination of Jaune attacking Pyrrha and Amber's Aura being transferred to Pyrrha led to Pyrrha's Aura being wiped out, so the blame for _her_ death could be laid on Amber and her original attacker. Jaune would be an accomplice, but even then, he was an unwilling one.

Not that Jaune would ever be convinced of that. Nor would Qrow, Tai, or Ozpin, I suspect.

"Let's say we went with this plan," I called out somewhat loudly to break Jaune from his thoughts. "Obviously, we can't afford for a Maiden to fall into Qrow's hands, not if he's going to use it against us. We certainly can't afford one falling into Salem's hands. I don't know who else would know enough to try to take her powers, but we can't let them have them, either. So, what, we kill her ourselves? Make the powers go somewhere random?"

"We try to get Amber to think of someone we know with her last thoughts," Jaune answered. He had a kind of distant look to his face, like he was trying to get through this conversation without it affecting him too much. Considering his current job is to keep Amber alive, I decided not to call him out on that.

"I'm not sure that Amber is going to agree to martyr herself for us."

"She wouldn't, no," Jaune answered firmly and poignantly, though the words he didn't say were more important.

"Really? _You_ are suggesting we take her out by surprise?"

"It's what you were already thinking, wasn't it?"

I shrugged, keeping my eyes on Jaune. "Still didn't think _you_ would suggest it, though. Okay, let's say that we could get this to work. Pretend for a moment that I _don't_ think you would chicken out of slitting Amber's throat by surprise, and that we could control who she was thinking of when we did it. What are our options for candidates?"

"Vernal is still young enough," Jaune answered quickly. "She's strong enough to survive as a target, and loyal enough for you to control." Jaune shot me a flat glare at that, and I grinned back, not at all offended by the assessment.

"I've spent years building up Vernal as a decoy Maiden. If I actually give her Maiden powers, then I've just spent years advertising an actual Maiden to the world."

"Maybe if Vernal does have Maiden powers, she'll survive when people come to kill your decoy," Jaune shot back sharply.

I didn't have any good comeback to that, so I shrugged it off and conceded the point.

"I assume the other option is Yang," I responded instead, watching Jaune closely.

"A bad choice," Jaune answered carefully. There was a little bit of desperation in his voice, though, probably from him trying to protect Yang from all this. Adorable that he still thinks he _can_ do that, after everything that's happened to demonstrate otherwise. "Yang would resent you for murdering Amber in cold blood. If she didn't leave the Tribe entirely, she certainly wouldn't cooperate with you anymore."

"You mean she would resent _us_ for murdering Amber~~"

"No, I mean she would resent _you_ ," Jaune replied firmly. "You think I'm going to own up to having any part in this? An angry Yang makes my life worse, but an angry Maiden Yang would make my life hell."

"I can do that, too, you know…"

"Yeah, I'm well-fucking-aware of that," Jaune growled. Despite his best efforts, it came across more as a pout than anything, but it was clear that his mood had soured. I deigned to let it be.

We were almost to our destination anyways, so we walked the rest of the way in silence. I only broke that silence to brief him what we were doing as we approached the house I had set our 'guests' up in for the moment.

"The reason I dragged you along is dust," I called out finally, as we walked up the steps to the porch of this house. "The Fall of Vale has been _very_ good for business, but that's been mitigated by the sky-rocketed price of dust. I believe you remember the main cause of the global dust shortage…"

"Torchwick," Jaune let out with a dark chuckle. "Of course that would come back to bite me. Why wouldn't it?"

"We can operate with very little dust, just like we've been doing for years, but I don't want to," I continued. "I have a giant Atlas mech that I would _love_ to convert to an anti-air turret for this new fort, not to mention that I'd like to have running water for a change. Oh, and having ammunition for the men would be nice too. A steady supply of dust is the only thing holding us back from effectively covering all of western Mistral, and a new plan has just… fallen into my lap."

Jaune looked at me curiously and I smirked, reveling in not revealing anything to mess with him. I opened the door and led the way inside, with the first thing to note being the soft aroma of cigar smoke. If the house hadn't been abandoned before the Tribe showed back up to reclaim the town, then I might get angry at our guest for lighting up indoors.

Jaune froze momentarily as his eyes locked with the source of the smoke. Roman Torchwick smirked at Jaune from behind his cigar, raising his cane in an exaggerated greeting, with a wide grin.

Roman's little pet ambushed Jaune from the side, and if I hadn't been warned that she would do that, I might have flinched and cut her down. Even with the warning, my hand fell to my weapon dangerously. Jaune reacted similarly, reaching out to catch the blade protruding from her umbrella with his bare hand. He grinned, then pulled the girl into a headlock, before the girl shattered into glass pieces, much to Jaune's surprise. The real girl jumped down from the rafters above us, landing on Jaune's shoulders and wrapping her legs around his neck, before spinning around to dangle upside-down down Jaune's chest. With a sit-up, she brought herself face-to-face with Jaune, with a satisfied and predatory smirk on her face declaring her victory. Which then shifted into an innocent smile and an eager wave, as if this all was some way of saying hello.

 _And I thought that Jaune and Yang were strange._

"Uh…hi Neo."

* * *

Hazel's POV

* * *

One of the few upsides to Tyrian's personality is that if he isn't actively hiding from you, you can find him quite easily from all the noise he makes. I could hear him cackling and barking orders to his prisoner for almost a minute before he finally make it to the long-table we normally held meetings at. Salem herself was not yet here, and with Watts in Mistral, I had had some peace and quiet for a moment. That was gone now.

" _Sit_ ," Tyrian commanded venomously, though there was an unhinged glee to his voice there. He enjoyed being in control of others and subjecting them to his will, even if he denied that he had no will other than his goddess'. It was an open secret, though, one that Salem was no doubt aware of. It was why she used him in… specific roles, those that suited his tendencies well. Like tracking down this boy.

Tyrian's prisoner warily did as commanded, sitting down slowly until he felt a chair beneath him. He probably couldn't see anything with the black bag over his head, and after being hunted down by Tyrian, I doubt that he has had a pleasant trip to the Grimmlands.

"Was there a point to black-bagging him?" I asked gruffly, getting Tyrian's attention.

"When my goddess wants someone kidnapped and brought to her, I do not cut corners," Tyrian answered back, feigning sanity and professionalism that was ruined by the edges of his mouth curling up. I decided not to engage Tyrian there, as it would be a waste of breath explaining that the location of the Grimmlands wasn't exactly a secret we needed to keep our prisoner from knowing. Ozma knew exactly where this castle stood, should he decide to march on it. "And for all the trouble it was to track this one down, this is quite a generous treatment."

"What do you say, boy? Do you even know where you are?" I asked, instead turning my attention to our guest.

"MMMM! RRGGGHH!"

"You _gagged_ him?"

"You would not believe how agitating this one can be," Tyrian answered with a shrug, apparently unaware of the concept of irony. I kept a neutral expression, as always. "When your captor speaks, you should listen. That is a lesson that he would not have learned without the aid of a gag."

Ignoring Tyrian, I rose from my chair and walked over to the boy, removing the black bag. Sure enough, he was gagged _and_ blindfolded. I shot Tyrian a curious look for that, and he shrugged.

"Do you know where you are?" I asked the boy again as I removed his gag.

"Hell?"

" _Tsk_. For the uncultured simpleton buffoons in the kingdoms, perhaps," Tyrian sniped dismissively. "You are in the home of our goddess. _Act like it._ "

"If he likes this place, then I was wrong. This is _far_ worse than hell."

I found myself slightly amused by the fight left in the kid, so I removed his blindfold and returned to my seat. The kid looked rattled, but that fight had not yet gone out.

"You're in the Grimmlands now. We work for your former master's master, and we have some questions about Cinder that you'd be wise to answer…"

"That bitch?" he asked, watching me carefully. "I don't have allegiance to her anymore. I'll tell you all sorts of shit if you keep me away from that psycho!"

I met eyes with Tyrian, who shrugged again, sporting a wide grin.

"That can be arranged. Let's start with—"

" _Hazel,_ " Salem's voice boomed from the doorway. Tyrian and I both instinctively rose to our feet out of respect. "I do believe that I made it clear that I wanted to question Mr. Black myself. Do kindly explain why you have begun without me."

"Apologies, ma'am. I was just trying to get answers more quickly."

Salem made a show of slowly walking behind me on her way to her seat at the head of the table, not saying a word as she did so. When she got there, she took her seat, then motioned for us to do that same.

"I have waited a month for this, Hazel. It is safe to assume that waiting a few more moments cannot cause any harm." Salem's gaze lingered on my long enough to make me uncomfortable, but she saw fit to let me off with no other reprimand. Her eyes shifted to our guest, her expression loaded. "It's Mercury, correct?"

"Yes ma'am," the boy answered nervously. If nothing else, he understood power imbalances or could read the mood of a room. That could go a long way to his survival here.

"Well, Mercury, I do hope that you'll be as forthcoming to me as you would have been to Hazel."

"Yes ma'am," he answered again. If he was trying not to act intimidated, he was doing a poor job.

"Tell me… how exactly did Cinder Fall fail me so spectacularly?"

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Time-skips are weird to write. Like, I have all these different events that have happened in the approximately one-month that was skipped, and I have to work them in naturally in the dialogue. It was either that or have a chapter of like six to ten small time jumps in a row, which is just... incoherent.**

 **So, for the record, just to make things clear: time skip was about a month. Call it four weeks. That puts us between Volume's 3 and 4 for the show, since there is a six-month skip between V3 and V4.**

 **The most important thing this does is throws the status of Oscar/Ozpin in the air. In the show, he arrives in Mistral _after_ Qrow and RNJR, and it took them six months since the Fall of Beacon to get there. Does that mean it takes six months for him to convince Oscar to take a train? I think that Ozpin doesn't reincarnate immediately. In V5, Leo even makes the comment that Oz has "already reincarnated," making it seem like the process is known to take some time. **

**So until Oscar does show up, Qrow and company won't know the full extent of what Jaune did at Beacon. That could be interesting...**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** why are you all commenting like there was a chapter last week?

"Okay. I don't know what i just read, all i know is that is fucking funny as hell! HAHAHAHA" - _BlackDevilSwordsmann_

"..." - _Mo Easy_

"excited for your seppuku better livestream it" - _jwadd01_

"dog what the fuck did I just read" - _ImHellaUgly_

"This is canon. I don't make the rules." - _sdphantom10_

 **I have no idea what you guys are talking about. Clearly, you are all going insane. There was absolutely no chapter last week. None.**

* * *

I would recommend that you _not_ search for the fanfic author _Ikedawg34_. He does not exist. He certainly did not write an omake last week.


	60. Character Interactions, the movie

**Author's Note: Bit of a shorter chapter this week. I don't really have any good excuse other than I played too much Destiny 2 this week and got sucked into the lore for the Season of the Drifter. _Hot damn_ , the plot twist that came with the Thorn's lore book was fantastic, and has distracted me all week. **

**Last week of classes for me is next week, and finals are the week and a half after that, so my writing schedule is gonna be a play-it-by-ear affair for the foreseeable future.**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **Go check out that one-shot I uploaded two weeks ago if you want more content from me this week, or start a cult revolving around taking over my Discord. I don't know how that will help, but it is certainly a popular thing to do, so...**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 57:** _"I swear to god, Jaune, if you get me pregnant, I'm going to make you wish you were dead." – Yang Xiao Long, when Jaune Arc asked if he_ really _needed to ask Raven for a portal to a town so he could buy a pack of condoms_

* * *

Hazel's POV

* * *

"Her plans fell apart."

Despite the fact that this boy knew that he was a prisoner here and that he had no margin for error with his words, he answered Salem's question so plainly that Tyrian barked out a short laugh. However, when Tyrian realized that Salem was _not_ angered by such a glib and flippant answer, he cowed down quickly; the glare he received from Salem certainly hasted that process.

"Her plans fell apart," Salem repeated slowly, as if testing each word or watching to see if the boy would flinch as she scrutinized his words for their honesty. Silence hung in the air as Salem stared down Mercury, her eyes not angry but… complex. There was a lot going on there as she processed things. "Her plans fell apart. Did you hear that, Tyrian? _Cinder's_ plans merely did not work out."

"I did hear, your grace," Tyrian responded as bid, a creepy smile on his face as she slowly turned towards Mercury to intimidate the boy. He wasn't the smartest person on Remnant, not if he was more scared of Tyrian than the queen of the Grimm herself, but Salem seemed content to use that fact against him rather than demonstrate why he should fear her more. "It was a very curious thing to have been said…"

Mercury looked confused by their disbelief, though he held his tongue for now.

"Cinder Fall did not _have_ plans," Salem announced sternly. " _I_ had plans. I know Ozpin inside and out, and I have spent millennia battling him. I would not entrust the success of this battle to the schemes of a twenty-something year old child. Are you telling me that my plan was insufficient?"

"N-No, ma'am. I-It wasn't that the plan was bad," Mercury backtracked, his eyes wide. He was smart enough to realize that Salem was angry and that was a bad thing for him, but didn't even realize the mistake he had made by taking back his words. Even if wrong, Salem would prefer you stand by your words and defend them; to back down is to show weakness and cowardice, and she has no use of weak cowards. "It was just that Cinder couldn't pull them off."

"Explain." Salem's icy response silenced the room, and it was no request. That was a challenge. "Explain to me how that is, because I am confused. From where I sit, it appears as if Cinder was able to destroy Vale; it appears as if she could pull off the decimation of the Atlas fleet; it appears as if she could pull off the most challenging aspect of the plan. How, then, would you explain that she could not bring me a Relic, when Vale is ash and no one stands to defend it?!"

The boy was too terrified to dare look away from Salem, which is to his credit. The venom in Salem's voice was new to myself, and even the shocked and terrified expression on Tyrian's face as he refused to look Salem's way made me think that even _he_ had never seen her like this.

"It… the plans were working. The Vytal Festival, the White Fang, Atlas's fleet; those all worked liked planned," the boy began to explain, fear prevalent in his voice. He knew he didn't have many words left to justify his life with. "F-For the other plans, like the Vault, and the Maiden, there was a guy…"

" _A guy?_ " Salem repeated back, almost mockingly.

"He and Cinder got tangled up a couple of times. As far as I can tell, he interfered with Cinder's plans. He's the reason that she failed those parts…"

"I see," Salem announced icily, folding her hands up in front of her chin and giving Mercury a blistering stare. "Does this _guy_ happen to have a name?"

Mercury nodded limply. "His name is Jaune Arc. I don't know if that means all that much to you, but…" The kid fumbled on awkwardly because Salem did not have any response to fill the silence with. "He's around my age. Kinda tall, blond dude. I don't remember his eye color or anything like that. He killed Cinder's lapdog one night when he attacked her, Cinder, and another ally of ours, if that means anything…"

Tyrian and I had been staring at each other this whole time, doing everything we could to avoid looking to Salem and risking her gaze falling to us. Both of our eyes widened at the name, and a glance towards Salem showed that she had reacted similarly.

"Cinder acted like she knew a lot more about him, but she wasn't exactly the 'sharing' type when it came to information…"

"Jaune _Arc?_ " Salem asked, stressing the part she wanted to confirm.

"Yeah, that's his name. You know him or something?"

"Possibly." Salem's eyes flicked to Tyrian's and then to mine, silently checking to see if we were on the same page. The assault on the Arcs was before my time with Salem, but I knew the details. This Jaune Arc being Mercury's age would make him the youngest Arc at the time, and they would have had to have kept his existence a secret from all parties—Ozpin would have flaunted having a surviving member and Leo would have told us at some point if one was unaccounted for. It seemed unlikely, but it was possible. The fact that he was strong enough to have derailed Cinder felt appropriate, should it be true. "Tell me, how did this Jaune Arc interfere?"

There was still some venom in her voice, though it was easy to tell that it was no longer directed at Mercury. With one name, the boy had essentially guaranteed his survival. Now, Salem's ire seemed directed elsewhere.

"Well, he _had_ been our ally; he was one of Torchwick's contacts, and Torchwick connected us. Cinder liked using him because he was already established in Beacon, and could help our cover."

"Cinder knew this Arc beforehand?" Salem asked suddenly. Mercury wouldn't have caught on, but when you read between the lines there, Salem was more asking _Cinder knew about someone named Arc and did not decide to report that to Salem?_ "Nevermind that. You said he had been an ally. Why is he responsible for Cinder's failure?"

"He didn't stay our ally. I wasn't there to see what happened, though; Cinder had me laying low after I took a dive to stir up the Festival's crowd. Apparently the chick we set up was his girlfriend or something, and he attacked Cinder later. There were four of them there: two are now dead, one is Arc himself, and the last one is probably dead and definitely mute."

"He attacked them alone?" Salem asked, clearly intrigued by what had to be a very unfavorable matchup. It seemed unlikely that this boy could have taken Cinder in a fair fight, since she was half of a Maiden and simply had more years of training. Even if you assumed the boy had been trained by as strict of tutors as Cinder had, the age difference was too significant. _To give Cinder a numbers advantage as well?_

"Apparently. He killed Emerald then and there," Mercury answered with a shrug to remind us that he wasn't there for it. "Cinder said the third person didn't actually join the fight and suspected she was a traitor. We made sure to rig a trap for her out of revenge, but other than that, I got the impression that Cinder lost that fight outright. She… was not in the best mood about it."

"And this hampered the plan?"

"Not really. Em dying made us change how we pulled of the Vytal Festival, but that still worked pretty well," Mercury answered freely, no longer feeling any fear of being cut down for saying the wrong thing. He was almost eager to throw Cinder under the bus. "I don't know what happened in the Vault, but Jaune came out with Ozpin's Maiden and Cinder didn't."

Salem leaned forward, intrigued. She did not even need to tell him to explain.

"My job during the chaos was to stick with Cinder. When she went down into the Vault, she told me to keep watch up top and to make sure that I wasn't spotted. So I did, and eventually Jaune comes out of the elevator carrying Pyrrha Nikos, the girl Cinder pegged as Ozpin's number one choice for a candidate. He looked in rough shape, but she was actively dying right there in his arms."

"Did you attack them?"

"I did what I was ordered to do, which was to keep watch and stay hidden. Cinder didn't say anything about what to do if someone _else_ emerged from the Vault," Mercury snapped back, which he instantly regretted when it drew Salem's ire onto him. "I-I was going to, yes, but someone else showed up before I could."

"Who?"

"I don't know. I've never seen her before. This red portal appeared out of nowhere next to the dude and a woman stepped out of it. Jaune lost it at the sight of her."

"…red portal?" Salem asked, eyes flicking over to Tyrian and myself once more. That _did_ sound familiar. That Branwen hasn't been our concern for years at this point, not since she left Ozpin's service. She used to be the single largest pain in our ass, though, as her Semblance and Ozpin's liberal use of her skills gave Salem no shortage of fits. The day she abandoned Ozpin was a very good day for us.

"Mmhmm, she walks out of a portal, does… _something_ that helps heal Nikos and stop her from dying, and then takes them back through her portal," Mercury confirmed. "Oh, and before they left, Nikos woke up with her eyes flaming the same way that Cinder's did."

 _That_ was just too much, and Salem rose from her seat suddenly, causing all three of us to flinch. She turned around and walked to the edge of the room, staring out the windows at the Grimm pools intently, though her mind was obviously elsewhere.

"Is there anything else, Mercury?"

"No ma'am. Since then, I've just been avoiding getting captured…" The boy cut his eyes at Tyrian, who returned his glare with a smug grin.

"Tyrian, how difficult was it to bring him here?"

"Nothing too troublesome, your grace," Tyrian answered humbly, or in a way that he thought was humble. "The boy was adequate at hiding, and knows a thing or two about fighting, but neither were nearly good enough to escape me."

"I see." Salem did not trail off so much as simply stop talking for a few moments. "Mr. Black, it appears that with Cinder Fall gone, you are unemployed, are you not?"

"I…guess so, yes."

"Then you are such no longer."

Mercury's head whipped back and forth between Tyrian and myself, with his eyes trailing off and looking at the room around him. He very quickly came to the conclusion that he was in no position to turn down such an offer. "Understood."

"Do we have orders, ma'am?" I asked, rising from my chair. Tyrian mimicked the motion.

"I need to think more. An Arc has emerged as a player once more, and it appears that Raven Branwen is sheltering both him and the Fall Maiden. And here I thought that miss Branwen wanted out of the game. We are going to have to find out more about this Arc and Raven Branwen, starting with where they are. Prepare a bullhead for yourselves."

"Yes, your grace."

"Do we have a heading?"

"Mistral," Salem answered, still staring out the window with her back to us. "Watts may have some means of finding their location, or perhaps Leonardo will prove useful once more. I will set them to the task of locating either Branwen, Arc, or the Fall Maiden. In the meantime, you and Tyrian might as well continue culling Mistral's Huntsmen ranks."

"Is that all?"

"No," Salem answered with a frustrated sigh, "but if you are asking if you are dismissed, then yes. I shall be in touch with Watts to inform him of the situation before you reach Mistral."

"Understood, ma'am."

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

"Jaune's text said that he's at the empty house three doors down from ours," I called out. It felt a little weird saying that as if Jaune and I (and Amber, I guess) owned a house together already, though the fact that it didn't actually belong to us helped keep me sane. I'm no idiot, after all; I realize that it is really convenient that Raven just _happened_ to know of an entire village with mostly-finished fortifications that just _happened_ to be recently abandoned. Even if she didn't do anything since Jaune and I have joined up, she probably raided this place just before deciding to go 'legitimate.' _Or as legitimate as we are, anyways._

"You go on, then," Amber called back, dropping out of step with me. "I need to go clear my head. Maybe relax a little."

"You sure? Jaune mentioned something about having a surprise waiting for me," I called out, cutting my eyes at Amber suspiciously. "I figured you'd be all over whatever _that_ means."

"Not in the mood," Amber replied, shrugging.

"Not in the…?" I reached forward to place a hand on Amber's forehead, pretending to check for a fever. "Are you feeling okay? Did Pyrrha take back over?"

Amber glared at me flatly, and I grinned. She more than had that coming.

"Trust me, you'd prefer that didn't happen. If it did, I would actually have the hots for your boyfriend."

"Oh, finally admitting that this whole threesome thing is only a joke?" I asked, grinning.

"Nope," Amber answered back, returning my grin. My smile fell as I was confused by her response, until I realized that she was implying the threesome wasn't a chance to get with _Jaune_. I tried to give her a flat stare, but could feel a little pink in my cheeks that ruined it. Amber only made it worse by winking flirtatiously, before laughing at the reaction she elicited.

"I really do hate you."

"Uh huh, sure," Amber laughed me off. "Go run off and hide behind your boyfriend."

I tried to flip her off to keep her from having the last word, but she had already turned and began to walk off, leaving me grumbling alone. After a few moments, I made myself put the conversation behind me and went back to finding the house I was looking for. It didn't take long to make it back to our place, and going three doors down from that was easy enough.

"Yo!" I called out as I barged on in, not even bothering to knock. "Jaune, you here?"

"Yeah, in here."

I followed Jaune's voice to what looked like a living room, where Jaune was sat down on some sort of love seat, with just the perfect amount of room next to him for me.

"What, no Raven?" I asked, pretending to be upset, though we both knew that her absence wasn't going to bother me in the slightest.

"No, she left to start rounding up some men," Jaune answered, realizing I was coming over and shifting to make room for him next to me. "We've got something planned for tomorrow."

"We?"

"Yeah, _we_ ," Jaune confirmed as I sat down. He started to put his arm around me the froze when he realized I was staring at him, acting for everything like a kid caught raiding the cookie jar. I couldn't keep a straight face for long, breaking out in a grin at him that made him realize I was messing with him. "That wasn't nice."

"Just keeping you on your toes. I can't have you getting complacent with me…" Jaune shrugged that off and retaliated by snaking his arm around me and pulling me into his side snugly, almost as if to show off that he still could. "What about Amber?"

"She doesn't have anywhere she needs Amber at tonight, so she can stay in the camp. We get a night off from watching her."

" _Finally_ ," I let out with an exaggerated huff. "If I had to go to another stupid, small-town bar and chaperone Amber again, I might have blown my brains out."

"You know she only does that to annoy you, right?"

"Mmmm, if that's what you think, okay," I answered back judgmentally. There's… more to it than that, from what Amber has told me. She would probably explain it to Jaune—hell, he could probably help her with the real problem—but Jaune always stiffens up every time he looks into Pyrrha's eyes and sees someone else there. _He's getting better, though, which is important to me._ "Did you know that she slept with _Vernal?_ "

"She… _huh?_ " Jaune asked. His face froze half-way into processing that, as if his train of thought had just been hijacked and derailed by White Fang. "I… guess that… _huh._ I didn't realize Amber swung that way."

"Amber? I didn't realize _Vernal_ swung that way!" I responded animatedly.

"Really? I thought that the haircut gave it away…"

"The haircut…?" I mumbled as I tried to reexamine everything I knew about Vernal. "Forget the haircut, you two both grew up together. Isn't that a little—"

I froze as the most surreal thing happened. Mid-sentence, _Roman Torchwick_ just… walks around the corner from the kitchen with a cigar hanging lazily in his mouth and a bottle of scotch in his hands, ignoring Jaune and I entirely as he made his way over to the recliner across from us. I blinked three, four, seven times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating, before turning to Jaune.

"Uh… what the _fuck?_ "

Glass shattered from directly next to me, making me flinch hard as I turned around in a panic to see what had happened. I was greeted with Neo sitting on the arm rest next to me, staring me down before giving me a playful wink and hopping up to find a chair for herself.

"I did say there was going to be a surprise, didn't I?"

"…not exactly what I was envisioning, I guess."

"Trust me, kid," Roman called out, having poured himself a drink into a glass sitting on the table next to him, "nothing ever works out like you envision it."

"What are you even _doing_ here?" I asked Torchwick. "Last I checked, you were locked up."

"Yeah, well, that's the thing about Atlas flagships," Roman answered coyly, taking a sip. "Neo can break into them pretty easily." He nodded to the girl, who shrugged without a care in the world. "That, and they control all of Atlas' robot army from a single place. A pretty shitty design flaw, if you ask me…"

My eyes widened in surprise. "You?! You're the reason Atlas' machines went rogue?!" I almost yelled, and probably would have jumped forward out of the chair if Jaune wasn't still holding me to his side. Torchwick shrugged. "Do you know how many people died because of that!?"

"Not as many as would have died if I had stuck with Cinder's plans," Torchwick answered nonchalantly. "Originally I was supposed to take out all of Atlas' fleet and then start blowing up down-town Vale…"

"You—!?"

"Why didn't you?" Jaune asked over me, gently laying his free hand on my thigh to signal for me to calm down. I shot him a glare for wanting to give Torchwick an out here, but he didn't catch it, watching Torchwick for a response instead.

"Neo told me about your little stunt the night before the attack. Gotta say, I'm a little pissed that I didn't get to see that bitch get what she deserves, but I'm _really_ pissed that you didn't end her on the spot and make everything easier on us both." Roman shot Jaune and annoyed look, to which Jaune sheepishly shrugged. "Neo warned me that Cinder wasn't going to forget that Neo let you take that shot, and I figured I would have to be stupid as hell to stick around on that ship once Cinder's program was running the show. Neo and I were already on the streets by the time the thing blew itself up."

"Even if it was her program, you still uploaded it," I grumbled, letting Torchwick know exactly what I thought of him at the moment.

"Yeah, well, if this jackass doesn't let Cinder go, none of this ever happens, now, does it?"

"Hey, let's not drag me into this…" Jaune protested sarcastically. "I blame myself for enough as it is. I really don't need you all piling it on."

"Sure you do," I responded, elbowing Jaune's side somewhat lightly. " _Fine_ , I'll let you off the hook for now. Dust knows that enough mistakes were made that night; what's one more?" I put the thought out of my mind, forcing myself to move on to other things because it wouldn't sit right if I thought on it more. "How'd you get here?"

"Walked, much to Neo's displeasure," Torchwick answered, puffing his cigar. "We had two Paladins still hidden around Vale, which made getting out of the city much easier. Barely had enough fuel to get to the Emerald Forest, so we left them sitting out in some field. Since then, we just walked until we found some village where some idiots were barking about their tribe, and a few familiar names." Roman looked to Jaune as if his was one of the names that was mentioned, but the fact that there was more than one name he knew struck me odd. I gave Jaune a funny look that communicated as much.

"Roman and Neo have met Raven before," Jaune answered, picking up on my expression. As the memory came back to Jaune, he shifted to give Roman a flat glare. "Actually, they met when Roman held me hostage and tried to kill me…"

Roman grinned behind his cigar. Neo gave Jaune an almost wistful look, likely reminiscing on the last time she would actually have the chance to kill him.

"That was the White Fang rally where we went undercover as duck Faunus."

"Not a memory I needed brought back up," I cringed.

"You know, I don't believe we've been acquainted, miss…?"

I hesitated for a moment, not entirely sure if I _wanted_ Vale's number one most-wanted to know who I was. Jaune seemed to find my hesitation funny.

"This is Yang," Jaune answered for me. "Raven's daughter, if that means anything to you."

"It doesn't, but it explains some things…" Roman answered, looking at the two of us curiously.

"It really doesn't," I cut in.

"You two have actually met before," Jaune jumped in, eager to _not_ have that conversation. "On the train."

"Oh, I remembered that," Torchwick announced, giving me a funny look. "You could have told me she was in on things. I thought she was going to blow our cover."

"She _wasn't_ in on it," Jaune answered back. "Not then, at least."

"I'll have you both know that I figured it out," I announced proudly. "I knew Jaune had connections, but once I saw Neo on the train, I figured out that those connections were _Roman_ _fucking Torchwick._ " Jaune had the good sense to at least look a little sheepish when I cut my eyes at him.

"Really, Neo?" Roman asked, turning to his psycho-sidekick. " _You_ blew our cover?"

"And got her ass kicked."

Neo sneered at me, and I dug my grave further by sticking a tongue out at her. Torchwick and Jaune found it funny, and I'm pretty sure Neo was plotting revenge the moment the focus was off of her.

"So what's this thing Raven's got planned for tomorrow?" I asked, turning to Jaune. "I'm gonna take a wild guess that it involves those two."

"You remember how Roman was wanted for stealing dust, right?"

"That's a funny way of saying that I was the greatest dust thief in history…"

"Well, we're going to transport as much of that dust as we can," Jaune finished, ignoring Torchwick.

"It's all in Vale, right?" I asked, looking to the man who stole the dust in the first place. "Isn't Vale in ruins?"

"We had more than a couple warehouses to store the stuff. Sure, a couple of those probably went up in flames _a la_ Grimm dragon, but if even one of them is standing, then we'll have more dust than we know what to do with."

"Which is why we have the night off, and why Raven is busy right now," Jaune added on, grabbing my attention. "She's trying to organize things to get as many spare men to help transport the dust."

"So we're robbing dust from Torchwick?" I asked in summary. "Haven't you done that before?"

Roman's expression flattened out of annoyance a little, but Neo's soured the most. She glared daggers at Jaune this time.

"Mmmm yeah, in like, the first week of Beacon or something. Neo also got her ass kicked then, too." Jaune grinned at the girl, who made the first noise I have ever heard when she growled at him. "In Neo's defense, the only reason I won is because my Semblance surprised her. But in my defense, I was using a weapon for the first time, so…"

Neo mimed slitting a throat, to which Jaune just laughed at her.

"What's _he_ get out of it?" I asked, grabbing Jaune's attention and gesturing towards Torchwick. I didn't really care if it was obvious that I didn't exactly trust the guy.

"Dust, safe passage to Mistral, a nice chunk of lien… Need I go on?" Roman asked, smiling cockily as he took a drink.

"Raven really wants this dust, so he's getting in nice with her for this," Jaune added on. "That's a pretty good card to have in your back pocket, especially when all of your time taking over Vale's underworld doesn't mean anything anymore." Jaune turned from me to Torchwick with a curious expression. "Why Mistral, though? Wouldn't Vacuo be better for… you know… former and current criminals?"

"Too much sand and sun. I'm from Atlas, remember? I'd roast before I even stepped foot outside," Roman answered jokingly. "Nah, Vacuo is too obvious. Too many criminals and thieves out there; market's too crowded. Besides, you'd expect someone like me to hide out in Vacuo. Cinder might still find me in Mistral, but it'll take her longer to confirm I'm not in Vacuo…"

"I don't think you need to worry about Cinder," Jaune cut in with a smirk.

Roman looked at him tensely.

"You killed her?"

"Nope, but I have it on good authority she died."

"How good?"

Jaune's eyes flicked to mine nervously, looking for support. I shrugged to indicate it was okay to go for it.

"I take it you knew about Cinder's affinity for flames?"

"You mean the ones around her eyes?" Roman confirmed. "I knew about it. Shit like that is why I left Atlas, kid."

"Let's just say that those flames belong to someone else now, and leave it at that."

Roman stared Jaune down, deciding for himself whether or not Jaune was lying. A grin spread across his face when he realized Jaune was serious, and his eyes slid to me.

"You sly son of a bitch."

"I said let's leave it at that," Jaune growled somewhat threateningly. "It's not Yang, though, so don't get any ideas."

"But it _is_ someone you know, isn't it?" Jaune and I didn't answer—I was more following his lead at this point, as I didn't want to share anything with Torchwick but also didn't care too much to protect Raven's secrets—but we also didn't deny it. "This Amber person you two were talking about, then?"

I went slightly stiff when Torchwick guessed right, but Jaune's hands gently rubbed me in reassurance, calming me down.

"She is… one of two that we have, yes."

I gave Jaune a surprised look when he gave away so much _very_ critical information to a known criminal rat. Worse, he gave away information that Raven would kill over without a second thought, which is not something that anyone else would ever be stupid enough to do.

"The other being your boss, yeah?"

"How did you—"

"Neo," Roman answered my question in one word before I even finished it. "That time that you borrowed her?" I looked over at Jaune for context, and he looked lost in thought. It struck me a few moments later that when I met Neo, it was so that we could use her Semblance to spy on Raven and Jaune's meeting… _where Raven used her powers openly._ "Neo had some fun stories to share about that. Once she told me that, all your little comments about struggling to get away made a lot more sense. Can't say I blame you for not taking my offer."

"Offer?" I asked, looking between Jaune and Torchwick.

"Roman told me that he'd be out from behind bars sooner rather than later, and that I had a standing offer to be his right-hand man."

I looked to Torchwick with a funny look, which didn't faze him. "I thought it was a pretty sweet offer if we could pull it off, too. It would have made him one of the most powerful men in all of Vale. So imagine my surprise when I show up here and find that this fucker's gone and made himself heir-apparent to a small army that controls half of Mistral!"

"We don't _control_ anything," I corrected, giving Torchwick a firm glare. "And we can't cover half of Mistral…"

"With the dust I'm supplying, sure you can," Torchwick countered. "With the ripples that Vale's fall is making, just offering someone protection might be enough for them to anoint you king—or queen. Don't underestimate that; your boss sure doesn't."

"Typical," I quipped at Jaune, ignoring Torchwick since I didn't have anything to counter him with. "You tell me you have a surprise for me, and _this_ is all I get: some insults and a creepy old dude with his pet psycho."

"Hey, the man just said we'll be conquering half of Mistral," Jaune mock-protested. "I think laying the world at your feet is a good start."

The jerk had to go and say it so sincerely and so reverently that it embarrassed me a little, making my cheeks heat up. I dug my elbow into Jaune's side, upset at him for making me blush in front of our current company. "It's a start."

"I'm curious, what kind of surprise _did_ you think you were getting?" Torchwick asked with a wicked grin from across the room. "You know, when you heard that Jaune was meeting you alone with no other plans for the rest of the night…?"

I glared back him for the insinuation, with an added venom to it for not being wrong. My traitorous cheeks warmed up just a little further from where they were already pink, but I refused to let _Roman Torchwick_ tease me and get away with it.

"Oooh, that reminds me! Neo?" Jaune blurted out. Given the context, I am… concerned by this. The girl looked up at him curiously. "I need your Semblance for something…"

* * *

Qrow's POV

* * *

"I'm so tired of walking!" Ruby whined for what felt like the seventieth time in the past ten minutes. Gods love the girl but she did not inherit her mother's patience—not that Summer had started out with much herself. Four year of Beacon with me and Raven will wear you down, or build patience, whichever way you prefer to break it down.

"You girls—and Ren—wanted to be Huntresses and Huntsmen. Well, _this_ is what it looks like," I called back. "Being a Huntsman involves a lot of walking between settlements."

"I get that," mini-Winter (a _very_ well-earned nickname) chimed in, "but I'm with Ruby here. It's not normal to walk all the way across a continent. It's been a month and we're only just now getting into the edges of Mistral!"

"You girls know why we're walking," Tai chastised, equally as tired of this as I am. "Would you prefer that we _didn't_ stop to help all those villages in Vale?"

"…well, no…"

"Didn't think so," I tacked on, in what should have ended the matter. I got where the girls were coming from, but we didn't have the luxury of going straight to Mistral to deal with Raven. Vale's capital is lost, and Beacon is overrun. The kingdom is short-handed on able-bodied Huntsmen and the smaller, fringe villages are the ones suffering the most. I hadn't really wanted to do this either—these fringe villages would all die or move to safety regardless of whether or not we provided them with a few days of protection—but Glynda forced my hand. In that she just refused to authorize a bullhead for us, and until the kingdom could get the Grimm under control, the railways were a deathtrap.

"It's just…" Weiss continued, much to my and Tai's chagrin, "…we've wasted a whole month!"

"You've spent a whole month helping a lot of people that otherwise wouldn't get any," Tai responded in his 'disappointed father' voice. All five of them kinda shrunk in on themselves, such was the power of Tai's condemnation. I really oughta bring him along more often. "And you've spent the month being what you signed up to be. You don't always get to chose who needs your help the most."

"B-But Yang! And Jaune! And—" Ruby was cut off by me.

"Trust me, kiddo, I get it. I'm not exactly a big fan of having to wait on this either, but Glynda needed us to doing things this way."

"Blame Glynda and avoid disappointing your niece," Tai mocked loudly. "Classic Qrow."

"At least these last few villages haven't needed our help," Ren jumped in, ever the peace maker and _easily_ my favorite non-Ruby kid here. "It feels like we've made some actual progress since we reached Mistral's border."

"Yeah, and I thought that _someone_ said that these Mistral border towns were gonna be hit the hardest," Ren's polar opposite and eternal companion Nora _troublemaker_ Valkyie jumped in.

"Hey, you make it sound like things being good are a bad thing," I defended myself.

"Not bad, but…"

" _Strange_ ," Tai finished for her, giving me a meaningful look. The kind that meant he wanted to say something without the kids picking up on it immediately. "Don't you think?"

"Hey, don't ever look a gift-whore in the mouth."

"…horse?" Blake asked, giving me a weird look.

"Who the hell would gift someone a horse?"

"That's… nevermind."

I grinned, having avoided the topic at hand, though when I looked up Tai was still looking at me. _Right, the edge of Mistral._ More or less where Raven's tribe should be operating. Glynda couldn't get word from Lionheart, but it's safe to assume that Mistral was fighting off their own Grimm attacks, and their territory has always been too large for them to cover. These edge towns should be huddled in fear and dying off quickly, not… doing well. _And them doing well should be attracting Raven, who_ should _be having a field day._ Lots of villages unprotected with no chance at help from the army or government?

These cites should be burning to the ground, either from Grimm or bandits.

And yet, it's been by far the most peaceful part of the journey. Something is up, and the look Tai's been giving me tells me that he's noticed it too. If something seems too good to be true, with my Semblance around, that's because it's about to flip on its head and make everything go to hell.

And my Semblance is usually so creative about it, too.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: If you paid attention to the intro quotes a few weeks back, you would have noticed that Roman and Neo did survive Vale. While roaming through downtown Vale in the Paladins they stored away _way_ back, they noticed a dog chasing a bird through the streets. Neo wanted to shoot them, but didn't, which is good; I wasn't planning to kill of Qrow and Zwei yet...**

 **We _were_ gonna get another scene from Amber's POV so that we could see what's going on with her and, maybe, see if she's being as forthcoming with Yang as Yang thinks. Guess that'll have to wait a week. Stupid Ikedawg43, not getting his writing done. So unprofessional. **

* * *

**Comment of the Week:** by _Ssj1998_

"Ok I got nothing to really comment about in the grand scheme of things but I got to know is Amber seriously sleeping around with people in Pyhra's body or is it just a joke to mess with Yang because if it's true I am disturbed by that and if that was your intention for readers then well done.

In all seriousness though I'm enjoying the story so far and I am looking forward to your next update so keep up the good work."

 **Okay yeah I was just gonna let the Amber scene that I had planned this week take care of this, but since that didn't make this chapter, I'll throw ya a bone here. _Yeah_ , it's kinda weird. To Yang and Jaune, who are stuck living in a very weird situation of their own making right now, maybe it's not as weird as it should be. _Any time the Discord likes an arrangement, that arrangement is probably weird._ **

**There is a point to that. Not necessarily to disturb readers, though it should stick out as unhealthy. Amber's POV will give us a better dive into it, but in the meantime, draw back on Amber and Yang's conversation up on the guard tower. Amber's having a hard time telling herself apart from Pyrrha, and knows of at least _one_ thing Pyrrha would never do. So... might as well commit to that, right? **

**Also, Amber's exaggerating her body count to mess with Yang. If you're worried that it's weird, don't be. It's weird. It's also funny to me to write. But it _does_ have a point, and not just to give in to the depraved cretins of my Discord. **

**However, with that said...**

* * *

 _Not_ an Omake

* * *

Night had fallen, and since Yang had never come to find Amber, she figured that they weren't doing anything for the tribe tonight. She instead wandered around the camp, finding someone cooking food over a fire and taking some because everyone knew _don't mess with Raven's special guest._

With that done, she figured she might as well head back to the house. Who knows where Yang and Jaune got off to, but there weren't prizes for guessing _what_ they got up to. As funny as it would be to crash their party, Yang would never forgive her if she intentionally walked in on them. Instead, she would just go to her room upstairs, and leave them downstairs, if they were even inside.

All was quiet as Amber walked up the front steps and opened the door, keeping her eyes down to make sure she didn't trip as she walked inside. When she looked up-

Amber blinked repeatedly. Jaune and Yang were right there, in the middle of the living room, going at it hard. That was... that was something, to be sure. Yang was on her back on the couch and Jaune was crouched on his knees at her base, but that wasn't what Amber's eyes were stuck on. It wasn't anything she found bouncing either, or anything she had always teased Yang about trying to get a look at.

She was staring at the third person who was joining in. Amber didn't know the person, but whoever it was instantly became Amber's number one most hated rival. Amber was only mostly kidding about her threesome jokes because she knew that Yang was set against the idea, but _this person_ had somehow changed her mind. Hell, it was even worse that it wasn't another guy; no, Yang had some other chick sitting on her face. _And she didn't even have anywhere close to Amber's current features, the fuck!?_

Amber took a step forward and her fists clenched angrily, and she wasn't quite sure what she was about to do. In a critical moment, right as Amber got to the foot of the couch, she made her decision. If that's how Yang wanted to do things, then this bitch was about to turn into a foursome. Amber's top came off angrily, not an adjective she'd ever have thought would describe that action. She reached out to pin the girl sitting on Yang's face against the couch and announce her presence-

Amber about jumped out of her skin when the girl shattered into glass in Amber's hands. Jaune and Yang shattered into nothing too, leaving a topless Amber horny, angry, and confused as fuck.

Someone around the corner was laughing their ass off, too.


	61. The flashes

**Author's Note: Ah, finals. Fun times, no?**

 **Sorry for the missed chapter last week. I had, like, one-third of this chapter done by Saturday night last week and it just wasn't going to make it without being rushed. That was the week when _every_ freaking class had a project or a paper due because Finals began this week. I've only got one more, though, so here's to that.**

 **I tried updating the header of last week's chapter to let everyone know that there wouldn't be an upload. When in doubt, you can always follow the Discord link and then DM me about it. I answer those much more reliably than PM's on this site.**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **That was a really subtle Discord advertisement, huh? :D**

* * *

 **Chapter 58:** _"Yang, I promise you that I don't feel her Aura. There's no way to bring her back." – Amber_

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

I have no doubt that there will be some repercussions for the stunt Jaune and Neo pulled on Amber last night. Sure, I wasn't involved with planning it or coming up with it, but I _was_ complicit, and I was there for it. _Hey, someone has to be there to make sure that things didn't get out of hand and turn Neo's projection into a prophesy, and somehow, I just don't trust Jaune or Neo with that._ If I needed any proof that Amber was including me in the list of people she was going to get back at, there was the flat glare she sent around the room split evenly between Neo, Jaune, and me. I doubt she even heard what was being discussed.

Actually, it just occurred to me that Neo now knows exactly where Jaune and I live now. _That can't end well, can it?_ Jaune always seems dismissive of Neo's murderous actions—seems to treat it as a sort of greeting, or a friendly gesture. Considering what my life is and who I work for now, that really shouldn't seem as weird as it does. We'll… _probably_ be fine. Probably. As long as Neo doesn't really have any real issue with Jaune or me, and certainly nothing worth murdering us in our sleep over—

Well, except that we used to use her apartment for hookups. She might not like that.

That was only for a week or two, though. Fortunately, the Fall of Vale kept us from using her place for too long, and we never got caught; Jaune was always pretty insistent that we at least clean up. He seemed at least mildly concerned that Neo would get angry if she found out… or if she wouldn't get angry, he was concerned with _however_ she might react. _We were discrete, right?_ She doesn't know.

…she might suspect. I mean, it's not _hard_ to guess what two teens would do with an apartment if given free reign. The math there is pretty simple: one plus one equals us banging. _And pray that no multiplication happens…_ Doesn't really matter if she suspects it, because everyone would suspect it anyways. That's not murder-in-our-sleep worthy. As long as we didn't give it away, we're in the clear.

… _then again, I kept it secret from my team until, what, the very first morning after?_ But that's only because I called them while the place was still a mess and they figured it out! Surely I haven't given it away to Neo, too.

Warily, I watched Neo, completely ignoring Raven's breakdown of the operation we were about to do. It's just some Dust retrieval, nothing about it is more important than finding out what Neo knows. The short girl in question caught me staring and held my gaze for a few moments, her eyes narrowing suspiciously as we tried to read each other. After a moment, Neo made a conscious decision to change her expression, first giving me an annoying glare, then shifting her eyes to Jaune, and finally coming back to me with a subtle, smug expression, topped off with a malicious grin.

 _Okay, she might know._ Shit. We must just not be nearly as sneaky as we think we are, though I can't think of anything we might have left behind that would give it away. I mean, she was in Beacon the whole time anyways, so it's not like she ever had time to go check on the place. And it's not like she had cameras in the—

 _No._

I looked to Neo again, who still wore that smug grin but refused to look over at me, pretending to suddenly be _oh_ so interested in what Raven was explaining. A chill ran down my spine.

I never _saw_ any cameras, and I at least checked for the obvious security cameras you see in the corners of rooms. If I didn't check nervously the first time I was there, then I certainly would have glanced around at least once or twice in the subsequent times Jaune and I went there. Unless the cameras were hidden—what am I saying? Of course any cameras Neo would have would be hidden. Torchwick would have hidden cameras just as a good business practice, and Neo would have them for… who the hell knows. Nefarious purposes, for sure.

 _In hindsight, it did seem odd how… accurate Neo's projection last night was…_

"We're changing the locks tonight," I whispered to Jaune, keeping my eyes on Neo, for all the good that would do me if she were a projection right now.

" _Huh?_ " Jaune whispered back, confused. "But we don't even lock the doors—"

"Might just be safer to switch houses; let Amber have that one to herself. Maybe even use her as a decoy," I mumbled back under my breath, thinking out loud more than anything. Jaune was completely lost, and settled on giving me a look that told me just that. I didn't take my eyes off of Neo for long, though. "I'll tell you later."

"If you're taking Jaune and Yang, what am I going to do?" Amber called out to Raven, which only caught my attention because I heard my name.

"I actually have something else in mind for Yang, but with both of them busy, you'll have to lay low for the day. I'll leave you in command of the fort while we're gone," Raven answered, with a hint of tension as she and Amber locked eyes. "If that is agreeable, that is."

They didn't interact typically unless they had to, mostly because of the awkward position they had each other in. Amber wasn't a member of Raven's tribe and wasn't following her for any reason like that, and could technically walk whenever she wanted. Without her Aura, she was significantly weaker than Raven, which meant if she tried to leave, Raven _could_ stop her or even kill her; she wouldn't want to risk Fall's powers falling into Salem's hands, or maybe not even Ozpin's. It was unspoken, but we all knew that Raven wouldn't make a move against Amber as long as Jaune and I were here; Jaune might be engaging with Raven more now, but it's been no secret that I haven't been receptive.

On the flip side, Amber barely had thirty percent of her Aura available to her now. Without Beacon, Amber would be an easy target for anyone looking for Maiden's powers. It wouldn't be safe for her to roam the wilds of Vale like she used to from what Raven knew of her before. She stuck around for now because it was mutually-beneficial. Raven got to employ a second Maiden, and Amber got her own personal security detail and a safe place to sleep, not to mention a decent paycheck thrown in to keep things smooth between them. Since Vernal is already suspected to be the Spring Maiden, Amber has the opportunity to hide behind that; if people come hunting for a Maiden, they'll be looking for Vernal, and will miss both Raven and Amber. The fact that we were in the farthest reaches of Mistral's forests helped too, because it means that not too many people come out this way. Mostly just flyover territory.

That didn't mean everything was smooth, but it worked. For now.

"That's fine with me. I could use a bit of a day off," Amber answered back after a few tense moments between her and Raven.

"Good," Raven added on, turning her attention to Jaune. "Get everyone ready. I'll go to Patch and then make my way over to Vale." She flicked her eyes cautiously to Roman and Neo, careful not to mention that she would fly over.

"Got it," Jaune answered with a nod, slipping away quietly. Roman and Neo followed him when he motioned for them to do so.

"You ready, Yang?" Raven asked once we were the only ones left in her tent.

"I'll be honest, I wasn't listening that whole time," I answered glibly. "What am I supposed to do exactly?"

Raven looked annoyed, but not very much. Definitely not surprised. "We've been tracking some Huntsmen who have been passing through my territory; apparently they crossed the straights from Vale to Mistral recently. I normally wouldn't mind the free help, but they've been stirring up a little bit of trouble in all the towns they've stopped at."

"What do you want me to do about it?"

"I want you to convince them to stop causing trouble," Raven replied with a smirk, nodding down towards my weapons. Something immediately felt off about the whole thing, but I couldn't figure out exactly what. She wouldn't be sending just me if she didn't already know that I would be enough to handle it, but she said that it was Hunts _men_ that were causing problems.

"Oh, great. Any suggestions on how to do that?"

"Non-violently," Raven answered smugly. "Or violently. Your call, really."

For all her normal arrogance, she was typically pretty serious when it came to operations or missions for the Tribe. Jaune probably got that from her, because he was incredibly similar; aggravatingly so, sometimes. When things got serious, Jaune locked in and shut up, and the fact that Raven was still so cocky was… suspicious.

"Fine. Let's go get this over with," I called out, deciding the fastest way to find out what she was up to was to go ahead and do it. "Where are you dropping me off at, Vernal's outpost or something?"

"Aren't you forgetting something?"

" _No_."

"Oh?" Raven cooed, walking over to the table and grabbing a Grimm mask similar to her own. "It looks to me like you're forgetting this."

Raven tossed the Grimm mask to me, and I made a point of not moving to catch it. It bounced off my leather coat harmlessly and fell to the ground.

"I'm already wearing your stupid colors; I'm _not_ putting on your stupid mask," I growled. I had mostly escaped from having to wear any sort of uniform when Raven required that her Tribe start to look the part that they were playing. A bunch of former hooligans weren't exactly keen on wearing real uniforms anyways, so instead they mostly just stuck to wearing the right colors—red and black, go figure. Raven did give out leather jackets to her lieutenants so that the towns paying us could identify who was in charge, but fortunately Jaune, Amber, and I were exempt from that. Hell, not even Vernal would be roped into that.

We did end up at least adopting a little bit of the colors, and I only agreed because Jaune insisted. Amber joined his side, but only to piss me off; she didn't end up wearing any colors, exempt because she 'isn't part of the Tribe.' I ended up wearing what I would have chosen to wear anyways, with only a few minor tweaks. A long leather coat that was zipped only halfway up my front, flowing out behind me to my knees with a split in the bottom middle for more flexibility. Combat leggings tucked into knee-high combat boots, and a pair of aviators when I really wanted to kill it. The only way you could tell I was even associated with the Tribe was the top I wore under the jacket, where I swapped out my orange for red—and I made sure to keep the jacket clasped in the front to obscure most of that red top. That and a red bandana tied at the top of one of my boots were as far as I would be pushed, and I stuck my foot down after that.

It looked good, too, which pissed me off. Ember Cilicia's shells were red, so I already had a yellow-red mix in my combat outfit anyways. The top and the bandana anchored it nicely, and went well with my eyes when I got angry. _It looked good enough that I got talked into wearing a little bit of Raven's colors full time._

"Wear the mask, Yang," Raven responded a bit sternly. "These _are_ Huntsmen. If things go south, I get the feeling you wouldn't want them knowing your face. That's how bounties get put out, you know…"

"What, like I'm not already part of a rogue militia?"

"What would your father say if he stumbled across a wanted poster for his daughter?" Raven asked, giving me an obnoxious smirk that made it clear she was trying to get a rise out of me.

"What any father would say, probably. The real question is what would my mother say…" I grumbled back.

"She'd probably be proud," Raven answered with a short laugh. "Hell, she might just turn you in for the bounty herself."

"She sounds like a bitch," I grumbled bitterly, not really wanting to admit defeat as I bent over and snatched the mask off the ground agitatedly.

"Oh, she is," Raven answered freely. "Just wear the stupid mask, okay? Is that so difficult?"

"Fine." I pulled the stupid mask over my head, before spending a good few seconds trying to pull all of my hair through the band in the back that secured the mask, so that it didn't sit on top of my hair and leave a wrinkle when I took it off. " _There._ Happy?"

Raven shrugged, before drawing her sword and swinging open a portal.

"How am I going to find them?" I asked Raven as I approached the portal. "Does the group you're dropping me off at have their location?"

Raven smirked at me, which just made me even more leery of what she had planned here. "You'll see."

She nodded towards the portal, but I stared her down for a few more moments. This mask was big enough to hide my expression, but I felt like it did a pretty good job of getting across the flat glare I was giving her.

"Take your time. I'll be in touch when I'm ready to pick you back up," Raven called out, holding her scroll up to make a point. That told me that she at least expected me to stay within range of our private network, which narrowed down the list of things this could be somewhat.

I shook whatever I was concerned about off my mind as I turned and made myself walk through the portal. I kept my left hand on the top of the pommel of Jaune's Crocea Mors, mostly to appear casual but also to subtly prepare myself should something go wrong here.

I walked out of the portal and immediately realized that Raven was not dropping me off in one of the garrisons we keep at the towns we protect, as I stepped through onto grass. There was no sunlight, which I found was because I was in the shade of the forest. What really gave it away was that the first thing I noticed were the several people pointing weapons at me, all spread around to attack whatever stepped out of Raven's portal.

They hesitated, though. Everyone looked confused, counting myself, though I doubted they could see it through the giant Grimm mask.

"… _Yang?_ "

"…Ruby? _Dad?_ " I asked back, equally as confused. I whipped my head around to ask Raven why the hell she hadn't included a very important fact about _who_ the Huntsmen I was confronting were, but the portal was closed shut. I imaged Raven was laughing at me right now.

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

"Where's Yang?" I called out as Raven approached us, more out of curiosity than anything.

"I told you that I had something for her during the briefing," Raven answered, a bit agitated.

"Yeah, wasn't listening," I responded with a shrug of my shoulders, which irritated Raven a little further. Yang had distracted me there for a bit, not that I'd explain that and ruin Raven's bad mood.

Raven huffed indignantly, no doubt wondering if strangling me in my sleep was worth it after all the work she did to get me back here. "Huntsmen problem out near the western towns. I'm having her handle it."

"Huntsmen?" I repeated, the word sounding odd to say. The Tribe operates exclusively in the farthest territory of Mistral and was probably closer to Vale's capital than Mistral's despite the sea between them, so our western-most towns would be as far from civilization as you could get on the mainland. _Why the hell would a Huntsmen go there?_ "Anything to worry about?"

"Aww, look how adorable he is, getting all worried about his little girlfriend…"

"Not helping, Amber," I shot back without looking. Raven's bad mood had evaporated though, and she had failed to hide a grin at the mockery.

" _Hey!_ " Another voice that sounded even more like Amber than the first had—if that makes sense—called back indignantly. "What the hell? _I_ didn't do anything."

I turned around to see Amber was sitting on a crate and watching all of us prep for our 'mission,' while Vernal was standing behind me with her arms crossed. Both were giving me angry, flat looks.

"I sound nothing like her," Vernal grumbled threateningly.

"You'd be lucky to," Amber sniped at Vernal, earning an actual glare from her. Amber returned the glare with an over-dramatic sneer, and for a moment I felt like I was about to have a cat fight on my hands.

"Am I missing something?"

"No," they both answered—read: _lied_ —in unison, eager to shift their ire at me.

"We'll discuss it more later," Raven jumped back in, clearly just as eager as I was to ignore Amber and Vernal. " _I_ don't plan on doing any manual labor, so we can talk while everyone else carries dust. Call it standing guard or something."

"Wow, what an inspirational leader you are."

"Hey, leadership is about knowing how to lead the people under you. The people under me happen to be motivated by money and the fear of death," Raven explained with a crooked grin. "I'm just _really_ good at providing those two things."

Raven made a point to make eye-contact with me while still wearing that grin, forcing me to roll my eyes and give in.

"Just make sure they're ready in time," she called out, before drawing her sword and cutting a portal open to Patch. She disappeared into moments later.

" _Now kid,_ " Roman's voice called out from nearby, just close enough to have overheard us. He was leaning against the wall of one of the houses, taking advantage of the shade; Neo was probably somewhere around, and I made a point to keep my Aura up a little more than usual. "I remember you telling me that she's got portals to specific people. You trying to tell me that she's got agents all the way in Vale _now?_ "

"She's got a permanent portal to Patch, which is close enough that she can—" I cut myself off before giving away that Raven would be _flying_ over to the mainland, "—make her way to downtown."

"Permanent?" Roman asked, sticking on the word. "What, does she have someone chained to a post there or something?"

 _I might not put it past her._ "Her old teammate is buried there. Portal still works for… some reason."

"Convenient," Amber drawled mockingly. I shrugged; she wasn't wrong. Everything seemed to work out in Raven's favor recently, though it could just seem that way because Beacon worked out the best for her.

"Please just shut up," Vernal shot back, not passing a chance to go at it with Amber again.

"You're just mad that you lost the bet."

My ears perked up. Roman, for all he was acting like he was trying to ignore us, perked up too.

"No, I'm mad that you cashed it in for such a stupid thing," Vernal grumbled back, all but confirming the existence of some bet between the two.

"I am almost afraid to ask this, but _what_ bet?"

Amber and Vernal's eyes met for a moment. Despite their animosity, they both silently agreed in one look that they weren't going to answer that.

"That's not important."

"Yeah, what's important is that Vernal lost," Amber added on, cutting her eyes at Vernal coyly. "And what went along with that."

"Which was…?"

"Not import—"

"If Yang asks, I have to pretend that I slept with Amber," Vernal cut Amber off, taking pleasure in ratting out Amber. "Something about making Yang uncomfortable and my haircut being perfect for it. I don't know, I think it's weird, but what can I say…"

"You could _not_ say that," Amber growled in defeat. "Telling Jaune's as good as telling Yang. You basically just ruined it."

"Oh? _Did I?_ " Vernal responded snarkily.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Roman shake his head and walk off somewhere else. That he didn't take me with him was something I might not forgive him for.

"Amber, _why_ do you want Yang to think you slept with Vernal?" I asked, while silently asking myself what I had done in my life to deserve having to ask such a question.

"Eh," Amber answered with a shrug. "To mess with her, I guess. It kinda bothers her to think about me sleeping around like crazy in Pyrrha's body."

 _Gee, I wonder why._ "You mean you're not?" I asked, focusing in on the only part of what she said that didn't make me feel guilty.

"Eh," Amber shrugged again, mimicking her earlier response. "I mean, I am a little, yeah. Just not the massive body count that Yang fears."

"…you're a terrible person, you know that?" I teased, giving her a flat voice.

"You _stabbed_ me," she retorted, locking me up.

"You guys are fucked up," Vernal announced, pretending to be disgusted. "I'm going to actually make sure we're ready. Please don't join me."

"Oh look, the short-haired bitch is running away from me again!" Amber called out with a parting jab. "Maybe she's off to learn how to make better bets."

"Whatever, at least I'm not living someone else's life for them," Vernal cut back with a venomous grin, her voice lacking any real indications that she was kidding around now, " _Amber_."

"Are you sure about that?" Amber responded icily, her eyes locking onto Vernal's hard. "Your entire purpose is to be a decoy Maiden, right? Vernal was the last Spring Maiden's name, right? You're called Vernal so that if they ever came looking, it would be obvious that you were the Maiden. Do you even _remember_ your real name?"

Vernal returned Amber's icy glare, the two women unmoving now as they stared each other down.

"My name was Vernal _before_ I joined the Tribe," Vernal spat out angrily.

"Oh, so you had the same name as the previous Maiden? Is _that_ why Raven let you join?"

A fist clenched at Vernal's side subtly, and just as subtly it was disbanded. She didn't answer the question, though. Vernal turned and walked off, and dust help whatever poor soul she came across first.

I turned to Amber to calm her down before things got out of control.

"I like her," Amber announced, watching Vernal walk off with a curious expression, before turning to me and giving me a grin. It felt like a put-on grin, but at this point, I wasn't sure what to think about anything.

" _You do?_ " I asked, confused, before just resigning myself to not understanding anything about anything and just trying to move on to less-crazy things. "Of course you do. What did I ever do to deserve all this?"

Amber give me a flat look, before pulling up her top to expose her ribs and a small amount of underboob. More importantly, it exposed the feint scar that persisted from my dagger. My Semblance normally didn't leave scars unless it was interrupted, and Raven and I had only initially healed Pyrrha enough to transport her to the Tribe. The scar's existence mocked me, both in that it was created and that it wasn't healed.

"…right..."

* * *

Amber's POV

* * *

Amber watched from nearby as Raven's portal opened up next to Jaune. The first step was to find the dust stores and clear them of any minor Grimm, and then open up a portal to start transferring it. For all his sarcasm, once something needed to be done, Jaune sobered up quickly. Armor dawned, sword strapped to his back, and an emotionless mask for a face, he didn't look out of place giving orders, and even Roman Torchwick saw fit to go along with them. It was impressive, if—

 _Admiration. Strength. Power. Powerful. Admire. what could be. what could have been. Jaune. Friend. Partner. Enemy? Betray? Regret. Sorrow—_

 _Not now_ , Amber groaned to herself. She kept a grip on things, literally, as the hand at her side clenched tightly and helped her focus. These little flashes she got often, but it had been days since one was that strong. The verbal spar with Vernal had been fun, but despite playing it off well, Vernal had gotten under her skin with that line about living in someone else's life; stirred up some things Amber had spent time quashing down. Amber would need a chance to clear her head, but that could wait until it wouldn't be interrupted.

Jaune walked forward with Torchwick and the little chick that occupied the number one spot on Amber's shitlist, and the portal closed behind them, off to follow Torchwick to his warehouses. With Jaune, Yang, and Raven all gone, Amber would finally have some time to be alone and work through some things. Vernal would still be here, but she was Raven's portal access, meaning that she had to be in the center of the camp with the men on standby. She wouldn't follow Amber around, even if she wanted to.

Amber decided to get lost in the nearby trees. She didn't end up all that far from the camp, but it was out of sight and out of earshot, which was what mattered. She just wanted some time alone to sulk, to think, and to clear her head.

She hated this new life.

 _Not the people in it,_ she was always quick to add on, lest her thoughts somehow be heard by someone. In truth, she really didn't mind most the people here. She found that she settled in with them easily, although a lot of their past deeds angered her when described to her; they were currently too busy protecting their charges to loot, pillage, and murder other settlements, and as long as that held, Amber found she fit in fine. From what Raven had known Amber's previous life—of _Amber_ , not the amalgamation she was now—she was nomadic herself. She refused to be tied down to a city and preferred wandering the wilds, destroying Grimm along the way. It seemed to make sense that taking up with Raven's Tribe didn't make her miserable, as it was close to her previous life. She _was_ tied down, and she resented that, but Amber and Raven both knew that Raven wasn't what was tying Amber down here. Without regenerative Aura, Amber was too weak to travel the wilds on her own.

More than just not hating, Amber actively liked Jaune and Yang, Yang especially. Jaune was nice enough, though he treated her strangely out of guilt and he was clearly going through some sort of identity crisis—even if Yang hadn't confided in her, Amber still would have been able to pick up on that. Yang and Raven were playing tug-of-war with his heart and his mind, and Amber was cheering for Yang there, though she was afraid that Yang wasn't winning. As for Yang specifically, Amber really liked Yang. The pact the two had made hadn't been forgotten by either of them; Amber served as a sounding-board for Yang's struggle against Raven, and Yang was Amber greatest ally. They had become friends, and were both legitimately invested in each other's outcome.

And that was nice. Yang was supportive of Amber being _Amber_ , even when it was awkward for her. It was no secret that it was hard watching someone else live in Pyrrha's body, but Yang made a noticeable effort to get past that. She understood that Amber wanted to do things that Pyrrha wouldn't, so that she could feel like her own person, and she tried to help. She clearly didn't _like_ it, but she did act as a wingwoman on one or two occasions. It was clear that the former Amber who wandered around Vale was no stranger to waking up with one, and even more clear that Pyrrha had no experience there whatsoever, but hookups had been yielding diminishing returns. It did help, both in that it helped her feel separate from Pyrrha and that she just enjoyed the act, but the more she did it, the worse she felt about it. Yang— _her friend_ —was bothered by it, and that was enough to make Amber slow it down. It just felt scummy to do it when it was clearly bothering Yang. To make up for not sleeping around as much, Amber made sure to tease Yang about it constantly, which was almost as fun.

 _Friend. Yang. Trust. Nice. Rival._ _she wanted jaune. i wanted jaune. jaune chose. wasn't chosen. Gracious. Helpful. Honest. Yang. Friend._

Amber took a seat on the cool grass, crossed her legs, and let out a sharp breath to focus herself.

The problem was that Yang was also Pyrrha's friend. Yang did so much to try to help Amber recover, and was always insistent that they exercise Aura to see if they could make a breakthrough. Yang wasn't just hoping for Amber's Aura to regenerate, or for her to recover to 100% instead of 50%; she was pretty clear that she was hoping that they could recover Pyrrha, too. A best of both worlds, according to Yang, where Pyrrha's Aura would recover as well. Yang sold it well, saying that maybe it would allow Amber to use two different Auras to protect herself, but it was clear that Yang was hoping that Pyrrha Nikos would come back. She wouldn't say it directly to Amber and she wouldn't want for Pyrrha to override Amber, but she was clearly hoping for some sort of split-personality situation. Yang wanted there to exist both Amber and Pyrrha, sharing control over the same body, because that would be the best outcome for Yang, and for Jaune, and for all of their friends.

 _Struggle. Writhe. Trapped. Fear. Despair. Anger._ miss goodwitch can't save me. the grimm is going to hurt me. the power still struggles against me. Struggle. Conflict. Trapped. Why? Why Trapped? the grimm died as the power stopped struggling. it stopped resisting when we were both in trouble. Together. Control. Work Together. but i am in control. Together. Control.

Yang was not as far off about that as she thought, and Amber hated it.

Ever since waking up, Amber had been getting... flashes. They were incoherent, jumbled blurbs of Pyrrha's memories and feelings, all hitting Amber like a gentle wave against the shore. Amber _hated_ the flashes. She hated that with every memory she relived and every emotion that wasn't hers that she experienced, she was reminded that this wasn't her body. That this life was not hers. A constant reminder that she should be dead and that it was an accident that she was alive.

The flashes never lasted more than a second, and Amber never reacted to them. To anyone looking on, it looked like Amber had spaced out or stared off at something random, and that was only on the off-chance they noticed at all. They hadn't notice yet, and Amber suspected that they wouldn't. She was afraid that Jaune might have noticed something during spars. When Amber fought, she tapped into Pyrrha's muscle memory often, and the highest intensity and frequency of the 'flashes' occurred during spars, too. Amber had already relived several of Pyrrha's combat memories this way, and she thought that Jaune would have picked up on it via his Semblance. He could have picked up on errant spikes of emotions coming from a flash, or worse, there was a chance that he would notice the flash itself. If it was Pyrrha's Aura struggling to be free, then Jaune would be the worst person to let see that.

Fortunately, he hadn't noticed it yet, which meant he wasn't likely to. Yang described Jaune's Semblance as an intimate bond, but it had always felt distant whenever he was using it with Amber. Amber suspected he just didn't—

 _Connection. Warmth. Security. Welcome._ his semblance is incredible. i would not mind working on it more. Bond. Bonding. Bonded. Connected.

—that he didn't _want_ to connect with Amber. He still felt bad about what he did to Pyrrha, so Amber could see why he wouldn't want to bond with Pyrrha's body only to find a stranger's soul.

Still, she felt that if Pyrrha's Aura was still there, he would have noticed it. Amber had theories about what was going on, but they were just that: theories. None of them fully explained why Pyrrha's Aura was no where to be found, or why Amber's Aura wasn't regenerating, or why Amber still got flashes from Pyrrha. If the flashes were just stray memories being kicked up, then that might make it easier. They weren't. She knew they weren't. They felt too real; the emotions felt too intense for this to have no Aura aspect to it.

Pyrrha wasn't there, but she was… trying to be, as best as Amber could tell. Her Aura was gone but it was trying to regenerate—because hey, why not, Aura breaks all the time. It breaks and it heals back, except when some mad science experiment places another Aura on top of it to suppress it.

Cold. Scared. Tricked. Caught. Second-Guessing _ozpin made me do this, but i'm scared of what will happen._ Power. Confusion. Fear. Uncertainty. _what if the transfer goes wrong?_ Prophetic.

All of this is an accident. A byproduct. An unforeseen consequence of a desperate and never-before-tried procedure. Amber wasn't _supposed_ to be alive. Amber's Aura was supposed to be gifted to Pyrrha to wield as a weapon, so that Pyrrha could live her life and use Amber for her own means. Pyrrha was the one that was supposed to be in control. They never could have known what would happen when they tried, but it was intended that Amber and Pyrrha would not be on equal footing. There was supposed to be an imbalance built in. They just didn't realize which way that imbalance would tip.

Realization. Dawning. i can use her powers when i'm scared or threatened. Planning. Thinking. Plotting. those powers killed that ursa easily. Planning. Power. Mine?

Amber didn't even remember that memory herself. She'd seen through Pyrrha's memory that Pyrrha had used Amber to summon the Maiden's fires, but Amber didn't remember that. Amber hadn't been conscious for that. _So neither is Pyrrha now_. She's not trying to regain control on purpose. But she _is_ trying. Her Aura or her body or something has been fighting Amber for control this whole time, and Amber hates it. Amber's control has been solid but she hates feeling like a parasite. Something deep inside her tells her that she has stolen Pyrrha's body and life, but she doesn't even know if that thought comes from herself or from Pyrrha. And she hates that. She hates not knowing if her thoughts, her feelings, her experiences, her emotions… she hates not knowing if they are her own or not. It makes her miserable, makes her want to do drastic things to avoid the feeling.

Despite all this, Amber doesn't _want_ to give this up. She almost died once, and she's been given a second life here. It's unfair to both her and Pyrrha but life is unfair and Amber wants to live, desperately.

Desire. Help! Fear. Grief. Shock. Despair. i'm sorry. i didn't mean for this, you have to believe me. i deserve this. don't leave me like this, jaune. Outrage. Sullenness. Resignment. Resentment. Regret. Unfair. Unfair! UNFAIR! WHY?!

But Amber doesn't want to live in subservience, either. This past month of struggling to know if she was in control of her own experiences taught her that she can't stand the thought of losing her free will. She fears that more than death. She fears surviving as a slave or a sidekick inside someone else's body. She fears not having that control and it disgusts her to think about and she _hates it._ Amber doesn't care that Pyrrha is going through that right now; _she_ didn't put Pyrrha in this position. Amber didn't ask to be ambushed, she didn't ask to be comatose, she didn't ask to have her Aura ripped from her body and crammed into a new host. Amber never meant to put Pyrrha in that position, but letting Pyrrha out means risking Amber being put in that position, and that is unacceptable. It could make her a terrible person to say so, but she doesn't care. She didn't put Pyrrha there, but she'll keep her there if she can.

Besides, she only had about thirty percent of her Aura left. She's a Maiden and wears one of Mistral's most recognizable faces. Someone would come for her. They would die for their efforts, but even a scratch would make it easier for the next person. For now, Amber had trapped herself in an agreement with Raven: protection in exchange for her services. Raven made Amber nervous, though; she wasn't the type of person to protect Amber to the bitter end over a simple business arrangement. If Amber's Aura ran low, she wouldn't be surprised to find Raven's sword in her back at some point.

Blood. Sorrow. Shock. Shock! Pain! Despair. a dagger sticking out of my ribs. blood running down my front, pooling in my lungs. Regret. Shock. Pain. Shame. jaune's face burned into my mind. I'm Sorry. Why?

Either Salem would end her or Raven would. Hell, maybe she'd be surprised by who it was; she had been told that Ozpin would reincarnate, so there was that to watch out for too. Amber was going to die soon, barring a miracle that she honestly did not have any hope for. She had made her peace with that. She just wanted to be Amber until that happened. Maybe it _was_ wrong for her to steal Pyrrha's body, but as far as Amber was concerned, Pyrrha died when Jaune stabbed her. Amber was going to use her body for a month or two, and would end up joining Pyrrha soon enough. Where was the harm there?

The excuses satisfied her enough that she could sleep at night. Amber had to make sure Yang didn't find out, though, because she just knew that those excuses would fall flat to Yang. Yang would want Amber to experiment with bringing Pyrrha back. She'd call Amber a coward for not willing to risk Pyrrha taking control back if it meant that they'd both survive longer, and she wouldn't be wrong. But Yang didn't know what it was like to spend every day living as someone who wasn't supposed to live, as someone who was unwanted.

Amber did. Amber hated every second of it, but Amber wouldn't let that ruin her last gasp of life. She'd take what she can get, and fight to claw down Pyrrha's memories and feelings so she could be her own damn person for just a little bit. She'd—

"Hi there."

Amber's eyes shot open. Ahead of her, rounding a tree, was a man she'd never seen before. Sidearm on his hip, oversized battle axe slung over his shoulder; _huntsman._ To her right, she saw two more, a man and a woman. To her left, a third man. They were giving her space, but Amber's instincts screamed that they were surrounding her.

"Hello," Amber returned cordially, remaining seated on the forest floor. She projected calm, intentionally. They weren't here to ambush her, otherwise they'd have attacked without announcing themselves; she hadn't noticed their arrival, after all. They might just be fanning out around her as standard practice, since they didn't know if she was hostile. She still wore a sword and shield across her back, and though without Pyrrha's Semblance, she would prefer not to fight a 4v1. "Can I help you guys?"

"What are you doing out here alone?" The woman asked, with a bit of genuine concern in her voice. "You a huntress?"

"Yes," Amber answered cautiously, though she made sure that she didn't _seem_ like she was being cautious. "I was just clearing my head. The forest is calm this time of day."

"What type of huntress are you?" the first one to have spoken asked. He was being cautious and it was obvious. "What are you doing out in this part of Mistral?"

 _This part_ referring to Raven's territory, she assumed. It would make sense that anyone you found wandering this fringe of Mistral would be working for Raven, and the fact that Amber didn't have any camping supplies with her made it clear that she was sleeping somewhere nearby. They all had their gear on their backs.

"Lay off, Hess. She's just a kid," the lone dude to Amber's left called out. "You do look familiar. What's your name, princess?"

Amber had conflicting urges to blush and tear the man's head off on the spot for the nickname. She'd been spending too much time with Yang.

"Pyrrha," Amber lied, noting that the dude might have recognized her. His eyes lit up in recognition a moment later.

"Like Pyrrha Nikos?" The dude on Amber's right called out. "No way. You beat my little brother in a tournament last year. Kicked his ass, actually. You remember a kid with purple hair who fought with a giant pickaxe?"

"Uh… no?"

"You wouldn't," the woman called out, jabbing the man in the ribs. "His brother sucks."

"Hey, I taught him everything I know!"

" _We know,_ " the group answered in unison.

"You mind if I ask what you're doing out here?" Amber asked, not impatiently but a bit rudely. Her scroll was in her hand now, and she was trying to pull up Vernal's contact without making it obvious.

"Huntsmen mission," their leader answered, using that as an excuse not to answer the question further. "We're doing recon of the area for Haven. If we find anything, we're authorized to destroy. _Grimm_ , of course."

"Of course," Amber played along, tapping her scroll to begin dialing Vernal for backup.

"Is there anything you can tell us about the area? It would make things a lot easier for us," the man continued. "Is there a village nearby?"

"A village? Nope." Not a lie. It was more accurate to call it a fort than a village now.

"I was afraid of that," the man answered, making Amber freeze for a split-second. "From our maps, there used to be one, but we'd lost contact a few months ago. There's a nasty bandit tribe that comes through this area a lot. Sounds like the bastards took out the town."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Amber responded, slowly pushing herself to her feet and stretching innocuously. "I should be getting back, though. Good luck scouting."

"Getting back where?"

"Camp," she answered curtly. "The rest of my team is set up just west of here."

They all shared a suspicious glance at that, and Amber began to prepare herself for this to go south. Vernal should be on the way with reinforcements by now, and Amber had made sure to speak out what direction she was from the camp loudly enough for the scroll to pick it up. Unfortunately, it seemed that her guests picked up on that too, and they sure acted like they knew that the Tribe was set up to the west.

"You mind if we tag along?" The lone man to the left asked, stepping forward casually. Just casually enough that it wasn't _too_ obvious that he was closing in on Amber's flank.

"I do, actually," Amber answered, her patience beginning to run thin. _Vernal, hurry the fuck up._ "We're on a mission for school credit. If we get help from other huntsmen, that's going to hurt our grade…"

"Oh, really? I didn't realize that Beacon was still giving out grades, what with being destroyed and all," their leader cut back accusatorily. _Of course he would know that the famous Pyrrha Nikos went to Beacon._ The conversation had officially gone downhill. "You sure you're not a part of that tribe just around the corner?"

The one to her left and the two to her right had started to slowly drift further behind her. Subtlety was thrown out the window, as they were clearly trying to make sure she couldn't turn and run. It didn't take a genius to figure out that they weren't sent here to scout for Grimm; she was confident they were here to put eyes on the Tribe for Haven. If that were the case, they wouldn't afford her making it back to the Tribe to give them away.

"Technically, no."

Amber turned and acted like she was going to run, baiting the three people behind her to all jump forward and cut her off. They were too focused on putting themselves between Amber and her escape route to get their weapons up, and Amber's feint bought her the time to draw her sword off her back and slash into the Aura of the nearest one. The woman in the middle tried to cover her teammate by jabbing Amber with a trident, but Amber pulled her shield off her back in time to block it. Ice dust shot out in a burst from the tips of the trident, forming a chunk of ice that connected the trident and the shield. The woman yanked on the shield trying to off-balance Amber, but Amber let the shield go and the woman fell backwards from the effort.

Amber weakly feinted an attack on the downed woman and the two guys on either side of her stepped in to cut off her weapon with their own. It was a stupid reaction on their part, as they should have pushed Amber back by attacking her, not by committing to defend Amber's strike. The nearest one was made to pay with yet another large slash to his Aura.

 _They're not very good, but there are four of them._ She hadn't seen the fourth one yet, but the three in front of her were clearly on the low-end of huntsmen quality. Amber decided that she might just be able to string this along long enough for Vernal to show up without having to use any of her powers.

The fourth one joined the fight finally with his massive battle axe, telegraphing his strike from behind Amber with a grunt of exertion. Amber side-stepped just as the massive axe buried itself in the ground she had just been standing on, before spinning and slashing at the wielder's hands. He kept a grip on his weapon—the first smart move Amber had seen yet—but it took him so long to hoist it back up that Amber stepped in and delivered a nasty strike with her sword's guard right to his eye. The man stumbled backwards, giving Amber a little bit of space.

 _Come on, Vernal, any day now._

The woman was picking herself off the ground and the two other guys were charging Amber now. The one to her left had a broadsword with serrated teeth all the way up one side, and the other had a bastard sword that had an S-pattern to its edges. Amber stepped in and caught the left man's sword in the crook between her sword and her guard, delivering a knee to the attacker before disengaging in time to put her sword in front of her leg. The S-sword struck Amber's and pushed the flat of the blade up against Amber's thigh. He pulled back and tried to stab at Amber's torso, but Amber got her blade underneath and parried the attack up and over her right shoulder. This put her sword under and behind her opponents, leaving her with free reign to have her blade travel down her opponent and slice at his wrists.

She heard the footsteps of the woman and cut her attack short, though it was enough to make the dude drop the S-sword. She turned, ready to parry the woman's trident. Instead, her shield was blasted into her, as the trident switched from a burst of ice dust to a burst of fire dust. The shield impacted her with all the force of a car-door thrown from a skyscraper, leaving Amber dazed and flat on her back. She didn't even realize that she had lost the grip on her weapon somewhere along the way.

Amber's vision and thinking was a little hazy, but her—or Pyrrha's, impossible to know which—instincts were still sharp. She rolled to the side and made her way to her feet quickly. The one who had dropped the S-sword had drawn two daggers from his belt and was coming at her with them in a reverse grip. Her instincts were good but her ears were deaf from the ringing that getting smacked by a ballistic shield causes, and her vision and reactions were a little hazy. She dodged the first swipe and managed to catch the guy's wrist on his follow up, but couldn't force him to drop the weapon. His other dagger came up and swiped across what precious Aura Amber had, not that she had the wherewithal to know _why_ that was bad. She just knew that it was, and that her Aura was low, and that her opponent had reverted to a standard grip and was trying to stab her in the stomach with his dagger, and—

Fear. Realization. Chagrin. Abandonment. Dread. Dread! Please! he played me for this. he backed me against the wall for this. i need to stop that dagger! i barely have the aura to use my semblance. Desperation. Exertion. Stop. Stop! STOP! Panic. Nothing. Why? Exert More. Blank. WHY?Panic. Dread. Panic! Dread! Shock. i couldn't find his weapon. my semblance couldn't save me. jaune stabbed me. i'm going to die. please not like this. Fear. Terror. Shock. Pain. Despair.

"Not this time!"

Dazed or not, Amber's hand shot out, fueled by the rush of adrenaline that was caused by that flash. She caught the dagger in her hand, her Aura protecting her from the edge for now. To the man's surprise, she yanked it out of his grip before he knew what was going on. Her knee smashed into his crotch and his guard crumbled, allowing Amber to give in to her adrenaline and go berserk. With a quick twirl, the dagger was gripped properly in her hand and she tackled the man to the ground, stabbing at his stomach the whole time. He tried to fight back but Amber had pounced on him so quickly that he failed to keep up. His Aura sustained five jabs just underneath his ribs, but on the sixth he cried out in pain. Amber twisted the dagger, before pulling it out and stabbing him a second time.

And a third.

A hand caught her wrist before the fourth could land, and Amber dropped the dagger from her left hand and caught it with her right, spinning around point-first to stab whoever had caught her.

Vernal's other hand caught Amber's right wrist, and released Amber's left wrist to bitch-slap her across the face. Amber's vision swirled again, still not recovered from taking a shield to the face. As Amber came to, she realized that someone was trying to get her attention, and through her ringing ears she could faintly hear her name.

"Took you long enough," Amber groaned as she forced her eyes open. Vernal had arrived at some point since Amber had been knocked down, and her ears had rung too much to hear their arrival. A handful of men and women from the Tribe had the other three subdued, and Vernal was looking back and forth between Amber and Amber's victim, waiting for an explanation. "I'm fine," Amber said. She wasn't sure if it was a lie or not.

"What about him?"

"Him? _He_ attacked _me_. He's lucky he's alive."

Vernal looked over the man's wounds. One of the Tribe's members was trying to stop the bleeding, but the three very nasty wounds up and under the man's rib cage weren't pretty. "Might not be for long."

Amber shrugged, and Vernal was fine to let the conversation end. She started barking orders and soon enough the group began marching back to the camp with their prisoners in tow. Raven would want to question them herself.

Amber was fine, except for a headache that was coming on strong now. She told herself as much, though glancing at her scroll told her otherwise. Nine. _Nine percent_ Aura remaining. _Fuck._ She should have just roasted them all alive with her powers and saved the effort. They really weren't that good, and she _had_ the fight under control. She didn't think she'd need to use them there. That stupid trick with the shield may have just cost her weeks of survival time, maybe months.

And worse, the flashes were noticeably stronger now that she had less Aura to suppress them with.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Maybe not wandering off into the woods alone is a good idea. I don't understand why no one ever gets this.**

 **Real quick, on Yang's 'new' outfit: it's just her normal V4-V6 timeskip outfit with minor color swaps. If you want to picture what Yang looks like now, google her timeskip outfit, and then replace anywhere you see orange or purple with red. _Viola._ I thought about doing a quick photoshop and putting it up in the Discord, but I know that the moment I put effort into a picture on the Discord, someone is going to edit it... distastefully. **

**Which doesn't discourage me from** **doing it at all. I just don't have any software to swap color pallets with.**

 **There were some rather important tidbits in this chapter, some subtler than others. Raven is taking a risk by using Yang to deal with Tai and Qrow, Jaune probably won't like that once he finds out, and Amber is... well, poor Amber. It would be hard enough living out the rest of your shortened life in someone else's body, but being constantly reminded of it would be pretty torturous. The fact that even your friends sorta kinda wouldn't mind if Pyrrha came back certainly wouldn't help.**

 **And yeah, Amber's legs aren't a vacuum. That's not a ret-con so much as it was planned to be revealed that she was _mostly_ messing with Yang (the Vernal bit was planned, for instance). It was just supposed to be revealed last chapter. Look at it as Amber _would_ likely hook up a lot more if it didn't bother Yang (and somewhat Jaune), and she's not a _bad_ person, per se. **

**Per se.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _Avidreaded_

"Vale and Mistral are on different continents..."

 **...okay somehow you're the only person who caught this mistake? IDK I guess I hadn't looked at a map of Remnant in a while. Just always assumed that since RNJR's plan was to _walk from Vale to Mistral_ , then that meant they were all on the same big land mass. **

**Turns out, nope. There's a decent-sized straight between Vale and Mistral. That's been fixed a little in the chapter above. Fortunately, that's really not a huge plot hole or anything. Instead of walking, they walked and then took a ferry over.**

 **Still, embarrassing for me. _PM me with this stuff before you just announce it publicly, would ya?_ :P**

* * *

 **Also it looks like we have a new _best reviewer whose name starts with '_** _Avid_


	62. The man(?) in black

**Author's Note:** **Well, finals are over. Now on to a summer of working. _Yay._**

 **This chapter was supposed to end a little differently, but I let the flow of the last scene progress naturally instead of forcing the dialogue to move quickly, and it ended up ballooning the word-count a little. Personally, I would rather spend more words and not cramp a scene or mess with the flow, and I know that as a reader who only gets one upload a week, I usually prefer having more content to read.**

 **Plus, it pads that sweet word-count, amiright? _Not that we need it at this point._**

 **I also got home from college for the semester and my family immediately sent me on a 20-hour round-trip roadtrip to go pick up a washer and dryer. So that majorly hampered my writing for the end of this chapter, or I probably would have gone on and written another 1-3k words so that I wouldn't have to split the final scene in half.**

 **Oh well. It's not like I'm going anywhere, so it'll get written here soon enough. Should the speed be not to your liking, come on down and yell at me in the Discord. Who knows, you might start your own revolution...**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **Enjoy.**

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 **Chapter 59:** _"What's wrong with wearing all black? It's tactical, not 'edgy!'" – Jaune Arc_

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Jaune's POV

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"You're nervous."

"Gee, you're observant," I drawled back at Raven. We were linked up and I was boosting her Semblance with my own so that the dust stores below us could be transported faster, but it also meant that she could feel a little of my anxiety bleeding over. I've gotten better at using the Semblance without letting too much bleed through the connection, mostly from using it to boost Amber without letting myself pry too deeply into her Aura; if there were any externalities from Amber taking over Pyrrha's faculties, my sanity did not need me feeling them. Suppressing the connection to Raven really wasn't necessary, though, because my thoughts shone on my face. "You sure that thing's not going to come after us?" I asked, nodding towards the sight of Beacon on the far horizon, where the massive Grimm Wyvern had taken up residence.

"If it hasn't yet, it's not going to. We both know that's not what's worrying you, though." Raven's tone was accusatory, and she was succinct as ever. She was clearly trying to make me talk, and in the past I would have chalked this up to her being suspicious and manipulative. After the past month, I'm seeing it as suspicious, manipulative, but also in her own way checking in to make sure nothing was wrong. It was weird to think of it as Raven expressing genuine concern.

At least, I think that's what it was. It's hard to tell with her, and we have definitely established that I do not understand her very well.

"Well, I wonder what it could be," I drawled with a bit of frustration aimed at her. "It's not like you just dropped Yang off, _alone_ , with her dad, uncle, sister, former team, and my former team or anything. Don't know what could be bothering me…"

"Half-sister," Raven corrected antagonistically, trying to get a rise out of me.

"I don't think you're qualified to tell what Yang's family is to her," I cut back.

"Yes, and _you_ are definitely qualified to realize a family when you see it," she cut back, giving me a knowing look. I suppressed a wince as best I could and shrugged, conceding the point.

"In my defense, you could have been a _little_ clearer about it at any point in the last fourteen years."

I cut my eyes at Raven, who just grinned.

"And why would I have done that? Things worked out so well this way…"

"Worked out well? I nearly died several times, was captured by Ozpin and Torchwick, seduced your own daughter—" I made sure to emphasize that point, to be dramatic about it, "—mostly murdered my own partner, and accidentally helped terrorize Vale. You call _that_ working out well?"

"You got stronger, told the old man where to stick it, reunited a mother and daughter—" Raven made sure to throw the same dramatic emphasis on that part that I had, "—escaped an impossible situation, recruited a Maiden, convinced a girl _far_ out of your league to settle for you, and found out what happened to your family. Oh, and you finally realized why I've kept you around this long, which was the only original purpose of sending you to Beacon. I'd call that successful _._ "

I looked away at that last point, using the excuse of watching the horizon for any giant flying dragons once more. My stubbornness refused to allow me to admit when I got pretty much anything of significance wrong, and this… yeah, this definitely counted. That stubbornness used to be the only thing I thought I had in common with Raven. Now, well, let's just say that I feel stupid for not seeing it before. We weren't perfectly alike, and Raven certainly had less charitable notions in her head, but it was impossible not to see the similarities now. I see now that our personalities are similar since I'm not actively trying to resist, that the way I handled things at Beacon was straight out of her playbook, that my strategies and tactics in a fight were taught to me by her so of course that's almost identical…

It all felt weird, and it was hard to accept some days, but maybe she wasn't wrong about me belonging here. _About… the whole family thing._

At least I didn't _look_ like her, though much to Yang's annoyance, that wasn't for a lack of trying. It took a lot of bribing for me to convince Yang to wear even a tiny bit of red to match the rest of the Tribe, and even more for her to let me wear anything that did. She did eventually agree that I needed a change of outfit—remarkably quickly, even, which made me wonder what she thought of what I wore beforehand—and was eventually coaxed into giving input. Which is good, because I grew up in a Tribe of bandits; most days, I'm not even sure what fashion even is.

Since I am at least one of the three most important Tribe members—though still not sure where I rank in regards to Vernal—I decided it wouldn't hurt to look the part. Plain tan cargo pants designed for and popular with huntsmen tucked into black combat boots, with the pants thick enough to believably conceal grieves that protected my shins—a little looser than the jeans I ditched, better for moving around, and provided more pouches and pockets for holding things. I had suggested making them black, but Yang and Raven both agreed that it would be pushing the edginess a little too much when combined with the rest of the outfit. Instead, a red leather belt kept the waist secure and kept my shirt tucked in. The shirt was a simple long-sleeved black shirt, that was form-fitting, breathed well, and flexed easily so it wouldn't resist movement. The harness that allowed Angau Glas to holster on my back crossed over my chest to make a wide X that went under one arm, crossed the other half high on my sternum, and went over my collarbone. Over the harness's straps sat a single piece of red armor for my chest, a sort of breastplate made from shingled plates—a very Mistralian design, to match Raven and the rest of the Tribe. It was only as wide as my chest and only tall enough to cover my ribcage, leaving my stomach free. That kept it light and unobtrusive enough for it to be functional, but still provided protection from bullets or arrows for my heart and lungs. The design was smart enough that it weighed roughly the same as my sword's holster, leaving my center of gravity unchanged.

I still missed wearing my old gauntlets, since I had them made out of my old armor; even tried getting Yang to take them up if she was insistent on using Crocea Mors, but she didn't like weighing down her arms when her best option was punching things. My new gauntlets were based on Raven's, in that I took identical gauntlets and added to them. Raven's gauntlets gloved her hands and had red shingled armor going up from her wrist to her elbow, with the last piece pointed and enlarged to cover her elbow without interfering with her range of movement. I wore identical ones, and the difference was that I had a second set of armor scales that covered the rest of my arm from the elbow up. The same way the bottom gauntlet flared out to allow for elbow movement, the top scale flared out starting three-quarters the way up my arm and leveling out just barely higher than the point of my shoulders. Instead of one point on it pointing straight up at my face like how the elbow guard was, this one split into two points that pointed in front and behind me, so that I wouldn't jab myself in the neck when I shrugged. _Another similarity, we both shrug so much that I had to account for it in my damn armor._ Overall, the design was functional and sleek, not standing up that tall, making it look more like scales on my arms as opposed to bulky armor.

In hindsight, I see why Yang was concerned about the black pants looking _too_ edgy when the shirt was black too. It's functional, though, which is the important part.

I lacked a back-up weapon, though. For obvious reasons, I couldn't bear to strap on my ceramic dagger anymore. I've been thinking about getting a sidearm, or maybe a tantō to replace my dagger and keep with the theme.

"You know, I didn't have to go to Beacon to find out what happened to my family," I retorted finally, after not really finding anything else to come back with.

"You're right. I had already told you that they were all dead," Raven responded, matching the ire in my dig at her with her own.

"So you _don't_ know anything else?" I asked, giving her a flat look to make it clear I wasn't messing around about this.

"What are you trying to get me to say?" Raven asked, just a bit of agitation in her voice. "That I met one of your sisters before they died?"

"…did you?"

Raven rolled her eyes and then smirked softly. "Mmhmm."

"What?!" I let out suddenly. "What happened?"

"I thought you had found closure," Raven pointed out, giving me an accusatory glare.

"That was before you met my sister."

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I didn't meet her for long. She bled out a few moments after I arrived that night."

"What'd she look like?" I asked, earning a worried look from Raven. She hesitated, trying to figure out if she wanted to give in to this, but I held her gaze firmly.

"What do you think she looked like? Blue eyes, blonde hair. Lots of blood, too," Raven answered back gruffly. "On account of being dying and all…"

"Do you know which one she was?" I asked after hesitating, looking away once more.

"I… have an idea," Raven answered hesitantly. I turned and looked to her expectantly, silently asking for her to continue, but her body language shifted and became stiffer. "Does it matter, though? She's dead."

"It matters to me."

"Should it?" Raven asked, giving me a much softer look than I was used to from her. My first instinct was that she was hiding something from me, or that she didn't want me to know, but I had to force myself to reevaluate. Raven's demeanor was too soft, and my instincts about her have gotten me in enough trouble already. "You've already had your closure. This isn't going to add anything to that, Jaune. All it's going to do is stir up things better left to die."

"Still, I would rather know," I answered, my conviction wavering a bit. She wasn't necessarily wrong, but it still felt that way to just let the past go like that. Even if I didn't have any real memories to tie me back to it.

"Kid, I've had my share of letting family ties die. Just trust me on this one, it hurts less in the long term this way."

Raven's voice got sadder as she spoke, and I found no reason to disbelieve her.

"I assume we're talking about STRQ?"

"We were talking about letting the past go and not bringing it up, so _no;_ the point would be to _not_ talk about STRQ," Raven answered sarcastically, cutting her eyes at me when she was done in a playful manner. "Trust me on this one, Jaune."

"Okay," I forced out, despite some hesitation. After a few moments, a new thought distracted me. "Your definition of letting the past go must be weird given that you still portal out to Tai every now and then…"

"Brat," Raven called out, laughing as she smacked me in the head. "I'll have you know that _that_ relationship is purely physical."

"Uh huh."

Raven rolled her eyes and let out a huff, before realizing how I would have found out about those specific portals. It wasn't as if Raven wasn't normally discrete, after all.

"I'm going to kill Vernal," Raven announced while glaring at the roof we were standing on.

"Get in line behind Amber," I added on while laughing.

"Speaking of Tai, you dodged the question earlier," Raven pointed out, very eager to switch topics.

"You're dodging the topic right now," I accused back.

"You deflected earlier. I'm just un-deflecting it."

"…by deflecting it," I pointed out flatly. Raven shrugged and put on an innocent smile.

"You're worried about me letting Yang handle Tai and Ruby," Raven stated plainly.

"Of course I'm worried about it," I snapped at her. "How are you not?"

Raven didn't meet my eyes; instead, she was the one to stare off into the distance at Beacon. "What's the worst-case scenario here, Jaune?"

"Qrow and Tai convince Yang to leave and then capture me so that Vale can execute me for the attack on Vale."

"Okay, smartass," Raven grumbled, smacking me on the head again. "Within the realm of faint possibility, what's the worst that can happen?"

I paused for a moment, staring off down at the empty street below us as I thought over it. "Qrow and Tai are preparing to attack us, and when they force Yang's hand, she chooses her family over m—over us."

Raven's eyes cut over towards me at my slip, lingering for a moment to let me know that she picked up on it.

"Do you honestly think she's going to leave you _now_?"

I hesitated to answer. It was one thing for me to trust Raven with myself, and to agree to take her advice, but I wasn't willing to trust her with any secrets about Yang. That would actually be gambling with something I care about, and not a bet I'd care to make just yet. "I don't exactly trust my judgement about these sorts of things anymore. Not since Beacon."

I didn't have the conviction to look at Raven after copping out like that. She wasn't stupid and would figure out quickly that I was protecting Yang here, but the answer I did give was a tacit admission of weakness. Somehow, I didn't think that Raven would be very fond of such an answer.

"Doubt can be a good thing, you know," Raven responded, undercutting the harsh response I expected. "It keeps you from making stupid mistakes. Tempers our worst ideas. But there's a time and a place for doubt, and it is _not_ when something important is on the line. Doubt paralyzes you, Jaune, and in a fight for your life, to stop moving is to die."

I didn't look up, but I could feel Raven's eyes on the side of my face. It didn't feel like a glare, though.

"You made one mistake at Beacon; you misjudged one person and that ruined everything for you. Shit happens. If you don't do that, then you probably pull off the most unlikely scheme I've ever seen. Either way, you survived, which was no small feat," Raven paused, giving more importance to that point. "Maybe you're right and maybe you really do suck at judging people's intentions, but that doesn't matter anymore. Apply the analogy here: you're in too deep with Yang to afford to doubt yourself now, even if you should."

"Are you… giving me relationship advice?"

"I'm trying to give you a swift kick in the pants that you've needed for about a month now," Raven responded in a huff. "Now stop avoiding the damn question and tell me if you honestly think Yang would leave?"

I still hesitated. Gathering my thoughts wasn't easy, but I did come up with an answer. "No, I… guess not."

"Why not?" Raven asked smugly, almost challenging me to answer as if she suspected I hadn't even thought it through yet.

"She wouldn't just leave me and Amber," I started, only to be cut off.

"She wouldn't _abandon_ you two, you mean," Raven corrected with a knowing look. I looked at her strangely, surprised to hear that coming from the mother who _caused_ Yang's abandonment struggles, and Raven shrugged it off. "I'm aware that Yang isn't exactly happy with everything right now—" _yeah, mostly isn't happy about how much I'm listening to you, go figure,_ "—and I'm sure that she's thought of trying to leave. One of two things dropping her off with Tai will accomplish is convincing her not to." That point confused me, but she seemed smug about that, which only served to confuse me more.

"…you're gonna have to explain that."

"She's going to confront the possibility of leaving now that it is an actual possibility, not just some daydream. When she left the first time, she left because of you. What's changed? You're still here, and it's not like you two aren't still close," Raven gave me a knowing look there, and despite myself my damn cheeks heated up just a little. "She looked her team in the eyes before she left last time so it's not like them showing up is anything new either."

"Tai wasn't there last time."

"And Amber wasn't a thing last time, either," Raven cut back. "Yang has put more effort than anyone into helping Amber. The case for her staying is even stronger than the one for her coming her in the first place."

"She's not doing it to save my life this time," I pointed out gruffly, glaring at Raven to remind her that I still held that against her. If not because she was willing to leave me to Ozpin, then at least for manipulating Yang so viciously. "What if you're wrong?"

"If I'm wrong, then that means that Yang would leave eventually. By delivering her to Tai, I've taken away any reason for him or Qrow to risk attacking me. I'll lose Yang, but I'll also lose an enemy or two in the process. And if I'm right, Yang will convince Qrow and Tai to back off, either with her words or just by siding against them."

"What, you don't think that having to confront them is going to bother Yang?" I asked a bit angrily. "You don't think that this might be hard on Yang? That it might change things afterwards?"

Raven paused for a moment to let my words sink in, before cutting her eyes towards me and giving me a sly look. "That sounds like your problem."

I looked at her flatly. "Wow, you're an asshole."

She shrugged playfully. "…and I trust that you're capable of handling that problem. _Better?_ "

I didn't respond, more to be petty than anything else.

We stood there in silence for a few more minutes, absently keeping watch out for any Grimm packs—not that we would do anything about them ourselves, since Raven would need to stay close to the warehouse to keep her portal up; being up here on the roof was about as far as we could go without straining both of our Semblances. We would radio down anything we saw, but it wasn't necessary so far. The industrial sectors and the warehouse districts of Vale where Roman kept his storehouses, as well as the run-down parts of town, were normally vacant of activity at the original time of the White Fang's strike. There hadn't been as much destruction here because there hadn't been many people to attract the Grimm, and while Grimm are faintly attracted to destroying the creations of humanity in the time since the fall, that's nothing compared to the negativity of fleeing refugees. The wyvern claimed Beacon as its new home and has been somewhat docile, and Vale has been mostly abandoned by both Grimm and humans. Just like at Mountain Glenn, buildings would stand for years after an extinction-level attack.

To me, that meant an eerily peaceful night without anything going wrong on our mission. To Raven, that meant even more dust than expected—certainly more than we could store at the main camp, and possibly even at the other outposts.

"Figured out what you're going to do with all this dust?" I asked, breaking the silence and catching Raven's attention. "You know, since we don't have warehouses, and we've confirmed at least four of Torchwick's warehouses survived…"

"Mmmm," Raven hummed, thinking over it a bit before answering further. "I was just thinking about it again. What's your opinion of Roman Torchwick on a professional level?"

"On a professional level?" I repeated, caught off-guard by the question. "Shit, I mean, he's good." Raven cut her eyes at me flatly, not impressed by my glowing recommendation. "Don't give me that look. It's a weird question out of the blue. What exactly are you looking for from me?"

"Talents, abilities, how well does he handle pressure, how well does he run an organization," Raven listed off quickly. "You've been closer to his Vale operations than most. Is he going to succeed at replicating that in Mistral?"

I didn't answer immediately, instead thinking it over carefully, which was what she really wanted. Torchwick was already running with Cinder by the time I came around, but he was firmly atop the criminal underworld. He might have just been a talented thief that Cinder saw fit to back until he rose to the top, or he might have earned that spot independently and that was what attracted Cinder's attention. _He was good at being on top, though._

"Roman was the most recognizable criminal in all of Vale since at least before I arrived at Beacon, and wasn't caught until he let himself be—and that was despite the fact that he ran dust heists personally, so it's not like he didn't take risks. He has a background in intelligence warfare, and he showed just how brutal he could be with it. Thanks to him supporting my operation, the White Fang was simultaneously the most talked about topic in town and also fooled Ozpin and Vale's police right up until the attack. _He's good_ ," I concluded, making it clear what I thought of his skills. "I doubt there are many who could have ran his operations better than him. The only thing I don't know is if he's capable of taking over an entire second kingdom's criminal ranks. That's a tall order for someone starting from scratch."

"Mmmm," Raven hummed again, though this time she was distracted. An idea was forming, that much was clear. "It would be convenient to have a fruitful alliance with the head of Mistral's underworld, or friendly relations, at the least. You two have a good rapport…"

"We do," I confirmed hesitantly, trying to predict where this was going. "He offered me a spot in his inner circle once—would have been just him, me, and Neo. I think he realizes now that trying to steal your favorite apprentice would have ended badly for him, though…"

Raven didn't react to that line at all, not even the 'favorite apprentice' line, which meant she was too deep in her own thoughts. She was listening, but only to the bits that would help her work out her schemes; it was how she operated behind closed doors, when the real strategizing happened. Really only Vernal, Yang, and I have seen her like this.

"And if he happened to take over Mistral's criminal empires, that relationship would become significantly more valuable…"

"It would…"

"Tell me," Raven asked, coming out of her distant look and focusing in on me, with an almost giddy smirk on her face. "If Roman Torchwick showed up in Mistral with a warehouse-worth of commercial grade dust, do you think he could use that to establish himself as a player in Mistral?"

I went silent as Raven's full idea here became clear, and Raven's smirk widened when she saw me catch on.

"Dust is expensive right now, what with the previous shortage and Atlas deliberating on closing its borders," Raven continued smugly, proud of her own cunning. "It's both a strong currency and the fuel of armies. We could gift Torchwick an entire warehouse of his own dust and bring it to Mistral, and then step back and let him do his thing. If he comes out on top, then we are the major investor in a successful criminal empire. And if not, well, the chaos he'll cause will take some eyes off of us…" Raven turned to me expectantly. "Do you think he'd go for it?"

"I'm sure he'd chafe at the irony of us gifting him his own stolen dust as if it were a favor," I answered sarcastically. "The whole situation might remind him of Cinder, and if so, he's not going to wait around like last time. As long as we consistently communicate that we are _not_ forcing him into anything, I'm sure he'd jump on the opportunity in a heartbeat."

Raven's smirk grew into a genuine smile, and there was almost a visible gleam to her eye. It all left me wondering if she didn't have another Semblance that was the opposite of Qrow's. Everything just seems to work out well for her.

"We _are_ not forcing him into anything, right?" I asked suspiciously.

Raven opened her mouth to answer, but was cut off.

" _Boss, you need to get down here!"_ Raven's scroll sounded off. Raven and I exchanged curious glances, more surprised than anything. We were standing on top of the warehouse, and it sure didn't sound like anything had gone wrong. _"Vernal sent a messenger through the portal. There's trouble back at the main camp."_

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Blake's POV

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"Ruby?" Yang's voice called out in confusion, as her head turned to the side to take in just who all was here. " _Dad?_ " Yang whipped her head behind her, only to watch the portal she came through disappear. It did not look like Yang had intended on coming to us, if how surprised she seemed was any indication. I don't think I was the only one to notice that, either.

Everyone went quiet and still, watching Yang either curiously or giving her a judging glare.

A rush of wind scattering rose petals everywhere reminded me that not _everyone_ was cross with Yang, and Ruby screeching out Yang's name as she made her way to her big sister was nothing short of adorable.

"Did you miss me?" Ruby asked, after nearly knocking over an unprepared Yang with a hug.

"Yeah, firecracker, did you miss her?" Qrow drawled, not hiding some contempt in his voice. Yang's head shifted towards her uncle, tilting to the side as she realized that she might be in a little trouble there. The mask she wore blocked any view of her face, though.

"Uh, sure thing, Rubes," Yang answered once she had recovered. Her voice was low and slightly muffled, and it seemed like she was trying to focus on Ruby and _not_ on anyone else here who might not be in a hugging mood so quickly. Me, well, I'm more interested to wait back and see how this plays out. I don't think anyone else really appreciates how complicated things might have been, what with how Yang got dragged into Jaune's mess, and he was never one to under-dramatize his situation. _If he wasn't being dramatic, then dust knows the boy needed some sort of help._

Of course, if he _was_ exaggerating or even lying to me, then I would be letting him know just how much I appreciate my trust being taken advantage of.

"Oh hey, _daughter_ , long time no see…"

Yang visibly winced, and looked up from Ruby at her dad. "…hi?"

"Cool mask!" Nora blurted out enthusiastically, though she gave Yang the tiniest of smirks that let her know Nora knew exactly what she was doing. I could just barely see Yang's eyes widen at Nora's comment because they turned to look directly at me nervously.

"I'm not a fan," I let out disdainfully. I never said that I wouldn't pile on, and wearing a Grimm mask seems like an appropriate thing for me to call out. As far as I was aware, Yang had gotten Jaune out of any dealings with the White Fang; that and the fact that the militant faction of the White Fang was in shambles allowed me to not be too worried about Yang's mask. But still. She deserved a _little_ ridicule.

"That's not a Fang mask," Yang's uncle pointed out. "Worse, that's Raven's mask."

"Who knows, maybe we're lucky and Yang took it from her when she killed her," Weiss drawled sarcastically, crossing her arms and letting Yang know that she wasn't one of Yang's stronger supporters here.

"I did not kill my own m—Raven!" Yang blurted out in her defense, though her slip didn't go unnoticed. Everyone here knew about Raven's rocky relationship to her daughter and her old team, so it was lost on no one just how significant Yang's slip was.

Before, things had been awkward as everyone started to work out some animosity, but now things got tense. No one spoke. Even Ruby picked up on it, breaking off her hug with Yang and trying to scurry away to avoid drawing any attention to herself, showing her age and immaturity accidently.

"Look," Yang started, before pulling up her mask. It took some effort to untangle it from her hair, but she let it drop to the ground once it was free. "Guys, I swear, I didn't want to leave you! I didn't have a choice!" Yang's voice was starting to choke up as the weight of the situation really hit her—she had left us all behind and we had come after her—and she struggled to keep her eyes from watering. "I'm sorry that I left the way I did, but—"

Yang cut herself off and flinched as Taiyang stepped forward and began walking towards his daughter slowly. Dread built in the air as he got closer to his daughter.

"D-Dad, I know that I should have told you that I met with Raven, but so much was going on, and I was scared that if I told, then she might find out, and that she would take it out on Jaune, and I… I did everything I could, I swear! I tried my best not to leave you, and—"

"Yang," Tai's voice called out gently. Yang had been looking at him, but she was avoiding meeting his eyes as her voice became more and more choked with emotion and she failed to keep her own eyes from watering. Now, her eyes trailed down to her feet guiltily, sort of like a small child. " _Yang._ "

Yang slowly lifted her eyes to meet his. I couldn't see her dad's expression, but Yang looked terrified in that moment. Whatever Taiyang's expression was, it struck a chord in Yang reassured her, which broke down what remained of Yang's fear as she crashed into his arms. The rest of us were caught off-guard, but Tai was ready for it and didn't budge at Yang's hug.

"It's okay, Yang. We're not mad at you," Tai reassured softly. I could only barely pick it up with my enhanced hearing, but I felt guilty for having heard it. Tai and Yang seemed to have a good relationship if he could be _that_ understanding or forgiving without Yang telling him anything, and I found myself having to look away. Memories of my own dad and how I left things with my parents when I joined Adam were kicked up, which made me feel just awful. Weiss and I made eye-contact while trying to avert our eyes, and she seemed to be in a similar place as me, but at least she had a good reason not to be on good terms with her father. It wasn't her fault that her dad was an asshole, but it completely is mine for leaving and accusing my parents of giving up.

"Really, because it sure looks like it," Yang mumbled loudly into Tai's shoulder, her ears peering over to catch sight of her uncle, who hadn't softened up much yet.

"Oh, we're upset as hell about it all, don't you kid yourself," Tai responded cheekily, much to Yang's ire if her growl was any indication. "But we're not mad at you, Yang."

Yang broke off the hug and looked like an entirely different person now that that weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Qrow rolled his eyes but eventually gave in when Yang looked at him expectantly.

"Not at _you_ ," Qrow echoed as he pulled Yang in for a hug, preserving his cool uncle image at the very end by tussling Yang's hair. She was overwhelmed by it all to the point where she didn't even seem to notice. "Even though you did make me look pretty bad in front of your dad. Last time I ever help you keep a boytoy a secret…"

"You're just mad that I get more than you do," Yang shot back with a grin, returning to her old self for a moment, before Tai coughed dramatically and her face fell in horror.

"What was that, daughter?"

" _Hey guys!_ " Yang called out quickly, turning to the rest of us and ignoring the flat glare from her father. "How's it been?"

"Well, Vale was destroyed so Ren and I are homeless now, oh and half of our team disappeared, so there's that," Nora answered cheerfully.

"A-Anyone else?" Yang asked awkwardly, trying her best to look away from Nora.

"My partner left me right after the White Fang murdered thousands of people, so there's that," I answered, mimicking Nora. Yang caught on to that and gave me a flat look, turning to find _anyone_ to help her here.

"I'm not even going to bother asking Weiss to help me here…"

" _Hey._ "

"Ren?" Yang asked tentatively.

The boy shrugged.

"Ruby?"

"Dad let me bring Zwei along. That's been pretty fun."

"…you brought the dog all the way to Mistral?"

"You brought a boy that I'd never even heard of all the way to Mistral," Tai responded, crossing his arms and giving Yang a look. "At least people _like_ the dog."

"Hey, we like Jaune!" Nora protested. "More than half of us like Jaune, actually!"

"Nora…" Ren cut in, trying to calm her partner down.

"We've got at least me, Ren, Blake, Yang, and Ruby. Why don't we put it to a vote?"

"How about we don't?" Yang responded instead, reading the mood of her uncle and father. "I'm pretty sure they'd rather get some explanations." A quick glance at Tai and Qrow confirmed that, as they nodded dramatically. "Is there somewhere to talk, or have you just been wondering through the woods?"

"We have a camp set up right over there," Weiss called out, pointing behind Yang at our tents.

"That works," Yang called out, turning and walking that way as the rest of us followed. It didn't take long for Yang to find the camp, because she cooed at the sight of the corgi guarding our stuff. "Zwei!"

The dog seemed happy to see Yang, which put a wide smile on her face, and she pet Zwei while the rest of us found a spot to sit around the ashes of the previous night's campfire. Yang took her time with Zwei, but when she was done, the dog instantly took off for Ruby, who stuck her tongue out at Yang tauntingly.

"Alright, let's get this over with. What, uh, what do you already know about Jaune?"

"He was raised by Raven," Qrow answered angrily before anyone else could. "That he infiltrated Beacon for her. There are… competing theories on why." Yang nodded along absently as she listened along. "He also worked with Roman Torchwick, the White Fang, and Cinder Fall, all three people responsible for the attack on Vale," Qrow continued, earning a wince from Yang. "And before that, he was running counter-intelligence operations with Team CRDL to rob Ozpin and me of valuable information."

"Heh," Yang chuckled at that part, much to Qrow's surprise. "I forgot about CRDL. Man, you're going to feel so stupid about that one in a bit…"

"Just start back at the beginning," Taiyang called out, ignoring Qrow. "Who was Jaune Arc when you began Beacon? What was he like? How did this all start?"

Taiyang's question was asked loud enough for it to apply to all of us, and we all hesitated for a moment, exchanging glances with each other.

"Jaune was a jerk," I supplied with a slight smirk. No one really challenged me on that, either.

"He had his moments," Ren defended, though without denying that Jaune _was_ a jerk at the beginning.

"Blake's underselling it; Jaune was an asshole at first," Weiss cut in loudly.

"Yeah, Yang _hated_ Jaune for a while," Ruby added on. "Much longer than everyone else."

"Hey, I still stand by that, too. He was a dick and he knows it," Yang tacked on with a grin. "He'd admit it, too. Jaune was _trying_ to be a jerk; he didn't want us getting close to him."

"Yeah, for all the good that seems to have done him," Tai drawled. "What all did he do?" he asked, a lot more laid back and calm than Qrow was. He seemed genuinely curious to find out how everything had happened and why Yang had chosen to leave, and he was doing his best not to make too harsh of a judgement beforehand. _At least when you compare him to Qrow._ Then again, if Jaune was here right now, Taiyang would probably not so forgiving.

"He antagonized me," Weiss blurted out in a huff, "a lot. He was _really_ good at getting under your skin when he wanted to…"

"He dislocated Ruby's ankle in a spar," Ren pointed out.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that one," Yang called out with a feint smile, laughing softly at the memory. "I about killed him for that."

Tai nodded along absentmindedly in the background, as did Qrow.

"You ruined that plate of cookies is what you did," Ruby tried to chastise, almost like how we all did back when Yang hated Jaune. "It was just a spar! He didn't do it on purpose."

"Yes he did," three of us—Weiss, Yang, and I—corrected her all at once.

"Okay, I'm getting the picture here," Tai said, sliding his eyes towards Qrow. "This all sounds a little familiar, actually. Just be glad you didn't have _two_ teammates like this."

"Don't compare us," Qrow grumbled without any levity or playfulness to his voice.

"When did he stop being a jerk, then?" Tai continued, ignoring Qrow.

The groups eyes all trailed to Yang, forgetting that she hated Jaune the most and held a grudge against him the longest. Yang looked to me, though, apparently being the only one to remember who saw Jaune come around first. _Well, Ruby may have suspected it with the whole Cardin thing, but I actually saw it first._

"It's not that he ever _stopped_ being a jerk. It's more… he couldn't hide the parts of him that _weren't_ repulsive very well," I answered, taking the attention away from Yang. "He was too honest for that."

Ruby and Qrow both laughed at that, though they were two very different sorts of laughs. Qrow's was considerably darker and more cynical.

"Jaune. _Honest_ ," Ruby repeated with a giggle. "That's a good one, Blake."

Nora, Ren, and Weiss were all quiet, and Ruby found it odd that no one backed her up or thought that it was also funny. She looked around confused, like she had missed something.

"No, Blake's right on that one. Jaune never lied to us…" Yang admitted, meeting Ruby's eyes.

"He lied all the time…?" Ruby responded, confused. "It was, like, his thing."

"If he tries to lie so badly that you _know_ he's lying, is it really lying?" Yang asked, pausing to let the idea sink in. I had thought of it before, but I had spent more time than most the people here arguing morality with Jaune; while they probably understood that this was how Jaune operated, they probably hadn't ever had to put it into words before. Ruby, Ren, Nora, and Weiss were all quiet as they started to grasp it. "Yeah, I know that feeling _exactly_. I stole that line from Jaune, and it's the one he used that made me give him a chance."

"It's not a great line," Tai added on, giving Yang somewhat judgmental look, as if to say _you fell for that?_

"You had to know him," I answered in Yang's defense. "Trust me, it makes more sense that way."

"Yeah, well, I wish I _had_ met the guy before all this…" Tai responded, aimed directly at Yang with some more of that fatherly judgmental ire. Yang gave an awkward smile and hoped that would be enough.

"If you asked Jaune something—" I called out, picking back up on the topic and fighting the urge to roll my eyes at Yang and her dad, "—then he would give you a bad lie while trying to get you to drop it. If you pressed him, though, he… was actually really honest. As much so as he could be, at least," I added on that last part after catching Qrow's eye. Of course, Jaune had never come out and told us about Raven or Torchwick or the White Fang—or, actually, he did. Only one of us ever pressed him that hard, but he _did_ tell Yang all of it when she pushed him to. I noticed Yang noddingly along to my point, which further served to back me up.

"We knew that he used to do bad stuff, and that he grew up as a pirate—"

"Raider," Ren corrected Nora unenthusiastically, almost out of habit now.

"—he's never _not_ going to be a pirate, Renny. Just accept it."

"We all knew that Jaune had grown up as a raider, and that his past may not have left him entirely," I summarized when it became clear that Nora had forgotten to finish her point after being interrupted. "And we know _now_ that Jaune and Yang's big fight in the courtyard was over Raven, and obviously what that led to eventually. We just don't know… well, _how._ "

I looked to Yang and everyone else did the same, making it clear that now was her time to talk. She didn't seem exactly thrilled at the prospect, but she realized that she wasn't getting out of this. Still, she looked either overwhelmed or nervous; probably both.

"That's your queue, firecracker," Qrow drawled, still clear in his bad mood. He reached down into our duffle bag of food supplies and pulled out a can, tossing it to Yang. "Spill them."

Yang caught the can easily enough and gave her uncle a confused look, before looking down and reading the label on the can: beans. She dropped her head, almost embarrassed by the pun.

"Wow, that was bad," Yang mumbled, before taking a sharp breath to work up her courage. "Fine, let's get this over with. It all starts with the club we all went to that—" Yang froze mid-sentence, cutting her eyes over towards her dad nervously, "—that we left Ruby at Beacon when we went."

"He knows," Ruby mumbled to her sister. Taiyang nodded gravely.

"Snitch," Yang admonished without any real weight to the words. "Anyways, the night that Jaune disappeared during the White Fang rally, I found him at that same club. He was pretty trashed and had already stabbed Junior in the hand, and up till then I had been convinced by my team to _not_ hate Jaune and I was actually trying to like the guy, so when I found him there when we were all worried about him… yeah, it wasn't pretty. I beat his ass pretty good for that, and he was so drunk that he confused me for my mother."

"Ooh, big mistake," Ruby hummed, thoroughly enjoying story time with Yang so far.

"I mean, maybe not," Nora countered. "It could be a compliment. Is your mom hot?"

Nora received a very mixed bag of weird looks.

"What? I'm just trying to think like Jaune here. _Sheesh._ "

"Yeah, well, Blake talked me out of murdering Jaune for that—" she glanced to me and I nodded; the memory was still fresh, "—and uncle Qrow had a talk with me about it. Do you remember me asking you about my mother?" Yang asked directly to Qrow.

Qrow frowned, suddenly putting the pieces together.

"Yeah, _there was a reason_. When I confronted Jaune in the courtyard, he told me that he was from her Tribe and that she basically raised him and I…"

"Lost control?" Tai asked, trying to fill in the blank for her while also giving her an out.

"More than that," Yang answered, deciding she didn't need to take the out. "I wanted him dead. I was trying to kill him. All I could see was red and he used his Semblance to wear me out, but he linked up and fed off my rage; that was the day I found out I'm not the only hothead around." Yang trailed off, staring down at the ground as old memories and feelings flashed across her face. She frowned softly at one that must have lingered longer than the others. "He said some things he didn't mean in order to hurt me, I said some things I _did_ mean to hurt him, and then he told me that I wasn't going to tell anyone because if I did, he would be gone and I would never find out about my mom."

Yang looked up at her dad and her uncle guiltily, awkwardly trying to smile at them. They both frowned, but Tai looked more disappointed in himself than in Yang. Qrow was hard to read but there were hints of the same.

"When did you two make up?" Weiss asked after a few moments, getting Yang back on track. " _How_ did you two make up for that?"

"At the dance, so a few weeks later," Yang responded with a distant expression and a soft, genuine smile. "Like Blake said, he's really honest if you let him be. He apologized for the stuff he said and I made it clear that if I didn't trust him, then I would protect our teams from him by exposing him. He offered to let me spy on a meeting between him and Raven the next day, and that if I didn't hate him after that, he offered to explain everything."

"A meeting?" Qrow asked, his attention raised at the mention of Raven.

"Yeah, they have a… weird dynamic. One that Jaune still doesn't really understand well. She asked him who Ozpin's Maiden was going to be, he lied and said it was going to be me so that she didn't get any ideas of killing the Maiden herself—" Yang shot Qrow a suspicious look at that part, as Qrow struggled to accept the idea that Jaune wasn't Raven's loyal lapdog, "—and then they had a fight over Jaune's biological family."

"They're dead, right?" Nora asked without any tact whatsoever.

"Uh huh. Jaune doesn't remember them at all but Raven does, and she won't tell him about them. Now she's completely convinced him to drop those ties completely, which is why I have his family sword." Yang tapped Jaune's blade at her hip, and she clearly did not like that development if her voice was any indication. "Back then, they still fought over it, and when I say fought over it, I mean that they drew blood. Jaune stabbed Raven with—with his dagger, and then Raven impaled him on her sword as payback."

We were silent, most of us surprised at just how violent things between them were, especially since Yang and Jaune both worked for her now. I already knew that Jaune was hurt during that meeting, but to hear Yang describe it too gave more context than Jaune had.

"…so it _wasn't_ you who stabbed him in the forest?" Ruby asked, putting the pieces together finally.

"Nope. But that was the moment I decided that he needed help, and since it was _my mother_ who he was desperate to get away from…" Yang trailed off with a shrug. "It felt like my responsibility. It could have been me in the same position just as easily, seeing how I almost was raised by her."

"And just like that, my oldest child gets dragged into becoming a criminal and a terrorist. Great," Tai drawled sarcastically.

"Hey, this would have been avoided if you hadn't knocked up Raven," Qrow mumbled, intended for just Tai to hear.

"Nah, Jaune didn't want me involved," Yang responded to her dad's statement. "He's too protective to just let me into all the shit he was stuck in right away. I had to find out on all that other stuff like Torchwick on my own and then _force_ him to let me help."

"Even better, she _wanted_ to do it," Tai added on antagonistically, and Yang let out an agitated huff when she realized that she wasn't going to just get her dad to give up his dramatic angle on things.

"What all did he do for Torchwick?" Qrow asked much more seriously than Tai. "How did that start?"

"He wanted information on his family; Raven wasn't willing and Jaune wouldn't go to Ozpin for even a tissue if he had a cold, so Torchwick was the only one who would give it to him, but it was a trap. Jaune had to ruin our raid on the White Fang in exchange for his life," Yang answered simply, since that part was already common knowledge in the group. I don't know if she realized that or the information didn't excite her as much, but she just ran through it plainly. "He made a deal with Torchwick where Jaune would pretend to run operations with Team CRDL to silence any leaks in the White Fang, and in turn he would get the information he wanted originally. They…got along really well, actually. They're still friends."

" _Still?_ " I asked, backed up by inquisitive looks from everyone else.

"Yeah," Yang answered, cringing slightly. "Torchwick is actually at the Tribe right now. They're running an operation…"

"Wow, Qrow, you really suck at investigating if you didn't know that Jaune was just a puppet-head and was also super besties with Vale's most wanted," Tai jibbed, much to Qrow's displeasure. "Also, Yang, I realize that this was never formally established as a rule, but since it apparently needs to be said, no daughter of mine is allowed to date a criminal or criminal accomplice. _That goes for you too, Ruby!_ "

"Hey, what did I do? I don't even _know_ any other criminals!"

"That's okay," Yang replied to her dad cheekily, "I can always ask mom for permission instead."

Tai met Yang's eyes with an irritated look for a few moments, before brushing it off and getting to the part that _really_ mattered to him.

"So, how did you start dating the boy raised by your mother, anyways?"

"That's… a long story—"

"It's really not," Weiss drawled, probably calling back our video call with Yang the morning after or the lunch confrontation. "Yang is a flirt, Jaune is an asshole, and they're both competitive. They flirted aggressively like it was a game they had to win… _all. the. time._ One way or another, they were going up in flames…"

" _Eww_ ," Ruby added on.

Tai looked to Yang flatly for confirmation, and Yang looked more awkward than she had all day.

"Jaune and I met up to discuss plans and how he got where he was, and we'd usually go to an apartment in Vale he was borrowing from— _that he had access to_ ," Yang corrected herself hastily, but was already kicking herself from the slip.

"From _Torchwick?_ " Qrow asked flatly, already knowing the answer and not liking it. To be honest, no one liked the implication, and our faces all showed that.

" _Fuck,_ " Yang mumbled under breath, soft enough for only me to pick up on it. "Uh… since there's no way to lie out of this, yes. It was one of Torchwick's safehouses," Yang admitted, chagrined. "One night during the break, we went there and ordered a pizza, and… uh… things got real Team STRQ real fast…"

Weiss and I groaned at the memory, which accidently drew attention away from Yang and towards us.

"Yang called us in the morning and asked us to give her an alibi for her dad, but since she's stupid, she accidentally showed us the trashed apartment from the… _carnage_ the night before, as well as an uneaten pizza and Jaune's sword against the wall…"

"That's how you knew?! _Fuck!_ " Yang let out, before remembering where she was and turning red, doing as much as she could to not look at her dad, uncle, or sister after having the remnants of her first one-night stand described to them. She settled for glaring at me for revealing that much, at least until Weiss added on to it.

"She didn't have sex with him that night, at least. _Third-base, both ways_ , I believe, was how she described it." Yang was red before, but now she looked like she wanted to wither up into a ball and die. And Weiss wasn't done. "Don't worry, though, she gave it all away after they had lunch a few days later, isn't that right, Yang?"

" _I hate you so much_ ," Yang mumbled at Weiss.

Yang finally worked up the courage to peak over towards her dad, who had the flattest and meanest angry dad glare I've ever seen. It would have even put my dad's to shame, and he perfected the look over years of protests and negotiations.

"Yang, you're grounded from going into Vale without an adult," Taiyang announced semi-seriously. "This is what I get for trusting you to _just_ be out underage drinking, isn't it?"

"Are you guys sure you wouldn't rather hear, like, _anything_ else about me and Jaune? _Literally_ anything?"

"Oh yeah, sure," her uncle called out, feigning a carefree and light voice and putting absolutely no effort into that feign whatsoever, making it come across as an angry, sarcastic drawl. "How about the part where he hid Cinder Fall from Ozpin and conspired to murder thousands of innocent civilians?"

"A-Anyone else?"

" _Yang_ ," Qrow called out forcefully, so much so that Yang visibly flinched. The rest of us were deathly still, trying to avoid getting placed in the middle of this. " _Now._ "

Yang's eyes shifted over to us nervously, searching for a friendly face or even just something to give her a little confidence. She settled on me and I did my best to soften my expression, giving her a small nod that I thought would be reassuring. So far, I have been Jaune's biggest defender in the group, if only because I was the most skeptical; I hadn't really been able to do much actual defending, per se.

It was well past time to get to the bottom of this and find out if Jaune deserved more credit than we all had given him, or if… _Or if Qrow's hatred isn't misplaced, I guess._

"Okay…" Yang took a breath to steady herself. "In order for me to explain what Jaune did, you have to understand what he thought he was up against…"

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Next week's chapter will pick up pretty much at the end of the first scene and then will pick up at the end of this scene. Feels like a lot of recap, but Jaune and Raven's talk I would say is setting up some important threads more than it is rehashing old ones.**

 **There's a theme of family and what that looks like, and that's certainly intentional. The topic has come up in previous chapters but I feel that with what's coming, it's important to make sure it's established again. We know that Raven has learned through experience that family looks different to her than to Tai and Qrow, and Jaune is getting pulled into having to make that decision. And we know that Yang is... not happy with the development.**

 **Do I smell conflict? Personal struggles? _Drama?_**

 **Delicious.**

 **Anyways, my creepy persona aside, this last scene was supposed to recap all the way from how they all met Jaune to Yang explaining what happened that night, including discussing Pyrrha, Amber, Jaune, Ozpin, Emerald, Cinder, Torchwick, Raven... It was too much for one scene, at least in the time I had. Had I not had the 20-hour trip sprung on me out of nowhere, I'm confident I would have worked it out and this chapter would have been ridiculously long.**

 **Lastly, we finally got to see Jaune's new outfit. I am... fashion-challenge myself, so there was some critical input from the Discord mods/quasi-beta readers here. I like what it ended up as, because it feels like a very Mistralified or Ravenified version of Jaune's normal armor in V4-6. His chest plate only covers the top half of his chest, he has wrist and bicep bracers, and function cloning beneath it.**

 **He certainly leaned harder into matching Raven and the Tribe than Yang, who is basically wearing a red shirt under her normal time-skip outfit and calling it a day. _Yang still looks better in it, though, so..._**

 **Oh well. See you guys next week.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:**

 **No C.o.t.W. this week, since it is already technically Sunday morning as I write this part and I just got done with half of that 20-hour trip. I'll throw in two next week if I remember. :P**


	63. Take a hike

**NOTE: No new chapter for 5/26/2019. I spent the first half of the week writing a follow-up chapter to the Emerald one-shot I published earlier this year, and then I was hit with unexpected responsibilities that disrupted my planned MoNT writing time. Chapter will be up next week.**

 **Probably. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯**

* * *

 **Author's Note: Jeez, this hit 10,780 words before Author's Notes. _Who knew that recapping the plot of, like, the entire culmination of the first 400,000 words wouldn't be a short affair?_**

 **Oh well. You know the drill. Discord link. Long chapter. yadda yadda.**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **Have fun.**

* * *

 **Chapter 60:** _"As much as she may take after her mother, this is still Yang we're talking about. Just... try to trust her, Qrow." – Taiyang Xiao Long_

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

Several sets of eyes looked to us curiously as Raven and I made it to the main floor of the warehouse, next to where the giant portal was open.

"Roman, keep things going. The portal will remain open," Raven called out loud enough to be heard by everyone. Whatever they had heard about what was going on, they would at least know that Raven didn't think it was worth them slacking off over. Torchwick grinned and began barking orders—or rather, insulting various people's mothers to motivate them. I stuck close by Raven and she turned to check if I was still there. With a quick nod, we wordlessly stepped through the large portal.

We stepped out back at the main camp. Crates of dust were stacked in front of us, and Raven's Paladin was being used to lift and transport the heavier crates from the warehouse to the yard where we were stacking it for now.

" _Vernal_ ," Raven called out as the woman approached us from our left with a hurry to her steps. "What's going on?"

"Amber was ambushed by a Huntsman team just outside of the walls," Vernal answered with a frown. Raven and I both immediately thought of the worst-case scenario—that someone had killed her and taken the Maiden's powers—and after sharing a nervous glance we both stared at Vernal intently until she continued. " _She survived_ ," Vernal stressed, catching on to what we were thinking, "but she lost most of her Aura."

"Do we know who sent this team?" Raven asked, her features starting to harden.

"Haven," Vernal answered quickly. "Amber said they were from Haven. That's about all we could get out of her, though."

"We're going to scale down the dust operation for now; we can go get the rest any time. Vernal, organize everyone we have here into teams. I don't want these Huntsmen making it back to Haven to give a report on anything. Jaune, I—"

"Not necessary," Vernal cut in, giving a slight smirk. She nodded over her shoulder, where three people kneeled with their hands behind their backs, guarded by several armed and angry-looking Tribe members. Amber sat on a crate nearby, huddled in a blanket and staring at the ground despondently. "Amber held them off long enough for us to nab them. Those three haven't been talked to yet, and the fourth is in the med-tent—though I doubt he makes it. Amber acquainted a knife to the dude's liver a couple times…"

"You seem to have a handle on this," Raven stated, almost accusing Vernal of being too competent. "Why'd you call us in?"

"I figured you'd want to interrogate them yourself," Vernal answered, giving Raven a knowing look that was not denied, "and Amber is inconsolable right now. I would rather have Yang for that, but Jaune will have to do." Vernal cut her eyes at me, checking to see if I was going to pretend to be insulted by that. I shrugged it off instead.

Raven looked to me expectantly, and I nodded to confirm that I would handle Amber while she 'handled' the Huntsmen. "Stay close enough that we can keep the portal up, then."

"That won't be an issue," Vernal jumped in. "She's refused to talk to us but she's also refused to be alone right now. _She's scared_ ," Vernal concluded, her voice a bit sad. She turned around to watch Amber with almost a distressed look. "Just don't tell her that I said that about her. I'd hate if she burnt the camp down or something."

Without another word, we all walked over to where our prisoners were being held, and I split off to go to Amber. Raven ordered her prisoners marched into the nearest empty house, which would be too far from where Amber was for us to keep our connection strong enough to power the portal. I thought that I was going to have to get Amber's attention and convince her to follow us to a spot that was at least closer, but I didn't have to. Once everyone started walking away, Amber's head whipped up and she looked around nervously. Upon realizing that she was about to be alone, she got up and followed them, keeping the blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

I came up beside Amber, wrapping one arm around her shoulders gently and guiding her around to the side of the house, where we would be out of earshot of the others and have some shade to sit in. Amber slumped down against the base of the house and resumed her despondent stare at the ground between her legs.

I took a seat next to her, close enough that we could speak softly and still be heard by one another. Other than doing that, I really didn't have any idea of what I was doing here.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?"

"I was stupid. I made a mistake," Amber answered angrily, directed at herself more than me. At least she was talking. "I should have killed them. I _could_ have, too; it would have been easy. They weren't very good and I could have roasted them alive, and then I wouldn't have lost any Aura. I wouldn't be so—" she cut herself off, glaring down at the ground as her right fist clenched and made her whole arm shake. It wasn't the type of shaking fist that I was used to from Yang, where she was so angry that her body shook from being held back. This shook with a lower frequency and the shakes were larger than that. More twitchy, too.

I decided that I didn't know what to say to make any of that better—or even what I could say that wouldn't make it worse—so I decided to avoid pressing that for a moment.

"Vernal said that one of them is likely to die anyways," I stated calmly, making sure to keep myself neutral and stare off in front of me instead of at Amber. "Was that you?"

" _Why?_ " she asked venomously, becoming hostile and defensive in an instant. "You going to lecture me on that or something?"

I let out a sigh, giving Amber a few moments to calm down before answering. "We both know that I'm not in a position to do that…"

Amber finally looked up, and her anger and defensiveness melted away as she took in my meaning. I gave her a guilty look for a few moments, before looking away again, though I felt her eyes linger on me.

"Right. You're right. I'm sorry, I—" Amber cut herself off, and her hand curled back into a fist and began to shake again. She pulled it within the cover hanging off her shoulder and I thought that she realized that I had noticed it, but she brought it back out a few moments later, holding a knife of some sort. "I took this knife from him during the fight. I thought he was about to stab me, and all I could see—" Amber cut herself off nervously, eyes flicking towards me to check if I had caught on to something there. I wasn't sure what it was, but I noticed that _something_ was there, at least to her. "—I saw my own life slipping away and I just wanted so badly to stop it. I'm not sure I would have ever stopped stabbing him if Vernal hadn't knocked sense into me…"

"That's the knife?" I asked tentatively. She nodded. "May I…?"

With an indifferent shrug, she held the blade out to me. It was a pretty cheap dagger, if you could even call it a true dagger. It was almost more of a long pocket-knife, with a fat tip that was better suited for chopping or digging nails out of wood than for stabbing. It would have torn through someone instead of sliced or pierced, and would have required some serious force behind it. I knew Amber wasn't lying about stabbing with it because there were dried blood streaks on the blade, where blood had partially dried before being wiped away, probably on grass because it wasn't wiped well. The blood went all the way up onto the handle.

"You know, stealing a dagger and then using it to stab someone is normally _my_ move," I teased lightly, trying to do something to lighten the mood or get a different response from Amber.

"Hah. Hadn't even thought of that," Amber responded, at least trying to laugh even if it wasn't coming naturally. That wasn't much but I'll take it as a win for now. "Where's that ceramic one, anyways? You keep it on you still?"

"No, I… I don't like that dagger. Too many guilty memories come with it," I admitted lowly, staring off at the dirt just like Amber. "Yang wanted me to destroy it and move on, but that…felt wrong, too. I keep it hidden in my sock drawer, just out of sight enough that it doesn't drive me crazy."

Amber flinched at that last part, which only concerned me more.

"Amber, what's wrong?"

She didn't answer, only slumping down a little further as she continued to stare despondently at the ground between her legs. Without her answering, I was forced to guess based on what little I had gotten from her so far, and from what Vernal had said. _She's scared, she knows that this is bad, and she's beating herself up for letting it happen._ Hell, I can relate to that.

"I know that look, Amber. I had the same one that first night that Yang and I were here, when you hadn't woken up yet." I paused meaningfully, and Amber looked up at me. I at least had her attention. "You're overwhelmed, and furious with the world, but more furious with yourself to the point where you feel paralyzed. Then you start berating yourself with what you should have done, or anything you could have done that wouldn't have been as bad as what you did…" I trailed off here, my eyes staring off into the distance. " _What if I had killed Cinder? What if I had ambushed Qrow? What if I hadn't trusted Pyrrha? What if I hadn't dragged Yang into my mess?_ You know what I mean?"

Solemnly, Amber nodded. Her eyes were slightly glassed over, and she couldn't maintain eye contact for long before bowing out once more.

"Everyone will tell you that you need to let go of it and move on, but they never tell you _how_ to do that. _How_ do you accept it, _how_ do you move on?" I let the questions hang in the air, but Amber was compelled to nod along in agreement. "Well, the shitty thing is, it means that you have to be okay with how things turned out. You have to tell yourself that the results are good enough, so that you don't regret anything, which is… hard."

Amber looked to me confused, trying to make sense of what I was saying.

"For me, that means I had to come to terms with myself. I killed my partner, left my friends, and drug Yang into Raven's clutches. It hasn't been easy, but I've come to terms with it all because I like how things are, at least for now. I have Yang, I'm learning I had a family in people I thought I hated, and I even like you, despite your little running joke. The hardest part was… lowering my opinion of myself to that of someone who is okay with all this."

"How does that help me?" Amber asked.

I took a breath and let it out slowly, trying to think through it. Honestly, my logic wasn't that great because _I_ am not completely convinced of it after a full month of trying it; there's still some part of me that wants to resist Raven, and ignoring that has never been completely accomplished. Applying it to Amber only made that logic seem to fall apart more quickly.

"I don't know. It took me a month to figure this much out, and Yang still hates the idea of my giving in like that, so…" I trailed off and took another breath, before taking my best shot at it. "Look, things are looking bad for you. There's no way around that, and honestly, I doubt that I would handle it very well in your position, so don't let anyone tell you you're overreacting. I guess the best way to get through it is to just… accept that you're going to die soon, and do whatever you can to make you last moments meaningful. That's going to be hard, since Raven will want you guarded at all times now, but…" I let out a sharp huff as an idea crossed my mind. "Yang and I will do anything we can to help. I-If you still want it, I… I'm willing to try to talk Yang into a threesome, but I doubt that she—"

"Is this a joke to you!?" Amber burst out from out of nowhere, making me flinch. "I'm about to die and you think what I really want is to third-wheel while you and Yang fuck?!"

"No?" I answered weakly. "Maybe? I don't know, I've always struggled to tell if you were kidding about it! I'm just trying to help."

" _Trying to help_ ," she repeated mockingly. "You're trying to get me to enjoy my last few days when I can't enjoy anything! Not when—!" She cut herself off, bowing her head away to avoid looking at me. Her first started shaking again, and this time it really seemed to bother her.

"Amber, what's wrong?" I asked more seriously than the previous time, now convinced that there was more going on here.

Amber glared off at the ground, before shutting her eyes and dropping her head down defeatedly. "Don't tell Yang, okay? Promise me, _please_."

"Amber, I can't just promise not to tell Yang something. You know her; she wants to help you too." I paused, waiting, but Amber didn't say anything. "If anything, you should tell her over me. She'd be able to help you more."

" _No_ ," Amber cut back forcefully. "I'm already miserable. I don't want to add disappointing my best friend to that. Just, _please_ , promise me you won't tell her."

"…okay…" I gave in finally, more concerned about what was wrong than about what lying to Yang might do. "I promise. What's wrong?"

Amber didn't answer immediately. She stared off at the ground distantly, only nodding her head in my direction slightly to acknowledge she heard me.

"I still feel Pyrrha. It used to just be a few memories that would bleed over, or some errant thoughts and feelings, but now that my Aura is so low…" she trailed off softly, staring down at her hands as she tried to force herself to release her fists. "It's more than that now. So much more intense. Her memories flood my mind so much stronger than before. I don't know if it's her Aura, or her mind, or her subconscious, or even just her body, but she's fighting me for control and I—" Amber's voice cracked and her fist shook, which I now recognized was her desperately trying to get a grip on herself. "—I can't hold onto this for forever."

Amber trailed off and my mind raced to come to grips with this. _Pyrrha might not be gone._ It was always a possibility, though Yang put a lot more hope into it than I had. She had worked with Amber to try to bring back Pyrrha in some way. I had written off the idea as too hopeful, thinking that it would only prolong my guilt over what I did to Pyrrha. But now? If Amber said that something was fighting back, did that mean that Pyrrha could come back after Amber—

My thoughts were broken as Amber slapped me across the face, hard enough for my vision to falter for a moment. She was on her feet immediately after, towering over me threateningly.

"Stop that!" She shouted down at me, glaring at me for as long as she could before breaking back down into tears. "I can see you plotting what happens to me in your eyes! Just because I'm in Pyrrha's body doesn't mean I _want_ to suppress your friend or that I asked for any of this!"

"I-I'm sorry," I let out guiltily. "You're right, I just—"

"I'll forgive it, _so long as Yang doesn't hear it_. I don't think I can look her in the eyes and tell her that I don't want to bring Pyrrha back… that I wish that I could make this permanent. What sort of cruel fate is it to only have a month to live, and to do it in such a way that everyone you care about wishes you would die so they could get their friend back sooner? It would have been less cruel to just kill me."

"I'm sorry," I said again, "that I even put you in this position in the first place. If I did things differently, maybe they wouldn't have transferred your Aura into Pyrrha…"

"That's sweet of you to say, or as sweet as saying that you wish I had died peacefully could be," Amber darkly teased, showing that she had calmed down a bit, though she was still in a morbid mood. _Not that she can be blamed…_ Slowly, she sat back down next to me, though I remained on edge. There was no telling what would set her off again. "I'm actually glad you did, though."

"Why?"

"Pyrrha was able to use me and my powers, and I wasn't conscious for that. I have no memories of it, but she does, which means that… that only one person can be in control. The other isn't there, not really; they're just a prisoner inside the body. I'm glad that I had this opportunity because I don't _want_ to be Pyrrha's slave. I'm not going to let that happen."

"Do you have an idea on how to regenerate your Aura then? Or how to remain conscious if she takes over, or…?" I trailed of hesitantly, trying to make sure that she wasn't implying what I thought she was implying.

"Pyrrha is not going to take me hostage in this body," Amber spelled out, looking me dead in the eyes. "I'm not going to give her the chance."

"Amber, don't do anything rash! That's not just your—!"

" _What_ , that's not just my _what_ , Jaune? It's not just _my_ body, huh?" She asked sharply. "Relax, I'm not going to do anything drastic, and certainly not yet. Nine percent Aura fucking sucks, but it's still enough to maintain control. If Pyrrha is actually there, she's not taking over yet." She paused a took a long breath, holding her head in her hands to try to get some sort of relief. It didn't seem to work all that much, because she looked just as rough when she looked back up. "But believe me, she will never have the chance to enslave me again; _I'd bet my life on it._ "

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

"That's ridiculous, Yang!" Qrow let out, frustrated. "You can't blame Ozpin for Jaune's actions. We were the ones trying to protect Vale, not steal its Maiden or help bomb the Vytal Festival!"

" _I_ don't blame Ozpin for Jaune's actions," I countered, "and Jaune wouldn't either, not really. But he felt just as threatened by Ozpin than he did by Raven…"

"If he _really_ was threatened by Raven, Ozpin could have gotten him out," Qrow came back sternly, making it clear that he was probably going to be hostile the whole time. I can't really blame him, since any bad light I cast on Ozpin reflects badly on him too, and there's no shortage of bad light on either side. "With what he knew, we could have forced Raven back into the fold and captured another Maiden, not to mention save hundreds of thousands of lives in Vale."

"Jaune would never have gone for that," I answered flatly. "At least he respected Raven, if he didn't realize it. He would much rather have been Raven's pawn than Ozpin's."

" _Pawn?_ Is that—?"

"Lay off, Qrow," dad cut in, sounding tired of the fighting, like— _well, like a parent refereeing between two children._ "You're not going to accomplish anything by arguing about it. The kid shares Raven's views on Ozpin; go figure. Just let Yang finish before you get your panties in a wad." Dad finished by shooting Qrow an annoyed look, which Qrow returned with a low glare for betraying him.

" _Anyways_ ," I cut in, drawing everyone's attention back to me, "Jaune's goal at Beacon was always to escape Raven's influence, and to do it without just trading one master for another." I looked to Qrow here, and he frowned back. "…and considering that Raven could portal to him at any time and had a Maiden, that seemed impossible. Didn't stop him from trying, though."

"And that's where he got it in his head to get Pyrrha to take the Fall Maiden's powers?" dad asked, trying in fill in the blanks.

"That could have worked," Weiss added on. "It's possible that Raven might not have wanted to risk the fight if it was even close to even. Peace through deterrence, or in this case freedom through deterrence…"

I waited a few moments longer, curious to watch them try to piece through Jaune's plan.

"If Jaune had pulled that off, though, it means that he and Pyrrha would have had to flee Vale," Ren added on, cutting his eyes towards Qrow to make it clear he was implying that Ozpin wouldn't have allowed it. "Even _if_ the two of them were an even fight for Raven, she would still have more manpower, and could ambush them at any time."

"It would be more than just two, silly," Nora cut in playfully. "We would have been there too. Rogue Team JNPR sounds like fun."

"Even _if_ we were there," Ren amended, though not admitting that he was fully on board with the idea yet, "we'd be outgunned."

"But you would at least have a chance," I jumped in, taking control of the conversation once more. "But Jaune was trying to get free before Amber was ever even ambushed. He didn't even have the option of getting a Maiden on his side at first."

"Well… what was he gonna do?" Ruby asked.

"Die trying," I answered darkly, giving them a shrug. That shocked them all into silence, if nothing else had. "He's told me about a couple half-baked ideas he had, but honestly, none would really have worked without having a Maiden. The closest thing he had was Torchwick offering him a job, but that really wouldn't have done much."

"Ah, yes, going from one murderous thief to another," Qrow called out sardonically. "You sure know how to pick them."

"Hey, in my defense, we've only ever done actual protection work since I got here," I answered, though pointedly not addressing Qrow's point about Jaune. There really wasn't a ton to say there, other then pointing out that you couldn't _prove_ anything about Jaune…

"How did Jaune find out about Amber?" Blake asked, cutting in before any friction between Qrow and me could escalate. "I assume that not a lot of people would have known about it."

"I don't really know," I answered. It wasn't anything I had ever really needed to know; what was important to us at the time was that we _did_ know it, not how we knew it. "Raven had him keeping tabs on anyone he thought might be a candidate, so I guess she would have told him."

Dad looked over and gave Qrow a harsh, knowing look, and Qrow cut his eyes back at him agitatedly.

"Qrow was the one to stop Amber's attackers the first time around. He had to get Raven to make him a portal to me so that we could get Amber back to Ozpin without getting ambushed again," dad supplied, as Qrow's glare grew sourer. "Which is probably where Jaune learned it from."

"Ooh, sorry old man," I taunted at Qrow, "no one to blame but yourself."

"And your terrorist boytoy," he grumbled back weakly.

"I believe—" Weiss cut in loudly, irritated more at Qrow for interrupting constantly than at me for encouraging it, "—that we have the necessary background information now. Can we please talk about how things went down?"

"Not yet, Ice Queen," I cut in, earning a flat glare from Weiss, "we still have one more angle to set up: Cinder." They all went quiet at the name drop, with a couple of them scowling or scrunching noses up in disgust. "Cinder was forcing Torchwick to steal dust and run the White Fang, and Torchwick didn't like that at all, which passed along to Jaune. Once he found out that Cinder was in Beacon, their alliance became…shaky. Like, _we both know that this alliance could end at any moment and are both prepared to stab each other in the back_ sort of shaky."

"Did Jaune know what Cinder's plans were?" dad asked in a grave voice. Qrow added along an intense stare to add weight to the question.

"Not entirely. He knew that she worked for Salem, which meant that he had to be careful not to become too much of a target, so that Cinder wouldn't tell Salem about him." Dad nodded along to this, as did Qrow, but the others looked confused, so I decided to explain. "Salem has been hunting Jaune's family. It's a long story, but every known Arc was killed, and Jaune only escaped this long because no one knew he existed or thought to check with Raven for another Arc. So there's _that_ to consider," I tacked on, waiting to see if there were any questions about it. There probably would be later, but none for the moment. "Since Cinder worked for Salem, Jaune figured that she was in Beacon because she was the one who attacked Amber. He assumed that the White Fang was a means to distract Ozpin, so he offered his help to Cinder in exchange for her running her attacks by him so that he could help limit collateral damage."

" _Bullshit_ ," Qrow called out contemptuously.

"That part is true," I countered firmly. "Just because Cinder didn't honor the deal doesn't mean that Jaune wasn't trying. If nothing else, getting close to Cinder would help him take her out once Pyrrha was his Maiden."

"Why not you?" Nora asked suddenly, confusing me. I looked to her strangely for an explanation. "Why make Pyrrha his Maiden? Why not try to get _you_ to become one, since you were already helping him?"

"He…" I hesitated to answer. "He didn't want me to be one. He didn't want to put a target on my back, and he didn't want to risk having Ozpin and Salem and even Raven fighting over who got to control me."

It was sweet of him, in a way, not wanting me to be burdened with something he saw as more of a curse. The flip side, though…

"But he wanted that for Pyrrha?"

"I think—and this is just what _I_ think he was thinking—" I stressed that part, making it clear that I just wasn't sure about this, "—that he figured that Ozpin was going to make Pyrrha a Maiden anyways." I stopped and looked to Qrow, who frowned at being implicated negatively again. He couldn't do anything to deny it, though, and shrugged noncommittally.

"Is Jaune really so pragmatic that it doesn't matter to him that _he_ would have been the one making Pyrrha a Maiden?" Weiss asked with some snark, though there was some seriousness to her question too.

" _The ends justify the means_ ," Blake mumbled quietly. "Dammit, Jaune."

"Are we ready to hear how it went down yet?" Nora asked, impatiently. "Or do we need to hear Jaune and Yang's comeback story first, too?"

"Comeback… story?" I asked, confused. "I'm not sure that we _have_ a comeback story, Nora."

"Oh, I'm sure you've got stories where he gets cum on your bac—" Ren clamped a hand over Nora's mouth, too little, too late.

"OKAY—" I cut in loudly, trying to drown out everything that was just said. _And praying that no one asks if I_ do _have a story like that, because I've never been able to lie convincingly to my dad._ "—how about that story of the time that everything fell apart?"

"Y-Yes," Ruby added on awkwardly, "let's go with that instead!"

I paused for a moment for any further interruptions, but Nora seemed content with her work and didn't have anything else to add on. Everyone else sat there patiently, intently waiting to finally hear what happened from a new perspective.

"Okay, so…" I started off, trying to gather my thoughts to tackle this. It only just now hit me just how hard it would be to explain this to them, considering how involved I was and that if they didn't like what Jaune did, I was partially to blame for that. A wave of hesitance and nervousness washed over me, and I was reminded of the time that Jaune let me tag along to his meeting with Raven for the first time. He knew that he needed to explain things to me and that I was willing to hear him out—and maybe even give him the benefit of some doubt—but he still seemed paralyzed by something. I'm just now realizing that it was the fear of what I would do once I heard it all, and at least he wasn't explaining it to his dad, sister, uncle, and team.

I decided to go ahead and take a page from Jaune's book and make sure they all knew what they were getting into.

"Guys, just… do me a favor here, okay?" I asked, my voice a lot more frail than it had been. "Jaune didn't do everything alone. I-I was involved too… a lot. J-Just—"

" _Yang_ ," dad's voice called out softly. I looked up and he gave me a calm, reassuring nod. "It's okay."

"Just keep in mind what all we thought we were up against, and that all of this happened so quickly. There are… things we could do better, I'm sure." I powered through that part without choking up, and received mostly understanding nods or quiet promises from the group. Uncle Qrow didn't seem enthused with the idea of giving Jaune any leeway, but I tried to ignore that as just him being tied too closely to Ozpin to be able to let anything go. "With that said, all of this began with the Vytal Festival, in my singles match against Mercury Black. _You know_ , the same Mercury who was teammates with the woman who caused the Fall of Beacon?" I asked, giving Weiss, Blake, and Ruby flat looks. "The same one that everyone was so upset because they thought I had gone evil over?"

I made sure to spread the flat glare over to uncle Qrow once I remembered that he had been there too, and hadn't been particularly believing either. My team all looked embarrassed, _as they should be_ considering just what that meant to me at the time, and Ruby especially looked caught between chagrined and guilty.

"Mercury Black is one of Cinder Fall's three teammates, none of whom were ever caught," dad supplied, taking some of the attention off of Team RWB_. I had a feeling that he had been caught up with what had been going on during the Festival, and was jumping in now to try to let me cool off. I wasn't _actually_ angry at my team for it, not anymore, but it was nice to spread a little blame away from me.

"I can save you the trouble on two of them," I called out. "One is dead and the other worked for Torchwick, not for Cinder. She's—" I cut myself off again, forgetting how bad this looked.

"At the camp with Raven and Jaune and Torchwick?" Nora supplied for me, lifting one eyebrow suspiciously at me. I nodded weakly. "Figures. What about the dead one?"

"I'm getting to that!" I answered, pretending to be upset at being interrupted to hide how grateful I was that Nora got things back on track. "The only person who _didn't_ think I would break someone's legs on purpose was Jaune, because he knew that Cinder was rigging the fights and that Cinder's other teammate, Emerald, can force someone to hallucinate with her Semblance…"

I gave them another flat glare as they put the pieces together and realized— _finally_ —that I really didn't break a defenseless opponent's legs.

"Cinder's plan was to stir up negative emotions in the Vytal Festival and then use the Grimm surge as a cover to strike at Amber," Qrow announced, still looking angry. At least for now, he seemed angry at himself, which he should be. "Your match with Mercury made things tense enough that Oz had to dispatch some Huntsmen outside the city walls to quell Grimm spikes. That left Atlas almost isolated to protect Vale's interior, and she already had a trojan in place in their system… _damn_."

"How'd you miss this, Qrow?" dad asked a bit antagonistically.

"Hey, Atlas is the one who's systems were vulnerable enough for it to work," Qrow defended angrily. "We were too busy trying to find a new Maiden to sniff out a hidden threat like this. Maybe if _someone_ had warned us who that threat was ahead of time…" Qrow spat out, flicking his eyes to me. I wasn't sure if he was accusing Jaune or me now. "…then we could have stopped Vale from being destroyed."

"Hey, we did more to stop it than you did!" I countered, which only soured Qrow's expression more. "Things moved fast after Jaune told me that Cinder had to have set me up. Jaune went to go confront Cinder, and while he was gone, Raven showed up."

I had everyone's attention now, even Qrow, though his demeanor didn't brighten up any.

"Raven… didn't believe me when I said I was innocent, but unlike my team, she didn't care. She _liked_ it. It sounds weird now, but _I_ knew I was innocent, yet my team all looked me like I was—" I cut myself off as my throat tightened upon seeing the fragile look on Ruby's face. I hated seeing her beat herself up, especially knowing that she might blame herself for me wanting to leave. "Just having someone who didn't look at me that way was appealing, and that's when Raven offered me a spot in her Tribe."

"And you took it?" Weiss asked, a bit of guilt in her voice too.

"Nope," I answered glibly, giving Weiss a flirtatious wink for effect. "I was close to accepting it, but I didn't want to leave my team. I didn't have a good reason for staying other than it felt off to leave. Raven left the offer open and told me that if things went bad, she would take Jaune and I in."

"Obviously, things went bad," Blake joked darkly.

" _No shit_ ," Weiss—of all people, _Weiss_ —grumbled.

"While I was gone, Jaune confronted Cinder, Emerald, and Neo in their dorm. Let's… just say that there is a reason that you can't find Emerald, and leave it at that…" I trailed off, looking around the group for reactions. There were some wide eyes, and Qrow in particular looked as if he didn't know how to react to the idea of Jaune doing something ultimately beneficial to Vale.

It was Nora that led the pack, though.

"Okay, so Jaune killed _another_ terrorist," Nora summarized, unenthused. "That's not really anything new, right?"

I shrugged, and no one else could really say anything against it. The news was just a little shocking, even if it shouldn't be _that_ surprising. Though technically, this one counted as murder at the time; I have a feeling that with hindsight, no one is really going to care about that so much.

"He had the chance to kill Cinder, too—despite the fact that she was a half-Maiden at the time."

"Damn," dad tacked on, impressed. Even uncle Qrow seemed impressed.

"I know how to pick'em," I joked, giving my dad a sly smile that saw all positive features from his face wiped clean. "Unfortunately, Jaune let Cinder go that time. He said he hesitated because he wasn't sure what would happen to her powers, and we really needed the full Maiden powers on our side to be able to deal with Raven."

"He let her go!?" Qrow burst out angrily.

"Yeah, he… he did," I answered sheepishly. "I can promise you that he regrets that more than anything—" A stray thought crossed my mind, and I revised that statement. "—well, more than all but one thing, at least. He thought at the time that he needed Pyrrha on board before they took care of Cinder, so as soon as he left Cinder, he went to Pyrrha."

I locked eyes with Qrow, and this time I was intentionally confrontational with him.

"Do they know?"

Qrow locked eyes back with me, and we held hard stares at each other for a few moments.

"Know _what?_ "

I gave uncle Qrow one more chance to answer before I did. It dawned on me finally that there was no way that I could make Jaune and I look better without making Ozpin and uncle Qrow look worse, and… well, I know who I'm picking.

"As soon as Jaune made an enemy of Cinder by killing Emerald, he told Pyrrha pretty much everything. He told her about Raven, about why he needed a Maiden, and Ozpin's machine, and then his plan to use Pyrrha to take out Cinder…"

"And Pyrrha turned him in," Nora added on quietly, her eyes downtrodden. It was the 'right' thing to do, but I wouldn't have done it to Jaune, and Nora seemed sad that Pyrrha had. Or that she thought Pyrrha had. That confirmed my fears that Qrow hadn't told them everything, which meant he wasn't going to like what I was going to say.

"That's the thing," I called out, earning their attention—even dad's. Qrow glared at me. "The next day, Ozpin captured Jaune, but he got a text out to me telling me to run. So naturally, when I saw Pyrrha walking towards the Headmaster's tower when she should have been on Amity, I… handled things poorly."

" _Yaaaaang_ ," Ruby drawled, "stop hurting people as a first resort!"

I shrugged. That wasn't happening anytime soon.

"Yeah, I came unglued on Pyrrha for a few moments. I was furious that she would do that to Jaune; did some serious damage before I cooled down, and you know what she told me?" I flicked my eyes towards uncle Qrow one last time, and he was already furious with where this was going. "She said she wanted to help Jaune. She didn't even _know_ that Jaune had been taken. Ozpin was using Pyrrha to spy on Jaune without her knowing it."

" _What?_ " came a couple of different voices, followed by heads turning towards Qrow.

Qrow shrugged, trying to come off as indifferent. "Ozpin recruited Pyrrha to investigate Jaune's involvement in other criminal stuff. She agreed to keep a recorder on her, and she voluntarily recorded Jaune that night. Not our fault that your boy confessed."

"You didn't tell her that anything she records automatically gets sent to Ozpin!" I cut back aggressively. "She thought that by destroying it, she was protecting Jaune!"

Qrow shrugged again, but his posture was more defensive this time. "Well, maybe next time she shouldn't abandon her principles. None of this would have happened if Pyrrha had helped bring Jaune under control in the first place."

"Qrow," dad cut in warningly.

"Oh, and maybe none of this would have happened if _you_ had brought _me_ under control in the first place," I spat back his words at him angrily, jumping up out of my seat. Qrow matched me and rose out of his own seat. I could feel my eyes shifting to red.

"Careful, Yang. I'm doing everything I can to help you out here," Qrow called out, trying to make it sound like he was doing me a favor. That infuriated me further. "I can't protect you if you insist on tying yourself to your terrorist boyfriend."

" _Stop calling him that!_ "

"What, _terrorist?_ Yang, when he hid her name from Oz, he helped Cinder murder thousands of people. Maybe _hundreds_ of thousands!" Qrow shouted back, his own temper flaring to rival my own. My fists clenched at my side and it got harder and harder to keep them there. "It doesn't matter how much he doesn't like Ozpin. Our entire job is to protect Vale; that makes us the good guys, Yang, which makes Jaune the bad guy! Simple as that."

"Really?" I asked, my voice dropping dangerously low. If I didn't have a comeback for that in mind, my anger probably would have boiled over and we'd be throwing down right now. Instead, it felt like ice was running through my veins as I spat my next words at him. "How many of Cinder's people did _you_ stop? _Any?_ "

Qrow's jaw set hard and he angrily held his tongue. I took the last step between us until we were face to face. He may have been taller but he was not in charge here.

"Because the way I see it, Jaune did more to stop Cinder than you ever did. He killed Cinder's apprentice. All you did was stop him from going after Cinder himself! If you waited even a single day, Jaune might have already taken care of Cinder for you! The way I see it, that either makes _you_ the bad guy, or just completely incompetent."

Qrow glared at me, and I had never seen him that angry before. It was foreign to see his eyes so clear when I was used to seeing him drunk, and even more foreign to see the anger there. He restrained himself still, but only barely.

"We were not going to bet the Fall Maiden on a kid who _said_ that he wanted to use the powers against Raven. For all we knew, he was playing us on Raven's behalf," Qrow answered calmly enough, though he spit the words at me. "You spin a nice story there, firecracker, but if Jaune was really so benevolent, he would have swallowed his pride and given up Cinder to Ozpin, saving a lot of lives."

"YOU TIED HIM TO FUCKING CHAIR IN A DUNGEON UNDERNEATH THE SCHOOL!" I screamed at him, losing any semblance of patience or calm. "If I woke up in chains in a dark basement with a creepy old man interrogating me, I would tell you to fuck off, too! _You blew this,_ uncle Qrow. Don't act like it's all Jaune's fault."

Like that, all semblance of calm was gone. Uncle Qrow's hands curled into fists, and I forced myself to make him take the first swing. I wasn't going to give him the chance to accuse Jaune or me of instigating a damn thing, and if he was firmly on Ozpin's side, then it was time to admit that this made us enemies. If he truly believed that, then he would have to swing first. It was the last chance I was going to take to stop this from escalating.

Qrow's hand shot up towards his back where his weapon was stowed, and I closed my eyes and braced. It would hurt, but I would get more than a few chances to repay the favor later. I heard a gasp from the side—Ruby's, if I had to guess—and then nothing happened.

I opened my eyes to find that dad was standing next to us, and had caught Qrow's wrist before it could make it to his pommel. He was giving Qrow the ugliest glare I'd ever seen.

" _Take a walk, Qrow,_ " dad hissed softly, trying not to be heard by the others. " _You're out of line here._ "

Qrow returned dad's glare and didn't wither under it, but eventually accepted the suggestion with an unenthusiastic _hmmpf_. Dad let go of Qrow's wrist and shoved it away. Before Qrow left, he gave me one more glare for good measure, and then shifted into a bird to fly off before either dad or me could get him for that.

I let out a quick breath to start to calm myself down. My eyes shifted back to lilac, and I wondered if my hair had started to simmer at any point.

With Qrow gone for now, I forced my eyes shut and tried to release the tension I had built up. That probably could have been handled better by either of us, but… well, it's not worth beating myself up over. I'm sure everyone else will have plenty to pick me apart for by the time we're through anyways. That didn't mean that the tension was easy to release, though; there was a lot of it, and I would be tense for a while now. _I'll have to get Jaune to help release some of that later tonigh—_

I was interrupted from my thoughts by a sharp smack to the back of my head, and my eyes opened in a frenzy to find that my dad had smacked me decently hard. Blood started to rush to my cheeks as I thought he somehow read my thoughts, and I only just now realized what it was that I was implying—or rather, how bad it would have been to imply that to my father. The frown he gave me only served to solidify my fears.

"That's for escalating things," dad admonished. Despite the lecture, I let out a breath I hadn't known I was holding; he _hadn't_ heard my thoughts. _Thank the gods for small favors._ "You could have explained things without singling out your uncle. It takes two to tango."

I shrugged sheepishly, eagerly accepting the lecture and hoping he didn't catch on to why I was too eager to do so. Weiss—my shining savior—came to my rescue before anything else happened.

"So what happened after you confronted Pyrrha?" she asked, sounding once again annoyed that the story had been delayed. She was definitely awkward after watching Qrow and I's little spat, but pushed through it.

"You're still interested in _that?_ " Nora asked. "Did you _see_ that family fight? I wanna dig more into the drama."

Ren, inspired by my father, smacked Nora on the back of the head, and she shot him a vicious glare for it.

"I'll deal with Qrow later," dad announced, letting out a sigh as he did so. "Go ahead, don't keep the princess waiting."

I got the feeling that Weiss would have objected to the nickname, but didn't want to risk another interruption.

"Alright, well, I attacked Pyrrha and took half of her Aura, and then we tried to figure out if there was anything we could do to save Jaune. She ended up going to her meeting with Ozpin, and… okay, so we don't really know what happened after that. Only Pyrrha and Ozpin know for sure, but we at least know that Ozpin transferred Amber's Aura into Pyrrha."

"And that's what killed Pyrrha?" Ruby asked in a frail voice that hurt me to hear. "That's the identity crisis that Raven mentioned, right?"

I cut myself off from answering, instead running a hand through my hair nervously. I didn't know that Raven had talked to any of them since Beacon, and I certainly hadn't expected her to tell them about Amber.

"That—that comes later, Ruby," I answered. It was pretty clear from my voice that there was more to the answer, too. "It… took more than just Ozpin's experiment to do that to her. I'll get to it, I promise."

"Pyrrha went to Ozpin," dad called out, realizing that I needed the push. "What did you do?"

I gave him a weak, guilty look. "I went to mom for help. She had spent all that time talking about wanting Jaune to return to the Tribe for good, so I figured that she would save him from Ozpin because he wouldn't have anywhere to go after that. It was what she wanted; she had won. But she… she wouldn't do it."

Weiss, Blake, Ren, Nora, and Ruby all reacted to that in varying degrees of shock. Dad frowned but took in the information with no other reaction.

"She wouldn't even take me back to Beacon on the chance that I got caught just like Jaune. Just like that, it was all over.

"Until I saw that the Vytal Festival was being attacked, and the giant Wyvern was coming for the city. I-I had to do something—" my voice cracked, forcing me to slow down and realize that I was a little too desperate to get the words out, "—because I knew Jaune wouldn't agree to anything from Ozpin, so I… made a deal."

"You for Jaune," Blake guessed quietly, staring off at the ground by my feet.

"Me _and_ Jaune," I corrected. "It wasn't a good deal, but it wasn't… it wasn't terrible. I was sorta close to accepting her offer the first time; I just didn't want to leave you all. Once it was the only way to save Jaune, the choice became easier."

"And she accepted that deal after refusing to save Jaune?" Weiss asked, suspicious of Raven's motivations.

I nodded solemnly. "I'm still not sure if she was just manipulating me the whole time, or if she really was going to leave Jaune to his own fate. I'm not sure I know which would be worse…"

I trailed off and things got silent for a few moments, and I used the time to reflect back over things a little.

"Qrow would say she was manipulating you the whole time," dad called out, staring at the ground with a distant expression. "Raven has a softer side that Qrow refuses to see, though. If she liked the kid, it's possible that she didn't like leaving him to rot, but… Raven's nothing if not principled."

"Her principles suck, then," Ruby pouted.

"Yeah, there's a couple of bad ones mixed in there," dad confirmed, with the ghost of a smile at some old memory gracing his face. "Not all of them are, though."

"Then what happened to Pyrrha?" Nora asked impatiently, taking a page from Weiss' book.

"Right, well, when the attack started, Cinder snuck down into the vault and freed Jaune," I said quickly, thankful that Qrow still hadn't returned yet. The looks on the faces around me were bad enough, and I didn't need to give him any more ammunition than he already had. "He agreed to set a trap for Pyrrha and… well, mistakes were made."

"What!?" It was Ruby who reacted the strongest. "Why? Why would Jaune work with his enemy to attack his friend!?"

From the confused or shocked faces of everyone else, it was a common question. It was also probably the hardest one of the night.

"It was a mistake, okay? Jaune's been beating himself up over it ever since," I responded defensively. "All Jaune knew was that he told Pyrrha the truth and that got him captured. He was furious at her, and he thought that it was all over for him anyways. _And he's not the only one who attacked Pyrrha!_ " I pointed out desperately. I could read it in their eyes that their opinion of Jaune was faltering and that a month of listening to uncle Qrow had already made them doubt, and everything in me wanted things to work out here. It's ugly and messy and not everything worked out well, but… but still… "I attacked Pyrrha too! She only had half of her Aura for her fight with Jaune because I took the other half when I attacked her earlier! If you're going to blame Jaune, you have to blame me too."

It occurred to me after throwing my name in with Jaune's that both Jaune and I had fled Vale afterwards and that, honestly, it wasn't a stretch to throw me in with Jaune anyways. Fortunately, they weren't prepared to condemn me, and I saw them reacting to my point the way I had hoped: it made them rethink condemning Jaune.

"So what happened?" Blake asked. She was handling it the best out of the five, but it was still bothering her. Dad was unreadable, Weiss was upset but trying to make sense of it, and Ren had a distant look on his face. Nora and Ruby had it the worst; they both looked lost.

"I don't know everything. Jaune and Pyrrha fought. Jaune won, and stabbed Pyrrha in the ribs. Ozpin showed up and fought off Cinder, and at some point Jaune realized that he fucked up big-time. He carried Pyrrha out but his Aura ran out before he could save Pyrrha." I didn't look up now, instead finding the ground in front of my feet infinitely more appealing. The memory of just how bad of a place Jaune was in when Raven brought me back to the Tribe was fresh in my mind. It was terrifying, and it still scares me to think that he's never fully recovered from nearly killing his partner. "Of all people to save Pyrrha, it was _Raven_. She didn't have to, but she did; the woman who Jaune thought hated him and who he thought was a monster saved the girl that he tried to murder and… well, Jaune's not been quite the same ever since. That rattled him."

Things were quiet, but I didn't feel like looking up now. I was afraid of what I might see. If no one was going to say anything, then that was okay with me.

"When Cinder died, Pyrrha got the rest of the Maiden's powers. When she woke up, though, she wasn't Pyrrha anymore. She was Amber in Pyrrha's body."

"H-How does that work?"

"We don't have a clue," I answered, looking up to find it was Weiss who asked. "You would have to ask Ozpin, if he even knows. It was some experimental thing anyways, and I doubt that this was ever the intended outcome anyways." I scoffed that last part. As much as I wanted Pyrrha back, Amber was my friend now too, and the idea that she was never supposed to regain consciousness angered me. "She doesn't have any of Amber's memories, just her Aura and her mind, sorta. She has some influences from Pyrrha and she struggles to tell herself apart from Pyrrha's body sometimes, which made me think that Pyrrha might still be there."

They perked up at that, especially Nora and Ren, who for once did not do a great job at suppressing his expression.

I hated to have to rain on the parade.

"She still could be, but we've… not made any progress," I admitted, sadly. "I've made Amber try to meditate and see if there wasn't something left of Pyrrha, but she hasn't found anything. Pyrrha's Aura isn't there, and Amber's isn't—"

"Isn't what?" Ruby asked innocently, trapping me.

"Her Aura isn't regenerating," I answered hesitantly. _Good going, Yang, there's not many secrets you_ haven't _spilled yet._ "She doesn't have a ton left, either. We don't know will happen when she runs out."

"Pyrrha could come back," Nora suggested a little too eagerly. Ruby's eyes shone wide with hope, which made me feel guilty for Amber.

"That's what _I_ said," I confirmed with a nod. "It's not that simple, though. Even when your Aura isn't unlocked, you still _have_ Aura. If Amber's Aura taking over Pyrrha meant that Amber's mind took over Pyrrha's, then Aura is clearly important to who we are. If Pyrrha's is gone, then when Amber's runs out, Pyrrha's body might die. Or…"

"Or go into a vegetative state," Weiss filled in, "which would be just as bad as death," she elaborated for Ruby's sake, since she was about to ask.

My phone buzzed, and since I was still within range of the Tribe's network boosters, there was a short list of people it could be. I let them distract themselves for a few moments by discussing it.

 _Raven: 5 minute warning_

I went ahead and stood up from my seat. It would probably take much longer than five minutes to say goodbye, so it was best to start it early. It sucked to have any time taken away from them, but there was a part of me that was grateful that the time was limited. It meant that they wouldn't have as much time to point out every little thing I did wrong.

Unfortunately, it meant that they'd save all those for next time.

"Where are you going?" dad called out inquisitively.

"Raven just texted. She'll have a portal back for me in five minutes." _Hopefully, before Qrow gets back._ I'm sure I'll get plenty of grief for that, but I am just not in the mood to apologize and patch things up right now. He got under my skin, and as far as I'm concerned, he deserved what he got.

"You're going back?" Ruby asked, almost heartbroken, which hit me like a freight train.

"I have to, Ruby," I tried to explain. I was getting no help from anyone, though Blake looked _somewhat_ sympathetic. If you squinted at her, maybe. "Say what you want about Jaune, but I was there helping him make his decisions. It wouldn't be fair if I left him alone to the consequences."

"You're your own person, Yang," dad countered, standing up from his spot and moving towards me. "You get to make your own decisions. I've never known you to give up your independence."

"And I'm independently choosing to stick with him," I snapped back, though without any real edge to it. I ended up rolling my eyes at how cheesy it sounded, actually. "I get it, dad. I left, and that was a shitty thing to do. But Jaune needed me then, and Jaune and Amber both need me now. I can't abandon them."

He opened his mouth to answer, but closed it again. I had used the A-word, and he knew that I didn't take that lightly. Ruby did too, and I noticed that she went awfully still and quiet too. They didn't even turn it around and accuse me of abandoning them, either, which I was grateful for. I didn't abandon them— _hell, I even told my team bye before I left_ —but it was close enough that they could have thrown it in my face.

They didn't, though. That meant a lot.

"If you asked them to leave, would they?" dad asked instead, giving me a meaningful look.

"What, like, leave the Tribe?" I asked. He nodded in reply. "I don't really think Raven would let them walk easily. She gave Jaune and I the chance to leave once and we didn't take it; I'm not sure she would do it again," I answered, trailing off as I thought on it a little. "Amber would be difficult because Raven is protecting her. There's not a lot of places a Maiden can hide, but having huge chunks of territory in the edge of Mistral and Raven's Semblance helps a ton."

"I'm not asking if Raven would like it," he countered, giving me a knowing look. "I'm asking if Jaune and Amber would leave if you asked them to."

He was giving me a look. I wasn't sure if I liked it or not.

"You're planning something, aren't you?"

Doing his best impersonation of me and Raven, dad gave me a cocky grin and shrugged. "Raven's little group of thieves and murderers isn't so little anymore—"

"It's not so murdery, either," I chimed in. "We haven't done anything illegal since I joined."

"—no, but you're extorting several cities—"

"We're _actually_ protecting them! It's better than Mistral does for them!"

"—and they have to pay you for it."

I shrugged. "We need to eat, too."

"They're paying you _a lot_ , at least in the places we've been at," he accused.

I shrugged again. He had me there. "Armies aren't cheap. Neither are Huntsmen; what's your point?"

"My point is that Raven is too large to ignore anymore," dad answered pointedly. "She has two Maidens and she runs almost a fourth of Mistral's territory. With Salem on the move, Oz really can't afford to have one Maiden who isn't on his side, let alone _two._ I get that you and Qrow don't see eye to eye on this, but he's right about some things." Dad shrugged when I wasn't impressed. "If nothing else, Mistral is going to want to put down an armed militia before she gets any ideas of succeeding or something."

"What's your play, then?"

"Beacon doesn't have anything to spare, and we're not sure if Atlas is going to stick around. We'll unite with Headmaster Lionheart at Mistral and use Mistral's military and Huntsmen to force Raven to come to the table."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I asked, giving him a flat look. "Even if you think Raven's fleecing these people, the moment you threaten her, she'll pull all her forces back and let them all die."

"If Raven pulls her forces back and lets everyone die, then she'll confirm to the world that she's a force for herself, not for peace or protection. That would seal her fate. Besides, do you think she'd commit to staying in one spot and fighting a losing battle?"

That one went unanswered. It was redundant.

"The goal is to get her to keep doing what she's doing, but to open a line of communication. That way she knows what's going to happen if something drastic changes…"

"She's going to hate that," I pointed out. "She'll resent being forced into subservience like that."

"She made her bed. She can lie in it," dad responded gruffly, crossing his arms. There wasn't a ton of love lost there, or not enough to make him hesitate. "If she has two Maidens and my niece when that happens, she'll probably get a much harsher deal…"

He trailed off and his plan became apparent.

"…and if she lets me, Jaune, and Amber walk, then she gets to keep more of her freedom," I filled in. Dad gave me a goofy grin and a finger gun. " _Damn_. That's not bad, actually."

"I'll have you know that I was the first man alive to figure out how to deal with Raven Branwen," he pretended to brag. "Which is why you exist…"

" _Eww_ ," I cringed, my face scrunching up. He tussled my hair while my eyes were closed, going out of his way to mess it up.

"Now you know how I've felt during all this talk about your 'adventures.'" He gave me an antagonistic look and I returned it with a flat glare, but I couldn't hold it for long. A smile broke out on my face and he rolled his eyes at that, but invited me in for a hug anyways. I accepted it readily.

" _I'll do what I can to convince them,_ " I whispered, squeezing tightly. " _Jaune will be the hard one, especially once I tell him that leaving means meeting my dad…_ "

" _I promise not to kill him,_ " he whispered back, though I could hear the grin on his face, " _at first sight._ "

I rolled my eyes, but accepted it nonetheless. It was a better deal than I could hope for, actually.

" _I trust you, Yang. Maybe more than you deserve._ " I smacked him on the back for that and he laughed at me. " _You'll do great. I love you, Yang._ "

" _Love you, dad_ ," I returned, burying my face in his shoulder for just a moment, before ending the hug.

"Alright, who else wants a hug before I—" Ruby crashed into my waist, tackling me onto the ground in a hug, "—leave?"

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Qrow might be just a little too close to the situation for his own good, no?**

 **I see this chapter as the culmination of a _lot_ of frustration from Qrow, boiling up to a point where tough-love Tai had to step in. Vale was already destroyed on his watch, and just because you have an excuse doesn't mean you don't feel guilty. Then Jaune utterly embarrassed Qrow and Ozpin by being Raven's surrogate kid, and by undercutting them with their Maiden, and also not cooperating to stop Cinder. A lot of shit went wrong and Qrow was involved with most of it. The guy has to be angry at himself, and that boils over towards anyone who wants to pile on to him. He's a bit defensive; we'll see if he handles it better or not.**

 **Amber is... in a rough spot. When the best advice you can get is "just enjoy your last moments," things are bad. When you are incapable of enjoying those last moments because the body you took over is haunting you with feelings and memories, things are significantly worse. You almost have to decide what you can control, and hold tightly onto that. _If you can't control how you live..._**

* * *

 **Comment(s) of the Week(s):**

"No comment of the Week?Ike hates the readers CONFIRMED.

Everyone sniping at Yang has been absolutely beautiful. It reminds me of the "React" fics that were popular for a time, where characters are watching their own show. "Wait, you did WHAT?" - ZHsteven

 **It took you sixty chapters to confirm that? Wow. Where you been hiding, bro?**

 **Also I had forcefully blocked the memory of react fics from my brain, so thanks for _that_ relapse. It's a really funny analogy though, and not an inaccurate one. I know I would hate to have to narrate my life to anyone, let alone my family and friends. _"And then, I spent another ten hours the next week writing a new chapter for my fanfic, as well as a really stupid omake about sexual masochism and hair-kinks..."_**

"Amber has become a really likeable character, and all things considered, her desire to live is sympathetic. Would be a shame if she died to Pyrrha's regenerating Aura." - guest

"I can't help but notice pyrrha is still being controlled by amber... #FreePyrrha.

Seriously though, amber really isn't funny, and the sooner pyrrha comes back, the sooner this story becomes good again. Similarly, once Jaune decides to leave the tribe, his character will become fun to read once more." - guest

 **Okay, it is shocking to me how much fun I have had gauging the reactions to Pyrrha throughout the story. I remember back before V3's arc ended that a solid majority were in the "fuck that bitch" camp. I always saw Pyrrha's actions as those of a confused girl caught as a pawn between two competent political players, Jaune and Ozpin. She never had a chance and nothing she did worked because she was so far out of her element, but that said, I totally got the resentment towards her. If you were pulling for Jaune, the Pyrrha was a frustrating obstacle.**

 **Now, the anons are split sorta down the middle on whether they _want Pyrrha back_ or are enjoying watching how Amber pans out. I know the Discord likes Amber, but that's because they're a bunch of degenerates who loved the omake a few chapters back. **

"Amber has become a really likeable character, and all things considered, her desire to live is sympathetic. Would be a shame if she died to Pyrrha's regenerating Aura." - guest

 **That's sort of the point goal here, is to establish that there's no perfect outcome here. Hell, it's hard to foresee a _good_ outcome. If Pyrrha does come back, there's gonna be a lot of awkward things to discuss. "Oh hey, should we talk about you trying to kill me? How about why I'm not a virgin anymore? And why I'm suddenly attracted to Yang?"**

 **Okay, that last part might _only_ be Amber. Hey, when the host you're living in is straight, the easiest way to know if it's really _you_ who is attracted to someone is if their also a girl. That's just science, y'all.**

* * *

 **Okay, I'm rambling into weird territory. Point is, as the author, I like the general reaction to Amber; it's about where I wanted it: split down the middle. See you guys next week.**


	64. Totally trustworthy alliances

**Author's Note: Okay, missed a week last week. To make up for it, this week's chapter is one of the longest chapters (discounting ANs) of the story.** **That was actually a coincidence, but it works out nicely. The reason this one is long is because there's a bonus scene after Comment of the Week.**

 **Heh.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 61:** _"Whoever said not to mix business and pleasure clearly wasn't in the same business as me." – Raven Branwen_

* * *

Raven's POV

* * *

"Vernal," I called out. My eyes had gotten stuck staring at the map pinned up on the wall of my study, and focusing on Vernal's form in the doorway helped nudge me out. She'd been standing there long enough to give off an annoyed vibe at having to wait, but ultimately knew better than to chime in. "See something you like?"

Ah, the Tribe's time-honored tradition of fucking with each other. If nothing else, _that_ I could focus on.

"Eh, not my type," Vernal dismissed without missing a beat. "Too much hair, not enough ass."

" _Fuck you_ ," I shot back playfully, turning away from the map entirely. "I have an awesome ass."

"Who told you that," Vernal asked back cheekily, walking up next to me and cutting her eyes at me coyly, " _Tai?_ "

"…do you _want_ to go babysit Amber?"

"I'll take that as a victory," Vernal announced, not flinching at my threat. She was smug about it for a few moments before dropping it and getting to the point. "You got anything for me?"

"For you, no," I answered. "I need Jaune and Torchwick, preferably in that order."

"Got it," Vernal replied, seemingly eager to deliver _other_ people to do work so that she could fuck off and do whatever. She didn't even care to hide that from me, knowing that she was one of a handful of people that I would let it slide for.

I reached down to my side and pulled out my scroll, sending Yang a warning text.

It wasn't a minute later that I heard the front door open and close again. Two sets of feet walked in and made their way towards me, and I found myself curious enough what pair of people would be coming to see me, unless Jaune came with Torchwick.

I turned around to satisfy my curiosity. Jaune and Amber, with the latter shuffling behind Jaune like an awkward shadow.

"This about Yang, or are you planning on leaving her with Tai indefinitely?" Jaune asked loudly, announcing his presence. He sounded slightly miffed, though it wasn't hard to figure out what part of leaving Yang with her old team would worry him. If my eyes weren't stuck on Amber, I would have teased him about how obvious he was sometimes.

Couldn't help myself, though, not after how Amber's reacted since she was dropped below ten percent. _Vernal may not have been kidding about not wanting to be alone_. Amber wasn't needed here at the moment, and she seemed like she knew that and was just following Jaune around to avoid being alone.

"It is," I confirmed to Jaune after waiting a few seconds. I had to drag my eyes off of Amber up to Jaune. "I'd say she's had enough time to convince them to back off."

"It's been all day," Jaune confirmed gruffly. "I thought that you were giving them maybe an hour or two to discuss things. I didn't realize you were going to let them make a full pitch to Yang; if I had, I would have made you bring her back sooner."

"Well, then let's go get her, then," I called out, grabbing my mask off the desk. The look on Jaune's face was priceless; a mix of fear and uncertainty flashed across his face, and he tried to play it off as confusion.

"W-What, _me?_ "

I made a show of looking past him. "Amber can stay here. I promise it won't take long." Jaune didn't look like he appreciated being ignored when I did look back to him. "Hike up your skirt and let's get this over with. Wear your mask if you're so worried about it."

"Why are you grabbing your sword?" Jaune asked as I strapped the weapon to my hip. I looked to him and gave him a shrug. "I thought you said Yang would talk them out of anything."

"I said that either Yang would talk them out of it—" I cut back, repeating his own words, "—or that we wouldn't have to worry about Yang defecting from us later." I really wasn't too concerned about that either, since she would have to abandon both Jaune and Amber to do so, but I couldn't resist playing that factor up to make Jaune nervous.

I cut a portal open to Yang. Tai's portal was right next to it, but interestingly, there was some distance between them and Qrow.

"After you," I called out, making a show of mockingly bowing like someone holding the door open. Jaune didn't budge, instead rooted in his spot. Hesitation and fear shone in his eyes as he stared forward. "Gods, you're dramatic. What did I ever do to deserve you?" I asked redundantly. _If we were to start listing items, we'd be here all night._

With a roll of my eyes, I strut forward towards the portal, making sure to keep my movements loose and my demeanor cocky as I stepped through—though my eyes were sharp, and at the slightest movement I was prepared to slice whatever was in front of me in half. Jaune scrambled to find his mask as I strode past him, finding it eventually clasped at his hip. I felt his presence follow behind me once he got it on.

"How was the playdate?" I called out cheekily, as the scene before me came to view. Yang and Tai were standing off to the side of the rest of the kids, who were all standing there awkwardly. No Qrow in sight. I made eye contact with Tai through my mask. "And don't lie to me. I know Yang has a temper; did she behave?"

"Very funny, Raven—" Tai called out flatly, cutting off suddenly as Jaune emerged from the portal. His eyes caught on Jaune's form.

"Jaune?!" the ginger girl's voice called out, nearly hitching. Jaune went rigid at my side. All eyes went to Jaune and things were awkwardly silent as they waited for Jaune to say something.

He didn't.

"That's him, huh?" Tai called out, sizing up Jaune.

"Mmhmm…" the Schnee hummed, eyeing Jaune curiously. I couldn't quite tell where she fell, and she seemed to be hiding or faking her reaction to throw anyone watching off.

"Oh, give it a rest, dad," Yang called out, making a show of dismissing Tai's 'tough father' routine. She wasn't the only one, but they couldn't see me roll my eyes through my mask. Yang made a show of walking over to Jaune. "Say something, Jaune."

Jaune turned and scanned over his old friends again. There was no telling how they took that, but Jaune was more nervous than I can remember seeing him. It was obvious to me even through his mask.

"Did you tell them…?" Jaune asked to Yang, keeping his voice low.

"Mmhmm…"

Jaune's mask flicked back towards his friends.

Yang smacked Jaune lightly on the chest, right between his new breastplate and the armor on his arms, and gave him an angry look to 'encourage' him to say something. Her voice was soft enough that most wouldn't hear her. "They know about Pyrrha and they at least don't hate you. _Say something before they change their mind._ "

Jaune had all of their eyes on him, and he stayed silent. The whole scene was so awkward it hurt.

"Jaune," I called out authoritatively, not bothering to look back. I didn't need to in order to know that I had his attention. "Tell your friends hi."

Jaune still didn't say anything, chickening out even when I turned around to stare him down. I didn't appreciate being shown up in front of an audience and I let him know that with a glare he was sure to pick up on even through my mask, but nothing changed. He was _really_ trying to avoid this. _That, or he was shaking in his boots and wasn't even capable of speaking._

"Fine, be that way," I shrugged off, turning back around to face down Tai. If nothing else, Jaune had made it obvious that he wasn't ignoring his old team just to ignore them, or else he would have obeyed my order. Perhaps that would demonstrate to them that he was just apprehensive and not doing it out of spite. In the end, it was his bed to lie in, so it didn't really matter all that much to me how he made it. _He can't say I didn't give him the chance to reconcile with them._ "Don't keep Amber waiting. I won't be long."

Jaune nodded and scurried through the portal, tucking his tail between his legs as he did so. His two old teammates called out to him before he made it through and he hitched for a moment, stopping and looking back to them briefly, before dropping his head guiltily and leaving.

Yang made it clear with a loud huff and with a glare at the portal what she thought of Jaune's actions. She shot everyone an apologetic look before turning and following Jaune through the portal.

"Raven—"

" _Shhh!_ " I called out, cutting off Tai. I through my hand up to indicate to him to wait a few moments.

" _What the hell was that?_ " Yang's voice rung out faintly through the portal. There was a meaty smack, followed by the sound of Jaune's mask falling onto the floor. I couldn't help but wonder if she had just decked him, or had slapped the back of his head hard enough to knock the mask off.

" _W-What was I supposed to say there, Yang?_ "

" _You couldn't even say hi?!_ "

"Young love," I called out sarcastically to Tai. "I'm still not sure which one of them is settling for the other."

"Yang is settling," Tai answered gruffly. He could tell I was joking, but his answer wasn't a joke. There was a unanimous consensus among everyone here on that, though one or two weren't completely sure of it. The look on Tai's face turned even more serious than it had been. "You need to let them come with us."

"Not going to happen."

"Dammit, Raven," Tai let out frustratedly, "if you don't allow it willingly, then you're going to have to—"

"I didn't say I would forbid it," I cut him off. "I said it won't happen." I would certainly work against it, but there exists no hill that _I_ am prepared to die on. If things went badly enough for me that allowing them to walk was the smartest decision, I'd allow it.

"Are you _sure_ about that?" the faunus of the group asked, meeting my eyes and not backing down.

"I am," I answered. With nothing to really be gained from the conversation, I felt that this was a good point to leave, and I made my way to the portal.

"You're bringing this on yourself, Raven," Tai called out, his voice speeding up with a little desperation as I walked away. "You need to work with us here, not against us."

I rolled my eyes at that. Tai was never naïve, not nearly as much as Qrow at least, but he should have known better than that. Mistral was in a power struggle—hell, the whole world was in a power struggle right now, made worse by Ozpin not being around.

 _Work with them, really?_ Why would I do that, when there is so much still out there for the taking?

* * *

"I spent the whole day trying to explain what _we_ did, Jaune," Yang explained—berated?—as I closed the portal behind me. "I had to sit there and watch as they heard it for the first time, and you couldn't even say a _word_ to them after all that?"

"What do you want me to say, Yang?" Jaune snapped back weakly. "Fine, I should have said something. I couldn't bring myself to do it, okay?"

"Oh gods, if you're going to start talking about your problems getting it worked up, you can leave my house," I called out sarcastically to announce my presence.

"Last time I checked, this isn't technically _your_ house," Yang snapped at me, shooting me an angry glare. She seemed awfully wound up for someone who just spent an afternoon catching up with her friends—which, I assume, means sappy heart-to-hearts and a lot of crying. Yang was worked up, which meant she was either going explode on Jaune at some point, or… _ugh, either way, they need to leave my house before it happens._ She'll explode on him in both cases, I suppose. I do wonder how close Amber will be when that happens, now that she's clingy…

 _Speaking of…_

"We're upping security on Amber," I cut in, breaking Yang's focus enough to confuse her. "She is always to have at least two people near her. If either of you get tired of it, you can get someone to replace you as long as they have Aura. We're not going to take any chances from here in."

"What? Why?" Yang asked, her confusion breaking through her anger momentarily. "Did something happen?"

"Amber was attacked," I answered. Our eyes all slid to the girl in question, who looked down and shuffled her feat. "Group of Huntsmen from Haven ambushed her. It was the last mistake one of them would make; we captured the other three."

"Amber, are you okay?!" The girl's eyes trailed down to her feet weakly, and her fist clenched at her side.

"Did you get anything from them?" Jaune asked me, ignoring Yang.

I shrugged. "They're not very highly regarded, as far as Huntsmen go. Lowest tier you can be for full-time. All of it points to their story being pretty accurate, that they were scouts for Haven."

"I'm sorry, are we ignoring something here?!" Yang asked angrily.

Jaune and I locked eyes, silently deciding who had to deal with Yang. If I needed to, I would pull rank and make him. Yang was about to release some pent-up energy if the way she was acting was any indication, and while I didn't mind the idea of a good spar, it was a little late in the night for my tastes. Better to let Jaune take that hit.

"Jaune will explain it all," I called out slowly, eyes locked on Jaune's, "and he'll do it somewhere else. _Right_ , Jaune?" I gave him a look similar to the one I had in front of Tai, to remind him that he wasn't off the hook for disobedience there.

Jaune let out a defeated sigh. "Sure. Come on, let's go back to our place."

Yang gave me a suspicious, flat look before allowing herself to be herded out the door. Really, Jaune led Yang out by acting as the carrot on the string, fully aware that he had a pissed-off apex predator following after him. Jaune sort of shied away from her as she followed so, making it clear that he knew that it was a fifty-fifty chance that she'd bite his head off if he made himself a target.

Amber followed quietly and awkwardly.

"Fun bunch, huh?" Torchwick's voice called out. He rounded the corner from the direction of the kitchen a few moments later, holding a bottle of brandy. I narrowed my eyes at him as I recognized it as a very expensive bottle of brandy that I had only recently acquired when raiding a wine-cellar in one of the unused houses. I _had_ been planning on making up an excuse to celebrate something and drink it, and I had even considered sharing it with Vernal. Maybe Jaune and Yang too, if they didn't dampen the mood too much.

Roman grinned when he noticed me glaring at the bottle in his hands, despite the danger he should have realized he was in. "Hey, you're helping yourself to the fruits of my labor. Consider this returning the favor."

I let the words dangle in the air for a dangerously long time, eyeing down Torchwick.

"Funny. I _had_ considered letting you have some of the dust back," I called back eventually.

"Funny. I _had_ considered letting you have some of the brandy back," Roman called back cheekily, tossing me one of two glasses he had brought with him. "I don't drink alone anyways. That, and I _know_ you don't have the storage for all of the dust, so I figured you'd be in 'sharing' mood regardless."

He filled each of our glasses with the drink, and made it clear that I wasn't going to sample mine until he had. Roman rolled his eyes at that, but obliged anyways. Since this was _my_ alcohol from _my_ fridge, I doubted anything was wrong with it, and Roman probably had more to gain through me living than dying anyways. Poison seemed unlikely. I made him go first out of a matter of paranoid principle more than anything.

"I _have_ been considering that, yes," I admitted eventually, once we had settled down with our respective glasses. There were a few scattered chairs in my study, and we settled down opposite one another in them. "Jaune is confident that, given a warehouse full of commercial grade dust, you would take control of Mistral's criminal organizations in a matter of weeks."

I took a long sip of my brandy, pointedly not continuing the sentence. The stuff was smooth and went down wonderfully. I've never really been one to drink slowly—growing up in the Tribe taught you to down what you could before others 'helped' you with it—but this stuff was too good for that. _It was tempting, given the size of the glass, to down in all in one go and watch Roman's reaction._

"And you're _not_ confident?" Roman asked, feigning insult. He tisked dramatically. "Here I was, thinking that my hard-earned reputation had spread to Mistral."

"I'm not sure if I believe you could upend or usurp an entire kingdom's criminal underground so easily. After all, doing so requires a tremendous amount of cunning and power." I feigned disinterest, making a show of examining my fingernails coyly, to subtly boast that _I_ basically done that with the Tribe's current expansion. Any bandits or groups of thugs on this side of Mistral had either been conscripted or crushed, after all.

"I've done it once already," Roman replied, grinning. "And I did it in plain view of Beacon and all her Huntsmen. Made Ozpin look like a fool in the process."

"A man after my own heart," I joked with a roll of my eyes, taking another long drink. "Vale doesn't count. You were gifted the full backing of Cinder Fall and the White Fang." I gave Roman a coy shrug and peaked at him out of the side of my eyes. "Anyone could have destroyed Vale when handed a ready-made militia to do so."

"That bitch came to _me_ when I was already Vale's most wanted," Roman defended, though with a lightness to his voice that indicated he knew I was taking the piss out of him. "And really, I should get _more_ credit for straightening out the White Fang into a legitimate threat. _Ready-made militia_ my ass…"

I let out a small laugh and let him have that point. In the end, Cinder Fall was dead, the White Fang might as well be, and Roman Torchwick sat across from me drinking expensive alcohol. _Point goes to the dust thief, though I might have to take it away for wearing eyeliner._

With my glass nearly empty, I held it out towards Roman expectantly, and he topped me off. "Did you get anything out of the Huntsmen?" I asked, changing the subject suddenly and intentionally. I had asked Roman to take a stab at interrogating the little scouting party after I was done, more as a test of his chops than anything. "Jaune tells me you've got a background in intelligence."

"They're a bunch of schmucks," Roman answered plainly, finishing his first glass and pouring himself another casually. "Their credentials all show low marks as far as Huntsmen ratings go, and everything I experienced with them backs that up. Took hardly any pressure to get them to talk about their previous missions in detail, and none of them seemed particularly sharp."

"Why do you think they were sent?" I asked, hiding my expression behind my glass as I took a small sip. Roman's eyes met mine and he looked at me with a curious mix of suspicion that told me he suspected that I already knew the answer, and that this was a test.

"On the surface, the answer is obvious: reconnaissance," Roman answered. "Your operations have grown large enough to actually pose a political threat to the kingdom of Mistral, as well as a military one. Most of the world is suffering through Grimm attacks and a shortage of Huntsmen; meanwhile, you're sitting here, attracting Huntsmen and thugs to your ranks fast enough to more than protect the cities that pay you. You're a threat to Mistral, at least in the long-term. They'd be fools to leave you unchecked."

'Long-term' being relative for Mistral, of course. The kingdom has long history unruly citizens who were not afraid to secede and form their own settlements. Kuroyuri came to mind there, as an example of Mistralians leaving Mistral's capital for political reasons. It had only fallen because it had the misfortune to set up camp within the range of a Nuckelavee's nest—likely the same one that's been spotted in that area recently. It was one of the things I had been staring at my map earlier for.

It's not difficult to imagine a new settlement splitting off from Mistral and forming a Kuroyuri 2.0. Hell, a the old Kuroyuri's foundations and walls are still in decent shape; if the same rich Mistralians that founded the first one wanted to try again, their first thought would be to hire out the Tribe to protect it. It would take a hell of a lucrative deal to convince me to commit to such a large settlement to close to the capital, but the class of people who founded the first Kuroyuri could certainly afford it. _That_ would be a nightmare for the kingdom: my Tribe, protecting a major settlement of Mistrali oligarchs, at a location near enough to the capital to draw major attention. _And unlike Kuroyuri's first defense force, I have the advantage of two Maidens capable of dealing with an S-tier Grimm like the Nuckelavee_.

I've sent out a couple people to track the Nuckelavee. If the opportunity arises, I could kill the thing and use it as nice propaganda, or as a bargaining chip to squeeze more money out of a potential Kuroyuri 2.0. _Never hurts to be proactive._

"I don't have any need for people who tell me the obvious," I responded finally, softly taunting Torchwick to go further. He grinned and bore the admonition without feeling the need to respond. "Is that _all_ you gleamed?"

Roman took his time with his drink, finishing it and pouring himself another. Seeing as the bottle was already open and being poured, I rushed my second glass and held it out expectantly. Roman rolled his eyes but obliged, topping me off a little higher than normal on purpose. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I made a note that I should probably nurse this one slowly; I was already starting to feel a little warm, which was just fine by me. _Negotiating while full-on drunk, on the other hand, is not so fine._

"It's curious that they sent this particular team. I'm tempted to blame it on incompetent leadership from Haven."

"And why is that?" I asked, grinning. Roman was close to the answer, but didn't quite have all the pieces that I did.

"They suck. Anyone with half a brain cell could look at their record and realize that they would fail pretty badly at espionage. The only thing that they're any good for is clearing out waves of minor Grimm, but literally _any_ Huntsmen team can do that. If Haven really wanted this recon to go right, then they would have used this team to replace a better team who was handling Grimm." Roman shook his head contemptuously, before taking a sip of his drink. "Honestly, I'm leaning towards saying that Mistral _wanted_ this operation to fail."

"Not Mistral as a whole," I called out, giving Roman a coy smirk. He gave me a curious glance. "Just one player in particular."

"Someone in Mistral wants you to survive Haven's interference?" Roman asked cautiously, reading my expression closely the whole time. "…or do you have someone inside of Mistral already?"

"I do not _yet_ have anyone in the capital," I answered. "But I have good reason to suspect that there's a party in Mistral who is looking to weaken Mistral in many of the same ways that Vale was weakened…"

"This party have a name?" Roman asked cautiously. He clearly picked up that we were talking the same forces he had escaped in Vale. "Perhaps one that I can stay far away from?"

"He does," I answered, making it clear that I wasn't nearly drunk enough to start giving away information that quickly. Besides, telling Roman risked the information getting back to Jaune, and it had been Jaune's sister who first told me not to trust Lionheart as one of her last words. There were… a few things exchanged between us before his last family member expired, none of which would do Jaune any good if he found out. _It would only hurt him further, or complicate matters needlessly._ At the time, I had thought she was begging me to keep her brother out of Ozpin's games when she brought up Lionheart, which was a sentiment I could get behind. Over time, my suspicion has only grown. "I'm close to certain that he's working with Cinder Fall's boss. If you _really_ want to get involved—"

"Enough said," Roman replied, waving a hand up to cut me off. I smirked at the pronounced, dramatic, and more importantly wise decision. "I'm not getting dragged back into that shit."

I let out a small laugh, satisfied with that answer. "Smart man. I suspect that this party wants Mistral to suffer the same fate as Vale, though the fact that it hasn't happened immediately means that they want it to be… subtler. Mistral has a shortage of Huntsmen, and I suspect that shortage is only going to grow."

"You think someone is culling their ranks?"

" _Someone_ sure is," I answered, giving Roman a dumb grin before gesturing to myself. Roman rolled his eyes out of annoyance. "If they aren't culling their own ranks, then I suspect that they're about to," I answered, taking a sip before realizing that I was already much farther into this glass than I had intended to be. Things were starting to feel _very_ nice, and loose. "What better way to kill off your own Huntsmen than to send them in waves against two Maidens and their militia?"

"I'd bet they'd send them all at once instead of occasional waves," Roman pointed out. I noted that his voice was a little slower and looser than it had been, and idly wondered if he could hear the same in mine. I was taking in brandy faster than him, after all. "Maybe even 'accidentally' provide some air support that veers into friendly fire, then blame in on… some poor fucker, I don't know. You're not worried about that?"

"Mmmmm," I hummed, delaying my answer. "I have a plan for that."

"Care to share?"

"I do, actually," I answered, taking another drink. My glass was down to a third left, meaning I was two and two-third glasses in and was firmly lubricated. Torchwick had to be getting close unless he drank like this regularly—which was possible. _He's also drank slower than I have._ "I have a shitload of dust that I have to get rid of anyways. I figure that I'll give it to some new player in Mistral. Either they take over the criminal scene smoothly which draws attention from Mistral's Council, or they wage a bloody gang war powered by my dust, which would take even _more_ attention away." I gave Roman a shrug and a cocky grin. "With that going on, the Council won't let our little traitor send _all_ his Huntsmen out here, and the split attention ensures that both I and my criminal ally survive."

I played dumb, staring off into the distance wistfully. "Now, all I need is someone willing to take all this extra dust and use it to take power in Mistral." I gave Roman a knowing smirk, and he returned it with a grin. "Know anyone that like?"

"As a matter of fact, I just might," Roman answered, playing along. "And I can guarantee he'd be interested."

"He wouldn't happen to be _you_ , would he?"

"As a matter of fact, he would."

"Hmmm, I'm not so sure," I tisked, playing hard to get. "What do you bring to the table?"

"I've done it before," Roman answered easily, finishing off his second glass. "More importantly, I got filthy rich in a very short amount of time, all while making Ozpin look silly."

Roman gave me a knowing look at that, banking on that part impressing or pleasing me more than anything.

"That sounds more like a pickup line specifically for me than it does a business qualification. Are you trying to swindle me out of my dust or my clothes, Roman?" I grinned dumbly as I stared him down, before looking down at my glass and wondering how much more I would need to drink before that line would actually work on me. _…honestly, we might already have crossed that point._

"Easy: the dust," Roman answered, giving me the ghost of a coy smile to try to stir me up. Something did stir in me, but that was just the alcohol making itself known. Things were feeling really good now. "I'm looking for a challenge, which is why I'm trying to conquer Mistral."

My jaw dropped slightly at the insult there, and he grinned back. The bastard was cocky enough to neg _me_. _It's on, now._

"I'll have you know that conquering _me_ is as good as conquering Mistral, and there's not a man alive who could do it."

"Don't you have a kid?" Roman asked flatly.

I shrugged. "Just because I let someone try doesn't mean that _they_ were the one who did the conquering…"

That was a lie, but Tai was a unique case and Roman didn't need to know I was bluffing there. There was a reason that his portal has still gotten some mileage over the years, and it's not because our relationship is recovering or anything. _Damn, with him on the warpath, I've lost my booty call._

"Ah, who are we kidding? This deal practically makes itself. You interested?"

"In what, the dust or conquering 'Mistral'?" Roman asked teasingly, though dropping it and moving on before I had a chance to answer. "It depends. I just got out from under the thumb of one Maiden. I'm not so sure I want to whore myself out to another one…"

I raised my eyebrows in surprise at the implications there. One, that he was still cocky enough to act like he _wouldn't_ jump at the opportunity should it spread apart and open to him, and two, that he referred to me as a _Maiden._ That second one was much more significant, and the knowing look Roman gave me told me that he knew something he shouldn't.

"How did you—"

" _Jaune_ ," Roman answered cheekily. I growled something disparaging at the kid. "In hindsight, it's a bit more obvious. I only found out because he brought Neo along so that his little girlfriend could spy on one of your meetings. She comes back and tells me about some oedipus shit and fiery eyes, and I put the pieces together quickly after that…"

"If you tell anyone—"

"I won't, if you give me back the rest of the dust that _I_ stole in the first place," Roman offered, a hint of annoyance in his voice. "For the record, I knew _before_ Atlas interrogated me and didn't give it up then. I've survived this long by _not_ pissing off Maidens too much."

" _Fine_ ," I growled, "looks like you're the man for the job. Happy?"

"I am, yes," he responded mockingly. "Thanks for asking."

"It takes some fucking balls to try to blackmail a Maiden," I accused, giving Roman a suspicious look. He grinned cockily, and I found that I liked that, despite that it was directed against me. Arrogant, cocky, stuck-up, and unyielding; not terrible qualities, all things considered. _Hell, that's probably the alcohol talking, but they don't call it lubrication for nothing._ "You know, there's still one kink we need to hammer out."

 _Gods, that stuff must have been stronger than I thought if I'm already making puns_.

"And that is?"

"If I'm going to deliver dust to you in Mistral, I'll need to be able to create a portal to you."

"How is that done, exactly?" Roman asked, maybe picking up on what I was getting at. He seemed to be coy about his answer. "Something about forming attachments?"

"Emotional attachments, mmhmm," I answered, making a show of downing what was left of my drink.

"That sounds difficult."

"It can be. Takes weeks sometimes," I answered, standing up and walking towards the doorway. "There _is_ a quicker way. It's a bit more… involved, though. You doing anything the rest of the night?"

 _That_ line was finally obvious enough. Recognition flickered in Roman's eyes that this was officially no longer just banter, and he looked me up and down slowly. There was a tense moment where he decided if he liked what he saw. Fortunately for his health, he came to the correct conclusion, if the grin that grew on his face was any indication.

"It sounds like I'm about to be…"

* * *

Qrow's POV

* * *

"I have to say, I was quite surprised to get a message from you of all people, Qrow," Leo announced as he sat back down behind his desk with his new cup of tea. While his back was turned, I made sure to mix the tea he offered with some of the contents of my flask; I'd just spent hours flying here and to say that I'm a little sore and tired would be underselling it. I'd come back last night after Yang had left and following a brief 'chat' with Tai, we both decided I'd fly ahead and make contact with Leo this morning. "Things have been somewhat isolated since the loss of the CCT network's functionality."

"Yeah, no kidding. What's the latest on Atlas?"

"Atlas has always policed its own news agencies strictly; you know this, Qrow. Add to that the fact that any news that reaches us has to do so organically now that cross-kingdom and even inter-kingdom communication is gone—"

"I get the picture, Leo," I cut in impatiently. "News isn't exactly fresh. Still, it's gotta be newer than the last that I heard."

"It's looking as if General Ironwood might come out of this in an even stronger political position than he had been in, _somehow_ ," Leo postulated, sounding distressed by how hard that outcome was to believe. "Atlas' military doctrine has been split the past decade over pursuing augmented soldiers or an outright automated fighting force. James has cleverly brought that discussion to the public as a way of avoiding direct responsibility on himself."

"So he's blaming political rivals within the military for pushing a robot army that got compromised, all the while being the poster boy for cybernetic augmentation. Fucking hell, that worked?"

"Last we heard, Ironwood forced out a rival on Atlas' Council," Leo confirmed with a nod. "Took his seat for himself. That marks only the second time anyone has held two Atlas Council seats simultaneously."

The first of which came as a result of the civil war in Atlas. _Color Rush? Color Revolt? Something like that._ Oz probably had a hand in it.

"That sounds too politically savvy for Jimmy, honestly."

"It is," Leo confirmed with a slight frown. "He has the full support of Jacque Schnee for the moment. Atlas may be considering closing down its borders and withdrawing its troops, but all indications are that dust will still be exported regardless."

"Finally, some good news," I let out in exasperation. "Last thing we need is for dust to get even harder to find."

"Indeed. If only they were exporting Huntsmen."

Silence fell over us for a few moments, before Leo's features fell flat and he gave me an agitated look.

"If you think I was surprised to find out that you were in town, imagine my shock when I learned that Vale was blaming the attack on some of _my_ students." Leo's tone was partially accusatory and it set me up on edge a little, though mostly because I've been on edge for a while now, what with Raven getting involved and Yang taking after her mom more and more. "It took you all of a day or two to figure that out, which is remarkable quick. Almost makes me think that you had already been investigating into this Cinder Fall, and if so, I fail to see why I wasn't consulted for help."

"Calm down, Leo, this had nothing to do with you."

"Oh?" Leo challenged, annoyed. "Care to explain, then?"

"It's just a signal to Oz," I responded calmly. The name drop seemed to dampen Leo's little outburst, which was good. "There's no telling when or where he's going to reincarnate, and with the CCT down, we needed some way to tell him where to meet us."

"So you _haven't_ even established that this Cinder Fall came from Haven?" Leo asked, giving me a look of uncertainty. "Because I've gone back through our records, and you weren't wrong. She _was_ a student here, with records that were credible enough to fool our checks."

I shrugged. "Pure coincidence. I'm sure it wouldn't have taken long to find her records, but Beacon was in shambles when we left."

"You just… _made up_ a story to tell the press so that you could come here sooner?" Leo asked. "You left a lead on the table to spend a month travelling to Mistral? I'm confused, Qrow; how did you think Oz would react to that when he did find you?"

"Hey, I can smell a dead end from a mile away. We don't have the resources, communication capability, or manpower to run down every little detail of some faked transcripts. Hell, they were probably written with the intent of spreading us thin trying to look into it," I defended, giving Leo a flat glare. There's been a lot of blame and resentment going around, and I'm not interested in getting caught up in all of that. "Besides, Cinder's dead; I confirmed that personally. If she had gotten away with the Maidenhood, maybe things would be different. Right now, our priorities should be recovering missing Maidens."

"And _that_ is why you abandoned the lead you had on Salem's people?" Leo asked incredulously. "The rumor that your sister has been harboring the new Spring Maiden?"

"It's not a rumor," I corrected with a grin, enjoying watching the surprise in Leo's eyes, "and I'm not so certain that it's a _new_ Maiden, either."

"What?" Leo asked, genuinely confused for the first time this visit. "Qrow, Haven's last Spring Maiden fled over a decade ago. Little Vernal was maybe ten at the time, and we weren't the only ones looking for her."

"I'm telling you, she survived," I cut back strongly. "I met her the last time I visited Raven's camp. Short brown hair, light skin with a strong tan—"

"That sounds nothing like the girl who we lost—"

"Light blue eyes—" I cut back in, giving Leo a smirk. He didn't immediately deny _that_ detail. "—I'm just saying, if by some cruel punishment of the gods _I_ were my sister, and I had gotten to Vernal first, I would make her change her appearance as drastically as I could. You know, cut her hair, dye it a new color, and get her a tan…"

"We recovered her body, Qrow," Leo cut in softly, averting his eyes. "While you were off chasing after the Arcs, I was handling the search for Spring personally. We—"

"That was at the same time?!" I cut in suddenly, leaning up in my chair with some urgency. "Leo, what the hell? Oz never found out you even _had_ a Maiden until after Raven had left!"

"I received quite the blistering scolding from him for that, I assure you," Leo responded weakly.

"We could have helped you find the Maiden instead of hunting down the remains of a dead family. Why the hell didn't you tell us?"

"I was trying to play things close to the vest," Leo defended himself again. "I had no idea who could be trusted and I didn't want to risk such a vulnerable young girl's future. If your sister did somehow take Vernal and the body that was recovered was faked, then I think I was justified not to trust the two of you."

"Don't you lump me in with her," I growled threateningly.

"I wouldn't," Leo backed down, showing me his hands as a sign of de-escalation. "But given that Raven defected from Ozpin immediately after your assignment, it feels safe to assume that had I included Ozpin in my dealings, the two of you would have been brought in to assist. It is a moot point now; I suppose it doesn't matter whether or not the Spring Maiden is the same one, so long as we know where she is."

"It _does_ matter that you never told us that you had a Maiden, and that she ran away," I cut back.

"If it helps, I _did_ tell James."

" _What?_ " I asked, more confused than anything at this point. "He wasn't even head of Atlas' military yet. He would have been, what, just a headmaster?"

" _Just_ a headmaster?" Leo asked, giving me a look. "He had access to classified material and I only brought him in because Atlas had intelligence in the area I thought might assist my search. As for why you are only just now finding out, again, I have to stress that things were hectic at the time. We found the girl's body anyways; what did it matter after that point? The Maiden went right back to being missing, as she had been beforehand."

" _It matters_ —" I cut in angrily, "—because apparently Raven has a streak going of fooling us all. I'm telling you, she has the same Spring Maiden, which means that _you_ got fooled by a decoy body." A shiver went down my spine at the thought of Raven finding another ten-year-old girl to serve as a replacement, and a second hit me as I imagined how disfigured and mutilated the body must have been so that the identifying features could have been disfigured. _You've already earned what's coming to you, sis, but that's fucked up, even for you._ "And that's not the only kid she stolen out from under our noses, either. Did you know that the Arcs had a son?"

"A son?" he asked, confused, which answered my question.

"Apparently. They had an eighth kid in secret, who would have been four around the time—"

"That's not possible. I was in contact with them for years leading up to their tragic end," Leo cut in. His surprise seemed muted, but given that this wasn't even the first bombshell I revealed to him, that's not too surprising. Mental fatigue sets in eventually. "Even after disappearing, I still received occasional word from them. I should have known about an entire pregnancy."

"Yeah, well, no one knew; not even Salem, from the looks of it," I responded, earning a funny look from Leo. It was that half-way nervous look he always gave when Salem's name was brought up, like he wanted to duck under a table as if the very mention of her name would bring disaster. _Annoyingly cowardly, but you can't fault someone for having a heavy fear of the enemy of humanity._ "Raven somehow how got to both the Arcs and your Spring Maiden before anyone else, because she took in that Arc boy too. She's got them both at the Tribe."

A realization came over Leo's face, and I looked at him expectantly to find out what it was he figured out. He shook it off when he noticed me waiting, however, deciding not to share. Given that he apparently has been doing that a lot, I gave him a glare for it and made a note to bring it up to Ozpin just how uncooperative our Mistral headmaster has been. I would almost get suspicious if it weren't so obvious that Lionheart just wasn't very competent at his role; Oz trusted him enough to put him here, but being trustworthy doesn't mean you're good at a task. Years of late communication, sloppy graduating classes, and now the reveal that he botched a Maiden hunt painted a pretty sad picture.

Not that anything can be done about it now. Allies are in short order as it is.

"I'm all but certain that this Jaune Arc kid is legitimate. Maybe her Spring Maiden just assumed Vernal's identity to hide her family or something. It seems ridiculous that Raven could beat us to both punches simultaneously," I relented after things fell quiet. Lionheart was clearly thinking things over, and the longer my previous words hung in the air, the more ridiculous it sounded. _I mean, everything surrounding Raven recently has been batshit insane, but this seemed to push even that._

" _Maybe_ it's possible," Leo admitted, though his voice very clearly indicated that he didn't believe it. "Turq and Kathryn Arc made it clear to me that they were trying to get away from Ozpin and Salem to raise their family. They had several girls between ages five and ten, so I certainly believed them. That they hid their youngest child from me _could_ mean that they weren't honest with me about other things…"

"What are you saying, Leo?"

"Historically, the Arcs have been involved with the Relics. Haven's Relic sits securely in its Vault—" Leo flashed his timepiece as he said this, evoking the hidden elevator it unlocked, "—so perhaps Turquoise was making a play for it."

"You think that the Arcs were hunting for the Spring Maiden?" I asked, as the different leads started to come together to make more sense.

"Unlikely, but it's possible. It would explain how your sister was able to scoop up both the Maiden and the Arc boy."

"It also explains how Salem found the Arcs in the first place."

"Yes, it certainly does solve that mystery," Lionheart concurred enthusiastically. "Perhaps little Vernal was caught up in the middle of the fight between the Arcs and Salem's forces. Raven might have just been in the right place at the right time to take the spoils of the battle for herself—"

"—and no one would have lived to tell that either of those kids were even there. _Fucking hell_ , this shit really does just fall into her lap, doesn't it?"

Leonardo shrugged and finished off the last of his tea. "Are we certain that her real Semblance isn't the inverse of yours?"

"At this point, I'm not certain that we can't blame my Semblance for all of this," I groaned setting down my empty 'tea' cup and pulling out my flask. "I can't think of anything _less_ fortunate for me than everything going right for Raven in every way possible."

I turned my flask upside down and kept it that way until I had drained its contents. It didn't feel like enough, but I'm sure I'll be able to fix that before I leave town.

"I take it that's why you're here, then," Leo stated tenuously, finally broaching the real topic to discuss. "No point in hunting down random leads when you know where a Maiden is, correct?"

" _Two_ ," I corrected with a grin while capping my flask and putting it away. "Raven has _two_ Maidens, Leo."

"Really?" Leo asked, faking his surprise. "She—?"

"You already knew?" I cut in, both confused and a little accusatory. We had just had a conversation about him not sharing information on Maidens, but if he already knew about Raven's plans to steal another Maiden before _we_ did and didn't share, then he was going to get a lot more than a stern dressing-down from Oz this time. I could already feel my wrist twitching, begging to grab the handle of Harbinger.

"I… uh… is it that obvious?" Leo deflected things awkwardly, again throwing his hands up apologetically. "The Branwen Tribe is a major political nightmare in Mistral right now, and it's a matter of high importance to our Council. I've had to look into their activity, and that's brought a whole new batch of rumors about your sister having a Maiden. Or two, as it were. Add to that the fact that a couple of reports indicate that Pyrrha Nikos might have taken residence with the Tribe, and things become a bit clearer."

"You know that Nikos was Oz's candidate?" I asked, calming down from my aggression. I was more surprised that he knew that last bit than anything.

"I may not be very good at responding in a timely manner, Qrow, but even I will read briefings that Ozpin sends me," Leo defended, giving me some ire. "I'm not _that_ bad."

"Okay, fine," I deferred, throwing my hands up in defeat, "I wasn't calling your honor into question or anything. Was just surprised that Oz had thought to update you. Things were hectic that last night."

"Indeed."

I stretched back in my chair, doing all I could to keep my back from going stiff. After the flight to Haven, Leo's stupid decorative chairs weren't exactly the comfort I was looking for. I stretched my neck as I spoke, eyes roving around the room idly. "It's good that you've already starting looking into the Tribe. Saves us some time on—"

I cut off as I noticed a small object in the corner of the room that had been watching us, previously unnoticed.

" _Bitch_ ," I called out, flipping off Raven's miniature portal. She had been eavesdropping on us the whole time, and I felt my blood start to heat up once more.

The portal expanded to full size, and Raven strode out with her mask on her hip and a shit-eating grin on her face. Her hips swayed loosely and she practically sashayed her way into the room, the same way she'd taunt Summer and I after spending a night getting bent over by Tai, or before that when she'd come back to the dorm in the morning after finding some poor victim for the night.

I glared at her even harder for that, because I knew she was doing it specifically to remind me off those old memories. The malicious smirk she flashed me told me that she was throwing those back into my face on purpose.

"I heard you boys were talking about me."

"Not another step," I growled, already out of my seat with my sword drawn off my back.

"For the record, you're close on your grand conspiracy about Jaune and Vernal," she taunted, reveling in just how much I wanted to take her head off at the moment.

"Do _they_ know?" Leo asked from his spot behind his desk. He had stood up, but he hadn't armed himself yet.

Raven shrugged loosely and gave a non-committal grunt. "Vernal does. Jaune's finally moved past all that ancient history, which saved me from _that_ conversation." Raven turned from Lionheart to me, giving me a sadistic grin. "He's pretty _deeply_ invested in what, and who, he has now."

Flaunting Yang in my face like that crossed a line, and I made sure to let her know that we were beyond words. I swung Harbinger down at her head in a furious blow, hoping to shatter through one of Raven's thin blades if she blocked. She side-stepped as she drew her blade and only made to deflect the blow, directing it down into Leo's office floor.

"Qrow," Lionheart admonished, before turning to the real problem. "What are you doing here, Raven?"

Raven sheathed her weapon, keeping her eyes trained on me. I made a show of _not_ putting Harbinger away.

"Why, Leo, I'm here to return a favor to you. Yesterday, you sent me such a _nice_ gift, but I'm afraid that I just can't accept it." Without warning, Raven brought her right hand to her lips, and whistled loudly. As soon as this was done, three more bodies fell out of the portal, all of them gagged and bound. Lionheart's eyes went wide, apparently understanding what was going on here. "You're lucky. I was in the mood for a much more involved chat when I found out, and I had intended to come immediately, but I…" Raven smirked, cutting her eyes at me, "…I had a busy night last night. Important business matters were attended to. This is the soonest I could make it."

Lionheart's face distorted as he looked over Raven's poor victims.

"What's going on here?" I demanded.

"Lionheart sent a little scouting party out my way," Raven answered, her voice containing a bit of an edge to it. "But he didn't even care enough to send a _good_ scouting party. I was honestly a bit insulted. He's lucky that I focused that energy elsewhere…"

"Where's—?"

"The fourth one?" Raven finished for him, locking eyes with Lionheart dangerously. "You see, your idiotic compatriots here thought it would be a good idea to attack Amber." Raven turned to them and tisked, before returning her focus to Leo. "We weren't able to save all of them from her, though. Does that window open?"

"Does that…?" Leo asked, confused by Raven's sudden and random topic shift.

Without warning, the handle of Raven's sword fired out of her sheath contraption, shooting out with enough velocity to shatter the glass as it bounced off. Leo and I both flinched away from the window as this happened, giving Raven enough time to strut forwards towards it, casually picking up her handle along the way.

"It does now."

"What the hell!?" Leo burst out, though he cowed back down with one look from Raven. Even if he were armed, Leo was the weakest one in this room who wasn't bound and gagged.

"What? I have other business to arrange in Mistral," Raven shrugged, knowing how infuriating her attitude was. "This was the quickest route out of here."

She backed up to the windowsill and hopped up, sitting down there and protecting herself from the remaining glass shards with her Aura.

"You're not going any—" I growled out angrily, only for Raven to flip me off as she leaned backwards and fell out of the window. By the time I made it over there, she had already morphed and disappeared among Haven's architecture. "—where."

"The window _does_ open," Lionheart growled, glaring down at the glass shards in his office.

"I'm going to kill her," I grumbled, making a promise to myself. "Leo, what's the soonest we can move on the Tribe?"

"Not soon," Leo answered without looking up. He was already in the process of untying and ungagging the three Huntsmen Raven had dropped off. "The Council is debating over what political measures to take on the matter. It could be months before I can convince them to gather that many Hunters—"

" _Months?!_ "

"—or it is more likely that the military will get involved and a treaty with the Tribe will be struck."

"You're shitting me right now," I let out in disbelief. "You _know_ not to trust her!"

"It's not up to me, Qrow. Mistral is short on Huntsmen, long on Grimm, and the gap grows larger at an alarming rate. I don't have the required force to take out or even threaten Raven on my own. We need the Council's support, and they're more likely to grant Raven's tribe official standing as a private military company and force them into their own hierarchy than they are to want to wage war with our own civilians caught in the crossfire."

"They're fools if they think that they can trust bandits to protect civilians," I sniggered.

"The fact that it's been working so well so far suggests otherwise."

"That's only because she's charging them outrageous prices," I cut back.

"She's doing a better job protecting fringe settlements that we're doing at protecting our own capital," Leonardo countered solemnly. "Perhaps that is just the price of safety in this age."

"Regardless, she won't agree to being rolled into a command structure where she's not at the top."

"Hence the military being brought in," Leo responded. "Look, this has been getting some thought by the Council for a while now. Two Maidens or not, Raven's Tribe is not nearly large enough to withstand our nation's military, but that's not to say that it wouldn't be a bloody mess. Raven will come to understand that resisting us means committing to war, and she's never been one to stand up and fight a losing battle, now has she?"

"No," I grumbled reluctantly. "This sounds a lot like Tai's plan."

"It's the best play. If Atlas does not close its borders, then the play becomes all that easier if we can convince Ironwood to back it. She might even turn over your Fall Maiden to reduce the target on her back."

"Are we—?"

"Hey, kid, the grown-ups are talking here," I cut off one of the recently-ungagged Huntsmen, who glared at me in confusion. "Getting a Maiden back isn't enough. She's got Yang."

"Your niece?" Leo asked, and I nodded. "I can't guarantee anything, but if nothing else, I can get you in the room when Raven finally does come to the table. I doubt anyone will pass up the advantage of having the foremost expert on Raven Branwen in the room on our side."

"Whatever," I grumbled. Maybe if I'm lucky, the talks will go south and I'll get a shot to pay Raven back for all the pain she's caused me. "I at least need a bullhead."

"A _what_?"

"Bullhead. What, did you think I traveled here alone?" I asked, knowing full-well that I usually do travel alone. "Tai, Ruby, and a couple of other students came with me. They don't fly quite as fast as I do, so I need a bullhead to bring them into the city quicker. Or whatever type of flying troop transport you people use here."

Leo sat back down behind his desk, letting out a frustrated sigh and rubbing his forehead. "You really have no idea just how desperate things are in Mistral, do you?"

"Nope."

" _Fine_. I'll see what I can do. I assume you'll need housing while you're here?"

"Now that you mention it—"

"How many people?" he asked in a resigned voice.

"Me, Tai, and five kids."

" _Kids?_ "

"Students, Leo. Kids from Beacon," I answered. "Not actual children."

"You want me to find a house that sleeps _seven_ people in the middle of the worst Grimm crisis in living memory, all while I'm also dealing with Raven's rogue militia on my western border, Atlas' potential withdraw, the trial of the century over the attack on Vale, _and_ the splintering remnants of the White Fang?"

"…if it helps, I can think of two kids who wouldn't mind sharing a bed. _Probably_." Nora was annoyingly persistent that she was not banging the Ren kid. Not sure I believe it, but I'd put a lot of money down that given the chance, she'd jump him. _He doesn't strike me as an unwilling participant either, but it's hard to read that one anyways._ "So just six beds would work."

"You are not helping, Qrow." Leo let out another frustrated sigh, before shooing me out with his hand. "Let me deal with these three first. I'll see what I can do afterwards."

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Well, that's certainly _one_ way to establish business ties to Mistral's criminal element. Or, presumably with someone who will run that criminal element in the future. _Cut Raven some slack, she lost her best booty-call when she stole Tai's daughter away from him._**

 **It's really not a terrible plan on Raven's part. It** _does_ **let her create a portal to Torchwick in the future, and if Roman does end up in a position of power in Mistral, that's a strong alliance that was just consummated. At some point along the way, I realized that having Roman act as a quasi-mentor to Jaune early on also put him in a position to be pretty similar to Raven: wants to avoid Salem by leaving entirely, looks out for himself first, won't let anyone define right and wrong to him, etc.**

 **If this were a different fic, the idea of Roman and Raven as a power couple would be interesting. There's really not much space in MoNT for anything more than a, uh, _strong_ alliance, though.**

 **More importantly than that was Lionheart. There are three secrets that Lionheart has been keeping from Qrow and Ozpin that are critical to things moving forward. The first is obvious: he works for Salem. The second you might be able to guess if you reread his dialogue while considering _for how long_ has he worked for Salem.**

 **I would be surprised if anyone can guess the third.**

 **The trick in this last scene was to watch Lionheart's reactions and ignore how Qrow rationalizes them, because we all know that Qrow doesn't know about Salem here. Lionheart has _not_ been told everything that Salem learned from Mercury, and a few things here actually did surprise him. **

**Let's just hope Qrow doesn't do anything stupid in the coming days. Lord knows there's already been plenty of the stupid going around...**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _HexadecimalFF0_

"Great to see an example of Qrow getting called out for his actions leading to the V3 finale. Though the situation isn't exactly the same, many other fanfics tend to gloss over it which makes this chapter a rare sight.

It seems like the Amber/Pyrrha situation has no ideal ending for anyone, unless Amber's soul is inserted in a Penny bot. Given how events have played out, is extremely unlikely. That said, I prefer Amber living in Pyrrha's body - if only for the drama value when Mistralians wonder why their famous four-time champion is with Raven's faction."

 **One of Qrow's greatest attributes before V6 was how loyal and faithful the guy was in Ozpin. Seriously, Qrow had shit else going for him in his life at that point. Summer was dead and we all suspect that's why Qrow is an alcoholic, his sister lost her own faith and fled to go back to the Tribe, his Semblance has haunted him for all his life, his best friend in Tai doesn't seem to be on the best of terms with Qrow anymore... Seriously, all this guy has left are the two nieces he doesn't see often and his faith in Ozpin.**

 **It's remarkable that he's even able to hold onto that faith, given everything else. The dude's an alcoholic for crying out loud, but the one thing he has going is that he's fighting the good fight.**

 **And then in V6 when that faith is eroded and he realizes just how much Ozpin has been hiding _despite_ how faithful Qrow has been, that just about breaks him. **

**But here, since Qrow has not had the Jinn reveal yet, all he has left is the belief that what they were doing was right and justified because it is necessary. He certainly doesn't have his nieces anymore, since one left to go join Raven again.**

 **All he really knows how to do or can do is double down.**

 **As for Amber/Pyrrha, obviously the magic bullet here would be Atlas taking her in and separating Amber's Aura from Pyrrha's, and then giving Amber a Penny-like body. Penny's body could generate Aura or else she never would have been allowed to compete in the tournament, so this option could even keep Amber alive long-term. The logistics here make this basically impossible, as the idea that Raven would give up a Maiden to Atlas is laughable.**

 **I'm not even convinced that it would work, either. A while back during some Ozpin and Ironwood dialogue, I hinted that Penny's Aura wasn't artificial, and instead was the result of the first ever Aura separation, where the Aura of a sickly and dying child was transferred. The host died just after that. The fact that Ozpin and Ironwood did not even try to give Amber a robot body in the first place suggests that within the subtle differences between Penny's case and Amber's case lies a reason why it wouldn't work.**

 **Penny was alive and conscious beforehand, and her transfer was experimental. There were no stakes to her transfer, because she was going to die either way. Amber was _not_ conscious and they can't ensure the results would be the same. Unlike with Penny, if Amber dies in the process, they lose a Maiden. **

**It _could_ work to split Amber off from Pyrrha, but this is brand new science with almost zero research done whatsoever. _Super_ bleeding edge. What if they can't tell the difference between Amber's Aura and Pyrrha's and they grab them both, killing Pyrrha's body and trapping Amber and Pyrrha inside a robot, where they fight for control of a _different_ body? What if Pyrrha's Aura really isn't there and it's just her body and subconscious fighting back against a foreign Aura? **

**As the author, I could decide what happens, but just from following the logic already established, I'd say it's risky as hell no matter what you do.**

* * *

"NO CHAPTER AGAIN! WE MUST REVOLT AND HUNT IKE DOWN AND EAT ALL HIS ICE CREAM. or do i just want more Neo? That's besides the point. WE MUST START THE REVOLUTION AND BRING IKE THE TASTE OF OBLIVION!" - _DavidQrowWashington_

 **Here, child, have your wish.**

* * *

Bonus Scene

* * *

Jaune woke up to one of what had to be his favorite things ever: Yang, practically melted into his side, and out like a light. He could feel his chest vibrate from how heavy Yang snored, and couldn't help but grin at that. Yang usually only snores when she goes to bed exhausted and _needs_ the rest, which means that despite how much she enjoyed teasing him about his performances, he had done pretty good last night.

Jaune had gotten pretty good at figuring when Yang is angry with _him_ versus when she's just worked up over something else and looking to blow off steam. It was like a survival mechanism on his part: either way he was going to be how Yang blew off steam—such was the price that came with being such an important person to her. _It was just up to him to try to steer that away from the sparring fields and towards the bedroom._

Survival instinct on his part. Yeah, let's go with that.

Last night, while she _was_ upset at him for how he handled seeing their old teams— _honestly, she wasn't the only one that was, but what could he really have done in that spot?_ —she had obviously been worked up by something beforehand. Jaune actually still hadn't gotten it out of her _what_ had her so worked up, and he found it hard to think that Ruby or her dad could get her so frustrated, but he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

He had resolved previously that there was something Yang was _never_ to find out about: that Jaune has a strategy that's been really good at, uh, influencing Yang to vent her frustration in less destructive and more fun way. _Fun for Jaune and Yang, at least; don't know if Amber enjoys all the noise._

Yang is simple to understand and yet dangerous to play around with. She's hotheaded and not afraid to admit it; she gets angry quickly, and she cools off quickly once you let her vent. It's not quite as simple as pinning Yang up against a wall and hoping for the best, even though that's kinda how their whole relationship started out. First, Jaune has to provide some resistance to Yang's fire, and escalate things a little. This is the dangerous part: he has to make himself a target to ensure that Yang gets fully worked up. Yang has to be fully invested in the outcome; if she taps into her Semblance or her eyes shift red, that's when step two goes into effect.

Step two: admit defeat. _Or, really, let Yang win._ This part is the hardest for Jaune, and also the reason why Yang hasn't figured it out yet, because Jaune does _not_ like to lose. That's the lynchpin to it all; when Yang feels like she's actually beat him, all that energy gets shifted into euphoria and a sense of accomplishment at her victory.

…And because she is _completely_ worked up from step one, all that energy has to be directed somewhere. That energy gets pointed in Jaune's direction, and instead of that energy getting channeled to pummel Jaune in the face, he gets pinned to the wall as a precursor to some of the greatest sex he's had yet. _And he really doesn't have to lift a finger for most of it, too._

Sadly, Jaune had a feeling his game was up. Maybe Yang had _intended_ to blow off steam before addressing what had happened last night, but if not, Jaune suspected that she was going to put the pieces together when she woke up. Normally, Jaune only used his method when Yang was upset about small things that she would forget about later anyways; Vernal making a snide comment about Yang's look that rubs the wrong way, or Yang getting frustrated with her progress using a sword, or Jaune doing any number of little things that pissed her off.

He'd done the big fuck-up this time by seducing Yang out of talking about something important that she would _not_ easily forget. Yang was going to want to talk about it soon, and when that came, Jaune knew that Yang would realize how he had distracted her the first time.

That was going to lead to some fireworks. His Aura trembled in fear.

That's why he peeled himself out of Yang's sleeping grip, replacing his body with a pillow so that Yang still felt like she was wrapped around something. Getting up and leaving the bed where a stark-naked heap of blonde hair and warmth lay was the second-hardest thing in the world, dwarfed only by the wrath that he knew he faced when she woke up.

If nothing else, he could preempt that with an apology. Jaune was thinking breakfast. Certainly Yang couldn't be _too_ mad if he made a shitload of bacon and brought her breakfast in bed, right? _He made a mental note not to make pancakes, fearing that it would only remind Yang of Nora, and just make things worse on himself._ His life and, more importantly, his sex life were on the line here; he couldn't afford to leave any stone unturned.

All of that drained out of Jaune's mind by a bizarre sight he came across in the living room. Despite having her own room upstairs (so that it was harder to hear Jaune and Yang's room, of course), Amber was sprawled out on the couch. Nothing _too_ odd there, Jaune supposed; she was struggling with separation after losing most of her Aura, so maybe she just wanted to sleep closer to other people. The couch was nearer to Jaune and Yang's room.

That also sort of explained Neo's presence.

The only way Jaune could describe the scene before him was that Amber was spooning Neo—not in any sort of romantic or sexual way, but more like how a child would wrap themselves around a large teddy bear in order to sleep.

It was adorable, but the absolute hatred in Neo's eyes when she realized Jaune had walked in on this was the funniest thing Jaune had ever seen. It appeared that she was not a… _willing_ teddy bear.

And she had clearly allowed this to happen to herself. There was no other way that this could have come about. Jaune snapped a photo and Neo squirmed like hell to wriggle free from Amber's grasp, presumably to slit Jaune's throat and delete the picture. _Maybe_ in that order.

Jaune had to cover his mouth so as to not wake Amber from laughter when Neo _couldn't_ get free of Amber's grasp. Pyrrha's six foot plus frame was wrapped around Neo so tightly that the girl couldn't move at all, and could probably barely breathe. Since Neo had been relegated to the role of teddy bear, Amber had her squeezed up tightly to her face and was using the nape of Neo's neck in conjunction with the couch's arm as a pillow, with Amber's face buried into the back of Neo's shoulder and her forehead sticking out near Neo's head.

Neo's feet barely made it to Amber's knees.

The ice cream-themed murderous stuffed animal substitute grumbled bitterly and laid back her head in resignation, before reaching down to the floor and grabbing her scroll.

 _Neo: delete it_

Short, sweet, and murderous: the quintessential Neo text message.

"Nope," Jaune replied verbally, if only to piss Neo off even more. "How'd this happen, anyways?"

 _Neo: i dont wanna talk about it_

She averted his eyes sheepishly.

"Don't you and Roman have your own place to stay?"

 _Neo: i dont like sleeping alone either. long storyNeo: Roman's gone for the night, so_

Well, at least the whole teddy bear situation was getting a little clearer. It made a fair bit of sense that two people who didn't like being alone at night would find each other, though this was certainly not exactly the way he would expect it to play out. He didn't have any clue what way Neo swung or if she was turned on by anything other than homicide, but he would have expected Amber to be looking for a different sort of toy to sleep with for a night. _At least, before today he would have thought that._

"Aww, you're afraid of the dark, aren't you?" Jaune asked, eliciting an expected glare from Neo. She slowly shook her head no, but that wasn't going to stop this from becoming a running joke.

 _Neo: tell a soul and im chopping it off_

Jaune smirked. "Not if you can't get out of her arms."

Neo's glare was as murderous as he'd ever seen it, and after having his fun, Jaune threw up his hands in surrender.

"Okay, okay, I've had my fun. Where'd Roman go for the night?"

Neo's face twisted in disgust momentarily, which was a bad sign for Jaune. Her eyes then lit up and a wicked grin crossed her face as she looked at him, which was a worse sign.

 _Neo: he spent the night with your mom_

Jaune read the text.

He read it a second time, not really processing the words.

He read it a third time, to be certain of what it said, before giving Neo a confused look. There may have been some element of panic in his eyes too, he wasn't sure.

Neo nodded, a malicious grin spread across her face. Misery shared was misery halved, after all.

"My… mom?"

Neo's fingers typed like lightning.

 _Neo: RavenNeo: Raven BranwenNeo: and Roman Torchwick… ;D_

"I… I see." Jaune most certainly did not see. Word no process good now Jaune, brain begin hurt, think no work well. "When you say _spent the night_ , do you mean they went drinking?"

Yes, that had to be it. It made a lot of sense. Roman was pompous enough to be a drinker of expensive things, and Raven was a drinker of alcoholic things; that was a perfectly reasonable—

Neo's head shook no. If it was possible, the very way she shook her head was taunting him.

"Do you mean—"

She cut him off again, this time raising her arms to communicate via pantomime. A very simple game of charades: one hand formed a circle, the other held a finger out. The finger entered and exited the circle a few times, with Neo's vicious smirk as a backdrop.

Neo knew Jaune got the point when he went pale, but payback was a bitch and a half. The finger began wildly and violently slamming into the hole, up to the point where Neo's _elbow_ was crammed down it before she switched pantomimes.

In subtle fashion—that is to say, not subtle at all—she acted out sucking a dick. Simple and classic, just shake her hand into her mouth and pop her tongue into the side of her cheek. She made sure to majorly exaggerate the length and girth of the imaginary dick she was sucking, acting as if both her hands struggled to fit around it.

Jaune looked sick.

When that got old, she rolled her eyes up into her skull and let her tongue dangle out of her mouth lazily, drooling a little. If she was physically capable of moaning verbally, by the gods she would have. Jaune's face was worth any embarrassment he could put her through with those photos.

Just for good measure, she spread her legs and acted out an explosion coming from the center of them, one that paired very well with her Mistrali-cartoon orgasm face. She wasn't sure Jaune would even know what that explosion was supposed to be, but if he didn't, maybe he'd look it up, which would be just as funny. _Hopefully, he'd never be able to hear the word 'squirt' without thinking about Raven and Roman…_

"I-I think I'm going to go sit down."


	65. ‘Daddy’

**Author's Note: I am so ashamed of myself. The weekly upload that I missed two weeks ago was because I had a long roadtrip sprung on me suddenly in the middle of the week, and also because before that point I had been working on a different project.**

 **I let last chapter go by without even _once_ shilling what that project was! Shame on me. **

**The Emerald one-shot I wrote a few months back got a follow-up last week. _There._ Shameless plugging accomplished. **

**As always, feel free to join the fustercluck that is the Discord. Though I'm not going to copy the link here, because, eh, I'm lazy. Go back two chapters and find the link. :D**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 62:** _"I fucked your mother." – A comeback that Roman Torchwick absolutely cannot wait to use on Jaune Arc, to the point where he's thinking of traveling back to the Tribe just to pick a fight with Jaune_

* * *

Amber's POV

* * *

Amber sat on one of the loose crates of dust that had been pushed onto the camp's sparring grounds. With all the dust around, no one was using any ammunition in their spars for obvious reasons, which meant that Amber could watch the spars without any fear of losing Aura from a stray bullet. While there weren't many people left around, there were three or four of some of the older members sparring with Jaune; more than two people were there, which meant that Raven's new rule for her was satisfied. As long as they didn't try to talk to her, Amber was fine with their presence.

Not that Raven would know if Amber broke the rule right now anyways. She had left early this morning to go to Mistral and return the Huntsmen who attacked Amber— _frustration spiked through Amber at the memory, which nearly set off another bout of Pyrrha's resurgent memories—_ and then to get Roman set up in the capital quicker. The man worked fast, because it wasn't an hour later that he already had a warehouse acquired to store the rest of the dust. Raven went back to Vale and then used everyone she had gathered yesterday to unload the rest of the dust, which was why it was so empty around the camp right now.

With enough of a crowd near her, Amber felt safe enough to relax a little, and watching Jaune toss around insignificant bandits helped distract her mind. Jaune was making fools out of them, and would occasionally stop to explain what they were doing wrong, provide some sort of disparaging putdown, and then continue with the fight. He claimed that he was mostly doing it because it provided him good practice with his claymore, which was certainly true. When using the weapon in its broadsword, bastard sword, arming sword, or its katana forms, Jaune was by far the most skilled out of everyone except for Raven and _maybe_ Vernal. Yang using her shotgun gauntlets was up there with him, but Jaune's Semblance likely broke the tie in his favor, if he wouldn't win outright. That said, he wasn't bad with the full-sized claymore by any means, and his speed and precision with the weapon was improving rapidly.

Jaune claimed that he was just sparring with the Tribe members because it benefited him, but anyone watching could tell it was more than that. He was enjoying it. Amber would catch that sly grin on his face as he would pull out some new trick with his weapon, or like just now, she could catch a glimpse of the light that danced in his eyes as the thrill of the fight washed over him—

The look in his eyes and the competitive grin on his face triggered a memory of Pyrrha's. She was sparring Jaune alone, each of them pushing each other and changing weapons every time an exchange ended, and whoever won asked the other a question. The memory was sweet and Pyrrha held it fondly, but it caused another attempt by Pyrrha's subconscious to surge back into control.

Amber put it down like every other time. She still had enough Aura to retain control, but whatever these surges were couldn't be suppressed, only put down. She might even enjoy the memories if they didn't accompany the tremors and mental strain that were required to end them. Perhaps if the memories weren't so aggressive, Amber could relive Pyrrha's life through them, and come to some sort of balance; she wouldn't _be_ Pyrrha, not entirely, but she could be a mix of Pyrrha and Amber. _And in this perfect scenario, achieving this state of inner equilibrium and peace would magically restore her Aura's ability to regenerate, as Pyrrha's body came to accept her as its own, allowing them both to live on in harmony._

Amber rolled her eyes at the thought. She couldn't get herself to hope for anything like that. The thoughts rang hollow in her mind, and the most she could muster towards them was a roll of her eyes.

"Remnant to Amber," Yang's voice rung out as Amber finally snapped out of the memory. She looked over to find her friend sitting on the crate next to her, giving her a funny look. The memory flashes were usually so quick that no one noticed that anything was wrong, and at the most, if just looked to them that Amber had spaced out for a moment. Had she let this one linger so long that Yang had snuck up on her?

Worse, did Yang catch on to it?

"Sorry," Amber mumbled, trying to play things off. She returned her eyes back to the sparring. "My eyes were stuck for a moment."

Amber heard Yang snicker from beside her, which was never good. She followed Amber's eyes. "Fantasizing about my man _again_?" Yang teased. "Trust me, it's nothing _that_ special. Whatever you're fantasizing about isn't accurate."

Relief shot through Amber, as either Yang hadn't caught on or was fine to let it slide. Despite Yang clearly taking a shot at her there, Amber welcomed the topic. _This_ she was used to discussing with Yang, and there was comfort in something certain and safe.

Amber smirked as she cut her eyes at Yang. "Is that why you're so damn loud then?"

"H-Hey, there's nothing _special_ about a guy with a strong work ethic," Yang defended, her cheeks heating up a little.

" _Strong work ethic_ , sure. Let's go with that. _That_ is why you scream like you're giving birth, huh?" Amber smirked when Yang's face heated up further, and she shrunk in on herself a little bit out of embarrassment. "All it takes to get Yang Xiao Long to wake the neighbors is a little bit of enthusiasm; nothing special required. I could probably do it with my pinky then…"

"T-That's different!" Yang protested, unable to hide her embarrassment. "I'm not easy! Jaune _cheats_!"

Amber gave Yang a flat look that said she wasn't buying it. "How do you 'cheat' at sex?"

In her head, Amber envisioned Jaune with an assortment of sex toys and Yang with a blindfold that prevented her from figuring out that Jaune was wearing a strap-on. _Perhaps unsurprisingly, this did not trigger any of Pyrrha's memories._ Amber almost wished it did, though, just for the blackmail material it would provide.

"His Semblance!" Yang blurted out, which broke Amber from her thoughts. Yang froze when Jaune looked up from his sparring, and for a brief second all blood drained from Yang's face as she wondered if she'd been overheard. When Jaune shrugged it off and went back to tossing his opponents around, Yang lowered her voice and continued. "Do you have any idea how overwhelming it is to hook up your Auras during sex? It's like an echo chamber that amplifies all of the… uh, _pleasure_ that the other person feels and then gives it to you. Jaune gets a lot of mileage out of his Semblance…"

"A couple of minutes is hardly a lot of mileage," Amber teased.

Yang's eyes looked down at the dirt out of embarrassment. "W-We don't _just_ use it during sex. When going down on someone, it shares the feeling when you… uh, _you know_ …" Amber almost laughed in Yang's face. It was hysterical that she was more shy talking about what went in her mouth than between her legs. "Jaune thinks that I'll do certain things for him more often because of it."

"Are you?" Amber asked flatly, giving Yang a knowing look.

Yang looked away sheepishly. "I don't think I need to answer that."

One of Pyrrha's memories gripped Amber for a split second, and at first she was shocked that _this_ conversation would trigger one. She suppressed it quickly and subtly, but not before getting a glimpse of Jaune practicing his Semblance with Pyrrha's help, learning to use the Aura of others to power it. It was an innocent memory, but one that Pyrrha was apparently fond of, and her feelings for Jaune bled through the memory strongly.

Yang was still sheepishly looking away when Amber snapped back, but she didn't want to take the chance that Yang might notice a demeanor shift. She made sure not to look at Jaune, because the memory of Pyrrha pining for him would only stick around even longer if she fanned those flames.

" _Fine_ , it's the Semblance that does it; just try wearing a gag or something. You, specifically, are _loud_." Amber shook her head softly and Yang shrugged her shoulders, recovering from her embarrassment a little. She reacted to the suggestion for a gag decently enough, and while not an image Amber needed to dwell on, it was certainly an entertaining thought. "I swear, if I ever hear the word ' _daddy_ ' again—"

Yang took the bait. Her cheeks flamed up and matched her eyes as she tried to glare Amber down.

"If you tell _anyone_ —"

"What, that you're that basic?" Amber taunted. "Trust me, everyone's probably heard you already. Did I mention that you're loud? You might watch out for Neo, by the way; there were a couple of times where I think she might have tried to sneak in and join you last night if I didn't hold her back." Amber smirked at that line, betting on it confusing Yang more than anything. She hadn't indicated why Neo would have snuck in there, though mostly because she wasn't sure.

Yang's anger fizzled out and was replaced by a new grin instead. That worried her.

"Speaking of Neo, Jaune showed me just the _cutest_ photo this morning," Yang cooed tauntingly as she pulled out her scroll. She didn't even have to unlock the scroll; the 'teddy bear' photo Jaune had sent to Amber earlier was saved as Yang's lockscreen background. "You're pretty lucky that Neo headed out with Roman this morning, huh?"

Amber shrugged. Neo hadn't resisted as hard as you would expect, even though she really did seem to want to go interrupt Jaune and Yang. Amber hadn't been sure if Neo was trying to join them, embarrass them, watch them, or speak for the first time in her life so she could tell them to keep it down. As such, keeping Neo locked up in her arms was the safest option for all parties, and once Neo gave up with fighting, well, Amber realized that maybe she could use someone to hold for the night. Neo didn't like it, but once she felt Amber's tremors from fighting Pyrrha's surges, some silent agreement was drawn up between them for the night.

Amber wasn't really sure how Neo would cash that favor in, but that was far from her mind now.

"You know _why_ Neo spent the night in our house, right?"

"If you say another word, I swear I'll punch you in the tit so hard that your grandkids will be lopsided," Yang growled, which gave Amber a good laugh. "I already feel sick enough about it, no need to rub it in."

"What do you think the dynamic there was like?" Amber asked, rubbing it in Yang's face. She cut off with a wince and a laugh when Yang's elbow jabbed into her side. Honestly, Amber wasn't all that shocked with the development—Raven Branwen was a world-class MILF who lived on the edge of society and played by no rules but her own. In Amber's mind, the only thing stopping her from sleeping with someone was that she seemed to derive even more pleasure from everyone fearing her too much to even consider hitting on her. That left a very short list of people brave or arrogant enough to try, and when one of those people was already sleeping in your camp and you were also in negotiations with them to start an alliance… _well, it added up to Amber pretty plainly._ Jaune and Yang were just too close to see it objectively, which was all the more fun for her.

"So, which one do you think calls the other daddy—"

The sparring in front of them stopped as Amber was unceremoniously pushed off the crate, landing on the ground in a fit of giggles. When it was clear she was unhurt, they all resumed, and Amber climbed back onto the crate.

"Jaune told me about you this morning," Yang announced solemnly. Amber didn't want to let her change the subject, but her stomach tightened as panic overtook her. In hindsight, trusting Jaune to keep a secret from Yang was probably a bad idea, and Amber silently started preparing herself for what might happen when Yang confronted her over Pyrrha.

"What'd he say?" she answered as calmly as she could.

"He told me that all of this is overwhelming for you," Yang answered softly, keeping her voice low so that no one would overhear. She couldn't bring herself to look Amber in the eyes, but she did scoot over next to Amber. It made Amber feel a little less alone to have Yang pressed up next to her, which she knew was the point. "He told me that you talked about how to accept things, and how that sucks."

Yang didn't mince words, though her tone was defeated. Amber didn't like seeing Yang like that, but it reminded her of the situation that she was in and that only brought her mood down too.

"That's all he said?" Amber asked tentatively. It was clear to Yang that she was fishing for info here, but Amber needed to be sure that Jaune hadn't told her about Pyrrha.

"Well, he _did_ admit that he offered to talk me into a threesome," Yang finally looked up at Amber, giving her a teasing look, "and that _you_ turned it down. I guess we finally called your bluff, huh?"

"Nah, just bad timing. I was sort of having an existential crisis at the moment," Amber answered sheepishly, before shaking that off and giving Yang a playful look. "Now that I know it's on the table, I might push you two a little harder for it…"

"Yeah, _no._ Missed your shot there."

"What, you would deny me one last chance to be happy before I die?" Amber gave a fake pout and tried to give Yang puppy dog eyes. It had no effect.

"Pretty much," Yang shot her down. "You're not going to turn me on by making me pity you."

"I always imagined that's how Jaune landed you in the first place," Amber let out with a grin, earning another elbow from Yang. Say what you want about teasing Yang, but she never let anyone get away with taking shots at Jaune when he wasn't around to defend himself. "Fine, how about this: have you considered how much more intense Jaune's Semblance could be with _three_ people?"

"I…" Yang slowly closed her mouth as the idea took root in her mind. She didn't have a counter to it. "That…" She looked up to find Amber smirking at her. Yang realized that she had just given credence to the idea by not shooting it down immediately. " _No_. No way. By that logic, we should hook up as many people as possible for an orgy. No thank you."

"Four people could be considered an orgy…"

"We are _not_ bringing Neo into this," Yang admonished.

"I was thinking Vernal, actually. She's kinda Jaune's sister, and he clearly has a complex, so—"

"I'm going to stop you right there," Yang grumbled, slapping a hand over Amber's mouth. Amber fought down the urge to lick her hand, as childish as it would be. _The complex got even stranger when Amber remembered Yang's use of the word 'daddy;'_ Amber seriously considered biting Yang's hand to have the opportunity to bring that point up before the moment passed.

Yang did release her hand eventually, and the two sat there in silence for a bit, watching Jaune continue to humiliate other members. Amber felt infinitely less alone at the moment, though, and right now, she almost felt good about things.

"Are you okay?" Yang asked solemnly, breaking the silence.

"…yeah," Amber lied after a few moments to take a breath. She was _far_ from fine. Amber was constantly under assault by Pyrrha's subconscious, or her Aura, or her mind, or the remnants of her psyche, or _something_. Each time she crushed that, she had to live with a pang of guilt, because _she_ was the problem. _She_ was the invader in this body, and even if she never wanted this, she desperately wanted to suppress Pyrrha forever if it meant that she could live. Worse, she was already planning for how to prevent herself from becoming trapped by Pyrrha whenever it did come to pass that she couldn't hold on any longer, and she knew that Yang would not like her current plan for that.

"I know you're not okay," Yang whispered softly. "There's no way you can be okay knowing that you could die like this. That you're hunted and you can't escape forever. You don't have to lie for me, Amber."

Yang's words were spoken softly and, more importantly to Amber, they were spoken with vulnerability. Yang wasn't trying to put on a brave front to help Amber, and she was struggling with the thought of her friend in trouble. That actually meant more to Amber than a steady shoulder to cry on could have.

"I'm not okay," Amber admitted softly. "I feel trapped. I feel helpless."

"I'm sorry. Is there anything you want me to do?"

"Don't be sorry," Amber cut in, giving Yang the tiniest of smiles. "Yang, it's been hard to be thrown into someone else's body with no memory of who you are. You've already done more than anyone else to help me feel less like Pyrrha and more like Amber." _Okay, except for the dudes she hooked Amber up with, who technically 'did more.'_ "I don't want you to spend my last days obsessed over making me less miserable, okay? I don't want to be the center of attention because that just makes me think about what's going to happen even more. Just… distract me from it all."

"How?" Yang asked, before giving Amber a flat look as something dawned on her. " _With a threesome?_ "

"Talk to me about other things that matter," Amber answered, ignoring Yang's comment. She remembered something to move the conversation to. "How did your talk with Jaune go this morning?"

"The one about you?" Yang asked, confused.

"No, the one about meeting your team yesterday," Amber corrected. "I was there when you two came out of the portal, so I know that you two had other things to discuss."

"We haven't discussed it yet."

"You haven't?" Amber asked, surprised. "I thought you were going to make him talk about it last night, but clearly his 'Semblance' distracted you."

Yang smirked and rolled her eyes at that. She didn't bother denying it.

"No, I wasn't ready to get into it with him yet. I was pissed, but that was more at my uncle than at him, so I let him… redirect some of that aggression." Yang smiled mischievously at the memory.

"And this morning?" Amber prodded. "You _do_ know why he made breakfast for everyone, right?"

"Mmhmm," Yang hummed, winking at Amber. "Jaune thinks that he can trick me into having sex whenever I'm angry. He doesn't realize that it wouldn't work if _some_ part of me didn't want it to work."

"Given the noises that keep me up all night, I'm not surprised if there isn't _always_ some part of you that wants that."

Yang gave Amber a flat glare, though noticeably did not correct her.

"Sorry. So why didn't you talk about it this morning?"

"I…" Yang trailed off, whipping her head from side to side and checking their surroundings. It seemed a bit paranoid. "I'm not prepared to have that conversation quite yet. I'm working on something."

"Like?"

"Can you keep a secret?" Yang asked, her tone and her demeanor much more serious than they had been. Maybe even more serious than when they'd discussed Amber's prospects. It was clear that Yang wanted this secret kept from Jaune specifically, and that irony was not lost on Amber.

"I'll take it to my grave."

Yang gave Amber an annoyed glare for getting _that_ morbid, but she accepted Amber's answer.

"I might have a way out of this for us."

"You have my attention."

"It may not be soon, so I don't want you to get your hopes up," Yang backtracked slightly. "My dad told me how he and my uncle are going to help Mistral bring the Tribe under control. If Raven comes to the table willingly and works with them, they're likely to let her have some degree of independence."

"She's not going to do that," Amber scoffed. She'd only been here, what, a month? Didn't matter; that was all it took to get a read on Raven Branwen. "She's got two Maidens, the most efficient troop transport on Remnant, protectorates that are better off now than many of the kingdom's settlements, the only working semi-long-range communications array, and a strong and steady cash flow. No way in _hell_ she gives that up."

"In a war of attrition, she still doesn't have the capability of defeating the entire kingdom's military, no matter how many Auras we unlock here. We have a single Paladin, and they have an air fleet." Yang paused there to see if Amber would challenge that point. "Either she'll have to flee and abandon all of her posts, or she'll have to risk protecting them from the military. _Or_ , more likely, she allows herself to be conscripted into Mistral's chain of command."

"She's going to hate that."

"…and if she willingly gives up me, Jaune, and you, then my dad and my uncle will make sure that she stays just as free as she is now," Yang pointed out, revealing the hook to it all, "which essentially would be her allying herself with the kingdom. Or getting their stamp of approval on what she's doing."

"That…"

"—would make her more powerful," Yang finished Amber's thought for her. "Which is something she _would_ go for, maybe. She gets stronger, which is good for those citizens she's protecting, and Mistral gets some control over the situation, which is good for them too."

"Would she actually go for that?"

Yang shrugged. "She may not _want_ it, but if the three of us already want to leave…"

"…then she may take what she can get," Amber finished, seeing the rest of the hook to the idea. It was plausible, and the one drawback was obvious. "And all of that hinges on Jaune."

Yang nodded, giving Amber a slight frown. "All of that hinges on several things, but it's all moot if Jaune doesn't want to leave."

"What's the hold-up, then? Tell him that this is what's best for you both, and if that doesn't work, tell him that we're going and if he wants to stay with you, he's coming with us."

Yang bit her lip and hesitated, which told Amber all she needed to know.

"You're not convinced he'll choose you?"

"I don't know, okay?" Yang let out, her voice vulnerable. Her eyes flicked nervously over to where Jaune was sparring, worrying that he might have overheard. "I don't want to risk it yet. He _should_ pick me, but I'm afraid it might hurt him to pick, and that he might hold that against me." Yang's eyes stayed locked onto Jaune, and despite her frustration and nervousness, there was a softness there as she watched him. "After seeing how he reacted yesterday, I don't want to force him to leave his… _family_ behind."

The word was hard for Yang to say out loud, but she forced herself through it. Jaune had only just come to terms that this place really was his first home and that he actually did fit in here, and Yang affirming that was actually surprising to Amber. She suspected that by family, she really only meant Raven and Vernal, but Amber supposed Yang's point remained.

"So what? _You_ left your family behind for him."

"What's your point?"

"You did it for him without any promises of seeing your family again. Hell, you did it to save his life! Jaune owes it to you to do the same."

Yang met Amber's eyes for a moment, before letting out a sigh and returning her eyes back to Jaune.

"In a perfect world, _yeah_ , that would be enough," Yang let out, defeated. "I'm not stupid enough to think that would hold true because it makes sense. Just because I was ready to do that once doesn't mean _he_ is ready to do it now…"

"Are you listening to yourself?" Amber asked, incredulously. "You made this sacrifice for him. You left everything and everyone you knew to come here with him and work for the mother who abandoned you, Yang! You've sacrificed everything for him. If he's not willing to do the same, then he—"

" _I get it, okay!_ " Yang hissed angrily, cutting Amber off abruptly. She knew exactly where Amber had been going with that line, and it infuriated her. Only the fear of drawing the attention of the one they were discussing kept Yang's voice quiet. Her eyes were red and trained on Amber. "I'm afraid that Jaune's not willing to make the same sacrifice as me. You want me to fucking admit it out loud or something? I _know_ who Jaune is, okay? Believe me, I know he's not perfect, and I know that being around Raven only deepens those flaws."

Yang took a deep breath and closed her eyes, steadying herself. When she opened them again, the irises were lavender.

"I saw the absolute worst part of Jaune when he nearly killed Pyrrha." Yang stared off at the ground in front of her now, and Amber didn't have anything she could say. "I've known who he truly is for a month now, and I couldn't convince myself to leave without him in that time. I think it's safe to say I love the idiot."

Yang looked up at Amber and met her eyes, and something passed between the two of them. Amber decided right there that the best way to use her last days was to make sure that Yang got the happy ending she deserved.

" _Never_ try to convince me to leave him again. Got it?"

"Got it," Amber answered a little sheepishly. She hadn't been trying to suggest that Yang leave Jaune. She just wanted to point out that Yang was more willing to sacrifice than Jaune, and that. _Well, okay, maybe she had been suggesting that._ Amber felt guilty for that, which strengthened her resolve to help Yang. "I just… wanted to make sure you knew."

"Bullshit," Yang grumbled, wiping away the excess moisture that had built in her eyes. "You wanted me to know that I'm too good for Jaune."

"That too."

"Yeah, well," Yang drawled, hopping off the crate, "that's hardly a fair comparison. Jaune grew up thinking his surrogate mother was a manipulative demon who hated him; he's only recently realized that she didn't hate him." Yang let out a small laugh at her own joke. " _I_ grew up with an awesome dad, a loving home, and people who didn't want to control me. It's not fair to compare Jaune to me."

Yang's voice lacked its usual boastfulness and exaggeration that normally accompanied when she talked about herself.

"I love him anyways. I just can't help but wonder who he could grow into if I could get him away from Raven."

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

"You know, considering everything that went down a couple days ago, things have been pretty smooth recently," Jaune called out as he yanked Angau Glas out of the corpse of a Beowolf.

"I really wish you wouldn't say stuff like that while we're surrounded by Grimm," I called back, absorbing a paw swipe from a Beowolf of my own with the shield of Crocea Mors, then jabbing the blade up through its jaw. "Actually, I wish you wouldn't say stuff like that in general…"

"Oh please, this pack doesn't even have an Alpha," Jaune called back playfully. "Not even _I_ could jinx this."

"Uh huh," I called back unimpressed. In reality, he probably wasn't wrong. There had been a surge of Grimm strikes across all of the Tribe's territory, which could have caused serious trouble if we hadn't just acquired more dust than we knew what to do with. No one was really happy to have to take shifts fending off Grimm immediately after working to transport all the dust, but honestly, they moved it like fifty feet through a portal and they had a Paladin to help them. It wasn't asking much.

Hell, Jaune and I were on a date more than we were clearing a Beowolf pack. Amber was back at the main camp being guarded by the at least dozen people that were there at all times, and Raven had sent Jaune and me to organize a defense against one of the larger Grimm spikes. The town we ended up at was, surprisingly, designed by someone who actually knew how to defend a location, as the city sat on a plateau with visibility for miles in most directions. Better yet, they'd actually built some decent walls, and in a matter of a few hours, we went from facing down a possible Grimm horde to getting bored waiting on the walls for the last stragglers to come out.

Hence, sending the two of us out there to cut down the last few Grimm. Beacon's Initiation was more challenging than this, and that was fine with us, because it left us alone in the woods with a good deal of adrenaline pumping through us after we finish fighting. It had taken Jaune a whole half-second to volunteer for us to go out and clear the Grimm.

"What do you mean things have been going smoothly?" I asked a few moments later, catching my breath in a lull in the fighting. "Amber was hurt a couple days ago!"

"Well, yeah, obviously that's what I meant when I said everything is going well _considering_ what happened," Jaune answered, making a show of lining up three Beowolves in a row before chopping all three of their heads off at the same time. He caught me watching and gave me a flirtatious wink, to which I just rolled my eyes. "That, and the whole thing between Raven and—"

" _Don't fucking bring that back up_ ," I growled, shutting my eyes and trying to suppress the mental images there.

"Despite those two things, the last two days have been pretty good," Jaune continued, more than willing to drop _that_ particular subject. "We got so much dust that we can finally run the hot water at the camp full time—" Jaune's voice trilled that one as he gave me a knowing look. There was no point in denying that, given how long my showers take, I am a big fan of having hot water permanently. _In my defense, he joins those showers pretty often._ "—Neo went with Roman to Mistral which means she can't hurt me for the blackmail photo I took of her, we're now alone in a forest with no one going to check in on us for a few hours, and hell, you never even—"

Jaune cut himself off, and I swear I could hear his internal monologue chastising himself for the slip. I smirked and gave him a look that let him know he was a dead man.

"I never even _what_ , Jaune?" I asked, watching Jaune's face pale. "I never confronted you over how you treated your team, or I never realized that you distracted me from doing that?"

"Okay, in my defense, you clearly enjoyed how I distracted you."

"You're an idiot, Jaune," I let out when I couldn't keep a straight face any longer. "You never distracted me from it. I just… needed more time to think about it before I brought it up."

"…honestly, that might scare me more," Jaune joked. It wasn't a horrible joke but it wasn't that good either, so I made it clear that I was going to let it slide. Jaune got serious pretty quickly after that. "I take it that you're ready to bring it up?"

"Yeah," I answered softly. I looked around in one last check for any more Grimm, and I continued when I found none. "Actually, I want to tell you what I think happened, and I want you to tell me if I got anything wrong. Would that work?"

Jaune shrugged, probably considering himself lucky to not get grilled by me over it. I had already discussed this a bit with Amber, which helped me straighten my thoughts out. Now, I needed to show Jaune that I was on his side here, and then try to lead the conversation. I don't know how he'll react to my plan to leave the Tribe and Raven, but if I can get him to think about who he left behind at Beacon, that would be the best way to get through to him. _Attacking the new family he thinks he's found would only make things tense._

"You felt guilty," I started.

"Wow, you _are_ observant," Jaune drawled, earning a glare from me. He grinned when he found that he had successfully antagonized me, then backed off to let me continue after that.

"I don't know if you remember everything you ever told us about yourself back at Beacon, but I remember all of our talks, and I know that they did." Jaune bowed his head slightly and stared off at the grass, already realizing where I was going with this. I made sure to keep my voice soft to show that I wasn't holding anything of this against him as a negative. "You always told them that your past was coming back for you, and that you were trying to leave it behind. That you were trying to stay with them."

The shame on Jaune's face was all the confirmation I needed. He tried to turn away from me to hide his face, but stopped when I caught his hand in my own. He looked up at me surprised, and I gave him a weak but warm smile to let him know that it was okay. His eyes trailed back down to the ground, but he continued to hold my hand and squeeze it tightly.

"I get why seeing them like that would have been hard. It was having to admit to them that you failed them, and that… that doesn't even begin to mention _Pyrrha_."

Jaune's grip on my hand tightened, and I squeezed back to let him know I was here for him still.

"It's more than just that," Jaune mumbled softly, avoiding my eyes. "But you wouldn't like—" He cut himself off out of either shame or embarrassment.

"But I wouldn't like what?" I asked gently, leaning into him a little. "Jaune, I'm not going to hold anything you say against you. I'm trying to help."

"For a while, I thought that they could be like family for me. I might have even told my team that, and that I just needed to get out from under things first." Jaune shut his eyes forcefully, and I stepped in so close to him that there was no way he wouldn't know I was there with him. "I stepped out of the portal wearing my new armor and my mask and… well, it was obvious that I picked a different family."

"Jaune, I told them what really happened; they know that you were forced into this. They know that you didn't pick a different family than them."

"That's… the part that you wouldn't like," Jaune admitted, finally looking at me and giving me sad look. "I know that you only accepted Raven's offer to save me, Yang. I know that you don't like it here, that you don't like what we're doing, that this all feels wrong. And I know that you don't like it, but I… I _did_ pick this family, Yang."

My stomach tightened at those words, but I didn't let that decide anything yet. I fought that down and focused on how to get through to him here, and decided that clearing up what he got wrong might make him realize that his options weren't so limited.

"That's not the problem, Jaune. It's _not_ that I hate it here and that staying with you means I have to be miserable." A look of confusion and surprise passed over Jaune's face to let me know that he really _did_ think that I was miserable this whole time, which was… interesting. Assuming this went well, I would tease him for letting me be 'miserable' for a month later. "To be completely honest, Raven wasn't wrong; I actually kinda like it here. I've always thought that I'd be a loose-cannon Huntress anyways, roaming the world and kicking ass, but I always thought I got that from my dad."

I laughed at myself for that. _Seriously, how I ever thought that mister stay-at-home, go-teach-at-my-girls'-school was adventurous, I don't know._ "I actually enjoy hanging around and cutting up with everyone, and we're not even doing anything wrong, alliances with Torchwick put aside. We _are_ actually helping people… You have not been making me miserable here, trust me." I couldn't help but laugh softly at the surprise on Jaune's face, despite the seriousness of the conversation. He looked so genuinely confused by what I was saying, but he was not disappointed. He looked more relieved. "Hell, I think that the rest of your team would probably have come with us if they knew it would be like this."

"Pyrrha might have complicated that," Jaune countered solemnly. That was a good point and not one that I had any response for, so I left it alone.

"It's not what we're doing that bothers me, Jaune," I pressed on, ignoring Jaune's comment and getting back to the topic. "It's not that we're in the Tribe and it's not that we're technically outlaws. It's not even that we left everyone behind. _Raven_ is the problem. I think she's not good for you."

Jaune's reaction was more muted than I expected. Instead of getting defensive, he looked away from me out of guilt. "So, we're finally going to have this fight? We've avoided it for a month already…"

"We are _not_ going to have a fight," I growled angrily, before catching myself and biting back down my frustration. He wasn't wrong in that we _had_ avoided broaching this topic since getting to the Tribe, but I didn't want it to start a fight. Jaune and I weren't strangers to flaring up a bit, what with my temper and his stubbornness—hell, we had huge fights before we even liked each other. This was different, though, because I couldn't _afford_ for this to turn into a fight. I needed this to work and I needed to get through to Jaune, and I couldn't trust myself to do that while angry. I _have_ to be better right now. "Jaune, if there is one person in this world who is on your side, it's me. You can trust me with _anything_ , Jaune, even if you think I'll hate it. If you think that Raven is not bad for you, then please, help me see _why_."

Jaune didn't look up immediately, but I could see he was clearly thinking about it, which was good. I know from experience that when sorting out matters of the heart, thinking about things logically isn't easy. In fact, the best thing my team ever did for me was force me to rethink why I hated Jaune back at Beacon. That wasn't an immediate fix, but it planted the seed that eventually made things better, and that's all I need to get through to Jaune. If I can just make him rethink everything, then there's no way he'll choose Raven when presented with the chance to leave for good.

"Weren't you the one who convinced me that Raven _wasn't_ an evil bitch who was out to get me?" Jaune asked defensively. Without knowing it, he had just reinforced the point I had just thought of. This strategy helped him once already, although he was right in that maybe I could have done a better job.

"I convinced you that she wasn't out to get you," I answered back with a soft smile, trying to de-escalate. Jaune was beginning to lash out in the hopes that maybe it started a fight and got him out of having to admit to anything, which meant that I needed to make certain that I wouldn't let myself blow up over anything. "But she _is_ an evil bitch. She's not be on the same level of evil as Cinder or Salem, but she's not a good person."

"What does that make me, then?" Jaune asked, finally looking up at me. "I'm just like her, after all. That was the whole point of sending me there anyways, to make it painfully clear that she and I are the same."

"You're not the only one who has to deal with that, Jaune," I cut in a little more forcefully than I would have liked. Jaune backed off a little and gave me an apologetic look. "You get that we're a living _nature versus nurture_ experiment, right? Just because we start at the same place as her, doesn't mean that we have to end up like her."

Jaune looked away guiltily. "Doesn't it, though?"

"It doesn't!" I snapped. Jaune shrunk back in on himself and I mentally berated myself for that, but I couldn't afford to back down now. "Even Raven knows that!"

That surprised Jaune enough to get him to look up at me.

"She wasn't always this way. She made decisions that led her to who she is, like leaving her team. Just because you have similar personalities or similar instincts doesn't mean that you will end up like her unless you _choose_ to follow her footsteps! Why else would she send you to Beacon?"

"She wanted me to see who I was," Jaune stated, though there was a hint of doubt in his voice that gave me hope.

"That, and she wanted you to follow the same path that she did!" I pointed out. Jaune looked at me distrustingly, but he didn't say anything contradictory. "You're still your own person Jaune, just like how I'm still my own too. If just seeing how similar I am to my mom is enough, then why did she need me to join her here?"

"Then what's you point, Yang?" Jaune asked tensely. "That she's already won? We're already out here. We've followed Raven's footsteps just like she wanted us to."

"Jaune, we're not even old enough to drink yet! We're not even eighteen!" I let out, trying to fight down the more dramatic response I had wanted to give. "We still have time. Our decisions aren't permanent yet, Jaune. Raven didn't leave until after her team had graduated; hell, she didn't leave until after she had a kid!"

Jaune opened his mouth to speak, but the words never came out. He couldn't find anything to say back to that, and I could see him trying to think through it. _It's working; now, let's not push it too much in one go._ Just let it simmer, since we have the time to do so. That's the whole point anyways.

"You have the rest of your life ahead of you, Jaune. _We_ have the rest of our lives ahead of us, and I'll be damned if I let Raven suppress either of us from growing into something better than her." Jaune's eyes trailed down slightly, and that line might have been overdoing it, but it was true and I wasn't something I felt I needed to hide from him.

"I-It doesn't really matter. We _tried_ getting away from her," Jaune mumbled weakly, almost ashamed that he had to cop out like this. "If you're right about all of this, then I don't think she'd let us leave. I'm sorry, Yang—"

"If you could, would you?"

"Huh?" Jaune asked, confused by how simply I asked the question.

I stepped right up into Jaune's chest, pressing up against him and looking up into his eyes to ensure that I had his _full_ attention.

"If you had a perfect opportunity to leave, where Raven was either forced or willing to let you go, and you and I could bring Amber with us, and that our teams would welcome _all_ of us back… _would you take it?_ " I asked again, giving Jaune a genuine smile with just a hint of a cocky grin to it.

"This… this isn't…" Jaune fumbled his words as a little bit of panic flashed in his eyes, before he finally got a grip on himself. "We're not talking hypothetically anymore, are we?"

"Maybe~" I answered teasingly, before leaning forward and planting a quick kiss on his lips. It was safer to end our deep, emotional talk here and let the idea grow on its own. With that said, we were still all alone, and I wasn't about to lose out on why we were in these woods in the first place… "Do you trust me?"

Jaune took a few seconds longer to answer that I would have liked, seeming like he was struggling internally about it. He squirmed a bit, but couldn't go anywhere with my pressed up into his chest and my arms linking up around his body. _Even if he wanted to back away, his body would be running on autopilot, and I knew exactly what I was doing…_

His body relaxed into mine and his arms slid around me gently as he put the struggle to an end and made the right call.

"Yes. More than I probably should—" he cut himself off as his eyes flicked up.

Without warning, Jaune's hand yanked Crocea Mors from where it sat sheathed on my hip. Utterly confused by what was going on and wondering if he was trying to attack me, I tried to back up a step, but Jaune's other hand snaked around my waist and pulled me back. Before I could react, he pulled me behind him, and Crocea Mors' shield expanded in Jaune's arm just in time to block some sort of dust blast.

"What the hell?!" I let out, eyes shifting to red as I stepped out from behind Jaune to find out who was about die a painful death. Silently, Jaune folded Crocea Mors back up and handed it to me, drawing Angau off his back.

"You blew your shot! Might as well come out now!" Jaune called out into the trees. After a few moments, a figure dropped out of a nearby tree. I felt a whole new level of rage hit me. "Mercury Black?"

It wasn't enough that he had to frame me as a monster in front of the world?! Now this asshole is cockblocking me too!?

"Jaune _Arc_ ," Mercury called out, emphasizing Jaune's last name in a way that made us both uncomfortable. Jaune was already reaching down for his scroll to call in backup. "You know, there are some people who'd be _really_ interested to meet you."

"Can't say anyone would want to meet you," Jaune taunted back. "Yang, break his neck this time."

"My pleasure," I rumbled, practically bouncing on my feet in anticipation of giving this asshole some payback. Jaune took out Emerald for tricking me, and Cinder got what was coming to her, so Mercury was _mine._ Jaune seemed to understand that.

"As much fun as a rematch where I'm not throwing the fight would be, we're here for other business," Mercury called back.

Jaune and I met eyes suddenly. _We?_

A figure leapt out at Jaune from a tree to his side, leaping down at Jaune with a pair of blades on his wrists and a creepy smile. The smile was new, but the weapons were pretty close to Vernal's, and Jaune had no problems reacting in time to half-sword and catch the attack on the middle of his claymore. The man's momentum wasn't enough to topple Jaune over, and Jaune shoved back to launch the man away from him.

My eyes went wide as I caught sight of a tail on the man about to slip under Jaune's guard and stab him before getting thrown off, and I drew Crocea Mors out of its sheath, narrowly getting the blade out in time to block the tail from doing any damage. Mercury charged in from my side when I did this, and I didn't have enough time to bring my sword back up and stop his foot from meeting my face.

Instead, I dropped both parts of Crocea Mors and met Mercury's foot with my left fist, firing my gauntlet at the same time that he fired his boot. No damage was done and both of us were pushed back a few feet, giving both sides a chance to regroup.

"This is him?" the Faunus asked Mercury, with a tone and a grin that were… unsettling. "I expected so much more from the boy who defied our goddess herself! Shoulders like mountains and legs like tree trunks, not a scraggly teenager in need of a haircut…"

A third man appeared from out of the tree line to join Mercury and the Faunus, and he matched the description the Faunus had just listed off. He looked like he might have been part-Beringel, towering over even Jaune.

" _Ambush_ ," Jaune whispered to me, realizing that we were now outnumbered.

"Trust me, boy, we're not here to fight," the massive one called out in a deep, calm voice.

"If we were, we'd have waited till you were balls deep in your holster over there," Mercury snickered at Jaune, and I felt my blood boil. _No one gets to refer to me like that._

"Jealous?" Jaune called out, though his voice was too bitter to really taunt very well. "I don't swing that way, but I'd make an exception to teach you a lesson. It's similar to what your partner learned…"

"Ooh, he _does_ have some fight in him. Good, that makes it so much more fun…" the increasingly-crazy Faunus practically purred.

"We're not here for you today," the large man called out, stepping forward to overshadow Mercury and the Faunus. "Our orders are to make contact with Raven Branwen."

"You're in fucking luck," Jaune let out, holding up his scroll to show that it was already sending out an emergency call to Raven. Jaune and I both knew that the scroll was a sign that these guys only had a few moments to live before Raven showed up and more than evened out the fight. Despite that these guys seemed to know what they were getting into, they didn't flinch at the reveal that Raven was already on her way. _Well, Mercury didn't look exactly confident, but the older two were unfazed._

Things were tense for a few moments until a portal opened up next to Jaune and I.

"Three hostiles, dead ahead," Jaune called out into the portal, never taking his eyes off of the large man. "Possibly more around us. They say they want to talk with you."

"You hit your panic button because three guys want to talk to me?" Raven's voice called out teasingly as she stepped out of the portal. Her posture stiffened immediately upon sighting the three men in front of us. " _Rainart._ "

"Branwen," the large man, Rainart apparently, acknowledged in return.

Raven's hand rested dangerously atop her weapon.

"How's your sister?" Raven asked venomously, glaring down Rainart.

"How's your marriage?" he grunted back, showing the first hint of emotion in the anger he responded with.

"At least I didn't throw in with Salem when I left," Raven spat out. It was subtle, but Rainart's words aggravated her. "What does she want?"

"Our glorious goddess—" the Faunus answered loudly, stepping out from behind Rainart, "—has sent us here to negotiate with you. You should be honored; for a mortal, your strength is admirable."

"What does she want?" Raven repeated, agitated.

Rainart stepped forward, pushing the Faunus back behind him again. "Let's talk."

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Oh Jaune, you thought you were handling Yang. That's cute. You're lucky that she seems to like you.**

 **I don't have a ton to say here. There's some character-driven plot and some event-driven plot going on at the same time. Yang is slowly trying to get Jaune ready for the idea of leaving, which is a smart approach to take... if you have time for it. She thinks she does.**

 **Unfortunately for her, her plan relies on her dad and Qrow using Mistral and Haven in constructive ways. Lionheart... does not seem to me to be acting in a manner that would create such conditions.**

 **And to top it off, Raven's about to step squarely into Salem's sights. She's sure to love that...**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _Sora (this gets long, btw. see tl;dr if you wanna skip my soapbox moment lmao)_

"Raven and Torchwick huh? Is it wrong that I can kinda see it? Don't know why. Plus when Yang finds out, oh boy. Also why do I have a feeling that Qrow is gonna unintentionally make things worse"

 **Yeah, the reactions to this were remarkably evenly split. I've seen reactions that I sort into three basic categories:**

 _Oh god what the hell did I just read?!_ **\- These reactions are the funniest to me. That probably makes me a bad person. Jaune and Yang's reactions both would fit well into this category, so if this was you, then you are in good company.**

 _"Is it wrong that I can kinda see it?"_ **- _Sora_ clearly falls into this category, and I used _Sora_ as the posterboy here because, well, the review was short and easily quoted. This category are those of you who stepped back, squinted at Raven, and went ' _well, yeah, that fits her lifestyle._ ' There's a bunch of little things that make it make more sense the longer you stare at it (ex: Roman left Atlas Intel for similar reasons Raven left Ozpin). Personally, this is the camp I'm set up in. **

_This is both hysterical and hot and makes way too much sense to not be canon._ **\- I didn't see this reaction so much in the comments as I did in the Discord. To be certain, there were plenty of the first two reactions there too. Just more evidence that all of us in there are depraved lunatics, I suppose.**

* * *

 **tl;dr for the section below: This is a fanfic, and its purpose is for me to write something I want to read. It's not for everyone. That's kinda the point.**

* * *

 **There _are_ times where I sit back and wonder if I'm approaching my story properly or not. Now that we're 600k words in, I think it's safe to say that I'm invested in it to some level. Occasionally when writing something, I sit back for a while and struggle over whether or not that it's pushing the line too much. _Do I really need to double-down on Amber becoming so desperate to be not-Pyrrha that she starts sleeping around in Pyrrha's body? Is it really necessary to go ahead with the Cuckoo pairing out of nowhere?_ (that's the ship-chart name for Roman/Raven)**

 **At the end of the day, I keep coming back to the same motto that I adopted for myself when I started this thing. I was sitting at my computer, looking at the outline I had written that was up to 24 chapters, and absolutely _dreading_ writing this thing. It was a _long_ commitment, and I honestly believed I would get this thing done in under 300k words. I didn't want to commit myself to what I suspected was a nine-month commitment at the time, but I did, and I gave myself one directive:**

 _ **Write a story that you would want to** **read.**_

 **That's subjective, but that was the point. I knew right away that the story would rub people the wrong way eventually - my first draft had no romantic interest outside of Pyrrha, who Jaune was going to outright kill during the Fall of Beacon. The only reason I made myself commit to a writing schedule and weekly uploads is because I, as a reader of fanfics,** _hate_ **reading unfinished fics. A solid, dependable upload schedule is the only bearable way to read an unfinished one.**

 **It also meant that, when in doubt, always go with how _I_ want the story to go. That's incredibly freeing, and if you ever write a fic or an actual book, I would encourage that approach. _Unsure about this entire 'Amber' arc? Well, I really like the moral complexity and the resolution I have planned out, so that's getting done._ _Raven? and ROMAN? Playing vertical hackeysack? Go for it. It makes sense to me._**

 **If I were writing a book here, then that would get cut out. But if I were writing a book, a lot would be cut out to streamline the main beats and create a tighter narrative anyways, like Ilia's entire inclusion in the story. Hell, the story would be _over_ already if this were a book because I would have cut so much that the end would have been reached. **

**I can't end this story yet. The Discord is threatening to make me DM and D &D game as soon as MoNT ends, and seeing as I have played exactly half of a campaign of D&D in my life, that prospect is horrifying. **_**The story must go on indefinitely...**_ **/s**

* * *

To _Asura Greed_ on the RWBY: Amity Arena mobile game who recognized my username when I joined a new clan at random: hey bro, what's up? lol


	66. Damned if you do

**Author's Note: Hey guess what? Another road-trip cropped up this week.**

 **Technically, this one I actually knew was a possibility ahead of time. The other two really were spur of the moment, as in one we loaded up and drove ten hours to pick up a washer and dryer from our family and the other I was asked on Tuesday if I wanted to go on a trip on Wednesday. This one, we drove eleven hours to go to an old family friend's high school graduation.**

 **Which means, naturally, finding time to write was rough this week. Didn't help that I've started my summer job this week too.**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **You're welcome to go join the Discord, but it was more or less destroyed by a rogue vagabond who may or may not also be leaving troll reviews in the comments. Pro tip: don't trust people from Houston, y'all. If enough people are still active in the Discord and actually want to use it to talk about fanfics, RWBY, and other stuff, then I might go ahead and fix the Discord or something.**

 **If not, then _I'm freeeeee*_**

 ***from running a Discord, not this story.**

* * *

 **Chapter 63:** _"A good compromise leaves everyone mad. But the best deals are the one where you fleece the other person and they leave thinking that they actually got the best of you." – Raven Branwen_

* * *

Raven's POV

* * *

" _You_ want to negotiate with me?" I asked Hazel incredulously, making sure I came across as disparaging. We had crossed paths once or twice back when we both were on the fast-track to Ozpin's inner circle, though I can't say we ever interacted much or got along. He was an absolute brute of a brawler, but had the personality of a tube of toothpaste to everyone except his sister. He was one of those types who was closed off to all of the world and only really related to it through one person who acted as his outlet. Him going rogue after her death wasn't surprising, but to see him go so far as to join Salem was as jarring as it was repulsive. "I didn't take you for the talkative type. Don't tell me that you're gonna let the grinning psycho or the kid do that talking."

In all honestly, I would love to get to negotiate with Hazel, and there was no way that he was clever or patient enough to deal with me. Unfortunately, there was no way that Salem would be dumb enough to let him be her mouthpiece.

Hazel grunted at me, before turning around and shouting for a fourth, unseen member of their party to come forward, which was a fresh reminder that we don't know how many people Salem has working for her or if there are any more surrounding us. All three people on my side of the clearing grabbed their weapons nervously, but the man who emerged did not look to be a threat, nor did he attack. Regardless, it was a reminder that they knew more about us than we did of them, and that they could have us surrounded.

I made sure to keep my Semblance primed. My Maiden powers I could feel boiling just beneath my skin, itching to be let out in full, but I chose to hold off on that.

"Dr. Arthur Watts," the new man introduced with a flourish that spoke of either arrogance or narcissism. His accent gave him away as Atlesian, so it was likely _both_ arrogance and narcissism. "I am here on behalf of the Queen."

"Jaune, you ever met any of them?" I asked to my side, where Jaune had assumed the position on my right hand. He stood tall but with a stiffness that suggested that he wasn't relaxed in the slightest, and he kept both hands on his claymore stabbed into the ground in front of him.

"The youngest one is Mercury. He worked for Cinder." Jaune gave the gray-haired one a dismissive look, before turning back to me. "He's nothing to worry about. The rest are new to me."

"Yang—" I called out, keeping my eyes forward as both sides sized each other up, "—three on four. You taking those odds?"

"If I get Mercury, _yes._ "

Yang's reaction jarred my memory and I recalled that this was the same kid that Yang had maimed during the Vytal Festival. His presence here certainly complicates that incident.

"Gentlemen," I called out across the short clearing between us, "I'm sure that you're aware of my Semblance. What's stopping me from killing you on the spot?"

"You're already on our Queen's radar," Watts answered confidently. "That's not good news for you, but your past actions indicate that you understand exactly the type of threat she is. It is better to remain on her radar than directly in her sights. Should we fail to report back, she will assume you to have killed us and will take that as a personal insult."

"Now tell me, what have _I_ done that would land me on the Queen of the Grimm's radar?" I asked, putting on a flippant attitude and relaxing my shoulders to sell the bit. The question, of course, was rhetorical, but it was necessary to try to gage what they knew. I still hadn't ruled out the whole killing them option either. "I'm a small-time bandit on the edge of the largest kingdom."

"You have been on our radar longer than I have been onboard," Watts answered smugly, shining his nails on his coat to feign disinterest. He wasn't buying my downplays. "As I understand it, your work for Ozpin put you on our radar before you ever graduated Beacon. Your choice to leave Ozpin's service was certainly interesting and you did remain on our radar, but we paid less attention to you after that." Watts paused, making a show of looking Jaune up and down. The Faunus behind him mimicked the motion with a sadistic grin, giving me an uneasy feeling and the urge to slit the man's throat. "Clearly, that was a mistake."

"I'll have to ask you to explain what you mean by that," I responded, a little bit of tension building up. Jaune was a stiff as an oak tree, and I could almost feel the anger radiating off of Yang. _Either that's heat from her Semblance, or I can hear her growling lowly…_

Watts grinned. "It appears you have an affinity for collecting trinkets you ought best stay away from."

"Oh really?" I asked back, setting up a queue for Jaune to jump in. "You sure about that?"

"The name's Jaune _Branwen_ ," Jaune jumped in, reading the setup I left him. This much we had discussed previously, as we knew that someone was going to ask questions eventually. He stared down Mercury smugly as he did so. "'Arc' was a cover name to keep me safe inside Beacon."

"Keep you _safe_ inside Beacon?" the Faunus burst out, laughing at the idea. Every time he spoke, it became more and more apparent that he wasn't all there. "What a laughable excuse. I couldn't think of a surname more likely to draw attention from Ozpin and his."

"It worked, didn't it?" Jaune asked plainly, shutting the Faunus up.

"So it did," Watts grumbled, trailing off as he thought things over. His eyes flicked from Jaune to Yang and back, before grinning once more. "Mercury, you said that these two are engaged in intimate relations, did you not?"

"Mmhmm," Mercury hummed cockily, shooting Jaune an antagonizing look. "The whole school knew about them."

"I see. Should you be telling the truth, that would make Jaune and Yang here siblings—" Watts paused, reconsidering something as he looked at me. "—or half-siblings, I'd expect. Tell me, Raven, what _is_ your tribe's stance on inbreeding?"

Watts grinned, satisfied that he had won the point. He had, but I was unwilling to concede any ground cleanly, no matter how insignificant the point may be.

"It's awesome," I drawled, throwing my voice just enough to make it ambiguous if I was being serious or not. "It's practically tradition in these backwater fringes of Mistral. Gotta keep the bloodlines pure, you know what I mean?"

They couldn't see through my mask, but I was grinning at the surprise and confusion on Watts' and the Faunus' faces.

"If that were true, you'd have fucked your brother," Hazel cut in with a no-nonsense tone to his voice. "Since their hair is blonde, I'm going to take a wild guess that you're lying."

That, or the fact that Yang couldn't keep a straight face at the whole 'step-sibling' thing would give it away. She looked like she wanted to die, or throw up, or both.

"Which brings us back to the point: you've been busy," Watts announced, putting me back on the defensive. "We were aware of the rumors that you were harboring the Spring Maiden for years, but Ozpin was as well. Since he never made any moves to investigate it, we assumed he had intel that suggested it was a waste of time. Our resources were better spent elsewhere…"

I gave a soft shrug there. That was actually one of the few things that I owed the old man a thank you for, though I doubt he'd do things the same if he had a do-over. Hell, he may not have even done so on purpose; it's possible that he just assumed that I would never take in a Maiden because I so clearly wanted out of his war. _It may not have occurred to him that I didn't exactly go looking for the Maiden's powers._

"When you left, it was assumed that you were trying to avoid becoming a part of this war. I have to say, that's a marvelous misinformation job on your behalf. No one seemed to suspect that you were interested in taking power for yourself," Watts continued, watching me carefully. I kept my posture loose. "Nothing to say?"

"Just keep talking," I drawled, feigning disinterest in whatever story he had to spin.

"You did a solid job of keeping Mr. Arc here hidden, so we won't count that against you in this little debate. Harboring Spring, however, is a different story. Did you really take her at the same time as the boy?"

"No," I lied, feeling Jaune's eyes on me from the side. He still wondered the same thing. "It was after."

Watts hummed, leaving it difficult to tell if he believed that answer or not.

"Keeping a Maiden is the surest way to make yourself a target," the crazy Faunus hummed. "When you steal away our goddess' toys, you shouldn't be surprised to get put in time-out."

"Tyrian is correct," the doctor concurred, though it didn't sound like he enjoyed saying that. "Just harboring Spring ensured that you would not escape us. But announcing to the world Jaune Arc exists by having him secure the Fall Maiden out from both Ozpin's and Salem's noses?" Watts asked pointedly. Hell, he seemed excited or impressed by it. "Well, I fail to see how you could have said it any louder."

"And now you're here," I drawled, making a show of not being impressed. "Why announce yourselves? You've seen my Semblance. If I want to keep two Maidens away from you, I can do so indefinitely."

"Feel free to do so," Hazel replied confidently. "While you tuck your tail between your legs and run, we'll destroy every trace of what you've built. You'll be enshrined as the coward who fled."

Hazel did not mince his words, and he knew just how much they'd get under my skin. The reality of my situation is that I have no real other option than to fight now. Since the day that stupid girl forced me to take the Maidenhood, it's been inevitable that one side or the other would catch up with me eventually. It was Jaune that made me realize that if I was going to take him back, that I would need to change the way I did things. It didn't take long for me to realize that I would be harboring _both_ a wanted Arc and a wanted Maiden, which meant that they were going to come for us sooner or later.

Having Fall fall into my lap just threw dust onto the fire. _There's bad luck, and then there's having three of the largest targets in Remnant painted on your back after trying to stay hidden._

"Come and take them, then," I challenged, stiffening my posture behind my threat. Jaune and Yang were a little surprised, but stood ready nonetheless.

"If we must, then we shall," Tyrian let out with a fake sigh. "It may take time, but time is something our Queen has an abundance of. We mortals all run out of it eventually."

"It would not take as long as you would suspect," Watts announced, meeting my eyes through my mask. "Should you choose to run, you'll quickly find yourself without any targets to teleport to. And should you choose to dig your heels in, you'll find that not even your forces can withstand siege from both Grimm and Mistral's military."

My surprise was muted, but Yang and Jaune's was not. Yang especially seemed confused by that, which didn't go unnoticed.

"Oh yes, Mistral is deciding what to do about your growing insurrection in the coming weeks," Tyrian explained, savoring the thrill of Yang's shock. I flicked my eyes to check on her, but didn't have time to wonder what her reaction meant. "Currently, the plan is to do something… sensible. All it would take to convince them to go to war would be a little push from the right person." Tyrian shrugged, doing the worst impression of innocence I have ever seen, before giggling like a freak. "A few selective leaks here, some public outrage there, and before you know it it's a unanimous vote to put down a rebellion by politicians too scared to lose their seats…"

They looked at me expectantly, waiting for my response. I didn't have one immediately, and I bristled under the threat they had just described. Mistral _did_ technically pose a massive threat, but it was one I was counting on being subdued by politics. Even if Roman shed blood in the streets of the capital, there was no telling if Salem's influence could be counteracted. If her claws were already sunk into the kingdom's political machine, it might be too late to pull them out. Roman burning the capital to the ground would probably be a bonus to Salem anyways, so that threat was neutered.

As loathe as I am to admit it, their threat was credible. It didn't help that I could feel Jaune and Yang looking to me for direction here.

"That's a good plan. Convince a kingdom to rip itself to shreds and assassinate two different Maidens in the chaos." I shrugged, trying to play off as indifferent once more, but I felt that it fell flat. "You might have a hard time controlling who captures the powers, but if nothing else the next Maidens won't be nearly so protected. It's a good plan; so why haven't you gone with it yet?"

"Just because we _can_ destroy you, doesn't mean that it is worth our while to do so as a first measure," Watts answered carefully. I saw straight through it.

"You won't have the forces left to take down the other three kingdoms," Jaune called out, beating me to the punch. "What good does it do you to only destroy _half_ of the world?"

Jaune grinned down Watts as he waited for a reply, and I joined him in that.

"You underestimate the pure power that Salem could conjure if pressed to do so, but you are not incorrect that we have considered such issues," Watts answered, being as indirect as he could to try to keep us from taking that point. "As such, we have a compromise we'd like to offer."

"What's a compromise between destroying the world and _not_ destroying the world?" Yang asked snarkily, which brought another grin to my face.

"What is it that you want?" I asked, finally getting to the point of their little 'visit.'

"The Spring Maiden, the Fall Maiden, and naturally we want the Relics from their respective Vaults," Watts listed off, knowing full well what my response would be.

"Fuck off."

"In return, we'll crown you queen of Mistral, and we _promise_ to destroy that kingdom last, long after you and your direct heirs have lived and died comfortably as royalty."

Watts clearly didn't believe I would even entertain the offer, though he was amused by it.

"Royalty, huh?" Jaune asked, keeping his voice low so just Yang and I could hear him. "I say we take it. Those two Maidens are too bitchy anyways…"

"One of them, at least," Yang mumbled back at him.

"Children, _hush_ ," I called out loudly, not caring if the other group overheard.

"I take that as no?" Tyrian asked, very clearly hoping that it was. He looked like he might leap across the gap and attack at any moment, and like he was _dying_ to do so.

"You haven't heard what _I_ want yet," I called back cockily. "Since we're demanding things that will never happen, I want to rule over all of Remnant as queen, surrounded by a court full of bodybuilders, and with Salem as either the servant who feeds me grapes or as a concubine for Jaune. I'm not too picky on which…"

Jaune turned his head and laughed into his sleeve, and Yang mumbled _'gross'_ and probably made a note to beat Jaune's ass for his reaction. Not everyone was so entertained.

"Who do you think you are to defile the image of our goddess with such… such _vile_ words!" Tyrian spat out—literally, as he spoke so hard that spittle flew out haphazardly. With any luck, he'd pop a blood vessel and have a stroke from how irrationally angry that insult had made him.

Hazel held out his arm to keep Tyrian back. He and Watts both were on some level amused, but took care to hide that from Tyrian. Mercury didn't care to hide it, reacting almost the same way Jaune had.

"Now that we've gotten that out of our system, what's your real offer?"

" _You're not seriously negotiating with them!_ " Yang hissed at my side, grabbing my arm to grab my attention. I gave her a flat look that she would have picked up on through the mask, before shrugging off her grip and returning my focus back to Watts.

"Maidens will come and go; while we certainly will take them where we can, our Queen is focused more on… tangible powers," Watts explained, beating around the bush.

"The Relics," I supplied. No one outside of Ozpin or Salem really knew what they did, unless Salem had shared such information with the group before us. Unlikely, as they might then use that information to go rogue and keep the Relics for themselves, or they might trade the information should things go poorly. Oz certainly never was forthcoming with info on them, and I get the feeling that if he could have gotten away without even telling us what each Relic was named, then he would have. All he ever said was that it was of paramount importance that we never allow all for Relics to be gathered in one location. _Typical hypocrisy of the old man, preaching about the grave consequences of consolidating power all while engineering the kingdoms of the world to benefit him._

Still, there was something off-putting about the stress with which Oz insisted the Relics be kept separate. Not to mention that it was bad policy to give Salem _any_ advantages.

"Indeed. There exists four Vaults, and you have the keys to two of them," Watts answered. "Since it seems unlikely that you would be willing to give up both Maidens, we have a proposal that might be a little easier to swallow. Have your Maiden open the Vault of the Spring Maiden for us. We'll take the Relic and be on our way."

Watts wore a smug look on his face, and I waited a while before saying anything. That offer was lacking in… scope, it seemed. That was it? _There must be a catch._

"Oh, yes, it's that easy," I drawled, refusing to give in and ask for the catch, which Watts was so obviously begging me to do. "We just show up to the magical Vault hidden beneath a Huntsman school. I'm sure there won't be any issues up to that point…"

I made sure not to give away that this was a subtle way to dig for information, or in this case, confirmation. Lionheart was certainly on the ' _do no trust_ ' list, but if they would outright confirm for me that he was working for them, that would be extremely helpful information.

"Mistral is suffering from devastating Grimm spikes—"

"And they're running out of breathing Huntsmen~~" Tyrian chimed in.

"—and classes are not in session," Hazel finished, grunting to acknowledge Tyrian's addition as valid, while still expressing some disdain for the lunatic. "Haven Academy does not serve as a primary airfield or staging grounds for Huntsmen the way that Beacon did, so traffic within the school is nonexistent."

"It is simply a matter of walking inside and taking what is required," Watts concluded the thought, giving me a suspicious look. He'd caught on that I was fishing for Lionheart's name or some indication one way or the other, and denied that to me. Their words were chosen carefully, which meant they wanted Lionheart's betrayal— _if_ my suspicions are actually correct—to be a surprise. "I doubt that there is anyone who could stop us in this endeavor, and I'm certain that we won't waste time admiring the architecture along the way…"

"And what stops me from keeping the Relic for myself?" I asked, finally giving in and asking the question that Watts had been waiting for.

"Nothing, I suppose. Or rather, the same thing stopping you from killing us right now," Watts answered sharply, straightening up and squaring his shoulders. "With your Semblance and the power imbalance you hold, should you decide to keep the Relic, no one will stop you. This will, however, signal to Salem that you are no longer an unconcerned third party. Tell me, do you know how long it has been since she has hunted someone down _personally_?"

Watts' threat, though delayed as it would be, was still not one I cared to put myself through. _And that's putting it lightly._ Maybe with the Relic of Knowledge, I could find a magic bullet that would either kill Salem or scare her off of me, but that feels unlikely, and not just because I don't know how to use it. Ozpin would have tried _anything_ to kill her by now, and if there was anything powerful enough to keep her at bay, Ozpin would use it to protect the world.

 _In a way, the Relics serve as exactly that._ Instead of locking them in Vaults where Salem can scheme to steal them, I would need to wield them—and not _all_ of them, just in case Oz's warnings hold merit. Which one would be best to leave out, Choice? Creation? I sure as hell want Destruction in my hand, but I would need to track down a new Maiden and convince her to open the Vault.

"Salem would hunt us down for our Maidens anyways," Jaune chimed in, sounding unimpressed by their offer.

" _Or for your last name,_ " Yang whispered, voice low enough to only be heard by Jaune and I.

"Would she? You all _will_ die," Tyrian chimed in gleefully. "Time kills all but two. All our Queen must do is blink, and enough will have passed by for your Maidens to have passed on from this world. And she'll have their Relics; what use is your one Maiden to an immortal goddess?"

" _One?_ " I asked critically. The air around us seemed to grow colder in the tension that arose.

"You will only have to give us the Relic of Knowledge," Hazel began to explain. "Mistral's Council is about to finalize their plans for dealing with your insurrection—"

"You wouldn't happen to have someone manipulating that Council, now, would you?" I asked in a growl.

"Yes."

"Those plans will include direct measures taken against you until such a time that they believe you to be willing to negotiate on their terms," Watts pressed on smugly. "They will demand that you legitimize your operation, which will bring with it its own challenges and benefits, I'm sure. However, as a gesture of good faith, they _will_ require you to surrender the Fall Maiden." Watts paused, staring me down with a satisfied grin. "We will leave you alone and wait for your Spring Maiden to die as long as we have the Relic. What happens to Fall won't concern you anymore after that."

Anger bubbled up in me, but I fought it down and kept myself from reacting. All of this was inevitable, but it was still infuriating to be put in this position. Of course Mistral would take measures against us, of course Salem would target me for having two Maidens, and of course all of this would put me in a position I would much rather have avoided altogether. _Somehow, this can all be traced back to Jaune, I just know it._

"What's to keep me from handing you the Relic and then keeping Fall anyways?" I asked with an edge, making sure to downplay my concern.

"By all means, go ahead," Tyrian called out gleefully, which practically ruled that option out altogether. "If you start a war that destabilizes Mistral, then I would thank you from the bottom of my heart for doing the Queen's work. When you run away because you don't want to die protecting some town from an army, then you'll be vulnerable and we'll take the Maiden by force." The man shrugged and pretended that he didn't want me to do it, which was belied by the look in his eyes. "It's your choice."

"Surely you don't expect me to have an answer for you immediately…" I called out, hoping to see what time I could buy to either test my own fortifications or explore other options.

" _Raven!_ " Yang hissed. "You're not seriously thinking—"

I held up a hand, silencing her.

"We demand an answer immediately," Hazel responded sternly.

"That's ridiculous," I admonished.

"What, would you like more time to think about it?" Watts asked cheekily. "Or would you like time to set up your own schemes? Perhaps forge some unexpected alliances, or even bring in help from Ozpin of all people?"

I didn't answer and stared them down.

"You may have a week to decide," Watts relented. "Call me paranoid, but somehow I don't trust you to spend that week thinking over the merits of our offer." Again, I didn't answer, but Watts smirked at his own words. "To keep you honest in that time, you'll find many of your towns under probing attacks from Mistral. And those that aren't, well, there's a high probability of massive Grimm surges…"

"Is that a threat?"

"Absolutely," Watts answered. "Until you accept our offer, all of Mistral's Grimm will be focused on your forces. Until you accept Mistral's offer, all of Mistral's military will be focused on your forces. The sooner you accept those offers, the sooner everyone gets what they want."

Watts words hung in the air as both sides stared each other down. I spent most of that time convincing myself that it wasn't worth it to cut them all down where they stand. Salem isn't as weak as Ozpin, and Spring's powers wouldn't be enough to save me in a fight. _Still, seeing their heads on spikes would be so satisfying._

"Come, children," I let out without taking my eyes off of Watts. "We're through here."

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

Yang stepped through Raven's portal first, and I stepped up to put myself between Yang and Salem's group as Yang turned her back, just in case. I followed just after her, and after a few moments of delay, Raven appeared too.

The portal closed behind us without anything happening, no attack from the Tyrian guy or anything. Vernal had been waiting on us in Raven's tent with a few extra armed guards ready to rush in. Raven dismissed them, and once they were gone she gave Vernal a brief rundown of what had happened, with a promise to explain things further later.

For now, Raven sent Vernal to organize everyone she could find and get ready to head out. All of our villages were to be on high alert from here on in, and there would be no shortage of trouble.

As Vernal left, things only got more tense. Yang was seething, and I couldn't tell if she was angry with Raven, or if she was just angry and was venting it at Raven.

"You're not _seriously_ considering this?" Yang asked incredulously, with a dangerous edge to her voice. Raven hadn't even turned around to face either of us yet and still had her mask on, so I couldn't read her reaction well.

"If I were considering it, would I be preparing for a fight?"

Yang didn't answer immediately, but continued glaring at the back of Raven's head. Her answer didn't really answer anything, because we would have to survive seven days of fighting either way.

"You can't trust them," Yang warned. "Once they find out that you are the Spring Maiden and that Amber is vulnerable, they'll break the deal."

"Speaking of our Fall Maiden—" Raven called out loudly, changing the subject and making it clear she was not discussing the previous one anymore, "—go fetch her for me, Yang. Her security detail is about to be significantly increased, and we'll need to bring her up to speed on why."

For whatever reason, Yang seemed to agree to that idea easily, despite how upset she was. That didn't mean that she _didn't_ look like she wanted to hit something, but instead that she took that anger with her out the tent.

Which left Raven and me.

Raven took off her mask and tossed it aside unceremoniously, before standing there and staring off ahead at the ground, lost in thought. I was content to sit there and watch her, trying to see if I could gleam anything about her thought process based on how she was acting.

It turned out to be a lot easier than I anticipated. Raven let out a long, frustrated sigh, rubbing her face in her hands and showing off a lot more stress than I'd ever seen on her before.

"Any thoughts on the situation?" she asked me, her voice sounding tired.

"It sucks."

Despite herself, Raven let out a small laugh at that. "I can't argue with that."

"Yang's right, you know," I followed up, taking my time to watch her. "You're on their radar no matter what now. The fact that you've got Maidens _and_ me just ensure it."

"I know," Raven answered softly. "My instincts are screaming at me to grab what I can and run."

"Why don't you, then?"

Raven shrugged. "What, and admit defeat? I've worked hard to get this strong. Should I tuck my tail and hide without even putting up a fight?" Raven's words hung in the air, but they didn't hold their usual polish or luster. There wasn't any conviction behind them, and we both knew it. "Besides, Salem is only coming after me because I've grown so strong. If anything, that's a compliment."

"Yeah, and so is ' _nice corpse,_ '" I drawled, earning little more than an eye-roll from Raven. "You don't sound so convinced yourself."

"I _am_ capable of winning this," Raven shot back, a little bit of her normal fire returning to her for just a moment. "I'm just not looking forward to what it's going to take. I'm about to be caught between fighting the Grimm and fighting a kingdom, and my plan is to beat them both simultaneously, all while I've spent years trying to avoid having to do _either_ of those. You have any idea how much stress that's giving me?"

I laughed darkly in her face at that. "I can do you one better. I was caught between Ozpin, Salem, _and_ you."

"Well, clearly, I put you through that so that you would be able to help me manage this now," Raven responded, a ghost of a smile on her lips. "I'm always thinking ahead."

"I'll pretend I believe that," I answered sarcastically.

"How'd you manage it?" Raven asked. She was humoring me, or at least, she was humoring me as a cover. She seemed to actually want to know. "Putting up with the pressure in Beacon?"

"Poorly," I answered somewhat honestly. "The best thing I ever did was find this blonde I really liked and hold her tightly. That usually took my mind off of things…"

"Well, _that_ isn't an option for me. Not these days, anyways," Raven answered, still wearing that small, tired smile. "Any other advice?"

"You do remember that I failed, right?" I asked. "I'm not so sure you want to be taking notes from me here."

"You beat both Ozpin and Salem. I don't count as an actual enemy for you, so as far as I'm concerned, you succeeded."

"Oh, don't patronize me." Raven grinned, and her normal self started to come back. "If that's true, why am I here?"

She shrugged. "You want to be here."

I didn't respond to that. Wasn't sure if I knew what I would say. _She might have me there._

"Fine, have it your way. You 'failed' at Beacon, but only just barely. What you pulled off is still impressive." Raven gave me a look that I was uncomfortable with, some strange mix of a grin, a smile, and acceptance. "I never understood what they meant by a mother's pride until I saw just how badly you cucked Qrow and Ozpin."

That had me rolling my eyes, as was the intended reaction, but a little bit of a blush made its way to my cheeks despite my best efforts to stop it. Raven caught onto this and laughed at it.

"Actually, that's not true. I was pretty proud of you when I walked in to find you finger-blasting some hot blonde up against a wall…" Raven's grin grew proportional to the heat in my cheeks, but she wasn't done yet. "That's probably the least proud of Yang that I've ever been, though. She could at least have found someone _close_ to her league."

"You suck," I spat out limply. "You know that?"

Raven nodded while laughing at me. I had to sit there in chagrin and take it.

"I guess I'm not going to get any actual advice about this out of you, am I?" Raven asked as she finally came down from her laughing fit.

"I'm not sure it would help you all that much," I answered with a shrug, making it clear that I was open to giving an answer if she really wanted it. She gave me a look that told me she was interested anyways, so I went ahead with it. " _Accept your fate_."

Raven's head cocked to the side, either surprised or confused.

"Accept your fate, and then fight anyways because you're a stubborn ass," I expounded. "Most of the time at Beacon, I knew that I was going to die when I tried to break out, or worse. Once you get used to expecting to die, nothing else really bothers you anymore. It's freeing, in a morbid sort of way. It all went away when Yang got involved, though."

"Because you had something you actually cared to lose?" Raven asked, not nearly as cynically as she normally would.

"That, and because her help gave me hope," I answered with a solemn nod. "We actually had a chance to pull it off. The pipedream of not dying was suddenly within reach. That made it sting a lot more when I failed, though."

"You didn't fail," Raven insisted again. "I don't count against you. Remember that."

"Yeah, well, maybe if I'd known that back then, I never would have thought I was going to die anyways," I cut back.

Raven didn't have an answer immediately, and things got quiet for a few moments.

"You're right, though," Raven said finally, getting my attention. I looked at her with surprise, not expecting her to admit to anything like that. "None of that helps me."

I groaned and rolled my eyes at that, and she just wore a guilty grin that made it clear she enjoyed my reaction.

"You need me for anything else, or am I free to go?" I asked, already making my way to the tent's exit.

"No, you're fine. I'll send Yang to you once she gets back and I'll brief Amber myself," Raven answered. I turned to walk out the tent, but Raven's voice called out and stopped me one last time. "Hey Jaune?"

"Hmm?" I hummed in response, turning back around to find any trace of Raven's stress or weakness from earlier gone. She had her shoulders pulled back once more, and seemed to be back to her old self.

"I'll take your advice into consideration," she called out, which was as close to _thank you_ as I was probably going to get. _At least we've moved on from communicating via spars and stabbing each other, I guess._ "Go get some rest. We've got a war to win tomorrow."

"Will do," I called back, turning to hide a small smile on my face.

"And don't you and Yang wear each other out, either!" Raven called back after me antagonistically. "That defeats the whole point!"

The last thing I heard before exiting the tent was Raven laughing as I flipped her off without looking back.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: None.**

 **I'm writing this from the back of a mini-van that's doing 80mph down the interstate, and I'm ready to be done so I don't get carsick from trying to type while going through the Appalachians. If you want to understand why Yang is angry in the last scene, think about her plan that she's been trying to work out and how that might be effected by this new development.**

 **If not, then see you next week.**


	67. Seether's 2007 Album, first track

**Author's Note: One thing to clear up, just because I was thinking about it as I uploaded this chapter: Mistral's 'military.' Clearly, the idea of a large government military is somewhat unusual to Remnant, considering how Atlas is treated. Atlas clearly still _has_ Huntsmen and Huntresses, since they compete in the Vytal Festival and are _not_ the military types you'd expect. So for the largest military in Remnant, Huntsmen are still an independent source of suppressing Grimm, which makes figuring out the roles that military play in other kingdoms more difficult. **

**Obviously, if your nation has a standing military of _any_ size, it's going to help defend against the Grimm. In V5, Lionheart, Tyrian, and Hazel seem to only really be concerned with culling the Huntsmen, so the military is not perceived as strong enough to hold off the Grimm on its own. This leads me to believe that we've got less of a 'United States Navy' situation, and more of a 'United States Coast Guard' situation. Maybe national guard. Still well equipped, but not intended as a massive fighting force. **

**That's how I see Mistral's military, and how it's handled herein. They're better equipped than the Tribe, because they have an entire fleet of airships and military contracts for weapons, as well as the ability to requisition supplies as needed. Their numbers are probably higher than the Tribe's, but they don't have a prototypical Atlas death machine, they don't have Raven's Semblance, and they don't have two Maidens lying around.**

 **Other than that, here's the Discord link:**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **Oh, and I was told by the Discord that I need a trigger warning for some reason, so, uh... here you go? Whatever.**

 **Enjoy. Heh.**

* * *

 **Chapter 64:** _"Good luck, Yang. This should help you." – A text message received early in the morning_

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

Three days of fighting had been a mix of exhausting and exciting for Jaune and me, but had been mind-numbingly dull for Amber. Raven was running every facet of her defenses with precision that would have made General Ironwood jealous, though her Semblance made that a lot easier. Her men and women knew exactly when they would eat, when they would sleep, when they would fight, and knew that this could be changed at any time based on what Raven needed and where she needed them. Despite how strict that was, no one had really complained yet; either they didn't have enough time _to_ complain, or they realized that as long as it continued to work, it was fine.

My duties and Jaune's duties were both reduced a little bit so that at least one of us would always be with Amber. I thought that she could use us better out in the field, as Jaune would make a great commander against any of Mistral's forces and I _am_ good at hitting Grimm really hard. But with Amber being so vulnerable and Jaune potentially having his own target on his back due to his family heritage, Raven would rather keep us more secure, even if it cost her to do so. Typically, we would both spend about eight hours in the field while the other stayed with Amber, and then for the last eight hours of the day we'd both sleep in here with Amber too. 'Here' being one of the three houses in our main fort that came with a basement, just in case Mistral tried some sort of bombing run. They tried it twice, but when they found out that we had an Atlas Paladin and were not afraid to shoot their ships out of the sky, they backed off.

Being cooped up down here for so long was rough, and I can only imagine how miserable Amber must be. She doesn't get to leave for anything, and half the time her only entertainment is talking to Jaune. _The poor girl…_ Jokes aside, it isn't hard to see just how rough this is on her. She was already in a really bad spot with how she's almost out of Aura and still feels like she doesn't belong in Pyrrha's body in the first place, but having to sit inside for days and think about it? _Well, it's no wonder why she often blanks out and stares ahead of her absently._

It hurts to watch.

I've tried all I can to keep her cheered up and entertained, too. Whatever board and card games I could find in the nearby houses I've brought down, as well as movies and a big TV from another town. It's not like she's not allowed to communicate outside of the room with her scroll, and Jaune and I even went so far as to hook up his scroll to that TV while on a call with me, so that she could watch as I put down a pack of Beowolves. Unfortunately, there just reaches a point where no matter how much stuff you have available to watch, you feel trapped down here in the basement, and your thoughts just get… darker after that point.

I've tried for the last few minutes to engage Amber, and while she's looked up and responded to anything I asked her, it was pretty clear that she wasn't interested in remaining engaged. She'd sink back up against the wall and stare ahead of herself again shortly after each attempt. Disheartened, I decided to wait until Jaune's shift was over to reach out to her again; so far, the most she would perk up is when one of us got back and started talking about what they'd been up to that day.

I didn't have to wait long. It was only a few minutes before one of Raven's portals cut its way into the middle of the room, and Jaune and Raven strode out of it, wearing their masks and matching armor. _It actually does look decent, but that's part of the problem._

"You're a little early," I called out, checking my scroll. Normally, if Raven didn't have one of us back 'on time,' it was because something came up and she held us longer, not shorter.

"Are you complaining?" Jaune teased, taking off his mask and flippantly tossing it on the ground. His scale armor followed suit quickly.

"We pulled a trick on Mistral's siege forces and opened fire on them with the Paladin. They retreated at the first sign of trouble, and I'm going to take that as a chance to get some rest," Raven explained, taking off her own mask so that she could rub the bridge of her nose. She looked a little tired, which was to be expected when she has to be awake to use the Semblance that's keeping our forces alive. Last I checked, she takes power naps whenever she can and has Vernal wake her up when news breaks.

"You moved the Paladin away from the main camp?" I asked, surprised.

"Just for this one maneuver," Raven assured me. "I don't plan on it again, because there's the risk that Mistral could bait me into it so they can attack here. I doubt they'd do that, since Watts' indication that Mistral is trying to cull their own forces by dying to me seems to be holding true…" Raven shrugged. "But I do like keeping them on their toes…"

"That sounds exciting," Amber called out, on her feet as she joined the conversation. She looked to Jaune expectantly.

"I wouldn't know," Jaune grumbled, plopping down on the couch. " _I_ was on nurse duty. Again."

" _Doctor_ duty," Raven corrected him, though more out of habit than anything. This wasn't a new complaint.

"A doctor uses _medicine_ to heal people," Jaune countered, holding up his hand and making it glow with his Semblance. "This is not medicine. If anything, I'm closer to a witch-doctor."

Jaune's sour mood was the result of a mix of stress and not getting to see any real action in the field. Medical supplies were limited this far out into Mistral and would be cut off entirely while the kingdom's army was sieging our towns, but a majority of our members had their Aura unlocked—most of them getting it unlocked after they arrived. That meant that there was always a strong supply of Aura for Jaune to tap into, which dialed up his healing abilities and made him a walking hospital. It also meant that he didn't get to actually fight anything and instead spent his time bouncing from one town's infirmary to another.

"I don't know, I kinda like the whole nurse idea," I commented, grinning. Jaune met my eyes and a flash of worry shone across his face. "I'd love to see Jaune in a nurse's outfit, if you know what I mean. What do you think, Amber?"

Jaune opened his mouth to say something, but couldn't figure out what he _could_ say before Amber beat him to it.

"Nurse Jaune in a candy-striper outfit?" Amber asked with a grin that matched my own. She made a show of looking Jaune up and down, and I heard Raven stifle a laugh off to the side. " _Hell_ yes."

"You really need to stop hanging out with Yang," Jaune mumbled to Amber defeatedly. After a few moments, he finally came up with what he thought was a decent comeback that would shut down this whole 'nurse' thing. "You know what, fine, if we're actually doing this, then I'll just be a gynecologist."

Jaune shot me and Amber a gloating look, expecting us to back down.

That look fell from his face almost instantly.

"I'm fine with that," Amber and I answered at the same time, each of us giving him a bedroom eyes to make him even more uncomfortable. It worked, as Jaune got flustered and dropped his head in defeat, giving up any hope of digging himself out of this hole now. I cut my eyes to check on Amber, trying to make sure that she wasn't serious and was just doing it for the joke. _Knowing her, it might be both._ I couldn't tell one way or the other, but she did back down a little once Jaune gave up.

"That's my queue to leave," Raven announced loudly, before making her way to her portal. She was clearly enjoying Jaune's misery, though. "Do me a favor and hold off on the role play till _after_ I leave next time."

"We're not—" Jaune cut himself off as Raven's portal closed behind her. She was apparently uninterested in any excuses or explanations that Jaune felt compelled to give. Jaune turned to Amber and me with a pout. "You two suck."

" _Sure_ ," Amber responded teasingly, "but only if you ask nicely."

"That's not—!"

" _And_ wear the nurse outfit," she tacked on.

Jaune made some strange set of guttural noises in his throat as his frustration, confusion, and embarrassment choked out any actual words he wanted to say, and I decided to step in and end this whole thing.

"Ignore her. How was your day?" I asked, walking up to Jaune and making sure Amber noticed the way I cut my eyes at her.

"Much worse _now_ ," Jaune drawled dramatically, which earned him a soft slap on the arm from me. "It was fine. How have you two been holding up here?"

"We've been good," I answered cheerfully. "Just a little cramped."

"Amber?" Jaune asked, wanting to hear if she would agree with that.

"It's been miserable," Amber answered dramatically, already haven sunken down onto the couch and kicked her legs out.

"Glad to hear nothing's changed, then," Jaune responded with a roll of his eyes. His gaze returned to Amber for a brief moment after that with a genuine look of concern, before subsiding once more just afterwards. Something unspoken might have passed between the two of them, but I didn't look over in time to catch if Amber had caught eyes with Jaune or not. It didn't concern me all that much if there _was_ something to it, though; hell, if Jaune was looking out for how Amber was dealing with things and she was _letting_ him, then I'm not looking to interrupt that at all.

"What happened to the negotiations with Mistral?" I asked, changing the subject to one I'd been waiting to ask until Raven left.

"They're still going on," Jaune answered. I was about to point out that _Raven just fired on them with a Paladin_ , but he knew where I was going with it and beat me to it. "Officially, no negotiations are being made and no contact has been made, which means that both sides are still hostile. Unofficially, we've been talking with a few 'negotiators,' so we have a pretty good idea of what their final offer is going to be. I only spent half the day playing doctor; the other half was standing in on their talks."

"What are they going to propose?" Amber asked, leaning in a bit from her spot on the couch.

"Well, there's two parts to it: you've got what's officially going to happen, and then what's unofficially going to happen," Jaune responded, setting up his answer. "Officially, Mistral will want to bring the Tribe to heel, but it's looking like that might only happen nominally. They'll make Raven register as a licensed paramilitary group and we'll be subject to Mistrali law from here on in, but they'll have to grant leniency for anything that's already happened. So the Tribe will end up paying some taxes and shaping up a little, but Mistral has always had problems imposing taxes on its citizens anyways; trying to make an armed military company do it would be even harder, plus they don't want to risk us abandoning our towns to die."

"So Raven gets immunity for anything she's done in the past _and_ legal permission to keep doing what she's already doing?" I asked somewhat incredulously.

"Yeah, if you think the Tribe's growing quickly now, wait until they basically get endorsed by the government," Amber added on. "Jeez."

"Officially, yes, Raven comes out of this pretty well. There are still a few details that could restrict her further if added, but they're up in the air right now," Jaune confirmed with a solemn nod. "It's the unofficial part that she doesn't like."

"Well…" Amber drawled, "… _go on_."

"It's like Watts said. They want the Fall Maiden, at the very least."

Amber paled, despite the fact that we knew this was probably coming. It was still hard for her to hear, because getting moved out into the open like that almost ensured that she would die, and quickly. It wouldn't take long for everyone to figure out about her Aura situation, and since Salem's people would already have their eyes on her, she'd be as good as dead as soon as she leaves this basement.

Jaune made his way over to the couch and sat down next to Amber, who stared off into the distance with that blank look that she'd been wearing so much the last few days. If I needed the confirmation that this look meant that she was thinking about her impending death, this was that confirmation. To Jaune's credit, he seemed to already know this and was trying to comfort her, taking one of her hands into both of his to help bring her back to reality. When Amber snapped out of it, she looked up at Jaune with sad eyes and mumbled a weak 'thank you' to him. The scene would have warmed my heart if the fear on Amber's face didn't threaten to tear it out.

"So they know about the Maidens?" I asked, catching onto a thread that might help us do _something._ "Whoever we're negotiating with knows about the Maidens, and we know that Watts has some sort of connection to Mistral's council. If this negotiator knows about the Maidens, then that means they have to be the one who is dirty, right?"

"Not exactly," Jaune answered, looking up at me but not releasing Amber's hand. The sad, disappointed look he gave me told me that he was about to shoot down my idea, and that he had maybe already thought of that angle and had come to that conclusion before me. "We've been in touch with three people so far, and all of them worked for Ozpin: Haven's headmaster, Qrow, and Taiyang." Jaune shook his head and frowned. "Mostly the last two. Lionheart showed up once just to confirm that Qrow and Taiyang's offer was legitimate."

My stomach sunk as that idea crashed and burned, but that feeling went away quickly.

"Dad and uncle Qrow?" I asked, getting Jaune to confirm it with a nod. "That's it, then!"

They both looked up at me with curious looks, neither really grasping what I was getting at yet. I took a moment to mentally prepare myself and run over my thoughts again, which was hard because I felt like I really needed to get this idea out there quickly. I'm not going to get another shot at this.

"This is when we leave the Tribe. Everything works out perfectly—or, as well as it's ever going to!"

Amber started to catch on, but Jaune looked at me with a mix of nervousness and suspicion. "Yang, what are… you implying here?"

"This is what I was talking about the other day, Jaune; you know, just before Tyrian and Mercury showed up?" I asked leadingly. My voice was a little faster than usual and I couldn't help that; this was just too important for me not to get worked up about it. The mix of anxiety, fear, enthusiasm, and a need to do _something_ only served to help that. " _This_ is the play. Dad said they were going to use Mistral to give us a chance to leave without confronting Raven. I didn't realize it would be so soon, but we _have_ to take this now!"

"The three of us?" Amber asked uncertainly.

"Yes! All three of us," I answered, nodding frantically to try to encourage Amber to jump in and help me out here. She _knew_ that this was the plan and had even helped me think things out, so I need her support here more than ever. "Amber, we talked about this. You helped me plan this out."

Jaune looked to Amber curiously for a moment, who shied away from his gaze slightly—though she didn't pull her hand away from his still. That only lasted for a moment before Jaune returned his eyes to me, and there was obvious hesitation and uncertainty in them.

"It's too risky," Jaune said finally, though the answer was more of a cop out than anything. I know him well enough to know when he's looking for excuses to hide behind so he doesn't actually have to confront doing something, and this felt just like that. _I just have to get through any excuse he can think up until he gives in._ "Amber is barely hanging on, Yang—" Jaune's hand rubbed small circles in the back of Amber's to soften the blow from his words, "—and we don't know who the mole is. What if it's that headmaster?"

"Then we hide her from the headmaster, just in case," I answered strongly, shooting down that excuse. "We know we can trust dad and Qrow to protect her. All we have to do is just make sure they hide her!"

" _Hide her?_ " Jaune asked incredulously, his voice raising a little. "Yang, she's one of the most recognizable people in Mistral!"

"Then we don't keep her in Mistral!" I shot back, my voice raising to match his. I was starting to get a little frustrated, apparently having forgotten how stubborn Jaune can be. Luckily, I can be too. "We'll go to Atlas. All of us."

" _Atlas?_ " Jaune answered with a start, before cutting himself short. He had to think about it, and I could see on his face that he wasn't shooting the idea down immediately.

"Yes, Atlas. We know that Salem doesn't have control over any of their leaders, because otherwise they wouldn't have needed to hack their systems at Beacon. And with the way that General Ironwood was cutting down the White Fang, it'd say it's pretty safe to say he's not on their side." The entire reason that Atlas hadn't shut its borders yet was because Ironwood's performance in fighting the Fang was seen by so many Huntsmen and students that he's become a sort of folk hero in Vale. A little positive press goes a long way right now.

Neither Jaune nor Amber looked convinced. Amber was sort of shrunk in on herself and avoided eye contact, which began to worry me that she may not be as strong of a supporter as I had counted on. _Jaune was supposed to be the one I had to convince._

"How are we supposed to get to Atlas?" Jaune challenged. "Amber could trip and lose half her Aura right now. If one of Salem's assassins sneezes, we might lose her. How are we supposed to get to an entire other kingdom without getting caught?"

"We'll steal a bullhead," I answered flippantly, trying to show that these minor details weren't the freaking point that needed to be discussed! "Or we'll sneak onto a train, or we'll steal a truck, or we'll just walk! We'll have my dad, uncle Qrow, and our whole teams! We can figure this out!"

"That's easy for you to say, Yang," Jaune responded with a slight edge to his voice. "You're the only one here who Salem _isn't_ personally targeting."

Jaune was wavering, but if he could find that excuse, then it looked like he was leaning towards not agreeing to my plan.

"Amber, help me out here!"

"I-I can't," Amber let out weakly, too shy to even look up at me. Her head hung low and she limply looked up at Jaune enough to get his attention, and tried to keep her voice too low for me to hear. " _Ren and Nora_ —I-I can't see them, Jaune. T-The flashes—"

"Ren and Nora? _What?_ " I let out in confusion, not even realizing I was saying anything. "Am I missing something?"

Jaune got Amber's attention and made her focus on him, giving her a firm but understanding look. "We need to tell her."

" _Tell me what?!_ "

Amber shook her head frantically, panic and fear setting in on her face. Jaune held his own and continued to look at her until she gave in and agreed. Or… dropped her head and allowed Jaune to do it anyways.

"Amber's been having… _flashes_. Bits of Pyrrha's memories that get triggered and paralyze her, sort of," Jaune explained, looking up to find me completely confused. "She said she's always had them, but they've gotten worse as she's lost more of her Aura. We're not sure if its Pyrrha's body or her brain or her Aura that's doing it, but something is… fighting Amber for control."

" _W-What?_ "

I looked to Amber in shock, struggling to process what Jaune had just said. Amber couldn't bring herself to look up at me and stared at the floor.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked Amber, before rounding on Jaune. "Why did _you_ know?"

Jaune put up his hands defensively and motioned for me to settle down. I made an effort to do so and to recollect myself, only because I realized that blowing up on Amber would only make things worse right now. My first instinct had been to beat an answer out of Jaune.

"I haven't known for very long," Jaune answered softly, taking care to check on Amber periodically. "We didn't want you to know because we feared that with how hard you were trying to find a way to bring Pyrrha back, that you might risk Amber to get that."

"You _what?!_ " I asked Jaune aggressively. To hell with holding back, this was the perfect time for an outburst. "You honestly think that _I_ would—"

"Jaune didn't think that," Amber cut me off, finally looking up at me. "He wanted to tell you immediately. _I_ was the one who was scared."

Like that, my anger was sapped away, leaving me feeling guilty for having gotten worked up about it. I felt my eyes from red back to purple as I looked at Amber. The mix of fear and defiance in her expression made it seem like she was terrified of having this conversation but was forcing herself to do it anyways, and there's no way that I'm going to make her regret that now.

"I-I don't want to find a way for Pyrrha to come back, not if it means that she could take control again," Amber admitted. "Look at me, Yang. I'm barely hanging on to control as it is. Do you think I could _ever_ come back if Pyrrha returned? If her Aura came back, it would trap me in here!" Amber held eye contact with me for as long as she could, before slumping back down into the couch and dropping her eyes. "I would rather just die, I think."

"Don't—don't say that."

"Why not? I've made my peace with it. I'm not going to let Pyrrha trap me." The resolve in her words frightened me. "I just want it to be on my terms now."

Amber's words horrified me, and my gut sunk further as I realized that she'd clearly been having these thoughts for a while now, and yet didn't feel like she could come to me. That hurt, and it left me in the awkward position of hoping that Jaune had comforted her enough without me.

Jaune. Comforting someone who felt like they were doomed to die. _Why does that not fill me with confidence?_

An idea struck me more out of desperation than anything, one that would be the perfect solution to everything, even if I hadn't thought out the details yet. They would get straightened out as long as Jaune and Amber agreed.

"What if we could get you out? What if we could separate you from Pyrrha?" I asked Amber, getting her to look back up at me suspiciously. "Atlas made the machine that transferred your Auras, right? If anyone can fix this, it's them. We could get your Aura out of Pyrrha's body and—" Another thought crossed my mind, one that made this plan even better, "—and we could get you a robot body. Penny had one, and she had Aura, right?" I kicked out to Jaune, who shrugged but didn't shoot down the idea. "That's it, then! It solves everything! Raven has to let us leave, Mistral doesn't attack its own citizens, and we get you somewhere safe where we can fix you! It's _perfect!_ "

They… didn't match my enthusiasm for the plan.

"Guys, come on! We're never going to get another chance like this!" I let out, my frustration with them finally boiling over into exasperation. They didn't make any indication that they were warming to the idea. " _Amber?_ We can fix everything, Amber. Please."

"I-I'm not going to make it to Atlas," Amber answered quietly, refusing to meet my eyes. "Even _if_ we don't get attacked, you're asking me to spend days, maybe weeks, with Pyrrha's old teammates. I'm already losing control just by hanging around with you and Jaune…" Amber trailed off guiltily. "If I even make it to Atlas, I… The damage will already be done."

" _Amber_ …"

"I can't go, Yang," she stated finally, never looking up at me. "I'm sorry."

Amber's hand suddenly gripped Jaune's tightly, as if going through one of her flashes. My mind absently wondered what memory she had triggered by saying sorry, and how bad it had to be if she needed to reach out to Jaune for help with it.

"Jaune?" I asked, turning to him but almost knowing better than to be too hopeful now. My eyes were already watering and I wasn't sure which emotion dominated the swirl I felt in my gut.

"It's too dangerous for me to leave right now, Yang," Jaune answered, pointedly not shooting down the option of ever leaving—though I don't know what he would say about that if I pushed. I decided it best not to push. "I'm a target because of who I am and because of what I did to stop Cinder at Beacon. The moment Salem finds out I'm not being protected by Raven, they'll be after me. If your dad and uncle are working with Mistral, then they might not be safe either."

"What?" I asked, my surprise shaking me out of any other emotions. "What do you mean?"

"They're working with Mistral to combat Raven. We already know that someone in Mistral is manipulating this so that Mistral's forces are weakened; they _want_ Huntsmen to die fighting Raven," Jaune explained slowly. It was slower than was necessary, but once I picked up on what he was saying, I hardly noticed. "I would bet that taking out Ozpin's surviving apprentice in Qrow would be high on their list. They might get sent into a trap at any time."

I tried to formulate words, but they wouldn't come out. I felt like an _idiot_ ; I'd been so wrapped up in trying to get Jaune and Amber out, that I hadn't fully realized that everyone else who mattered to me was in trouble too. After Watts revealed that he knew of Mistral's plan—which was identical to dad's plan—I was angry that Raven had time to figure out a way around it, and that Salem was planning to ambush Amber as soon as we left. _I spent so much time trying to figure out a way through that, that I never realized that something else could go wrong too._

"I'm going with them," I announced firmly.

"What?" Jaune asked in confusion.

"They're in trouble and they don't realize it. I'm going with them. Maybe I can get them to hunt down whoever it is that's working with Salem."

"Yang, you can't do that!" Jaune protested, rising to his feet to make himself taller than me. "That's way too dangerous! You're going to get yourself trapped with them!"

"What, and you just want me to let them die?"

"N-No, that's not what I'm saying," Jaune backpedaled. "I'm saying that you're thinking rashly. Whoever it is will know that you are going to warn them! As soon as you join them, they might take all of you out."

"We can handle ourselves," I assured him confidently.

"And they know that!" Jaune cut back, his own frustration coming to a head as he walked forward and grasped my hands in his own. He wasn't chastising me and he was trying to show that he wasn't angry at me, either. He was concerned. "They'll plan on it. If you go there, they'll have no choice but to turn the military _and_ the Grimm on you."

 _Damnit._ It's hard to be angry or confrontational when Jaune looked so worried. His voice had lowered, too, and gotten softer. He was actually scared of this, which was enough to make me pause and reconsider how difficult it might be.

"I'll be okay," I whispered, leaning forward into him and pressing my forehead up against his chest. His arms lightly settled on my back once I released his hands, wrapping my own arms around his waist. "I'm certain Raven will capitalize on the opportunity to strike while they're busy. We'll just have to hold on until they get called back."

"I don't like this plan," Jaune mumbled, which earned a soft laugh from me. _That_ was, in essence, his one big complaint here summed up in a nutshell. "I don't like you leaving."

"I'm coming back," I assured him. "Or you're coming with me once it's over. I haven't decided which I'll make you do yet."

"Funny," Jaune drawled. "I'm still worried about that attack."

"Don't be," Amber called out, forcing us to break up and shift to focus on her, though I didn't release my hands from his waist and he didn't release me from his arms. "Yang is strong. I'm sure she'll be able to handle it."

" _You're_ okay with this plan?" Jaune asked her incredulously.

"Why not?" she shrugged in return. "I'm just going to be sitting around here anyways. At least this way, I might not get handed to Mistral on a silver platter."

"It's settled, then," I announced tentatively, keeping an eye on Jaune to make sure that he was officially agreeing to the plan. He was notorious for weaseling his way out of giving his word on things, but once he _did_ give it, he wasn't known to go back on it.

Jaune caught me looking at him and knew exactly what it meant, and shrugged it off with a roll of his eyes. "Fine. I'm in."

"In the morning, I'll tell Raven that I want to go with dad," I continued, now that we were all in agreement. "She'd probably want to use my release in her negotiations, so at least she can use that to buy herself time. Jaune, from there, I want you to push Raven into taking action against the mole. If she knows who it is, then that will change this entire stalemate, so she should be all for it. Amber?"

The girl in question perked up, though a little surprised to have a role.

"I need you to sit there and look pretty," I teased with a grin. "I realize that second part might be difficult for you, but it's important."

Amber grinned. "You kidding? I'll have Jaune alone down here, all to myself. _This is my chance._ "

I snarled at Amber playfully, before turning to Jaune. "If she tries to have sex with you, kill her."

"…before or after we have s—"

Amber laughed as my elbow dug in under Jaune's ribs, cutting him off from saying something very stupid.

* * *

Amber's POV

* * *

" _Sit there and look pretty_ ," Amber mumbled to herself, mocking Yang's words earlier that night—or the previous night, she supposed, since it was a few hours into morning by this point. Amber admired her handiwork for a moment; Raven had left a contingent of three people to occupy and guard the upstairs portion of the house that Amber was cooped up in, and all three were currently knocked out. Encasement in ice to cut off any oxygen, and then once they passed out, a quick flame bath to melt their heads free. They'd have quite the headache when they woke up, but that would be a while from now.

Yang's words echoed in her head, though she didn't actually resent them; Amber pretended to ironically to take her mind off of her task. _She can do a lot more than look pretty, thank you very much._ Hell, in this body, looking pretty was easy, but that was the problem: in _this_ body. Pyrrha was hot, not Amber. Or… not that she knew of, anyways. She'd gotten a memory or two of Pyrrha seeing Amber's body in the transfer machine, but Amber's body then had been comatose, half-naked, and scarred from whatever attack that Cinder chick had put her through.

Yang's words did almost inspire Amber to do something else with her knocked-out guards. The word _pretty_ echoed in Amber's head as she realized that two of the guards were chicks. It would only take a few minutes to thaw the three of them out and strip them naked. That way, when they woke up with a splitting headache, they'd assume they'd all had a drunken threesome, and that would stop them from immediately realizing that Amber had escaped.

Ultimately, she ignored the idea. She didn't _need_ to buy that much time, because by the time these people woke up, she'd be long gone. It was better to just go ahead and get going.

Amber double checked everything she had with her before she left. The sword and shield that she had been training with recently, a backpack with enough food and water to supply several days of journeying, a map leading to Mistral's capital… Everything that was taken was taken specifically because they would realize it was missing. She made sure to 'accidentally' leave a tab open on the computer upstairs, where the search history were all requests for maps to the capital. It didn't matter that there was no internet service; she just wanted to leave a trail.

It was the same reason she brought several days' supplies, despite not really thinking she'd need it. She wanted them to think that she was trying to make it to the capital without being caught. It didn't matter that doing so really made no sense, so long as she left enough evidence for them to assume that was her plan. She was hoping that they didn't find her after this.

This plan had been in her mind since losing most of her Aura, but several days locked up in that basement had developed it. Honestly, she didn't _want_ to have planned this out, and she really wasn't looking forward to it, but her two options were make plans or focus on all of Pyrrha's attempts to take back her body. There were a couple moments down there where she was certain she was going to go insane, and a few more where she truly thought that she had lost control completely.

She was ending this. That was her plan.

That plan had changed a little bit once Yang's plans had changed earlier. Really, no practical part of the plan changed except for how soon it would be put into action. What really changed was that, now, Amber's plan would serve a constructive purpose. There was tangible good that Amber could do with this, which was the last push she needed.

She stopped by Jaune and Yang's regular house on her way out, rummaging through a chest of drawers till she found what she wanted.

After that, she left camp without anyone noticing—heading north, not east towards the capital. West would have run her up against the ocean eventually, and south was full of flatter plains. North held mountains and cliffs, and that sounded better to her.

She walked for hours. Her mood never really was that dark, so she barely encountered any Grimm along the way. The ones she did were vaporized by lightning, or fire, or ice, long before getting close enough to harm her. Amber had been worried that Tyrian or Hazel might have been watching their camp, or even Mistrali forces. The whole way, she was prepared to turn around and nuke everything at a moment's notice, and if that failed, she was prepared to impale herself before her powers could be stolen.

That would have been ironic, but it didn't come to pass. No one had followed her, for whatever reason.

Not long before sunrise, Amber found herself sitting on a small outcropping on the side of a small mountain. It was honestly more like a cliff-face to a very steep drop off the mountain, and Amber suspected the thing would have been washed away entirely were it not for the tree that sat squarely in the middle of the outcropping. Maybe there had once been a forest on the side of this mountain that had been swept away by a landslide, and that this one tree was its lone survivor. Or maybe some animal had dropped a seed on this outcropping and the stubborn thing decided to grow there. It didn't matter to her; she was just grateful to have a place to sit.

Jaune had been a horrible influence on her. Amber was certain that she wouldn't be so concerned with being poetic or dramatic before knowing him, but now, she wanted to watch the sunrise one last time. This was as good a spot as any, leaned against a lonely tree while staring down a precipitous drop.

She began unpacking the things in her pack that actually mattered—the ones that she _hadn't_ made sure people would notice were gone.

The letters she had hand-written over the last couple of nights, while Yang and Jaune were asleep.

Her scroll, which she went ahead and turned back on.

A ceramic dagger, that evoked painful memories from Pyrrha every time she even looked at it.

Pyrrha's circlet, which she'd made a habit of not wearing.

Amber set the letters on the ground next to her, and set the circlet down on them to ensure they wouldn't blow away. There was no point in reading them, though; they weren't for her. Neither was the circlet; that was just there to help provide an identity.

She picked up the scroll once it had powered up. She'd been concerned that Raven could somehow track it, since it was on Raven's private network. Remarkably, she still had service, though it _was_ faint. There were a few towns north of the Tribe's headquarters, so it wasn't too surprising that she hadn't walked out of range yet.

Amber stared at the scroll for several minutes, wondering what to say. What _could_ she say?' _I'm sorry, but I meant it when I said I'd rather die?_ '' _Please don't look for me?_ '' _This was my choice, don't blame yourself?_ '

She was running out of time. Well… she wasn't, and she knew that, but she had her heart set on that sunrise; it wouldn't do to miss it because she couldn't figure out what text to send Yang.

Instead, she jotted down whatever brief thoughts she could come up with and hit send. As far as last words go, they were pretty shitty, but hey, her life had been pretty shitty since coming back. This felt appropriate.

"Gods, I really have been hanging with Jaune too much."

It took a few moments due to the service, but the scroll finally sent the message. Once Amber could confirm that it had been received by Yang's scroll, she turned the scroll off entirely, setting it underneath the letters and the circlet.

Amber rose to her feet, staying just under the shade of the tree, but standing only a few feet from the cliff. Jaune's dagger in hand, she stood there and watched the sunrise, using the time to try to talk herself out of this.

It didn't work, not that she expected it to. When her only argument was to stay around and become continuously more miserable on the off chance that things can be improved, well, there's no talking her out of her choice. This was a bit extreme, she would admit, or maybe the world _overkill_ described it better. That was good, though. Amber was _not_ going to let Pyrrha enslave her, even if Amber had done that to Pyrrha.

 _Overkill is underrated, anyways._

Amber took a deep breath, raised her arm up, and thought back to her scroll and the last words she'd sent. More importantly, she dwelled on _who_ she sent them to. She tried her damnedest to relive her _own_ memories for once, instead of Pyrrha's. _The first time she and Yang had spoken seriously, back on that look-out tower_ ; they had made a pact then, one that Amber intended to fulfill now. She thought of all their jokes and her attempts to make Yang uncomfortable. She thought of the frustration she enjoyed eliciting from Yang during spars, and that grin that Yang wore whenever she landed her own hit.

Amber's arm snapped down, bringing the dagger to slice deeply into her other wrist. She winced as the dagger sliced into her Aura, and redoubled her efforts to focus. Her mind played tricks on her and she could vividly see Yang standing there, devastated to learn what Amber had done. She didn't push that thought away. Instead, she focused solely on it. She envisioned Yang alone, grieving over Amber, confused and heartbroken. But she made sure her thoughts were of her friend.

Then Aura ran out, blood spilled out, and Amber's light went out.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Okay, I'll answer the burning question that I just know is on your mind: _yes_ , that line about Jaune's dramatic flair rubbing off on Amber is lampshading. **

**What, that's not your first question?**

 **Poor Amber, I suppose. She was dealt an awful hand and tried to play it. I know that some people disdain the _hard men make hard choices in hard times_ trope (I don't), but I feel like this fits nicely into a common theme of this story: no one is perfect. No one is psychic, no one always knows what to do, and no one gets it right all the time. If you do something smart a couple times in a row, then you're good or lucky; if you continuously do it, then you're _just_ lucky, and luck runs out. Quite possibly, there was no good option for Amber unless she had known the future back before getting attacked. **

**But, to her credit, she still did make a move, and one that could make waves. _Maybe_ even in the way she wants it to. At least one person knows what Amber just did, because she will realize it when she has the Fall Maiden's powers. Whether anyone else finds out is up in the air, and the chess board is likely to shuffle if word that Raven has lost a Maiden gets out. That's quite... unlucky for Raven.**

 **We'll see how things play out now. One last little wrinkle as things start to come to a head once more.**

 **See you guys in a week, unless I get dragged onto another road trip. (** that's not a joke, i might being going on one friday if i can get off work _again_ **)**


	68. Look who came to dinner!

**Author's Note: I should probably warn you guys that MoNT is getting close to wrapping up. Volume 6 didn't advance the RWBYverse's plot any further than _they're going to Atlas_ , which doesn't give me much to go on. It's looking like I might finish this story before Volume 7 drops, which would be great, considering my goal when I started was to get it done before Volume 6. **

**This current arc that we're on, the Haven arc or the V5 arc, should be it. I currently have plans for two epilogues to wrap up a few loose ends. I'm not sure if I'll upload them on a weekly basis like the chapters or if I'll make it every other week, or something to that effect. One of them will get written to matter what, because part of it has been written for a while now. The second one _should_ get written, because it will cover two characters that will be noticeably absent from this conclusion arc (hint: one is planned to be Ozcar).**

 **With that said, here's the Discord link.**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 65:** _"Like mother, like daughter." – An old proverb that Yang Xiao Long really hates, especially with how often it seems to come up_

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

I was startled into waking up, though I'm not really sure why. It sort of felt like one of those dreams where you suddenly jolt awake, but I didn't react strongly to it and I don't remember any details from the dream. My jostling didn't even wake Jaune up despite him having an arm around my waist, so I tried to just ignore it and go back to sleep, shifting myself a little closer into Jaune.

That didn't last long. I soon realized that the reason I had woken up was because I was way too hot, and it felt like I was roasting under the covers. I tried to ignore that for a few minutes, but it bothered me too much for me to be able to sleep, so instead I laid there and tried to guess how long it would be before I finally gave in and got up. All it would take was a trip to the bathroom to splash my face with cool water and maybe a chance to get out from the covers to cool down, and I would be fine. It would leave me wide awake for a while, but I wouldn't feel miserably stuffy.

It only took a minute or two before I finally decided _screw it_. I wasn't really all that gentle with pulling away from Jaune; I had been getting up earlier than him to work with Raven the past few days, and none of those times did he ever bother waking up, so I didn't feel the need to worry about it here. I swung my feet onto the ground and sat on the pull-out bed Jaune and I were using down here in Amber's basement, before reaching out for my scroll—it would be better to use its flashlight than to turn on the main lights and wake both Jaune and Amber up, especially since I was coming back to bed anyways. The last thing I needed was for them to wake up, see my bed head framed with bright lights behind it, and think that they were under attack from some new, mutilated Grimm.

There was a text from Amber on my scroll that didn't make any sense. _"Good luck, Yang. This should help you."_ What did that even mean? Did she know that I had woken up because I was too hot? And what 'help' did she give me? Did she turn on a fan or something? _Actually, that would be pretty nice, but this stupid basement doesn't have a ceiling fan._

I shook the thoughts free as I trudged my way to the bathroom upstairs on the ground floor. Luckily, I didn't run into any of Raven's guards, which was good because given them a fright via messy hair wouldn't have been nearly as funny as giving Jaune and Amber one. _I'd hate to have to kill someone just for witnessing that, too._

Once in the bathroom, I shut the door behind me and turned on the light, which finally let me close my scroll once more. Amber's weird text hung in my mind for a moment, but I shook those thoughts loose easily. I was still pretty groggy, though I did feel a little less warm now that I had gotten some air. The heat persisted, unfortunately; Jaune always did say that sleeping with me was a cross between trying to hug a bear and a radiator. He joked occasionally about bringing some ice dust with him to bed just to make sure I didn't roast him in his sleep. I kind of regretted that splashing myself with water would probably wake me up and keep me from truly falling back asleep, since it was getting close to time for me to be getting up anyways, but it was the only way I was going to cool down.

The faucet poured out a steady stream of water, indicating that our camp's generators were still running. I registered that this was a good thing and that it meant we hadn't been attacked, but my mind was empty and just focused on getting back to bed as I cupped my hands to collect the water.

Then I brought the water up to my face.

My body recoiled and my brain started to kick on as the cold water sent a shock through my system, which was a normal reaction. Then something went wrong. It felt like my body was recoiling way too strongly against the cold water, and before I knew it, suddenly my hands were stuck to my face. Everything felt cold and I tried to open my eyes, only to find that my eyes were sealed shut! I couldn't breathe, and I realized that the water I had splashed my face with had turned to ice and was now suffocating me!

The only clear thought I could formulate was _did Jaune actually bring ice dust to our bed and get it on me?_ It would explain how I just froze my face.

I swung away in a blind panic that only got worse with each second I couldn't breathe, bumping into the sink and the wall. I could hear the water still running, so my ears weren't covered, but that didn't help me unless I could learn to breathe through them. If I could have broken one of my hands free, I could punch my face until the ice broke away, but they wouldn't budge. Hell, if I just had my gauntlets, I could shoot off a round, or break open a shell and use dust for fire to burn away—

Heat erupted, coming from between my hands and my face. Within moments, the ice had melted away and I flinched as I felt flames lap over my face, and I summoned my Aura to tank the damage.

After a few moments, I began to realize that the fire hadn't hurt me, and as I calmed down the flames died out. My Aura hadn't been touched, which I confirmed with a quick check of my scroll.

"What the—"

I cut myself off as I looked up in the mirror to check for any burnt hair. _My eyes—_

My eyes were framed with flames, just like Raven's, or…

" _A-Amber?_ " I stuttered out as my mind began to reel from how quickly it was trying to connect dots. _That scroll message!_ I pulled my scroll out and brought up my text history with Amber, hoping that there was more there I was forgetting or that she had sent to explain what was going on.

Nothing else. Just that one message, and as I read it over and over, my stomach sank. The text was from before I woke up. Amber _knew_ that I was about to have her powers.

' _Hope this helps you.'_

"No…"

I rushed back downstairs, using my scroll as a light once more as I hoped to find Amber on the edge of life and death. _Maybe the powers transfer when you nearly die, and maybe I can still save her._

She wasn't down there, and her things were gone. Jaune slept alone on the pull-out bed, and the spare couch Amber slept on was empty. She'd even taken the time to fold the sheets back up for us.

My instincts screamed at me to go after her. _Clearly_ she had left and hadn't planned on coming back, which meant she wasn't thinking straight, which meant she _definitely_ needed my help now!

The nagging voice in the back of my head kept my feet from moving. Instead, I brought up one hand and examined it, and found that with a little bit of focus on the word ' _fire_ ,' I could summon a small flame out of my fingertip. I had the Maiden's powers. _I_ am the Fall Maiden now, and those powers only transfer on death.

My legs buckled gave out from under me as the full weight of that hit me. There is no point to searching for Amber. She's already dead. And she thought of me as she died.

" _Why?_ " I choked out, my voice barely working. There had to be a reason for this, right? I began to run through everything she had said the last few days in my mind, looking for a sign I had missed. We _had_ a plan, but she and Jaune wouldn't go with it. She had seemed pretty confident that I would survive any ambush yesterday— _was this why?_

Did Amber give me her powers so that I would be safe? So that our plan— _so that our plan would work after all?_

Jaune hadn't woken up yet, which was fine by me. I didn't need him to be awake to help me right now, as I crawled back into bed and burying myself into his side, wrapping around him tightly and pushing my face into the fabric of his shirt. Hopefully, the tears would dry out of it before morning came.

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

"How could you just let her get away like this?!" Raven lavished. Her anger wasn't really directed at me and I could tell that this was just how she was processing the news in the context of the stress she was already under, but that didn't mean that I appreciated being the scapegoat here. I hadn't even had time to really grieve or process what had happened. "Amber was _your_ responsibility!"

"We were there to _protect_ Amber," I shot back, giving Raven a flat look. She knew this wasn't Yang's or my fault; it would just take a little to get through to her. "Our job wasn't to contain her. We didn't think that she would ever _want_ to leave. We were just as surprised as you were."

"Were you?" Raven asked lowly, cutting her eyes towards me dangerously. "Were _both_ of you?"

"You wanna spell out exactly what you're implying there?" I asked back, matching her tone.

"Did Yang know?"

" _No._ "

"Are you _sure_?" Raven asked, holding eye contact and watching my reaction closely.

"I'm sure," I answered honestly, though taking care not to give away anything else. It was clear from my body language that I was angered over the accusation. "This hit her too hard for her to have known about it. She's not faking it."

Raven accepted that answer and backed off, much to my relief. It seemed that she was finally done with her initial outrage at the news, which meant we could get down to important details now. "I bet that hasn't been fun to deal with. Is it more violent fits of rage, or violent fits of crying?"

The tone in Raven's voice would have pissed me off, given how insulting it was towards Yang, _if_ she had been correct. "Neither," I answered simply, which drew a bit of a surprise from Raven. "She's been… distant. Lost in her thoughts or something. It's not a reaction I expected from her…"

At least, she's been that way after this morning…

"That sounds familiar," Raven drawled her voice slightly, and I couldn't tell if she was talking about me when we first showed up here after Beacon, or Amber after dropping down to nine percent Aura. _Considering who is saying it, probably the former._

"Yeah, it seems _all_ of the women in my life react to terrible situations the same way I did," I shot back, reminding Raven of the talk we'd had in this very tent directly after the meeting with Watts. It put her on the defensive just a little, which helped get the subject away from Yang. I wasn't exactly truthful in saying that Yang was _only_ reacting to the news with a distant stare. I had woken up this morning to Yang tucked into my side and crying into my shirt, and it had taken me a bit to get her to verbalize what was wrong. She'd been the first to wake up and notice that Amber had left, but I wanted to keep Raven from finding out the timeline of events if at all possible. The last thing Yang needed right now was for someone to accuse her of wasting too much time grieving when she should have sent out search parties immediately. "They really should find a better example to model after. Might I suggest a tree, or maybe an Ursa?"

"Where is Amber going?" Raven asked, ignoring my sarcasm and getting back on track.

"She tried pulling up a map to the capital before leaving, so that's our best bet. I doubt she can carry enough supplies to make it there on foot, but there are plenty of villages to stop at. She could even hitch a ride with any military unit she runs across…"

"She wouldn't be stupid enough to do that," Raven countered, though there was a bit of doubt in her voice. She was fishing for me to confirm it. "Amber knows there's a mole in Mistral. Surrendering to the army would be a one-way ticket to dying."

"So is going to Haven," I countered, leaving us with no real options. "I have no idea what her plan here is."

"And you're _sure_ Yang doesn't?" Raven asked again.

"Yang doesn't _what?_ " Yang's voice called out, as she poked through the entrance to the tent.

I hurried over to her as soon as I noticed her, taking one of her hands in mine and keeping my voice low enough that Raven couldn't hear. " _Hey, are you good to do this right now?_ "

Yang gave me a sad, weary look, before shifting her eyes to Raven and keeping them there. " _Let's get this over with._ "

She moved to push on past me towards Raven, and I have her hand one final squeeze before letting her go. I felt a lot better about it when she squeezed back.

"I heard you were talking about me?" Yang asked her mother with a bit of Raven's own sass.

"Yeah, about how the two of you suck at guarding things," Raven drawled, earning a flat glare from Yang.

"It was _your_ guards that she knocked out," Yang countered gruffly.

"She's a Maiden; there's no way three of my members could stop her."

"Then why are _we_ on the hook?" I asked. "What could we have done?"

"Placated her," Raven answered with a shrug, though it was clear she had lost this little spat and was giving up on it. "Or at least seen this coming."

"Can we move on from assigning blame before I have to hit something?" Yang grumbled, making a point of balling up one of her hands into fists.

"Not until I get an answer," Raven cut back, settling her eyes on Yang. "Did you help plan this?"

Yang decided not to answer immediately, returning Raven's stare and holding it for a few tense moments.

"No."

Raven didn't accept that immediately, and I wasn't sure if she actually suspected Yang, or if accepting Yang's answer meant that she wouldn't _get_ an answer. We needed to move on and change our plans now that Amber was gone, and not knowing exactly why Amber did what she did meant that Raven didn't know all the pieces of the board anymore. _That would get under her skin more than just about anything._

"Amber, Jaune, and I _had_ a plan," Yang elaborated slowly and deliberately, not taking her eyes off of Raven. "This was _not_ part of that plan. We were going to take out Salem's influence in the Council, and then get Amber to safety in Atlas. Amber running off to die or be captured is as far from our goal as you can get."

I gave Yang a quick, surprised ' _hey, what the fuck, don't drag me under the bus with you_ ' look, but fortunately Raven hadn't broken eye contact with Yang.

" _Hmmph_ ," Raven yielded finally, muting her reaction. "I've heard better plans. How would you have gotten to Haven and found the mole?"

"The same way that we are still going to," Yang replied confidently. "You're going to release me to dad as part of the negotiations. The mole is going to realize that I know they exist and will try to cover their tracks, and when that makes them vulnerable, you'll take them out."

"And why would I do that?"

"Don't play dumb," I jumped in, since Yang had already ratted me out. "Weakening Watts' hand in Mistral directly benefits you, so you'd jump on the opportunity anyways. Now that you don't have the Fall Maiden to negotiate with, you _need_ that leak in Mistral gone in order to get them to back off."

"Oh, is _that_ your play here?" Raven asked, only half-invested in her own conspiracy. She was just being cautious, though it wouldn't have killed her to trust us a _little_ bit here. "Have Amber hide so that I'm forced to agree to your plan?"

"You would have agreed anyways," Yang countered in a low grumble. Her patience was running low, and given the emotions bound to be swirling around in her head, that could be dangerous. "I'm going to go help my dad and my sister no matter what. This way would have let you at least profit from it."

Raven paused for a moment to act like she was thinking over it, but neither of us bought that. She would have taken the offer before this, and she was still going to go with the new one Yang was laying out— _that she hadn't warned me we were still going with, despite Amber being missing._ There are a few details that I would like to know how they'll work out now, such as 'are we still trying to go to Atlas?' or 'once we make sure they're safe, is Yang still trying to get us to stay with our teams?'

You know, important stuff like that.

"Fine. _Fine._ We'll go with your plan, just… let me think for a moment," Raven let out, shifting her focus away from us as she did just that. A little more frustration and stress seeped through the cracks in Raven's façade as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Moments like this let it slip just how exhausted she really was; she can't hold off an army by shuffling troops with her Semblance when she's asleep, after all. I'd be surprised if she'd slept more than two hours straight since the sieges started, what, three or four days ago now? "We'll need to coordinate this, though."

"Agreed," I rung out loudly. Letting Yang join our teams as they walked into an ambush wasn't exactly a plan I liked, and coordinating it to make sure they spent as little time in harm's way sounded perfect.

"Your scroll should still connect to our network from Haven," Raven told Yang. "With negotiations going on, I moved one of our signal boosters east for that purpose."

"You sure you didn't do this to keep in touch with Torchwick?" Yang asked gruffly.

"Why would I do that?" Raven returned with a slight grin. "I can just portal directly to him, should the need arise."

" _Coordination,_ " I repeated, trying to get us back on topic. "Scroll. What else?"

"Use the scroll to keep us updated, and don't do anything to tip off Qrow or Taiyang," Raven instructed, giving Yang a firm look. "You joining them will be enough to make Watts panic, and once Watts learns that we don't have Amber anymore, he won't have any need to keep Qrow alive. We can't afford to actually warn Qrow, because he might pull something stupid and ruin the whole thing."

"How are you going to let Watts find out about Amber without him thinking it's a trick?" I asked.

"Leave that to me. You'll see soon enough."

"You want dad and uncle Qrow to walk into a trap without knowing?" Yang asked, more skeptical than angry. This was _her_ plan too, after all. "What about hunting for the mole?"

"Leave that to _us_ ," Raven answered, gesturing to herself and me. "I already have a pretty good idea of who to start with. Jaune and I will remain on standby until we hear from you. I suspect they'll try to move quickly, which means they won't have time to truly gather their forces. You'll be fine."

Yang didn't like that alteration to her original plan, but couldn't do anything more than give Raven a distrusting look.

"Right then," Raven announced, drawing her sword out of its holster and putting on her mask. She gestured for us to do the same. Yang and I shared a suspicious look, before begrudgingly agreeing, since we weren't 100% certain where Raven was about to portal to. "Any objections to the plan before we do this?"

" _Yes._ "

"Good, then let's go," Raven dismissed, though she didn't immediately cut open a portal. Instead, she walked over to the foot of her bed and kicked some covers that had been lying on the floor. Vernal's head shot up out of the bundle, dazed and confused over who had just kicked her and why they woke her up. "Vernal, I'm going out for negotiations; I'll fill you in when we get back. You're in charge till then."

" _Ugh_ ," Vernal groaned, cutting her eyes at Raven, "you had to wake me up to tell me that?"

"Why is Vernal passed out on your floor?" Yang asked, beating me to the punch.

"She's the Spring Maiden~~" Raven responded in a sickeningly sweet and sarcastic voice. "I have to treat her like it if I want to keep my cover up. I wouldn't let the _actual_ Spring Maiden out of my sight, especially after losing Fall."

"No, we got that part—" Yang started.

"Why is she on the _floor_?" I asked, finishing Yang's thought for her.

Raven's eyes trailed down to Vernal, who was still glaring at her, before she looked back up at us and shrugged. "What, you think I was going to let her sleep in _my_ bed?"

* * *

As it turns out, showing up uninvited at lunch to a table full of your old friends and your political rivals (frenemies? _What do Qrow and Tai count as?_ ) is as awkward as it sounds. Raven relished every second of it. Her flair for drama was partially rooted in loving power imbalances and making lesser people squirm, and going out of her way to make things as awkward and tense as possible certainly did that.

We showed up right before both of Yang and I's teams were to sit down and a have lunch, with both Taiyang and Qrow there too. So naturally, Raven co-opted an 'invitation' for us to join them. It required Ren to have to throw more noodles in the pot and that delayed lunch a few more minutes, which were tensely silent. Attempts were made at asking Raven what she wanted, but she made it clear that she was going to wait until lunch was served to talk business, and no one really wanted to make small talk with her.

I could feel her smug grin through her mask. Everyone here but her was uncomfortable as hell, and she was reveling in it.

Once the food was served, Raven removed her mask and began eating without ever saying as much as a word, though she _did_ switch bowls with Yang. Tai and Qrow didn't so much as flinch when she did so, and it wouldn't have made any sense for them to poison Raven here anyways, but they weren't surprised by her checking for it.

The sound of awkwardly slurped noodles was the only noise in the room for a few minutes. Yang and I found that we had to take off our masks to eat—go figure—which left me feeling very exposed when everyone I had left behind was on the other side of the table. _Or, in Ruby's case, sitting to my side, but with a noticeable gap between us—Weiss was sat similar this with regard to Raven at the other end._

An elbow found its way into my ribs and dug deep enough to actually have kinda hurt, and I found myself nursing the sore spot and channeling my Semblance. I looked up to find Yang giving me a frustrated glare, before nodding her head towards the other side of the table. " _Say. something._ "

It didn't take a lot to figure out that Yang would not accept the same thing that I pulled off the last time I saw everyone. Even without my mask, I felt better than last time simply because I had already been through this once, and the ice wasn't as thick anymore. I steeled myself and forced myself to say something meaningful that might start to patch things up.

"Uh… hi guys?"

The force with which Yang's face met her palm nearly gave her a concussion. Raven sniggered at the scene.

"That's _all_ you have to say for—" Weiss was cut off by Blake, who did her best Yang impression by burying her elbow in Weiss' side, followed up by a stern warning glare.

"Sorry. _Some people_ don't know when to have a little tact," Blake half-acknowledged me and half-chastised Weiss.

"Huh. Normally that means me," Nora mumbled while looking at Weiss in faux amazement, which despite everything, made me laugh softly. "Guess that means I'm off the hook! _Jaune, why'd you hurt Pyrrha!?_ "

If possible, the table became even more tense and awkward, as no one really knew who to glare at. Most eyes settled on Nora, but a few—Ren's and Qrow's—settled on me.

"What? Too soon?" Nora asked innocently.

"Too direct," Raven answered, surprising everyone enough that some of the tension drained away. "You have to beat around the bush first. You'll never get him to choke in his own guilt if you don't suffocate him with it first…"

"Thank you for those heartfelt words, _Raven_ ," I growled out, pretending to be polite. "Please, don't feel like you need to share them in the future."

"Cut the crap, Raven—" Qrow jumped in aggressively.

"What did I just say about being too direct?"

"—why are you here?" Qrow finished, disregarding Raven's comment.

"Isn't it obvious?" she asked coyly. "I'm here to negotiate."

" _No shit_ ," Qrow growled back, before being cut down with a look from Taiyang.

"We've been negotiating the last few days," Tai interjected, making things a little less hostile. "What Qrow is failing to verbalize is: why are the three of you here, in person, right now, _at our lunch?_ "

Raven didn't answer immediately. She wore a small frown as she waited, taking a sip of tea in the silence. "I'm going to accept Mistral's terms."

Although a noteworthy admission that elicited surprise from our teams, Qrow and Taiyang were not impressed or caught off-guard.

"Of course you are. They're good terms," Tai commented, watching Raven closely. "What are you planning on doing about the _other_ terms?"

He was referring to the unofficial terms that he and Qrow were in charge of pushing, but my first thoughts were of Dr. Watts' terms. I'm not quite sure I know _what_ our plan for those is. Even if we take out Watts' team by having Yang use Qrow and Taiyang against the mole, that would still put Raven squarely in Salem's sights. _Maybe if Raven can frame it as Qrow—and therefore Ozpin—being the one to take out Watts, then that shifts the focus?_

"I was hoping we could talk about those…"

"Those aren't negotiable," Qrow chimed in. He fixed Raven with a hard stare that she didn't bother returning. "Give us Fall and Yang; _that's it._ " Several sets of eyes shifted over to Yang, who was unfazed by being mentioned, before then shifting over between me and Qrow. "We're also open to taking Arc as a prisoner."

"Funny," I deadpanned, looking Qrow in the eye. "How'd that work out for you last time?"

I could feel Qrow's blood boil a little hotter, and it was Raven of all people who had to separate us—all while wearing a smirk at Qrow's expense. "Children, children. Settle down."

"That wasn't what we said was the goal," Ruby chimed in at her uncle, her voice sounding surprised and betrayed. "You said that we were going to get our teams back together. Jaune _is_ a part of JNPR; we're not taking him prisoner."

"We're not," Taiyang confirmed, giving Qrow a warning look. "We're also getting ahead of ourselves. _Raven._ I don't see a Fall Maiden here with you."

"…about that…" Raven responded, chagrinned. "We… don't have her anymore."

"…what?"

"She's gone," Raven reiterated, watching the room cautiously.

"She's… gone?" Taiyang repeated. He wasn't really sure how he felt about the words, and I couldn't tell if he'd fully processed them yet.

"She ran off this morning. We've been searching for a few hours, but…" Raven trailed off again. "Her trail points towards Haven. If she hasn't been picked off by Grimm or ran into Mistral's forces, then there's no telling where she is. Mistral's a big place, after all."

"You _lost_ the Fall Maiden…?" Qrow asked, testing the words. The beginnings of a shit-eating smile began to form on his lips as the words truly sunk in.

Raven did _not_ like letting Qrow laugh at her expense, even when it would suit her purposes for him to be convinced.

"Technically, she left our camp and is coming here, or is surrendering to Mistral. That means that I released her, does it not?"

"You _lost_ the Fall Maiden."

"Yes," Raven admitted through gritted teeth. "I lost the Fall Maiden. _Happy?_ "

" _Very._ "

"How do we know this isn't a trick?" Weiss interjected, extremely skeptical of anything that came out of Raven's mouth. "You could be lying to keep the Maiden to yourself."

"And draw extra attention to myself?" Raven challenged, meeting Weiss' eyes. "I already have a large enough target on my back. Honestly, I wouldn't mind reducing it for a change."

"That's nice, but—"

" _Weiss_ ," Yang called out, cutting the girl off. "She's not lying. I… She's gone, Weiss. I promise."

With that, the mood of the room darkened. There had been obvious disbelief across the room that Raven was being truthful, but everyone here on both sides trusted Yang. Her confirming it in no uncertain terms let finality to it.

Nora's face fell the hardest. It wasn't the same as hearing that she was dead, but hearing that Amber had intentionally gone missing was disheartening. Nora obviously wasn't upset for Amber, but for the chance that Pyrrha was still in there—a prospect that was looking more likely than not, given recent developments. Given how adamant Amber was about not letting Pyrrha control her again, well… I don't feel all that great about ever finding 'Amber' again. _Especially not if she does make it to the city, because she'll be hunted down by Salem's people within an hour of arriving._

Ruby's face also looked like someone kicked her puppy—not Zwei, who was sleeping peacefully off in the corner. Without Amber, there could be no true 'reforming' of our teams. Not that such a thing was going to be easy to do or even likely, but with that piece of the puzzle missing, it was literally impossible.

Ren was hard to read, as he had been the whole time. He hadn't given me any reactions to go off yet, but he did seem… saddened by the development. Weiss and Blake were easier to read but not substantially; both seemed upset, but focused more on watching me and Yang than dwelling on Pyrrha.

"Why are you here, Raven?" Taiyang asked, not accusing her of anything for the first time.

"I told you. I'm accepting your offers," Raven repeated, letting her voice be a little more sullen. "I don't _have_ Amber, but you can have Mistral search for her. You would anyways, once you found out that she was in the open, so consider this heads-up as a favor. You'll have to settle for that, and Yang."

"Yang?" Ruby sounded, her voice rising in surprise and elation.

"That's right!" Yang called out, breaking into a cocky grin. "Did you guys miss me?"

" _Yes!_ " Ruby answered, despite having seen Yang, like, a week ago or something. "Team RWBY is back in action!"

Our teammates were surprised and relieved to hear the news, and even Blake cracked a smile. Ren remained suspicious—or neutral; still can't tell which. Nora grumbled something that I think was a complaint that _her_ team hadn't been reunited yet.

Taiyang cut off the reunion celebration after a few moments.

" _Just_ Yang?" Tai asked, eyeing me suspiciously.

"Just Yang," Raven confirmed, meeting Tai's eyes. "I still need Jaune. Things will be a bit hectic as we settle into our new relationship with Mistral. For all his whining, he _does_ make a good nurse."

There were a few snickers at my expense there, including from that traitorous Yang.

"What she means is that she can't bear to see me leave, and she's making up reasons for me to stay," I shot back,

"Sure, kid. Whatever keeps you from crying yourself to sleep at night," Raven retorted, shaking her head. "I _do_ need him. Besides, the kid's already a target after sabotaging Cinder. It's safest I keep an eye on him till things die down."

"What, you think that _we_ can't protect him?" Nora asked, taking insult at Raven's words.

Raven's eyes trailed up to Qrow, before shifting back to Nora. "Tell me, what is the current population of the city of Vale?"

Nora opened her mouth to speak, but shut it as the point got across to her. She grumbled something bitterly, and shot me a look that told me that I was escaping a friendly kneecapping by going back with Raven. _I probably can't avoid whatever punishment they'll have for me forever, but I_ can _make sure that I hide Nora's weapons beforehand._

"Are we in agreement?" Raven asked, looking directly to Tai.

He didn't answer immediately, instead thinking it over. Tai looked over to Yang at some point, and Yang did whatever she needed to in order to sell him on the plan. Knowing her, she probably winked at him, or silently promised to lock him in a room with me at some point in the future. _Surely, that wouldn't be as bad as Nora, right?_

"We are," Taiyang confirmed. There was a chorus of breath released from Yang's teammates, which gave way to more smiles and cheer from the group. "I'll let Lionheart know that you've agreed to our terms, and he'll convince Mistral's Council to back down. That might take a couple of days, so be on the defensive 'til then, but—"

Tai cut himself off as Raven rose from her seat unceremoniously.

"I know how to handle myself," Raven shrugged off his advice. "I'd say it's been a pleasure, but I don't really like you people." She paused, making a show of looking Tai up and down, despite the table being in the way. "Well, most of you."

"Eww," Ruby commented, receiving a knowing nod from Yang.

Raven looked to me expectantly, and I hastily rose from my seat and pushed my chair in.

" _Jaune…_ " Yang called out to me threateningly.

"Uh… thanks for lunch?" I called out, safe in the knowledge that I was just out of arms' reach for Yang, who looked like she was considering murdering me. "I'll see you guys around. The noodles really were good, Ren."

"Hmph."

Raven cut a portal back to the camp in the background, but Yang wasn't satisfied yet.

"That's _all_ you have to say?" she asked, implying the _'do you remember the very angry talk I had with you about this?'_ part.

"Oh, right," I called back as an idea crossed my mind. Yang would literally be half-way across Remnant and unable to retaliate for any embarrassment I could give her… and her dad, uncle, and all her friends were right here. I ran up to her and made a big show of leaning over and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek, which she certainly hadn't expected. "Love you, babe. Don't forget to wash your hair after last night."

" _Jaune!_ "

The looks on Taiyang's, her team's, my team's, and specifically Yang's face were priceless. Yang looked like she wanted to strangle me as I retreated into the portal—she had _tried_ to, but I had leapt back out of reach before I had even finished my taunt. It was adorable the way her eyes and cheeks both turned red like that.

Raven laughed the whole time.

* * *

Hazel's POV

* * *

"Mercury, continue monitoring the feeds," Watts commanded, putting down his headset and motioning for myself and Tyrian to do the same.

"Do I _have_ to?" the boy whined. "They're not discussing anything important. Just… family stuff, and I _really_ am tired of listening to these father-daughter talks…"

"Just do it," I grumbled, doing my best to ignore the child. There really was not much of a point to assigning him to continue to monitor the feed from the bugs we have planted, other than it keeps him shut up and lets us talk freely.

"Branwen has lost a Maiden, it seems," Tyrian surmised, sounding quite pleased by the development. "Most unfortunate for her. Shall we make a bad day worse?"

"I'll instruct Lionheart to have Mistral search for the girl, but Branwen is giving up on the search awfully easily, and she'll know that anything told to Qrow would make it back to us eventually. It's a decoy," Watts answered, trailing off a bit as he collected his thoughts. "She's making a move for Lionheart."

"Are we certain she knows about our connection?" I asked.

"Doubtful, but she likely suspects it. What she is doing—" Watts stretched his sentence dramatically, as he has a habit to do, "—is fishing. She's trying to figure out _whom_ our mole is while we hunt for the lost Maiden."

"So we strike while she expects us to look the other way!" Tyrian interjected enthusiastically.

"For once, I agree with Tyrian."

"As do I," Watts joined in, though this was the conclusion he was pushing us to anyways. "If the Fall Maiden has truly fled, then we have no use for the negotiating skills of one Qrow Branwen, nor any of his company."

"Loathe as I am to admit, we are at a disadvantage of numbers, should we do what I hope you're suggesting," Tyrian pointed out. "I don't think that Mistral could or would supply any actual help here, either."

"There's a Nuckelavee that's been spotted in Mistral's territory," I brought up, while motioning over to the motionless Seer Grimm that was floating in the corner. Salem might be disappointed to be called on like this, but she could use the Seer as a relay to control any other Grimm directly. "Where one S-tier Grimm dwells, other strong types will gather. It would not take long to gather a sizable force to supplement us."

"The thought had crossed my mind," Watts acknowledged. "You and Tyrian take the Seer Grimm out and collect what you can. I can have Lionheart lure half of them into a trap at Kuroyuri."

" _Half_?" Tyrian asked pointedly.

"It would be easier to overwhelm them if we deal with half at a time. I'll have to decide which half, but we should certainly get Qrow and Raven's daughter out of Haven before the girl can convince them to look into Lionheart more."

"What about the others?"

"I'll have to decide an… alternative means of killing them off," Watts answered, still lost in thought. "Surely they can be talked into splitting up if the right scenario is presented to them. Besides, we have relatively no intelligence on the daughter of Summer Rose, and if she might have inherited her mother's unique traits, then our Grimm ambush would be… underwhelming." Watts trailed off again, looking over whatever Beacon files his virus had stolen during Cinder's attempted coup. Noticeably lacking from Ozpin's file on the girl was a mugshot with high enough resolution to determine whether she had Silver Eyes. "Yes. We'll split them up, and we need to do it by tomorrow at the latest. That will give you enough time to gather Grimm, and me enough time to come up with a plan for the other half."

"As well as determine which of the members to ambush at Kuroyuri, outside of the two Branwens," I added on.

"As well as that, yes."

"Now that all the talking is over," Tyrian called out in a sing-songy voice, getting Watts' and my attention. He was stroking the tentacles of the Seer the way one might pet a dog. It was as creepy as it sounds. "I believe we have more of our goddess' children to acquire?"

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: As an aside, I would love to be a fly on the wall to watch the epic staring contest that would have happened when Raven showed up and demand that Ren cook even more food. He's got to be the only one there whose cooking is _good_ (Tai, for all the jokes, is probably decent by now), so you know he has been cooking for them this whole time. **

**Well, let's run through this from the top.**

 **Yang is _confirmed_ as the Fall Maiden. I didn't pull a sneaky and have Amber's actual last thought go somewhere else or something like that. What does that mean for her now? Well, she's not completely sure. She's trying to piece together what Amber's plan was while dealing with the grief of _this poor girl who I was her only friend but still didn't think she could trust me fully just killed herself while thinking of me to give me magical powers_. If it seems like she's sitting back a little here, she is; she's trying to figure out what Amber wanted her to do now, and she's playing things close to the chest. Not even Jaune knows yet. **

**Raven's about to have two of her three problems taken care of. Qrow and Tai are agreeing to back off in exchange for Yang (and the chance to find Fall, lol, _pulled a sneaky on ya_ , she's right there guys) and Mistral will back down when Raven agrees to their terms. Now, Raven just needs to focus on taking care of her little Salem problem, and then everything is fine. Right? Whenever a problem gets Raven's full focus, _nothing_ goes wrong...**

 **Watts and company are having fun playing NSA. I don't know why Lionheart didn't have the house in the show bugged, honestly; it seems like an obvious thing to do if you're a traitor and want to keep tabs. In the show, Qrow and the kids show up and immediately need the house, so maybe there wasn't time. Here, Qrow had to take a bullhead to pick them up, so there's some time there for Tyrian, Hazel, Merc, and Watts to plant some bugs. I considered having hidden cameras in the house too, but those would be easier to spot.**

 **And, uh, it would be weird having a bunch of old dudes (and Merc) put cameras in a house full of teenage girls...**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** wow it's been a while since I've done this, huh?

"*Presses F*

Rip Amber, you will be missed" - guest

 **I'm disappointed that I didn't get a single comment that just read:**

"F"

 **Come on, guys. Be better.**

 **Just scrolling through the reviews looking for my favorite Amber eulogy, I noticed that the two main reactions were either _"I'm sad!"_ or _"Amber never got her threesome!"_ Man, you guys _really_ were looking forward to that threesome, huh? I realize I'm asking the internet if it wants to see a threesome and that the answer to that is obvious, so I'll just say... keep an eye out on Ikedawg34. There may or may not be an omake in the works by a ghost writer that may or may not get put there someday. **

**But you didn't hear that from me.**

 **I saw it mentioned somewhere in the reviews that Amber's final gift to Yang was actually a curse, since now she's a Maiden and will forever have a target on her back. Interesting take. I'd say that it is a good chance for a comparison to be made between Yang and Raven. They are now both Maidens; will Yang follow in Raven's footsteps now, or will she branch out? Raven spent years hiding and avoiding the fight, after all.**

 **Also, I'm aware that Amber's death was ambigious - or at least, Pyrrha's fate was. I mentioned that Amber wrote a few letters and left them next to her body. Those will get read by someone at some point. That's all I'll say.**

* * *

 **Oh, and just so you guys know, _yes_ , I ended up on another road trip this week. I'm sitting in the back of a van, uploading this on my computer which is running off my phone's hotspot. By the time I get home, I will have spent over 80 hours this summer on the road, in four road trips. **

**For reference, I don't think I've worked 80 hours at my job this summer.**

 ** _This_ will be the last one. There's no one left for me to visit. I've been east to our friends. I've been west to our family twice. I've been south-east for an unrelated matter. _NO MORE, PLEASE._**


	69. One final teaser chapter

**Author's Note: I suppose that it is fair to warn you all of how close this story is to ending. My current roadmap shows that we have three chapters left including this one. I need to try to stretch this out over one more chapter, so that we can end on chapter 69...**

 **Again, the epilogues will sort of count as chapters in their own right, too. What I have for them fits in to your normal post-climax, wind-down content, where a few last questions that are brought up are resolved. They could just as easily count as chapters and in essence they will be, but I want the climax for this arc to be the end of the story. You'll see.**

 **Discord link:**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 66:** _"Have you ever felt like the universe was mocking you?" – Jaune Arc_

* * *

Neo's POV

* * *

"Alright, _you_. Red one," Roman called out, pointing with his cane to Miltia Malachite, who bristled. "Are our boys in position out back?"

"Yes," she answered, grumbling slightly. I thought about making an ever-so-slight movement in her direction as a threat, you know, to teach her respect or something. _Or hope that she flinched and baited me into attacking, because I've been bored._ Roman beat me to the punch, though.

"If that's the attitude you want to have, I'm sure I can get it adjusted for you." Roman paused, smirking at the girl as she tried to glare him down. "I'm sure Neo's just itching to torture someone; it's been a week, after all." He gestured to me. I smiled sweetly, gave her an innocent wave, and then drew a finger across my neck threateningly. She wavered, but actually stood tall, which was impressive. And fun. It's always more fun when they think they can make it through. "Or if that doesn't do it for you, I could always call up Jaune. Torturing someone is such good workplace bonding, after all, and _ooh_ , you haven't met Jaune's mother yet. Oh, you'll love her, she taught Jaune everything he knows…"

 _Outside of being a little whiny. And having patience._ There was no way in hell that Raven would ever let me attack her and play it off as me just saying hello. Honestly, that was annoying the first few times when I was _actually_ trying to stab the bastard, but hell, he grows on you a little. Helps that he takes the piss out of Roman a lot, and is also an easy target to tease.

I snapped back out of my thoughts to find that Miltia, despite her best efforts, had gone pale. It was insulting that she _wasn't_ deathly afraid of me— _and that will be fixed soon_ —but the very thought of a Jaune 2.0 was bad enough. I doubt she even realized that Roman was implying that _all of us_ would torture her together.

"Fine, I'll go get into position," she let out weakly, shrinking down until it felt like she was my height. If it weren't for her stupid heels, she wouldn't have too far to go to reach me, but then again, I wear heels tall enough to snap some girls' ankles.

"Tell the boys not to be stingy with those rocket launchers!" Roman called out to her as she turned and left. "We have plenty of ammo for them!"

Miltia left through the access hatch of the roof, refusing to look up at us as we taunted her.

"Now, what are the odds that this attack goes smoothly?" Roman asked now that we were alone on the roof that overlooked our target. It was a pretty simple hit job. We'd found a rival gang's warehouse and it turned out to be a giant 'lab' for cooking drugs. In other words, a big money maker for them. Running drugs wasn't really our style, but blowing shit up with military-grade dust weapons was.

I gave Roman a weak shrug and held out my hand, giving him a _so-and-so_ gesture with it. _It would go about as—_

"About as smooth as all our other jobs so far?"

I nodded, thought I cut my eyes at him once he looked away. He'd cut off my thoughts, the jerk.

"Good. Taking over a city through criminal politics, precise maneuvering, and creative pressure is just _so_ last month," Roman drawled, cutting his eyes at me at the end and giving me a grin. I returned it with a tight frown. "Yes, I know, you miss getting to assassinate people discreetly. I still don't know why you hate watching things blow up. _Speaking of…_ " Roman pulled out a radio from his pocket. "Okay, niece of Miss Malachite who wears white and not red: you're up."

The other Malachite girl led a group of heavily armed thugs straight through the front door, throwing subtlety out the window as they did so. Gunfire erupted, which was the sign of fun fights and suffering, but the stupid noise drowned out any screams of pain or cries for help. _That_ was the part Roman didn't get about explosions: they prevented you from experiencing the _real_ fun.

I had tried explaining that to him once, but he kept coming away with words like 'sadistic' and 'deranged.'

Unarmed 'lab techs'—or meth-heads who had learned to cook and were paid in product, more likely—ran out the back frantically, right into Miltia's waiting trap. Any who surrendered were dropped to the ground with non-lethal dust rounds—taking over an empire means leaving _someone_ alive, after all—and the rest were blown up en mass by rocket launcher fire. Given that these _were_ mostly drug addicts, surrender was not exactly a concept they could process under stress.

Roman was grinning. There were a lot of explosions happening. Uninvolved people from the neighboring buildings were panicking and running away from the entire block, and I could at least hear _their_ screams of terror. It just wasn't the same as the dying howls of those inside, though.

"Honestly, it's like criminals around here have never been in a turf war before," Roman said disparagingly. "These fat old criminal families are too used to each other. I bet they all meet up and have dinner in a 'summit' each week. _Idiots._ "

I perked up at that. An idea immediately crossed my mind, and before I knew it I was frantically tugging at Roman's sleeve.

He looked down at me, confused for a moment, before finally catching on. " _No_ , I'm not sending you in there to assassinate them all at once," Roman drawled, though he was trying not to laugh at how disappointed I was in his answer. "They'll have too much security for even _you_ to sneak past easily, and I'm sure they'll have their Aura unlocked, so it wouldn't be a quick operation. I have a better plan."

I glared at him, knowing exactly what that meant. With a few clicks on my scroll, I sent him exactly what I was thinking.

" _Don't you dare blow them all up_?" Roman read off my message mockingly. "Why Neo, what a fantastic idea. I even already have the dust for it, and you _do_ know that we're trying to cause chaos in the streets. I'm glad to see you taking things so seriously."

I gave him a cross between a murderous look, and an unimpressed, flat one.

Roman laughed that off, much to my annoyance. The sound of gunfire and explosions continued to litter the background.

"You know, Neo, I have to say, this whole move to Mistral has been pretty great so far. I never realized how much fun you could have when the city's corrupt leadership spent all its manpower _not_ policing the city. This has been—what are you typing?"

 _Reasons that you're wrong, idiot,_ I wished I could say out loud. I've been trying recently to get my Semblance to let me 'talk' by vibrating the air in my projection's throat. Turns out, reverse-engineering a voice-box with zero background knowledge on how they work or why is difficult, and all I've managed to do is to get weird buzzing noises and a loud screech one time.

 _Me: We are literally in the same position as in Vale._

"Huh? What do you mean?" Roman asked, reading my text. "This is a lot better than Vale. Cinder's dead, for one."

 _Me: you traded in a half-Maiden for a full one  
Me: a scarier one. one who trained a kid my age to take down Cinder when we couldn't  
Me: who is having us try to destroy the city right now. which we did to Vale too  
Me: oh and did I mention that this time she has an army? and that she's using us to distract mistral's army?  
Me: that kinda feels like Cinder having the White Fang. and us being used to distract the police while the White Fang prepared for an attack_

"Okay, I get where you're coming from, but I think—"

I held up a hand for him to wait as I remembered yet another detail here.

 _Me: actually, we traded in a half-Maiden for a Maiden who can train kids into Maiden-killers and also happens to have a second Maiden_

"I'm beginning to see your point," Roman said, staring off dumbly as he thought it over. "At least we have a much friendlier relationship with Branwen than we ever had with Cinder."

I gave him a _really_ flat look for that stupid line.

 _Me: you're just saying that because you two got drunk and had sex_

"Which is an excellent indicator that she's not nearly as deadly towards us as Cinder!" Roman protested, barely even fazed by bringing the subject up. He was too shameless to antagonize about that event, which meant that I only had Jaune to tease— _and by extension, Yang, I guess._ I just have to be careful because Jaune still has the picture of Amber holding me hostage in her arms that one night. And not even I am reckless enough to try to antagonize Raven over her poor judgement.

 _Me: I'm sure Cinder would have slept with you if she thought it would control you this easily_

"First off, I am not being controlled. This was a mutual interest." I rolled my eyes. It was sort of mutual interest, but _my_ interest had been a slow, methodical, and painful takeover. You know, where I get to kill and torture a lot of people. Rule through fear and all that fun stuff. Roman had screwed Raven and unwittingly screwed me over. Asshole. "You know what, you're right."

I dropped my head back and looked up to the sky in relief. It had taken fucking forever to break through his thick skull.

"Cinder _would_ have done that. I really should have led her to believe that I could be controlled that way…" Roman trailed off, eyeing me out of the side of his eye to watch my reaction. "Talk about a missed opportunity."

 _Ugh._

* * *

Blake's POV

* * *

"Enjoying the view?" I asked, sneaking up behind Yang to take a spot near her. She had been standing at the edge of the balcony that overlooked the cliffs near the house, watching the sunrise.

"More like enjoying the peace and quiet," Yang responded with an overblown huff. Yang peaked at me out of the corner of her eyes and found me giving her a knowing, flat look. "It's not that I didn't miss you guys or anything. You're all just… a little overwhelming right now."

"You don't need to explain that to _me_."

"I'm sure," Yang chuckled. "What'd you come looking for me for? Is it time we finally had that knock-down, drag-out, partner-to-partner talk about me leaving?"

"Nah, not yet," I answered, making sure I didn't make her feel like she was going to escape that talk for forever. "I come out here most mornings to get away from everyone. I was surprised to find you up this early."

"Yeah, well," Yang responded sullenly, turning away to look back out over the cliffs, "I needed to clear my head. Dad and Qrow are on a call with Lionheart about our next move, and I… I needed to think."

"About Amber?" I asked cautiously. Yang had done a lot of talking and answered a lot of questions yesterday, and no one had missed how the topic of Pyrrha/Amber had been tense for her. She had somewhat skirted around those as much as she could, but I had the feeling that was more because she needed to gather her thoughts before sharing them with the whole group. That's what I was here for.

"Yeah…"

Yang took a few breaths, but it became clear after a few moments that she wasn't going to say anything further than that.

"What was she like?" I asked, hoping to ease Yang into the topic, while also just letting her share any memories she was fond of.

"She was a lot like me, which was infuriating sometimes. She loved to tease you and get under your skin, and believe it or not but she was even more forward and direct than I was," Yang answered with a soft smile on her face that made it clear that she wasn't all that 'infuriated' by Amber. Her answer seemed to pour out of her, so she wasn't shy about talking on the subject. It felt like she kinda wanted to. "Did you know that it was her mission to join Jaune and me in a threesome?"

 _I don't know anything about this person, Yang,_ I thought unhelpfully, but pushed the thoughts away. Instead, I gave her a flat look. "How many times did the three of you…?"

" _None_ ," Yang replied, cutting her eyes at me as if I had somehow betrayed her. "I don't share."

"Good to know," I drawled. _Not my fault it sounded believable._

"It was a running joke between us by the end, but she _was_ that direct. She had to be, though," Yang trailed off, her eyes getting stuck on the railing in front of us. She'd hit something she didn't want to talk about, but she pressed on through regardless. "It was part of how she coped."

"Coped?" I asked leadingly.

"She didn't have any memories of her own, and she was getting… flashes of Pyrrha's memories. Amber didn't know anything about who she was, and she hated the idea of Pyrrha slowly taking over her, which I found out recently is what was happening. Anything she felt the urge to do that Pyrrha _wouldn't_ have done she did enthusiastically, since that meant that _she_ wanted to do it." Yang took a breath to steady herself. "Which is why she was so forward, and slept around so much. It made her feel like she wasn't Pyrrha."

"She… slept around?" I asked tentatively, giving Yang a funny look. "With Pyrrha's body?"

Yang cringed a bit and looked away from me once more.

"Yeah, it sounds bad when you say it out loud, or… think about it. I wanted to stop her, but I…" she trailed off, closing her eyes for a moment and chastising herself. "I _didn't_ want to stop her, Blake. I helped her do it. It was important to her that she felt like her own person, and I wanted that for her." Yang clearly felt guilty about it, but she wasn't apologetic. She kept her head high as she stared out into the distance. "Amber was my friend."

"So was Pyrrha," I challenged, though I made it clear that I wasn't doing so fervently. It was more to force Yang to confront the point than anything. This was clearly a sore subject, but it was looking less black-and-white by the second. I need some time to think over it, and I need to know more before I can do that.

Yang didn't get angry at my confrontation. She accepted it with a sad sigh, dropping her head down in defeat. "Yeah, well, I guess I failed them both, then."

"How do you mean?"

"I kept trying to get Amber to practice with her Aura. I thought that it could bring Pyrrha back, and I focused on that for a while. Pushed her into it. Amber saw that and thought that if she told me just how much of Pyrrha's memories she could feel, that I would focus on Pyrrha and abandon her." Yang's voice was low and filled with a mix of shame and anger with herself. I stepped a little closer to her so that she would know I was still here with her, but let her continue at her own pace. "I was her closest friend and she didn't feel like she could trust me. If I'd been better, she wouldn't be gone."

That was a lot to unpack, but maybe it was better to let it sit for a moment. At least until I knew how to feel about it. I wanted to challenge that notion that Amber wouldn't have left, but I don't _know_ that Yang is wrong. _Not yet, at least; I need her to keep telling me about it._

"You say that like there's no chance she's coming back," I pointed out instead. Sure, it was like finding a needle in a haystack if she was trying to hide from us, but surely she would pop up somewhere.

"She wasn't coming back to me the moment she stepped foot outside of the Tribe's camp," Yang said sullenly. "Her Aura doesn't regenerate, Blake. She had less than ten percent left to live on, and she's a Maiden. She's… she's as good as dead."

"You don't know that, though," I pointed out, trying to get through her stubbornness. "She's out there right now, Yang. We could find her."

Yang didn't answer, and I couldn't get her to look at me anymore. After a decent pause, I decided to revisit her earlier descriptions. We'd hit a wall here anyways.

"You and Jaune together are bad enough," I let out, watching Yang closely for any reaction. "I can't imagine how unbearable it was with Amber there. I've had nightmares where I had to deal with three of you…"

"Yeah…" Yang let out with a bitter laugh. It released some of her tension, though, so the risk paid off. "Four if you count Raven."

"That sounds awful."

"It was a lot of fun, really," Yang defended, still smiling. That smile began to fall. "What are the odds that Amber would turn out like the rest of us, huh?"

Yang froze at her own words, her smile getting wiped off her face as she did so.

"It… just occurred to me how much of an idiot I am," she announced, knowing that I had watched her react to something. "Amber had no idea who she was and was struggling to find her identity, and then she just… ends up acting a lot like me?"

"…I didn't want to point it out earlier, but I know where you're going with this," I told Yang cautiously.

"She was mirroring me, wasn't she? She didn't know who she was but she saw me and thought that I would be a good model for her. _Damnit!_ " Yang let out angrily, her fists curling up as she glared ahead at the rails. "That explains why she was so desperate for a threesome, too. She was trying to model after me and getting close to both me and Jaune would do that for her. All this time and she might not have even _realized_ why she was doing it. I should have seen this, Blake!"

"Yang, that's not fair to yourself. You couldn't have—"

"I should have been there for her! I-I should have helped her!" Yang's voice hitched once, and I could see her eyes watering. "She left to help me get Jaune away from Raven, and why would she care about that unless she saw herself in me and wanted me to be happy. And I let this all happen without even realizing it, like an idiot!" Yang's fist smashed down onto the concrete railing, shooting cracks through it. Her hair burnt hot as she glared down at where her fist now lay, with her fury slowly fading out until she retreated in on herself entirely. "I-I failed her."

 _Something is off, here._ Yang may not be the best-equipped person in the world to deal with a friend abandoning you, but this feels more than that. She's not telling me something, and whatever it is, it's bothering her more than just Amber leaving. With how certain she seems to be about Amber not coming back, is there something she knows there? Or… is it more of a gut feeling? Instinct? _Would Yang even be open to me suggesting that her instincts still suck?_

"Yang, this isn't your fault. No one blames you for this but you." I considered going with the comforting route for her, but that's not exactly something I'm good at. Yang always responded well to a little tough love, which is a method I'm better at. I ruled out just outright accusing her of hiding something, though, because that was a little _too_ tough. "You aren't a psychiatrist, Yang, so you can't expect yourself to have seen this coming. You were just a friend trying to help. We don't even know if this whole mirroring theory is true; Amber might just have been like that naturally, and having you around could have helped her get back to normal faster."

"Blake, you weren't there. You don't know."

"Right. I don't know about this Amber person, but you don't either. You're going to have to live with what you tried to do for her." I paused and gave Yang a stern look until she finally met my eyes, so that I would know my point was getting across. "She was her own person. That's the whole point of this, as far as I can tell, _so treat her like one._ She made a choice to leave, and you said that she did that to help you in some way. If you can't go back and change anything, then at least honor her decision and see it through."

Yang stiffly tried to resist my words, but she gave in eventually, dropping her head and her resistance. "My friend died yesterday and I'm already getting the _suck it up and keep moving forward_ speech? Sheesh…" Yang drawled, taking a slight dig at me.

"Yeah, well, you needed it," I countered, crossing my arms. "And she's not dead yet. We're going to find her."

"Sure," Yang affirmed, though it was no secret that she was lying. She was being extremely pessimistic about Amber's chances, which did nothing to lessen my suspicions. "Just… could you do me a favor?"

"Don't ever mention anything from this talk to the others?"

"Specifically the part with Amber having sex, or…" Yang trailed off awkwardly, before forcing herself to continue. "…you know, me being her wingwoman for it. I don't think the others would be so… understanding."

I scrunched my nose at Yang's choice of words. I certainly wasn't 'understanding.' This whole thing is weird.

"Forgiving?"

I shook my head.

"Tolerant?"

"Let's just agree never to bring it up," I offered, giving Yang a healthy dose of side-eye. This would _absolutely_ be coming back up when I was ready to lay into Yang for leaving, but that wouldn't be until everyone else had their shot at both her and Jaune. I was going to be the last one, just to make sure no one else forgot to bring up anything. And also because, well, I wanted Yang to be in a better emotional state, that way I could _really_ lay into her without it actually hurting her too much. "If we don't mention it, it's not ever going to come up on its own."

"Unless Jaune brings it up or something stupid happens…"

The thought of Jaune fumbling his way into having to explain it to the whole group crossed my mind. "Yeah…"

* * *

Nora _stormed_ through us, and we all parted to let her pass through just like usual. This was, what, the third time this week this had happened? Yeah, we were used to it.

Yang was watching with a bewildered expression, though.

Ren followed after Nora, giving her a solid ten or fifteen feet of space just in case she turned on him again. Yang leaned out and gently caught him by the arm to get his attention.

"What's, uh, what's wrong with her?" Yang asked, throwing tact out the window and just going for it. Her voice was low enough for Nora not to hear, but honestly, Nora wouldn't have heard a Beringel sneaking up on her right now.

" _No pancakes,_ " Ren answered, explaining everything in two words.

"Ah." Yang nodded, looking back to Nora with a new understanding. Her head whipped back to Ren and she gave him an accusatory look. " _You ran out of pancakes?_ What is this, Ren, amateur hour?"

"Hey, it is not my fault that Mistral is experiencing food shortages," Ren defended calmly. "Even in the best of times, Nora's pancake consumption is… excessive."

"Food shortages?" Yang asked dumbly. We all looked at her like she was an idiot. _Everyone_ knew about the food shortages. With so much Grimm activity after the destruction of Vale, farmers were finding it harder and harder to protect their crops—and their lives. All of Remnant was in some form of precautionary rationing, with the hopes that the Grimm activity would die down before _real_ rationing happened.

Basically, food prices were just really high right now, and feeding Nora anything more than a granola bar for breakfast was not feasible. _Even Weiss' family couldn't afford Nora right now._

"You didn't have food shortages at your camp?" Ruby asked Yang. She was literally the only one who had heard Yang's comment who didn't look at Yang like she was an idiot for questioning a food shortage during an international crisis.

"Uh… no?" Yang responded, sheepish and still slightly confused. "We protected a few farming villages, and we had two Maidens who could make the weather perfect for growing food. _We ate like champs_. Still do, actually; I kinda miss their breakfast at the moment."

Yang's stomach growled, and Ruby poked Yang's side playfully. "Yeah, we can tell."

" _Hey!_ " Yang admonished, slapping Ruby's hand away. "What are you trying to say?!"

"Nothing," Ruby responded sweetly, playing up her innocence little sister role. "It's just that you're a tiny bit… pudgier."

" _Pudgier?_ " Yang asked. Her outrage quickly faded into insecurity as she nervously examined herself to see if Ruby was right. "I haven't put on any weight! You're just messing with me. Weiss, I look fine, right?"

"Well, I wasn't going to say it earlier, but you _do_ look to be the reason that there's a food shortage…"

"W-What?" Yang's voice actually cracked, and I had to turn my head to the side so she wouldn't see me laughing. "I swear I've been _more_ active than at Beacon though! I've been training, like, every day, and running missions all the time, and Jaune and I have—" she caught herself, realizing that her dad was on the far side of the room and was probably listening in, "— _kept active_ too. _Blake_ , I didn't get fat, did I?"

I tried my absolute best to hide the amusement from my face, but she called on me at the wrong time. As soon as I turned to face her, she could read on my face that we were messing with her, and the embarrassment and anger that took over her was equally as funny.

"Well, you _do_ have a lot more meat on your bones than the rest of us…"

"Oh, _fuck you guys_ ," Yang let out with a growl, giving us all a flat glare.

"Yang. _Language,_ " Taiyang admonished, confirming that he was listening in.

"You look exactly the same as before," I finally let out. Despite her frustration with us, Yang was visibly relieved. She did look the same as before, but that was because that Yang always was thicker than the rest of… everyone _._ To her credit, she packed it all in just the right places, which was honestly kind of irritating. With my crop top, I have to worry about how it looks if I eat one too many tuna melts, and yet Yang can eat an entire hog and have it all go straight to her hips or ass. And Nora is the same way, except with thighs that honestly terrify me.

 _Ugh._ Life is so unfair.

Qrow finally walked in through the front door, and apparently that was what we were waiting for, because Taiyang called us all over immediately. "Alright, that's enough torture of Yang for the moment. We've got news."

"Go ahead and grab your gear, too," Qrow added on. "We're about to head out."

"Where?" Yang asked.

"Qrow and I spoke with Lionheart yesterday. He made sure to put Mistral's army on the lookout for Pyrrha Nikos," Taiyang answered. "They found her."

"They found Pyrrha?" Nora asked, only narrowly beating Ruby to the punch. The news was surprising in how fast it was, but it was great news.

I turned to Yang to catch her reaction, and it was… not a happy one. She quickly suppressed it and pretended to act happy, but I saw the suspicion and negativity that she originally reacted with. _Something is definitely off._

"Lionheart said that we got lucky and a group of scouts hunting for Grimm packs spotted her at Kuroyuri, which isn't too far from the capital. We can be there in a few hours by airship."

"She's that close?" Weiss asked suspiciously. "How'd she get so far in one day?"

"You've obviously never seen a Maiden in action," Qrow commented with a snicker. "When they get going, they can levitate. And if you summon wind, you can fly pretty fast. Not that surprising that she could have made it to Kuroyuri, but she'd be tired." Yang seemed particularly interested in Qrow's comments. She was the only one here who had been around a Maiden—two, actually—but it didn't seem that she got to see them show off much, given how she followed Qrow's description. "Which is why she might still be there when we arrive."

"We're not planning on fighting her, and we don't want to overwhelm her, so we're only going to take those of us who are best suited to convincing her to come with us," Tai continued. "We've talked it over with headmaster Lionheart. Qrow will take Nora, Ren, and Yang to go meet her. Qrow knew the previous Amber best, Yang knows the current Amber best, and if Pyrrha is in there, Ren and Nora are our best shot at getting through to her. Any questions?"

"When are we leaving, and what is everyone else doing?" Yang asked, locking eyes with her dad and focusing intensely.

"We'll leave as soon as you all can grab your things," Qrow answered with a shrug.

"And the others?"

"Sheesh, wound up, aren't you?" Qrow asked teasingly. A couple of us chuckled at that, since _yeah_ , Yang was being kind of intense about it. I wasn't one of them, though. Something felt off to me still.

"We're going to help Lionheart," Taiyang answered before Yang could get angry with Qrow for avoiding the question. He turned to address all of us, or more specifically, those of us who would be going with him. "The headmaster thinks that now that Raven has lost one of her Maidens, she'll make a run at getting Haven's Relic. It would explain why she told us about Amber's disappearance; she wants us distracted so she won't encounter resistance."

Everyone looked to Yang expectantly at that.

Yang shrugged. "It's plausible. She wouldn't have told me if that was her plan, so don't look at _me_."

"So what, we're going to…?" I asked leadingly, making it clear that I was skeptical that there was a lot that we _could_ do.

"We're going to guard the Vault itself," Taiyang finished for her, putting on a confident voice to put the rest of us at ease. "Lionheart will let us into the secret passageway. If Raven shows up today, we'll be there. Hopefully, just the fact that she'd been found out would be enough to talk her out of it; I'm not exactly looking for a fight if she brings her Maiden along."

"And if she doesn't show?" Weiss asked, playing off my skepticism.

"Then we sit around and talk for a few hours until Qrow gets back," Taiyang answered, making light of any risks. "Now, are there any _more_ questions, or can we get ready?"

There weren't, and we all dispersed to grab our gear. Yang had been wearing hers the whole time, even while indoors, so she didn't have to go anywhere. Either she'd been paranoid or she had just expected us to give her _that_ hard of a time.

I couldn't say much. Gambol Shroud was laying against a nearby wall, whereas every else kept their weapons downstairs at the training ring. I went over and grabbed it, and when I looked up, I caught something flying at my head.

"Uh… thanks?" I commented, looking at the extra dust rounds Yang had tossed me. She was currently rummaging through Weiss' dust supplies, tossing half of what she took out to me and storing the other half on her person. The amount she was taking was getting excessive, and I was running out of places to hold ammo at. "Uh, Yang? I think that's enough. Weiss doesn't exactly have an unlimited supply at the moment."

Yang looked up and gave me such a flat look that I wondered what exactly she wasn't telling us. That sense that something was off just kept getting larger, and I found myself going upstairs to grab a jacket just so I could carry a few extra rounds. Yang seemed… not pleased, but satisfied with that.

 _And I thought Jaune was the paranoid one._

* * *

Raven's POV

* * *

"Right on time," I mumbled to myself, reading over Yang's texts one more time, just to be certain I had gotten every detail out of them. It had only taken Lionheart—or Watts, rather; I haven't completely confirmed Leo as the leak—a day to gather whatever forces they had for an ambush. Splitting them up was a sign that they didn't have the numbers to take down all eight of them at once, which was good to know. Should something go wrong and leave me on my own against them, their forces in this area are… limited.

 _Half at Kuroyuri, half at Haven's Vault._ The Vault would be an odd choice for an ambush, but Kuroyuri would be a fantastic one. High Grimm activity, rubble and half-collapsed buildings to hide behind, and no chance of reinforcements for Qrow's group. If Yang hadn't already insisted that this was going to be the ambush, it would be my first suspicion anyways.

Guarding the Relic is an odd choice. Watts _wants_ me to get the Relic for him, so having people guard the Vault would be stupid. Keeping an eye on it in case I made a move for it would be useful, but not necessary; they would pressure me whether or not I already had the Relic, so I can't trick them in any way. Honestly, it feels like this is just a way to separate the group to make them easier to kill. If the Vault is as isolated as it should be, you could just lock them inside and let them die of dehydration. Or, once Qrow is dead, just send them out as 'reinforcements' and have them die in the same trap.

It's clever, but too clever by half. Watts is overcomplicating things to compensate for not having any other tactical advantages. He doesn't have any counters should I decide to do something.

I think I shall.

" _Jaune,_ " I called out as I cut open a portal to the boy. "Grab your things. Yang's intel came through. It's time."

The boy stepped out only a few moments later. He'd already been geared up and seemed to have just been waiting for this. Poor fool was probably too worried about Yang to do anything else.

It brought a small smile to my face. _Don't worry, kiddo, we'll have her back shortly, as well as some nice plunder._

"What's our play?"

"Watts is splitting up the group. Half at Kuroyuri, half to guard the Relic," I answered. Jaune was giving me his complete focus. "The plan is simple. We're taking out Lionheart at Haven. Either he's the mole, or he's a weak link who let your family die, so he won't be missed if we're wrong."

"Are we wrong?"

" _No,_ " I answered confidently. I was all but certain it was Lionheart, the coward. The real question was just how long he'd been compromised. "You'll take out Leo. Make it painful. The man's a traitor, after all."

"What about Yang?" Jaune asked, not even a little interested in Leo or his connection to Jaune's dead family. _Huh._ I would have thought he'd be a little hung up on that still.

"When we're done, I'll open a portal to Yang. If Watts needs the teams split up, then reuniting them should break their ambush wide open." Jaune gave me a stern look, and I knew exactly what he wanted. I teased him by drawing it out, but I did give it to him eventually. "And we'll help, if they really need it. You're so easy, sometimes…"

"What will _you_ be doing?"

"Watts told Tai to guard the Vault in case I showed up for the Relic," I answered coyly. "I'd hate for Tai to waste his time down there."

"You're going to take the Relic?"

"Technically, _Vernal_ is going to take the Relic." I shrugged when Jaune gave me a flat look for that. "Yes, I'm going to take the Relic. Better to have than to have not. I'm already staring down the barrel with the fucking Queen of the Grimm; I might as well collect another bargaining chip if I can." Maybe it could be something that could manipulate Ozpin, or hell, maybe I can figure out how to work the thing.

Jaune went silent, staring off into the distance for a moment. He snapped back to reality a few seconds later with a look of steeled determination on his face, before silently snapping on his mask and rolling his neck anxiously.

"Someone's ready, aren't they?"

"Where's Vernal?" Jaune asked, ignoring my teasing.

"Glad you mentioned that. Go find her and tell her the plan," I commanded, taking my sword and cutting open a portal to Torchwick. He was the closest portal I have to Lionheart; it'll just take a few minutes of flight to get to the academy. That's fine, though. It'll let me clear my head. "I want her on standby. I'll have to create a portal for her and use the motion to distract Tai from realizing that I'm the one who can unlock the Vault."

"On it," Jaune responded, leaving out the back of my tent without hesitation.

I stepped through the portal the next moment, to find Roman giving me a funny look. Sort of a _it's the middle of the morning, and you're showing up for a booty call now?_ sort of look. I'd gotten them over the years from Tai, though for once, that wasn't why I was here. Besides, Torchwick would have to be really full of himself to think that I was coming back to him for that after his performance the last time.

"Sorry. I've got other business," I let out, morphing into a bird right in front of him and leaving out an open warehouse window nearby. Roman already knew I was a Maiden, so what harm could there be in letting the bird secret slip? _And that's if_ someone _hasn't already told him…_

The flight to Haven felt great. The cool air did wonders for my mental state as I made my way to the school. With each wing flap, I could feel myself getting closer and closer to a good fight, and better yet, closer to a decisive victory. The air itself almost tasted of blood and treasure.

It was exhilarating.

* * *

Qrow's POV

* * *

"Do you know how birds teach their young how to fly?" I asked with a stupid grin on my face, trying to pass the time on the bullhead flight out to Kuroyuri.

"They kick their young out of their nest, do they not?" Ren answered. He could tell I was going somewhere with this, but wasn't sure where, so he answered it like it was a classroom question or something.

"They _do_ ," I answered, widening my grin and intentionally shifting to look directly at Yang. "They _do_ launch their young out of the nest. Sometimes, without warning."

Yang eyed him suspiciously. "Either you're implying that Raven let me come with you because something bad is going to happen and she's 'teaching me how to fly,'" Yang stated, watching me to see if I reacted, "or you're implying that you're about to kick me out the side of the ship." I popped my eyebrows up once teasingly, before shrugging at her.

"It could be either. They're _both_ birds, after all," Nora supplied, firmly taking Yang's side. I briefly wondered if we had told Nora about Raven and my little trick, before remembering that there was no way that there was a secret that Taiyang _hadn't_ told these kids by this point. _Dude needs to learn to value of keeping his mouth shut._

"Well, I would be lying if I said that both thoughts hadn't crossed my mind," I responded, avoiding answering the question directly. "Can you think of any reason my sister might suspect that this would go badly?"

Subtle? No. But Yang doesn't do subtle either, so I figured she'd appreciate the transparency.

Yang hesitated to answer, which I took note of, but that was partially because Nora came to her rescue after only a second or two.

"Well, this Amber person _left_ Yang once, right?" Nora started, ignoring how rigid Yang went at the poor choice of words. "What if she's not too happy to be found? What if we're about to _fight_ a Maiden?"

"Eh, it's not as hard as it sounds," I responded, making a show of being flippant. "They can just fly, summon unlimited amounts of any element, manipulate the weather, and resist enough magic to defeat Ozpin. _No biggie._ "

I received flat looks from around the cabin.

"I'm pretty confident that we're not going to find Amber," Yang stated gruffly. "There's no way she's survived this long."

"You don't know that," Nora dismissed. "She could—"

"You're right," Yang responded dangerously. It was the way women say 'you're right' that means you were very much so wrong, even if you _were_ right. Her words word punctuated and passive aggressive. "I don't know that."

"If Amber _isn't_ here—" Ren cut in, placing a hand in front of Nora to stop her from pushing Yang on the subject. _I mean, we're in a very crashable bullhead; not the time to piss of Yang, or tempt my Semblance._ "—then is there a chance we'll actually encounter Pyrrha?"

Yang opened her mouth to speak. She closed it again. The thought bounced around her head before she could respond. "I… doubt it. _If_ Pyrrha could come back, there's a very narrow window where Amber's Aura takes enough damage to die, but not so much that her body dies with her, so that Pyrrha's Aura could regenerate." Yang stared off at the ground in thought for a bit more. "And whatever attacked her would need to stop attacking her after that point, because she'd be vulnerable. So, _no_ , it's not likely. I can't say that it isn't possible, I guess."

Yang sounded confident in her answer, but she didn't look it. She went quiet after that, and was clearly thinking over the idea more during the flight.

For now, it seemed Yang was off in her own little world, which left Ren, Nora, and me to pass the rest of the time on the flight.

"Hey, have you guys ever heard the story behind Yang's first haircut?"

* * *

"Hold flight pattern in the area," I yelled to the pilot of the bullhead. Well, not _bullhead_ bullhead. _I keep referring to these weird Mistralian airships as bullheads._ Seriously, why haven't they just switched over to normal aircraft, instead of these weird, sailboat-ship things? They're not even that efficient or anything. Their one and only advantage is longer flight ranges.

"No can do, boss," the pilot yelled back. "My orders are to drop you off and head back to Mistral for refueling. I don't have the fuel to hold pattern."

"Then how are we supposed to get back?!"

"Another ship is coming for you. It's probably already left, so you'll only have an hour or two on the ground here." The pilot shrugged, before firing up his engines. "Better make the most of it. _Stand back!_ "

The ship began to lift off the ground, which forced me to back up a few paces to avoid getting clipped. Like that, it took off, leaving us here by ourselves for the moment.

"Well, that's great," I drawled. "My Semblance must be working overtime."

"You have no idea," Yang mumbled, thinking that she was being cute and keeping her words out of earshot.

"Leo didn't stop to think that if we found the Maiden, we might want to get back with her immediately, instead of just sitting out here in the open?" I asked sardonically. The man was, well, not great at his job. His only real qualification is that he's loyal and Ozpin trusts him, because he has _always_ sucked at making judgement calls. Or at organizing logistical support. Or at filing paperwork. Or even at responding to a text.

"Oh, I'm sure he thought of it," Yang mumbled darkly. She began pulling out all sorts of extra dust rounds and vials that we immediately recognized as Weiss', and started tossing them at us. "Aura up, people. I don't want us getting surprised by anything."

"Look, Yang, I understand how hanging out with your mother could make some of her paranoia rub off on you," I called out, catching the dust she tossed at me and stowing it. It _was_ free ammo, after all, and that never hurt anyone. "A little paranoia doesn't hurt. Hell, I'd encourage a little paranoia, especially way out here in the middle of a dead city. This place gives me the creeps too, but I think you're taking the lesson a little too far. We're trying to find and calm down Amber, not take her by force."

Yang drew her sword—her boyfriend's sword, I noticed with a frown—and hooked the shield to her arm. The sharp sound of the metal scraping as the weapon came free almost mocked my whole _you're too paranoid_ spiel. "What do you mean?"

"Let's put it this way. Extra dust on a mission? Good paranoid." I made a show of waggling one of the cartridges at her, before stowing it away once more. "A general sense of caution? Good paranoid." Then, I gestured vaguely to her whole person; Nora sniggered a little bit. "Staring off around you as if the very buildings are going to come alive and attack you? Ba—"

Yang reacted to something, raising up her shield on reflex. A bullet pinged off it, a big one from the sound of it, landing square in the middle of the Arc crests.

Shield still in front of her face, Yang turned her head to look at me from behind her shield. "You wanna finish that?"

"Alright, whoever the _fuck_ just made me look like an idiot, come out here!" I yelled angrily, staring off in the general direction the shot came from. Harbinger was off my back and unfolded into a sword already. "I'd like to introduce you to my sword. He's friendly this time of day."

"Can it, uncle," Yang growled, eyes peeking over the edge of her shield. "Things are about to get a lot worse."

I didn't question it, though I wondered what Yang was implying and just what exactly was going on.

Hazel Rainart stepped out from the rubble with a large rifle in his hands, and my gut sunk a level. Something was definitely up.

"Not exactly the Branwens I was hoping to kill today, but you two will have to do," Hazel grunted, tossing the rifle to the ground lazily. His eyes trailed over to Ren and Nora. "Did you have to get kids involved in this?"

"Where's Pyrrha!?" Nora yelled, brandishing her hammer threateningly. Hazel didn't even acknowledge her as a threat in the slightest.

"The Fall Maiden is still unaccounted for, if Raven truly did lose track of her," Hazel answered Nora's question. "You won't be finding her today, I'm afraid."

"You won't, either," Yang shot back.

"No, I don't think I will find her today either," Hazel agreed. "Fortunately, _I_ will have time beyond today to search. You, however…" Hazel trailed off intentionally, looking past us and nodding to something up above us. There were two characters standing on top of building on either side of us, only one of which I recognized as Mercury Black, one of Cinder's teammates. It was safe to assume the other was also one of Salem's people; he was what looked to be some sort of Faunus with wrist-mounted blades. He seemed around Hazel's or my age, so he was probably no push over.

"I have to say, as much as I don't appreciate being lured into a trap, _that's it?_ " I asked mockingly, gesturing with an open hand to Hazel's two allies. "You couldn't even outnumber us?"

"Uncle, _no…_ "

"Why, I am _ever_ so glad you said that," the Faunus called out in a weird cadence. It kind of made me want to hit the guy, not sure why. In any case, he pulled his hand to his lips and blew a loud whistle, and looked up to the tallest standing building in the town, a clock tower.

A Seer Grimm appeared from the other side of the tower, perching itself on the edge overlooking us.

 _That… that is bad news._ I've only run across those once, and while they're not too hard to take down, it's what they represent that is bad. They can be directly controlled by Salem from any distance, which means that they can be used to—

A screech from our side tore us from our thoughts, as a wall was destroyed on a vacant building. A god damn Nuckelavee burst out of it, with dust from the drywall obscuring it slightly. The horse half sighted us and blew out an angry huff of steam, and the rider's head twitched as it took us in.

More screeches were heard. The trees around the city seemed alive with Grimm, and a couple dozen adult Nevermore shot out from them and began circling us low in the sky. Small Beowulf packs started to emerge from the forest as well, with the occasional Ursa mixed in. I'm pretty sure I spotted a Beringel.

 _Shit._

 _Stall, Qrow; buy as much time as you can for these poor kids you've dragged into—_

"We've got this," Yang stated. She was no angrier than she had been, and she didn't sound intimidated or scared by the overwhelming force we were sent to die in. She had to have been expecting this somehow, because she didn't seem surprised in the slightest. "Take out that Seer at all costs."

"Yang, it doesn't work like that." I could see what she was hoping for: a hail mary that would instantly fix this. _Kill the Seer, all the other Grimm die too._ In reality, what likely happens is we kill the Seer, and the other Grimm revert to being Grimm, which leaves us no less dead. Salem's people have probably been marked in some way, so they won't even be attacked. All killing the Seer would do is keep the Grimm from using tactics or formations. "We need to stick together and hold out as long as we can."

"Kill the Seer," Yang repeated forcefully, eyes staring down her target.

" _Yang,_ that's not going to—"

Yang cut me off, whipping her head to me and grabbing a fistful of my shirt to yank me in close. At some point, she had put on the mask that Raven had given her, which I hadn't even noticed that she brought with her.

" _Kill. the. Seer._ " Yang hissed at me. I could see her eyes through the slits in her mask, and they… they were…? _What? How?_ "Once it's dead, leave the Grimm to me."

Those were flames around Yang's eyes. Maiden's flames…? _How?_ _When?_

"Qrow!" she snapped at me. "Take out Salem's eyes, and I'm free to do the rest."

"Got it. Agreed," I stuttered out, which got Yang to release me. I turned to Ren and Nora, who were terrified, but looking to me for guidance of some sort. "You heard the lady. _Kill the Seer._ "

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: I don't think I've written a Neo POV section since my last RWBY fic. Since it's been a few chapters since they've been directly involved, I figured it wouldn't hurt to throw that in just as a reminder that Lionheart is just letting them run rampant in the city, since that would cause more negativity anyways. It's also nice to get timely updates about characters, especially when they do something.**

 **What's that? _Neo and Roman weren't the characters you wanted to check in on?_ Sheesh, you guys just want to see what happened with Amber/Pyrrha's body. I told you that we were going to see what was in Amber's letters, didn't I? And those letters are currently sitting next to where Amber died. _Patience_. **

**Back to things that happened in this chapter. Raven intuited some of Watts' plan with splitting the teams up, but I can't work a Watts' POV into the coming chapters to spell it out without it being clunky, so if you want clarification, here is Watts' plan.**

 **Split the teams up. One goes to Kuroyuri and dies in an ambush. The other stays down in the hidden chamber with the Vault and dies of dehydration or starvation. As far as Watts knows, there's no way out of that place, and they may not even know that there's water down at the bottom of the chamber. I sure didn't know that when Cinder got yeeted at the end of V5. If the ambush goes well, he has the option of sending the rest to avenge their friends and die too. _Honestly, just a faulty bullhead would be enough, but that's not theatrical enough._ **

**It's pretty simple. It has its strengths and its weaknesses. We'll see how it plays out.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _typhonyx_

"Maybe Lionheart did try to bug RNJR's house in Mistral but Qrow's semblance broke it. I just like the idea of Lionheart sending more and more gifts with hidden cameras in them but Qrow keeps breaking them.

"Leo sent us ANOTHER vase of flowers? AND a Teddy bear? He must really like us"

*crash* *tear*

"Oops""

 **Last week I asked why Lionheart never bothered to bug the house that the gang stays in, in V5 of the show. If he had, he'd have learned that Ozpin was back much sooner.** _typhonyx_ **has given me the best explanation ever. 100% accepted as canon now.**

 **I just envision Watts becoming more and more frustrated with how many new, crash-proof gadgets he has to invent with listening devices inside, with each one getting destroyed in crazy ways.**

 _ **"Uncle Qrow! You tripped and destroyed that airplane black box that headmaster Lionheart sent us to store our data on!"**_

 _ **"Uncle Qrow! Get out! Your Semblance just made Weiss spill coffee on our military-grade power generator and it sparked out!"**_

 _ **"Uncle Qrow! You knocked the Atlas Paladin that headmaster Lionheart sent us off the** **cliff!"**_


	70. No one hurts you like family, pt 1

**Author's Note: Not much to say here, other than I have been waiting for this chapter for almost a year now.**

 **And, _no_ , it isn't because of this first scene. It's because of the last one. **

**To _Lives2DieAgain_ , here is one final sneaky I've pulled on ya. :D**

* * *

 **Chapter 67:** _"How sad would it be to not have a brother and then to lose a brother… all in the same day?!" – Private Michael J. Caboose_

* * *

?'s POV

* * *

I woke up to a rough headache. Opening my eyes was difficult, and it felt like I had been out of commission for a while. I didn't know why, though. Trying to remember only strained my headache further.

My senses started to come back slowly. I was flat on my back, and my head throbbed from a spot on the back. _I must have… taken a fall backwards?_ That would explain why everything feels so groggy and stiff. That, or it was from the fight I—

My eyes shot open in a panic. _Jaune!_ He stabbed me! I was bleeding out, and he… he was there with me? That doesn't sound right; he stabbed me. He wanted me dead. I… Ozpin made me betray him, and we fought, and I lost, and he stabbed me, and someone showed up, and Ozpin showed up.

And then I remember seeing Jaune. Being held as we escaped.

I remember bleeding out, and feeling cold. I remember bleeding so vividly that I can feel it now. It's a painful, surreal thing to bleed out, with warm blood staining your stomach and doing nothing to make you feel any less cold.

 _Stomach?_ I'm bleeding from my arm. Jaune didn't stab me in the arm, did he?

I sat up and examined my arm to find blood pouring out of my wrist, and there was an alarming amount already around me. Panic shot through me again, and I applied pressure with my free hand to slow the bleeding, and pushed my Aura into the wound to try to seal it. My Aura flickered and fizzled out. It wasn't gone, but it was depleted right now, like I had just lost it and hadn't let it regenerate yet.

 _Did I just lose my Aura in an attack?_

I whipped my head around frantically, but there was no one here. Nothing but the tree behind me that I hit my head on during a fall, and the sunrise in front of me. Jaune's dagger lay bloodied on the ground, and just seeing it triggered flashbacks of our fight. Of the hate in his eyes. Of nearly dying. It locked my body up and threatened to paralyze me, and I only kicked myself out of it by sheer panic over how bad my arm was bleeding.

There was a backpack sitting within arm's reach, with stuff scattered around it. I opened the bag up and found gauze and medical tape sitting on top, almost like it was waiting for me. Whoever packed my bag—probably me, but I can't seem to remember that—had done a good job at anticipating this.

I didn't really have any way to clean the wound, so I used one gauze pad to hastily wipe away some of the blood, before applying several to the cut and taping it up as tightly as I could. For a few minutes, I feared that this wouldn't do enough, but eventually the pressure helped stop the bleeding. That, and whatever slow drips of Aura I regained helped seal it.

Now…

 _What am I doing out here?_ The last thing I remember was trying to escape Beacon and bleeding out in Jaune's arms. While that memory has… well, let's just say I have conflicted feelings on the subject of Jaune now, and leave it there. Honestly, I didn't think I'd make it this far. That begs the question of _where am I?_ though.

Let's start with what I can see, I guess. A cliff. Trees in the distance, and what seems like a mountain behind me. This is the farthest thing from Beacon. This feels a lot like being back in Argus. The trees look just like the countryside of Mistral. _How did I…?_

I shook the thoughts loose and remembered the backpack. I don't remember packing it, but it's clearly my pack. Maybe these things could be helpful, or hold some clue about what's going on.

My eyes got stuck on Jaune's dagger and the memory of Jaune choosing to leave me with that woman in the Vault flashed in my mind, evoking the same terror and despair I felt at the time. It was all I could do to pick the dagger up and hide it out of sight behind the backpack, and even that felt draining.

With the dagger gone, there were other things on the ground. My eyes were drawn to my circlet, which sat neatly on a small stack of papers. They had been spared from all the blood on my arm, being sat on the other side of me. I put the circlet on without even thinking about it, feeling just a tiny bit better. It was a slight return to normalcy, and it brought some comfort.

The papers below caught my attention more than anything. Hand-written lines of text stood out. They were meant for me, right? Who else would they be for?

Did _I_ write them?

I picked the top one up with my good arm. It was short, not even covering half the page. It read like a cover letter.

 _To whoever finds these letters, if you are not Pyrrha Nikos, kindly burn these letters. I can't stop you from reading them, but you're a dick if you do so, and I'll haunt you the rest of your life if you do. Trust me, I'll know._

 _Pyrrha, if you find this, please read them all in one sitting. I promise not to haunt you… at least, not literally. There's a lot I need to tell you._

 _-Amber_

"Amber…?" I tested the name out loud. It felt familiar. "I don't know a—"

I cut myself off as I remembered back a little further into the night that everything happened. Ozpin backed me into a corner and I had to accept his offer. He gave me the Fall Maiden's Aura, and her name was _Amber._ I remember activating her power once and feeling her Aura swimming around inside of me, but I never got her to talk with me. Was I forgetting something important since then? These were letters written from that person. How long have I been out?

I set that letter aside and picked up the next one. _They're meant for me, after all._ It says that there's a lot it needs to tell me, so maybe it has my answers.

 _Pyrrha,_

 _My name is Amber. I was the Fall Maiden that Ozpin put inside you. For over a month now, I have been in control of your body. I'm writing this to you because, well, I'm done. This has just been too much for me to hold on to. This letter is getting left behind in the hopes that me leaving lets you have your body back. You've been fighting me for it anyways, so I feel good about those chances._

 _I know none of this will make any sense right away, but don't worry; it still doesn't make sense to me. I can't really explain what's going on, or how it happened. But, I can tell you everything that has happened. You probably deserve to know. It's your body, after all._

 _Fair warning: some of this is not going to make you very happy. Just do me a favor and don't blame Jaune or Yang for it. I don't really have a good reason for you to not blame them, but I'd like to ask you to consider it anyways._

 _Okay, enough chit-chat. Here's what I've been doing since you've been gone:_

The letter ended there, and the next page began. She was right about it not making any sense, but Ironwood _did_ warn that Aura transfer wasn't an exact science yet. Maybe that knowledge would make this easier to understand, or at least accept.

I turned the page.

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

"How is it possible that you look so nervous even from behind a mask?" Vernal teased. "I don't think I've ever seen you scared before a fight before."

I ignored her, instead focusing on clearing my head. I need to be in my best form.

"Like, not even when Raven made you spar her as punishment for something."

 _Calm._ Clear head. Yang might already have engaged the trap. No time to waste, so no wasted movements. Whoever Raven needs me to cut down to make this go faster, I need to do it. I need to be on top of everyth—

"Remember the time Raven made you fight an Ursa when you were, like, seven? You pissed your pants and you _still_ looked less nervous than this."

" _Would you shut the hell up!?_ " I snapped. Vernal gave me a very dramatic and indignant look, as if _I_ was the one out of line here.

"Someone's touchy."

" _Someone_ is about to get hit if they don't shut up," I grumbled back, shifting back to trying to ignore her. "I'm not worried about me. It's Yang."

"Yeah, I know," Vernal drawled as if I were stupid for even explaining it to her. "I'm just messing with you."

"Well don't," I snapped limply. "Just… let me think. I've only got a few seconds before things get real."

"Okay."

I didn't completely trust that Vernal was going to let it go, but I went back to relaxing as best I could.

I was armed to the teeth, which helped, because it made me feel like I was prepared to make this go as quickly as possible. Angau Glas strapped to my back, spare dust rounds for the pommel across my waist, two emergency handguns strapped to my ankles, and a new knife I'd taken from a pile of them behind my back. My ceramic dagger wasn't where I left it, but that was fine; Yang would come unglued if she'd learned that I had used it again anyways.

The only thing I didn't have was Crocea Mors. Yang still insisted on wearing it, and it was hard to look at it most days. It was a reminder of the long, stupid, embarrassing path I had taken to get right back where I started, and I felt it was better if I left it behind. Yang… disagreed, and told me to my face that she was going to keep it until I came to my senses.

If it keeps her safe now, then it'll have been worth it.

After a few minutes, the tell-tale swish of Raven's portal opening followed by the low hum it emitted distracted me from my thoughts. I spared a glance to Vernal, who nodded back. She'd be taking the second portal Raven made, once Raven had made it to the Vault. This one was for me.

I slid Angau off my back and stepped through, directly into an office of some sort. A man I assume to be headmaster Lionheart—mostly because of the lion tail that gave him away as a lion Faunus—stood behind a desk with a mix of confusion and fear on his face, and Raven and I stood on the other side. The portal closed behind me.

"Leo, meet Jaune Branwen." I sighted the man up. It was hard to tell if he bought that name or not, but that wasn't for lack of us trying to sell it. With my grieves, chest plate, sword, and mask, I matched Raven closely. The only difference was the blonde hair, but Yang existed, so that didn't necessarily rule anything out. "Jaune is here to handle you while I attend to other matters. Relics don't take themselves out of their Vaults, after all."

Raven glared down Lionheart, who still had his hands in the air from where she'd presumably threatened him before my arrival. I noticed that one of the windows had been shattered and glass lay scattered on the floor, so there was a high chance that Raven's dramatic entrance had been crashing through the window.

"Leonardo here is a traitor. Make sure he's treated like one," Raven ordered, staring Lionheart down. She then sheathed her sword and made for the door, pausing momentarily to whisper to me. " _String him along, but keep him alive. I want to deal with him personally when this is done._ "

" _Yang—_ " I let out quietly, grabbing Raven's wrist before she could walk past me.

" _I'm on top of it,_ " Raven assured me, before softly pulling her wrist free. " _Take care of this._ "

I grunted an acknowledgement and nodded once, which was enough for Raven to leave the room.

"Now let's just—"

I interrupted Lionheart by swinging Angau down in a massive arc, cleaving his desk into two pieces.

"—talk this through…"

Some strange circular tablet thing fell out of the desk as the two halves fell over, leaving a clear path from me to the headmaster. Lionheart eyed the object tensely, before shifting back to me to gauge whether or not he could make it to the object before I got to him.

He dove for it frantically, not realizing that I was letting him do so. If Raven walking out of the room with the instructions to toy with him didn't make it obvious that Lionheart wasn't a threat to me, then her telling me as much beforehand did. _Not a great fighter, not a great leader; really was only chosen because Ozpin thought him loyal, go figure._

As soon as Lionheart had his weapon, he slid his wrist into a strap on the back and pointed it at me. It spun up with some sort of small glyph before selecting an element— _seriously, what is with the Russian Roulette method for picked dust types?_ —and blasting it at me. A small fireball shot out at my head.

I moved my head to the side. The fireball passed by harmlessly. A second. A third.

"They made you headmaster of a Huntsman academy?" I asked, half-mockingly and half-seriously. Maybe _incredulously_ described it better.

I swung Angau Glas in its full form at Lionheart, and his eyes widened noticeably as they traced the path my sword took. He was at least competent enough to not let the sword hit him, but the sloppy way which he blocked the attack with his gauntlet made it clear that this wasn't going to be a particularly difficult fight. His weapon was suited for, well, not much. Lighting birthday candles, maybe?

I swung again, this time horizontally, aiming for his stomach. He had the good sense to jump backwards and avoid the whole blast, and even shot a fireball at me as he did so. It clipped my arm but dealt no damage, only serving to heat up my grieve slightly. He fired another, but I brought my sword up to cut it in half, before pressing on towards him again.

He backed up and spun his weapon to a different element—ice, this time—but by the time he fired at me, his back had run up against the wall of his office, throwing off his aim so badly that I didn't need to dodge. I had essentially a free swing, so I reared up for an overhead strike. Lionheart flinched and threw his gauntleted hand above his head, bracing for impact.

I rolled my eyes. I didn't even put all that much effort into selling that feint and he bought it hard. _Maybe he's really good at paperwork, or at fighting Grimm, or has some other redeeming ability? Dueling ain't it._

I socked Lionheart in the face with my free hand, before walking away disrespectfully. Even showed the man my back as I did so, to make it clear just how little of a threat I considered him. "I _would_ get stuck with this job. Could you at least make this interesting for me?"

"Why you little—" Lionheart cut himself off with a frustrated growl as charged at me, firing blocks of ice as he did so. Might as well, right? His defense consisted of walking backwards and sucking. Offense can't be worse, right?

He showed a bit of a strategic mind in his attack, which was a good change of pace. His first ice bolt hit the floor in front of my feet, throwing up dust and bits of ice to distort my vision. I ducked down and to the side to avoid being a sitting target, and a chunk of ice whizzed past me, right where I had been standing. Lionheart vaulted over the first chunk of ice, trying to jump over me and fire down as he did so. I simply tilted my shoulder to avoid getting hit head-on, and reached out to grab the man by the collar.

Lionheart's eyes went wide as I redirected his leap and threw him into the nearby wall. He stumbled up to his feet and dusted himself off, before looking down at my feet and grinning. "Let's see you fight back without dodging, huh."

I looked down to find my feet encased in ice from his last shot. I looked up and gave Lionheart the flattest look I could muster, before holding Angau out in front of me vertically. Hands on the blade, I brought it down semi-firmly, bashing the pommel into the ice. At the same time, I flexed a little Aura into it, setting off the dust round in the handle, which shattered the ice and freed me.

"Dude. _Come on_. I've sparred with a Maiden for years now. I know how to break out of ice." The idiot hadn't considered that I had my hands free, which was what mattered most.

Lionheart wavered a little in his conviction, but shifted his weapon to a new dust type nonetheless.

" _Wind_ dust?" I asked disparagingly. "That's what you're going with?"

It was, apparently. He fired a round out of it, which I defeated by leaning forward a little bit.

When I came out of it, I adopted Angau Glas into an offensive form once more, signaling to Lionheart that I was just about done with this silly game.

Lionheart fired again, and I leaned into it to avoid being blown over again. This time, a massive jolt of electricity hit my back leg, causing it to stiffen. Lionheart hit me with another blast of wind, which this time swept me off my feet and knocked me into the wall.

It didn't knock the wind out of me or anything, so I got my head up in time to see a fireball coming at me from Lionheart. I vacated my position just in time to avoid taking a little damage, and as soon as my feet landed in a different spot, another fireball came for me. I ended up dive-rolling behind one half of Lionheart's desk, and as expected, a fireball impacted the other side of the wood.

That gave me enough time to stand back up before he could get another shot off.

"That was better! How'd you manage to pull—" my voice hitched as I looked over to find Dr. Watts standing in the doorway, holding some sort of rifle. It looked Atlesian, go figure. "—well, that figures. You had help."

"It took you long enough!" Lionheart yelled at Watts, clearly distressed at having to fight, well, and actual fighter. "Raven is headed to the Vault!"

"Good," Watts replied calmly, though he was watching me carefully. "She'll give it to us eventually. Perhaps she'll eliminate the rest of her brother's allies in the process."

"Doubt it," I called out.

"Ah, Mr. Branwen, was it?" Watts responded in measured words. "Such a funny thing, that. I could have sworn Mercury said your name was Arc."

Lionheart reacted to the name strongly. His face drained of blood. He looked like he'd seen a ghost. _I know I gave up looking into my past, but Raven_ did _say that this dude practically let my family die._ His reaction fit well with that knowledge.

Maybe toying with the guy could be fun.

"Can't trust that Mercury dude," I answered. "He doesn't have a leg to stand on."

"Quite." Watts trained his gun on me again, and the end of it sparked with yellow dust energy. "In any matter, he's having fun ambushing Ms. Xiao Long right now. Surrender now, and I'll have it arranged that she is spared."

It was a tempting offer, only in that it would theoretically save Yang, which would put my nerves to rest. Aside from that, it was a laughable offer, and indeed, I laughed at it.

"I'm not sure what's more insulting," I responded mockingly. "That you think your ambush is going to work, or that you think I'm dumb enough to believe you'd spare her."

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

The Grimm encircled us, crawling step-by-step closer to us. Our human foes stood menacingly on top of the buildings, waiting to see what move we would make first. Tension filled the air as we were backed down into a tight circle, with our backs to each other.

"Nora, whatever happens, save a little Aura," I called out softly. "We're going to need some lightning to pull this off."

"Got it," she responded. I knew that she didn't know _why_ , but since Qrow deferred, she and Ren accepted me as the leader. There was a hint of uncertainty or fear in her voice, too.

All I need is to blind Salem's eyes, and I can unleash my powers without fear of her learning about them. If things go _really_ badly, then keeping it a secret goes out the window, I guess. Keeping the four of us alive comes first. But if I can take out that Seer, then everything else here can be killed so that the secret dies with them.

First things first, though.

"Ren, will your Semblance help us here at all?"

"Only if you're really close to me, and I would need to concentrate."

Well, that ruled that out. Mostly.

"Try to sneak up on the Seer. Nora?"

"Yeah boss?"

"Give Qrow a ride."

Qrow didn't need to be told twice. He hopped on Nora's hammer, and with a rocket-powered swing, she launched him at the Seer Grimm's tower.

And like that, hell exploded.

With Qrow's Semblance, it was too much to ask that Nora's throw get him all the way to the Seer to end this fight before it began. Qrow turned mid-air to dodge a grab from the Nuckelavee's super stretchy arm. He shifted into a bird and dodged the other arm, and dodged again when the first arm tried for him a second time. On the fourth try, it nailed him, and he shifted back into a human to take the blow on his chest rather than getting hit as a bird.

"Nora, send Ren to help him!" I shouted. Qrow had sliced his way out of the Nuckelavee's grip, but couldn't get by it yet.

"On i— _gah!_ " Nora was cut off as Hazel's giant body landed on the ground right between her and Ren.

"Oh, children, don't you see—" that deranged scorpion Faunus, Tyrian, began to coo as he landed just in front of me. I cut him off by abruptly head bashing him, letting my mask take the brunt of the hit. He staggered back several steps from the force of it, giving me an opening.

"Ren!" I called out, holding my shield at a flat enough angle for him to jump on. He caught on immediately and ran over to me before Hazel or Tyrian could stop us, leaping the last few feet and landing on Jaune's shield. I shoved him upwards into the air and fired my gauntlets for an extra burst of propulsion, and Ren went flying into Qrow's general direction. _Hopefully, Ren can free Qrow up to go for the Seer._

"Ooh, _that_ was a mistake," Tyrian growled lowly, his normal façade cracking as he stared at me hatefully. He brandished wrist-mounted blades that resembled Vernal's weapons, except with a little less reach and an inability to throw them with how they were strapped on. _He's probably focuses less on range than Vernal, and that tail likely helps too._ Close-range brawler, huh? I can manage that.

Tyrian coiled down low like a snake would, and I held Jaune's shield out in front of me, letting Crocea Mors point over the top of it just like Jaune always would. Without warning, he shot out at me, lunging for my head and swiping at me with his blades. I crouched down and brought my shield up with milliseconds to spare, and metal screeched as his blades scratched across my shield. I gave a soft heave from underneath to add some upward trajectory to his attack and stop him from landing and launching another one so quickly, and I swiped blindly out behind me where he should have been lifted.

My strike was cut off. It impacted Tyrian's tail half-way. We'd had the same idea, and I could hear him cackling as his momentum carried him away.

I shifted my eyes to Nora, who was being handled by Hazel easily. Fortunately, he didn't seem motivated to kill Nora quickly, but that wouldn't last. In the distance, Grimm ringed around us, waiting patiently to be summoned. No doubt, as soon as that Seer was dead, they'd stop behaving in such a coordinated manner, but that's fine. _This place is getting burnt to the ground as soon as that Seer is dead anyways._

The sound of feet impacting wood off to my side alerted me that something was up. I turned, expecting Mercury to have joined the fight, but I remembered seeing him somewhere over on Qrow's side. Instead, I turned to find that Tyrian had been thrown into the side of a building feet-first, and was shooting off that building right back at me even faster than the first time.

He aimed low this time. He was trying to use a shield-wielder's instincts against her by trying to go low and do similar attack as last time. Tyrian was angled down to hit the ground just before he got to me.

Fortunately, I'm still new to this whole 'shield' thing, and my first instinct was a little different than Jaune's might have been. Tyrian landed right in front of me and tried to slide-tackle me, which would have devastated my defense had I tried to flip him over the shield like last time. Instead, I front-flipped over him as he did so, making a concerted effort to keep the shield between the two of us at all times. Bullets pinged off the shield as I did so, confirming that just like Vernal's weapons, Tyrian's had ranged capabilities too. Once I landed, I struck out behind me blindly with Crocea Mors. Once again, blade met chitin as my attack clashed with Tyrian's.

This time, he wasn't carried away from me by his momentum. I got behind my shield as we charged each other. He swung his right arm at my face and I brought my shield up to block it outright, lunging forward with my sword to stab his stomach at the same time. Tyrian managed to lace my blade through the middle of his other gauntlet, tangling the two up so that when he raised that arm up, it kept me from moving the sword. I tried to pull my shield back in a panic move to protect myself, but his other hand had grabbed the top of it to immobilize it, too.

His tail shot out at me from between his legs. I tried to yank my sword and shield free, but I couldn't break his grip. In the end, I spun my hips as much as I could, but still took a nasty scratch to my Aura as his tail shot out, and then another, deeper scratch as he pulled it back.

His maniacal grin only spread and he shot his tail back at me again. This time, I succeeded in pulling both my weapons free by firing my gauntlets as I did so. Tyrian let go of me and I propelled myself flat on my back in the dirt, but I avoided his tail.

Tyrian leapt at me, looking to pin me while I was on the ground. I didn't exactly like the idea of letting his tail do whatever the psychopath wanted it to do while he had me pinned to the ground, so I fired my gauntlets again to slide away from him on the dirt, building up enough space to get back to my feet.

 _Okay, this guy is a little faster than Vernal._ I could probably hold him at bay for a while—I still haven't resorted to my gauntlets or Semblance for offense yet—but the point of this whole thing isn't to stand still and wait for Raven to send help.

Nora's pained grunt as she was thrown like a ragdoll reminded me she was here and gave me an idea, so I reached into one of my jacket pouches and pulled out some dust crystals. _Better to use them before they break in my pocket and electrocute me anyways._ Storing the crystals in my left, shield-side hand, I blasted off towards Hazel with my right gauntlet. I had enough of a separation from Tyrian that he wouldn't be able to catch up before I made it to Hazel.

Hazel turned in time to react to me flying at him through the air. He caught my right wrist before I could bring the sword down on him, which violently and abruptly halted my momentum. My Aura kept my shoulder from being dislocated, but it wasn't a pleasant experience. I received a bored look from the man for my troubles, before I reared back with my left arm and punched him squarely between the eyes with the top of the shield. He barely registered it. His expression turned flat, silently asking if I _really_ just tried that.

I shrugged. All I was doing was buying time for Nora, so I reared back and delivered a second blow between his eyes, this time enhanced with a round from my gauntlet. Hazel actually grunted and stumbled back a step from the blow this time, before turning to me with an anger and newfound respect for the damage I can do.

"Nora! Catch!" I shouted, tossing the dust crystals loosely in her direction from my shield hand. She reached out to catch them, but before the crystals made it to her, they were shot out of the air, activating them in a small explosion of pure yellow lightning that struck the closest non-insulated items: Nora and her hammer.

"Nuh uh uh," Tyrian called out gleefully. I could imagine him waggling a finger. "If you're going to pull a trick, make it a _little_ better than just trying to share ammo. Sheesh."

 _Okay_ , I thought with a grin, before Hazel chunked me unceremoniously. I skidded and landed in the middle of the nearby wall of Grimm, which immediately began tearing into me.

It was mostly Beowolves, which was frustrating because if I were on my feet, they would be super easy to tear through. Instead, I'm thanking my lucky stars that Jaune's sword comes with a shield, because I'm huddling up behind it and trying to kick away as many claws as I can. Occasionally I was able to stab something in the neck with the sword, but there were so many of the damn things that doing so left my arm exposed and meant that my Aura got used as a chew-toy. I strongly reconsidered the whole _hiding my Maidenhood from Salem_ strategy.

Then a thought struck me, and I felt a little silly. I focused on the thought of _fire_ and imagined a wave of flames shooting out from me, and I felt a slight tingle in the back of my skull as the Maiden's powers activated, immolating everything within a few feet of me.

I rose to my feet quickly, having bought myself enough space to breathe. I caught Tyrian's eyes briefly—Nora, predictably, was doing a lot better against Hazel now that she had a temporary power and speed boost, so Tyrian didn't take his eyes off of that for long—and gave him a cocky shrug. "What, did you think I gave her _all_ my dust?"

 _I should have burnt those Grimm as soon as I landed._ He'd literally just seen me dole out dust from my jacket. Of course he'd believe I burnt the Grimm with more. I'll just have to be careful not to use any powers when he's up close enough to see through the trick.

Now that I had a few seconds to get my bearings, I noticed that everything that is going down is happening directly between that Seer and me. I held up my thumb to judge distance and line things up, and _yup_ , everything was right in front of me. Worth a shot to go for, right?

"Nora! _Batter's up!_ " I shouted. That wasn't actually a team move as far as I'm aware, but Nora actually had Hazel on the run and was swinging her hammer like a baseball bat. Her dust charge has got to be almost empty by now, so this is my one shot. Hopefully, Nora hears me and realizes that I just want her to smack me like a baseball.

I charged at Tyrian, launching myself with my gauntlets to build up speed. Tyrian grinned and crouched down, more than anticipating the exchange. All the more fun when I disappointed him, as the last time that I touched the ground before making it to him, I flipped half-way to put my arms on the ground in a handstand, before firing my gauntlet to carry me up and over Tyrian.

…and I landed right into the side of Hazel's face, who was still busy trying to wear out Nora's energy burst by baiting wild swings. I impacted his cheek with both feet and kicked for all I was worth, knocking the giant man over and halting most of my momentum. As I scrambled up off the ground, I looked up to Nora to see if she saw what I was doing, and she winked at me before rearing back.

My life flashed before my eyes as I realized just exactly what it was I was doing. Nora's hammer launched at me with dizzying speed for such a large object, and it was all I could do to jump up, curl my feet under me to make myself into a ball, and hold Jaune's shield up in front of me.

 _I really hope Jaune doesn't notice if this dents his shield._

The impact sent me flying and made my ears ring fiercely, as well as get the attention of everyone within a hundred miles, I'm sure. Even the Grimm turned their heads to see, but that might have been because I had surprised the Seer that was controlling them.

Nuckelavee arms shot out at me a moment later. Uncle Qrow was up close and personal with the rider of the Nuckelavee, and it recoiled its arms when Qrow sliced deeply into one of its shoulders. Nevermore that had been circling the sky similar to how the Beowolves were waiting now suddenly began to dive down at me, trying to cut off my momentum. If nothing else, I certainly had the attention of the Seer now.

I felt the world grow numb for a moment, and I forced my eyes open— _because yes, when you get smacked by Nora's hammer, you curl into a ball and close your eyes until it's all over._ Color had drained from my red shirt and my gauntlets, and since the Nevermore never touched me, I figured that Ren must have jumped close enough to use his Semblance as I flew by like a missile. I was still flying to fast to really look around for him.

Nora's aim ended up being pretty good. I didn't hit the Seer directly because it moved, but I grabbed one of the tentacles and drug it down onto a wider, lower rooftop. Skidding across roof tiles eventually broke my grip, but victory was so close that I could taste it, and before I had even stopped skidding, I was already back on my feet.

"Not so fast, blondie," Mercury taunted, hopping down between me and the Seer. They must have realized that I was going to spend all my effort going after it, and figured that they might as well make me work for it. I doubt they really thought that losing a Seer was all that costly, but if I was prepared to risk everything to get to it, they would gladly make it costly for me.

"Oh, good. I've been looking to kick your ass for a while now," I let out, rolling my neck and my shoulders.

" _As if_ ," Mercury taunted back. "What are you waiting for? I'm right here."

 _Yeah, and the Seer is right over there behind you_ , I drawled internally, before realizing that this was the point. He was trying to stall me by serving himself up. More importantly, he thinks that I'll get distracted by beating his ass long enough to let everyone else die. That… wasn't necessarily a terrible read on his part, at least, not under normal circumstances. It _does_ sound like me to beat him to a pulp and forget everything else.

Just… not today.

A similar plan as before with Nora crossed my mind—not getting smacked across the plaza, but the crystal thing. I reached into a pouch and pulled out a few crystals, tossing them aside when they revealed themselves to be lightning again. I dug around and grabbed a few big crystals, which were light blue-colored ice crystals. _Thank dust that Weiss really leans into the Ice Queen thing and had so many of these lying around._

"Catch!" I shouted, throwing the crystals into the air towards Mercury before dashing at him. Mercury took no chances at letting those crystals hit him, just as I expected. He kicked out towards them with one foot, shooting them out of the air in an explosion of snowflakes. It sent small particles flying everywhere, which wasn't enough to act as a smokescreen, but it _was_ enough to obscure vision. That, and as the sunlight reflected off the snowflakes, it would look like tons of tiny sparkles, perfect for disguising any flames that could be seen through the slits in my mask.

 _Ice._ I envisioned the word and felt a tingle in my skull. I felt kinda bad that my immediate thoughts of _ice_ made me think of Weiss, but if it works, it works.

Mercury went to fire again as a boost to back him out of range of my charge, only to look down and realize that his planted foot had been encased in ice, trapping him. His eyes went wide as I strode right up to him, delivering a devastating punch with the edge of the shield that heavily dazed him and knocked him out of the small ice trap I had put him in. They shouldn't have seen the flames around my eyes through the mask, so I hoped that showing off several dust crystals would make them suspect I snuck a crystal past Mercury, rather than that I made it appear by magic.

Mercury groaned and tried to crawl away from me. I planted a foot in his back to put an end to that, before rolling him over. I saw the whites in his eyes when I kicked him in the side of the head, knocking him out.

"Gods, that felt _good_."

I kicked him again, _harder_ , for good measure.

Motion in my periphery caught my eye and I looked up to find the Seer Grimm's tentacles shooting at me threateningly. I sliced at one or two with Crocea Mors, before a tentacle sacrificed itself to get tangled with my sword. Another latched on, trying to yank it away, and soon a couple grabbed onto my shield.

I let go of both at the same time, and blasted behind me with my gauntlets. I shot across the few feet separating us and made it to the Seer's core before it could react, grabbing it by the orb with both hands on either side.

A woman was projected inside the orb, with white skin and dark veins. A Queen of the Grimm if I'd ever seen one.

"Congratulations," the woman drawled sarcastically. Her voice seemed to float out of the orb in all directions equally, like some sort of magic speaker. "You captured my Seer. You've only sacrificed your chance at survival to do so."

"Let me guess… Salem, is it?" I responded, locking eyes with her projection angrily. She didn't return my anger, instead looking unimpressed or even bored.

"You say that name without the proper amount of fear for those who know what I am," the woman commented darkly. "I would ask who you are, but you'll soon be too dead for me to bother learning it."

"That's okay, you don't need to know who I am." I flexed my arms and fired a round from each gauntlet, shattering the Seer's orb. The rest of it dropped to the ground limply, and the Grimm surrounding us began to stumble and shake like they'd just been freed from its control. "Not yet, anyways."

 _Step one: kill the Seer._

Step two: boost Nora? Yeah, that sounds pretty good.

With a shot from my gauntlets, I bounded on top of the clocktower that I had just knocked the Seer down from. I braced myself, and reached out towards the sky. I closed my eyes and tried to calm down as much as possible.

 _Lightning. Storm. Surge. Electricity. Power. Strike. Electrocute._

Each word I focused on as I tried to imagine what I wanted to happen. I have no idea if that is how the powers are supposed to be activated, but dark clouds began to swirl in the sky above us at such a rapid pace that there was no way to deny that it was working. I looked down and realized that I was floating off the roof by a few feet, which only helped to confirm it.

I had everyone's attention, too. Tyrian and Hazel had very, very negative reactions, which felt great.

With a swift motion, I pointed my hand from up towards the sky to down at Nora, envisioning lightning striking her.

It did. By the gods, did it ever. And it didn't stop. A massive thunderbolt struck the girl and persisted, powered and fed by other small bolts that fed into the main one. The sky crackled and bristled with lightning as it all rushed over to fed into the bolt that was flowing directly into Nora.

After maybe ten seconds, the strike was over. So much lightning had produced enough thunder that no one could hear a thing for several seconds. Nora stood motionless on the ground for a moment, before twitched unnaturally and then sitting bolt upright in a near instant. Her eyes were completely engulfed with electricity, and it crackled out of her fingertips as she gripped Magnhild tighter. The energy wanted to pour out of her, and it crackled where her feet hit the ground.

The Grimm, not knowing any better, began to pour into the plaza, and the real fight began.

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

 _String him along, she says._ That can't be hard, now, can it? I know he's a headmaster, but he sucks at fighting. It'll be _easy._

Well, beating Watts and Lionheart _would_ be easy. I could do it with one arm tied behind my back. It took all of four seconds of attacking to realize that Watts was certainly no Huntsman. Hacker, sure; mechanical genius, yeah probably; mustache extraordinaire, totally. Fighter? No. Much more of a thinker than a fighter, and contrary to popular belief, being smart did not translate into predicting your opponents moves so that you can fight. It just leads you to _think_ you can predict those moves, which makes you stupidly easy to feint.

A loud, electric crackle sounded from the other side of the tattered piece of desk I was hiding behind. Watts and Lionheart would blow the poor thing to splinters pretty soon, meaning I would need a new way to occupy their time.

No, what's difficult is _not_ beating them. They're not good enough to beat me if I'm trying to fight back, but they have just enough dust to be really annoying. I can't just _not_ fight back against them, because they would catch on eventually and just fire endless dust at me until I made a mistake or they pulled out some new trick on me. Raven didn't expressly _say_ that I should keep Watts alive for her to interrogate too, but if she were here, she _would_ say it, and she would expect me to know that. Allowing opponents to attack you without allowing yourself to attack back is just a bad idea all around. Even a drunken idiot will hit you by accident eventually.

"I must say, Mr. Arc, that I expected you to be a little harder to put down," Watts monologued from the other side of the desk. _Ugh, and that's the other thing._ They think they're winning, and Watts is insufferable. "From what I've gathered, every other member of your family was quite adept at combat. Isn't that right, Leonardo?"

"The ones that were old enough to fight, yes," the headmaster answered, as both of their voices grew closer to my 'hiding' spot. "Most of his sisters would have been small children when they died."

That got my blood to boil a little. I grabbed a piece a splintered wood and tossed it above me. Watts and Lionheart both shot it out of the air, and I vaulted out from behind my hiding spot before the could train their sights down to me. I couldn't afford to take out any anger on them—because, again, doing so would kill them quickly—but stringing this out would be easier if they felt like they were toying with me. Acting enraged would help sell to them that they were in control here.

I took a big, lazy swing at Lionheart, who ducked under it, before an electric charge from Watts hit my back leg. Lionheart capitalized by hitting me with a small fireball that I somewhat blocked with my blade, which made it easy to sell that I was being overwhelmed and needed to back away.

"And _he_ was giving you fits before I arrived?" Watts asked Lionheart contemptuously. "My dear headmaster, you've fallen out of form."

"He was still trained by Branwen. That means something!" Lionheart protested. He looked at me cautiously still.

"Yes, well, so was his sister," Watts returned, looking to me again with a sly look, "yet she can fight, I presume. You, my dear boy, really must have been the black sheep of the family. Or you would have, had the rest of them lived…"

I realize that I had _just_ been taunting Lionheart in much the same way, but there was something really annoying in how Watts was gloating in his victory here. Maybe it was his voice, or maybe working for Salem gets in your head and makes you lean into the 'bad guy' role, but I really want to run him through with my sword right now.

"Yang isn't my sister!" I shot back angrily, both because it helped sell that I was spiraling in 'defeat' and because that joke was getting really old now.

Watts and Lionheart cocked their heads to the side slightly, surprised by something I said.

"We know that," Watts responded, with a tiny bit of hesitation in his voice. "It may have been before my time in this role, but Leonardo was the one who gave us your family's location. Isn't that right?"

"I-I did, yes," Lionheart answered as I glared him down. Now my blood was actually boiling, and I began calculating in my head just how angry Raven would be if she found both of them dead when she came back. The bastard just admitted to betraying my family and sending them all to their deaths; I'm sure Raven would understand my sudden bloodlust.

"And speaking of giving away positions, how long do you think miss Xiao Long will survive at Kuroyuri?" Watts asked Lionheart, making sure to aim the words at me. "I wouldn't be surprised if she has already expired."

"Shut up!" I yelled at Watts. I actually meant it in that I wanted him to shut up because I want to figure out what that line about my sister was supposed to mean. That, and I want to find out what Lionheart did to my family.

 _I need Lionheart to keep talking._ A little interrogation of my own, to get every last detail of how and why he did it before I kill him. Unfortunately, just glaring at him has him a little rattled, and he's not too talkative when he thinks I might still survive this. Unlike Watts, he saw me fighting before, and isn't convinced yet that I'm not a threat. We can fix that.

I charged in, letting some tension out with a guttural scream as I swung my blade haphazardly, making sure that at the end of each arc, I held the blade still for a second or two as I wound up for a new swing.

 _Come on, take it._

Watts tried shooting at me and I blocked it with the blade, as some of the electricity traveled up the metal and into my arms. I used that to my advantage, pretending like it slowed me down as I swung with less power at Lionheart. The blade missed—it hit its target, because I wasn't swinging to hit him—and impacted the ground just next to Lionheart.

 _Come on, coward, take it!_

Lionheart saw the opportunity to neutralize my sword and hesitated, deciding to try to blast it away with his gauntlet. That thing took too long to spin up, and I attacked Lionheart with another slow, played-out swing that missed and left my sword right next to him.

This time, the coward finally bit the bullet and grabbed onto the blade with both hands, just in time for Watts to shoot the back of my legs with a large electric burst. The next thing I knew, the butt of his gun buckled my knees from behind, and a boot to the face sent me lying on my back.

Lionheart tried to impale me through the throat with my own sword, but wasn't used to how large it was and gave me time to catch his clumsy blow by grabbing onto the end of the blade itself. He stood with one foot on my chest and Watts stood with another, keeping his gun trained down on me.

"Congratulations, headmaster," Watts rung out, taunting both Lionheart and me at the same time. "It appears that you've finally killed one of the Arcs you let escape. Well done…"

… _?_

"What do you mean _one of_?" I asked, grunting the words out as I strained to keep Lionheart from pushing down on the sword.

Watts and Lionheart gave me strange looks that I couldn't decipher.

"You… really don't know?" Lionheart asked me, either confused or surprised. "I knew that Raven wanted to hide her, but I didn't realize that she wouldn't even tell you about your own sister…"

"My _what?_ " I asked, confused. We'd just confirmed that they knew Yang wasn't related to me. "What sister? They're all dead."

Lionheart's expression of me changed to one of pity, which only drove my curiosity further.

"Vernal," the headmaster answered. "I wonder how Raven ever kept this from you. The two of you would have grown up together, not even knowing you were related?"

What? That didn't make any sense. These guys had fallen for Raven's ploy with Vernal so hard that they thought she was my sister? Yang would never let me hear the end of this if she found out. I can already hear the jokes.

I laughed in his face. "You're an idiot. You think _Vernal_ is my sister?"

"I don't think you fully grasp the situation, Mr. Arc," Watts commented ominously. "Unfortunate."

"You two aren't nearly as smart as you think you are," I let out with another gruff laugh at their expense. I turned and looked Lionheart in the eyes, wanting to see his reaction when he realizes how dumb he is for connecting the dots that Vernal is my sister. "Raven has played both of you like fools. You didn't even know I existed."

"While I did not know of your existence, I did know about young Vernal; I'd even offered to train her when she first gained her powers, but your family… declined." Lionheart paused for a moment, and I found myself no longer laughing. "I had thought we confirmed her death, but there are a few things now that cannot be faked," Lionheart explained. "Namely, she is still the Spring Maiden. Raven may have changed your sister's appearance in other ways, but that cannot be changed."

Did… did he…

He thinks Vernal is the Spring Maiden, and he thinks that makes her my sister. _And… he would have known who the previous Spring Maiden was…_ The one before Raven.

The one that Raven would have—

Watts saw in my eyes the moment that everything finally clicked, and he realized that this meant I was about to do something. He realized it a moment too late.

With a burst of Aura into the sword I was still holding up, I set off another dust round from the handle. It exploded right in Lionheart's face, causing him to release pressure on the sword and recoil backwards. As soon as that was done, I summoned an Aura blade with my Semblance and stabbed it into Watts' leg, causing him to stumble down. As he did so, I rammed that Aura blade into the man's throat, before tearing it out callously.

I was on my feet the next moment. Lionheart tried to recover enough to fire his gauntlet at me, but I was on him instantly. I cut through his Aura with my own, stabbing him in the gut once. For good measure, I pulled the blade out and stabbed again and again, trying to release some aggression.

It only did the opposite. Blood pounded in my ears as they both lay on the floor dying. My vision tinted— _in a final, appropriate twist of irony_ —red. I only had one thing on my mind.

 _Raven._

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: Uh oh, spaghettiohs.**

 **I did it. I made it through like 40 chapters without spoiling that reveal. _Gah_ , I have been waiting for this for so long. At least one person in the Discord had caught onto it, and I'm sure they'll parade around with their victory lap, so I'll shout them out next week once I see who exactly it was.**

 **Jaune is big mad. I'm sure that in the final chapter of the story next week, he will have a rational, sit-down conversation where he has her explain herself. We all know that Jaune is just _great_ at confrontation, especially when he is emotionally-compromised. Junior, Emerald, and Pyrrha can attest.**

 **Oh yeah, Pyrrha. I told you guys we'd read those letters. Amber's sacrifice was a gamble, because there was no guarantee it would work, or that she wouldn't cut too deeply and doom Pyrrha to death by blood loss. Guess she got lucky.**

 **Lucks does run out, though.**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _Kingofclubs8129_

"I have to go back and catch up on this because in like forty chapters behind, that said my comments have been featured in this and theres no way in hell im missing the chance to comment on chapter sixty-nine. That is all."

 **Forty chapters ago would put you at the Beacon dance, before Yang has forgiven Jaune for secretly being Raven's spy.**

 _ **Buddy.**_ **You're in for a ride if you're about to catch up. Hope you find this CotW eventually.**

 **Poor guy is about to go from _Yang distrusts Jaune_ to _Yang bangs Jaune_ to _Jaune's world crashes around him_ to _Amber_ to _No more Amber_. **

**I _really_ hope he chronicles his reactions as he goes. Those are always really fun to read.**

* * *

 **Next week is the final (official) chapter, because I'm dramatic and like ending things on a confrontation. There will be at least two epilogue entries, which will essentially be chapters in their own right.**

 **See you guys next week.**


	71. No one hurts you like family, pt 2

**Author's Note: Okay, just so we're clear, there** _ **will**_ **be one more chapter next week. Ignore what I previously said.** _ **There was no way I was going to pass up Chapter 69.**_ **Oh, and like, it would have been a dick move to end the story immediately after this chapter. So you get one more.**

 **Basically, half of the first epilogue is getting expanded into a full chapter.**

 **Oh, and the Discord looks different now. With MoNT coming to a close, it feels silly and self-absorbed to continue to have a dedicated MoNT server. Neither of those are reasons to change it, of course. But I've decided to pivot it into a RWBY-focused server, to extend its lifespan a little. If you enjoy shitposting about RWBY or seriously discussing the show (or its fanfics more generally), then stop on by.**

discord ( _dot_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _the letter gee_ ) ( _slash_ ) YzqBkXR

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 68:** _"Tragic irony is finally getting what you used to want when you no longer want it, and it putting you back where you started."_

* * *

Pyrrha's POV

* * *

My hands shook as I set the letter down on the ground next to me. There were still one or two more I hadn't read, but I don't know if I can bring myself to read them yet. _This is all so… so wrong!_ This Amber person steals my body, and then… and then goes and… and sleeps around with my body? And she tried to keep me from coming back, so she _knew_ I was still here? Maybe she didn't… didn't _know_ , but she knew it was possible.

It makes me sick to my stomach. It's different from how I felt when I learned Ozpin captured Jaune, but just as gut-wrenching. But the worst part is that I don't know if I should even blame Amber. After all, she at least wrote me a letter and somehow 'let' me have my body back. She might explain how that happened on the next page, but I'm still not sure if I want to read that yet.

There are others who haven't done me as many favors.

 _Ozpin and Jaune._ If Jaune hadn't been my partner—if I hadn't had the world's most obvious crush on him—then I never would have gotten caught between him and Ozpin's power struggle. I was put in the middle of something that I was not prepared to handle, and they both knew that. _If Jaune hadn't been my partner, Ozpin would still have made me a Maiden, though, wouldn't he?_ Maybe this is Ozpin's fault more than Jaune's, but he's still guilty too.

Right? Or… am _I_ guilty? Jaune was so furious at me for being forced to side with Ozpin and for betraying him, even by accident. The look on his face in the Vault was—

The memory of what happened in that Vault flashed in my mind, to the point where it was more real than the grass I was sitting on. Fear and terror paralyzed me to the point I couldn't breathe. I couldn't see anything but the look of hatred on Jaune's face as he advanced on me.

Eventually, I snapped out of it, and the world around me faded back into reality. Panic still gripped me and it took a few minutes to steady my breathing. I felt unnaturally on edge, and the hair on the back of my neck stood up the whole time.

"I'm… not okay," I admitted quietly to myself, huddling my knees up to my chest and burying my face in them. Something was wrong. _Everything_ was wrong. Beacon had been a disaster. Every choice I made there seemed like the wrong one, and I couldn't do anything right. I couldn't even _die_ right; instead, I came back to life as a different person entirely. And when she left, I came back, but… I'm not the same person anymore, am I? How can I be?

At least I'm a long way from Beacon now. Maybe… maybe that's for the best. Maybe I should go a little further away. Argus sounds nice right about now, doesn't it?

If nothing else, I could use a break from everything. _Let's go home._

* * *

Raven's POV

* * *

I thought about taking my time and strolling through the halls of Haven like I owned the place. I did so at first, swinging Leonardo's timepiece—the one given to him by Ozpin when he was named headmaster here—by its chain as I went, but I eventually decided to hurry things along. Jaune would be fine beating up Leonardo; the man never was much as a fighter, and clearly hadn't expected that I baited him into sending Hazel and Tyrian to Kuroyuri.

That was the reason I hurried along. The only way I can see this backfiring on me is if it took too long to get the Relic and Yang were to die in the ambush. That _shouldn't_ happen, not since she knew what she was getting into, but there is no telling how many Grimm will be there. Honestly, the flight to Kuroyuri should have been long enough that they would only now be arriving.

Still, Yang dying would be bad. Jaune would go hysterical, and it would effectively sever my ties to Tai and Qrow. Seeing as they're the ones who have to make my deal with Mistral official, I'll need them to not be angry at me. _Or dead, which means I can't let any of that group die in an ambush._

I flew as a bird to the large entryway of the school, where the statue to knowledge stood. Despite my rush, I took a moment to roll my eyes at Ozpin's lack of subtlety. _Statue to knowledge, huh_. It's a good thing no one ever bother to ask why knowledge was a large woman carved out of stone with proportions to make even Yang envious. Maybe everyone just assumed that the sort of nerd who would commission a 'statue to knowledge' would be the type to want such a statue to look like someone from a wet dream of theirs.

Figuring out how it works didn't turn out hard, not that I expected it to. The statue had gold chains wrapped around it, with a large, circular spot that would fit a certain gold pocket watch perfectly. It really was as simple as popping the object in. The statue moved aside, revealing an elevator down. _Much more intricate than Beacon's Vault, but then again, Beacon's Vault doesn't actually store a Relic._

I only rode the elevator down far enough for it to reveal the chamber of the Vault. Once that was exposed, I slipped out of the elevator in bird form and dove down to the floor, where I was immediately greeted with weapons.

"Told you guys!" Summer's clone— _daughter_ , sorry—let out gleefully. "She'd show up eventually. Looks like the headmaster was right."

"Raven."

"Tai," I called back playfully, despite his less than friendly greeting. "What are you all doing down here?"

I strode forward slowly, making no move to draw my weapon. The children were made nervous by this. The Faunus' ear twitched and the Schnee's rapier shifted slightly as she gripped it tighter. Summer's spawn did her best to hide her tension by hiding behind the scope of her sniper rifle.

Tai didn't react. He didn't even have weapons drawn on me. He just stood there with his arms crossed, giving me a disappointed look.

"We're guarding the Vault," the Schnee spat out.

"Unfortunately for you, you are," I answered coyly, grinning from behind my mask. This was just too easy. It should be illegal to enjoy things this much.

I kept walking towards them until I had made it to the group. The children seemed to panic and looked around to find out what they were to do. When I casually continued walking past them and when Tai made no move to attack, they did the same, just… more nervously. _They don't think I'm a threat to open the Vault, so until I open a portal to Vernal, I'm harmless._ Otherwise, Tai wouldn't have let me off the elevator without a fight.

"I'm curious, what exactly is your plan here?" I asked, stopping a few feet past them and keeping my back to them as I looked at the Vault.

"We're here to stop you from taking the Relic," Summer's offspring announced, as if she would make that happen through saying it.

"Oh?" I paused for a moment, letting a beat pass dramatically before continuing. "Who told you that I would be going for a Relic? Was it Yang?"

"Headmaster Lionheart, actually," the Schnee spat at me again. It was hard to tell if that was just how people from Atlas treated others, or if she held something against me personally. Wouldn't really blame the child either way, I suppose. "We saw through your trick."

I laughed at that. Tai hadn't said a word yet, which was unlike him. He clearly felt uneasy about this whole thing, which showed that his instincts were still as good as ever. The Faunus hadn't said much either.

"I very much doubt that you did," I responded. I didn't need to turn around to know just how confused and leery they were now. Their anxiety hung in the air as thickly as their silence did. "There were two tricks played here today, and you've seen through exactly zero of them. Care to take a guess what they were?"

Tai wouldn't answer to that, I already knew. We'd had enough fights when we were together for him to know when I wanted him to guess, so that I could blow up on him for guessing wrong. This wasn't quite that, but it was similar.

"You let Amber go to distract us!" Summer's firstborn accused, either not picking up on my game or thinking she was going to win it. "You thought you could steal the Relic while we searched for her. Well, we already found her!"

"No," I called back confidently enough to rattle even Summer's kid's confidence, "you did not, you fools."

"What—?"

" _The first trick_ —" I cut the child off, still keeping my back to them, "—was not one of mine. It was Leonardo's."

" _Raven_ ," Tai finally called out, in his _cut the bullshit_ tone.

I ignored it. This was too delicious of a reveal to just simply tell them what they needed to know. I had to rub it in, to salt and season the wound.

"He did not find Amber out in Kuroyuri. He is not even your ally."

"What?" a new voice—the Faunus girl's, then—cut in.

"Leonardo Lionheart has been bought by Salem," I announced. I heard a gasp or two from behind me that only made my grin grow wider. "Kuroyuri is a death trap. Your friends were sent there by Lionheart to die. You were put down here to do the same." I drew my sword lazily, looking down over it and acting as if I was disinterested in our conversation, while subtly implying that I was the one supposed to kill them.

" _Raven!_ " Tai's voice boomed. He took a step towards me threateningly, but I remained turned with my back towards him. "What's going on!?"

"Leo put you down here so that when I went for the Relic, I would find you in my way," I explained, as if it were the simplest thing in the world. "What would the four of you do against me and my Spring Maiden?"

The question hung in the air.

"Die. That's what you would do. You would die here while Qrow, Yang, and the others die elsewhere."

Tai's footsteps drew nearer to me. It was a bit risky, but I let him get as close as he liked.

"Fortunately for you, I have my own trick. Would you like to hear it?"

Tai's footsteps stopped just behind me, and I took that as an invitation to explain. I turned around to face the group.

"I sent Yang with you on purpose. _She_ knows that this was all a trick by Lionheart. There's a good chance that she's kept your friends and my idiot brother alive, for now." I let the words sink in. Tai, standing so close I could touch him, glared at me, but couldn't harm me as long as I might be on his side. "Let's make a deal, shall we?"

Tai refused to answer, but I made it clear that I wasn't going to offer the deal until he broke. We stared at each other for nearly ten seconds before he finally gave in. "What is the deal?"

"I'm _so_ glad you asked. You see, Lionheart thought I'd slaughter you all and do him a favor. I'm really not in the slaughtering mood, so I'll open a portal to Yang for you and you all can rush in to save them."

"And leave you here alone with the Vault?" Tai asked flatly.

"Alone? No." I gave him a smirk that he couldn't see through the mask, but could definitely read from my body language. A soft, bemused laugh left my lips, too. "I'll have the Spring Maiden to keep me company, just as soon as you all are gone."

"How do we know that _this_ isn't a trick?" the cat-girl asked.

"Now you're finally getting it! You should have been asking these questions long before now." I turned back to face Tai, knowing that he was the one to convince. "Yang agreed to this plan. For now, she still works with me. Say what you'd like about me, but acknowledge that I do not want her killed. If this were a trick—" I grabbed my sword and cut open a portal to Yang, "—then I would not be sending you to her."

They all stared at the portal. Small amounts of smoke billowed out of it, and the sounds of Grimm and fire could be heard through it. It appears that the ambush had begun.

"What's it going to be?" I addressed the group loudly. "Will you step through and save them, or not?"

Now that they could hear that things were indeed bad, their resistance dropped dramatically. Summer's girl's face fell as she stared at the portal, and the other kids were equally as worried. Tai, though he tried his best to glare at me, gave in quickly. He knew better than to call my bluff if he wasn't completely certain that it was a bluff.

With one final glare, he began to rush over to the portal. The others followed suit.

Before they could get through, something came out of the portal. I gripped my sword and prepared to cut down whatever Grimm wandered through, stopping only at the realization that Grimm don't have yellow hair.

" _Yang?_ "

My daughter walked out, supporting the orange-haired girl as she did, in no particular hurry. Qrow limped out while supporting the boy in a similar manner. They all looked like shit, save for Yang, who was bloodied with blood that clearly wasn't hers. Cuts and bruises littered the group, and splotches of red told of a very hard-fought battle.

Yang set down the girl she was assisting and walked over to me. She looked exhausted and had soot on her exposed skin—not to mention splatters of blood—but she strode up to me triumphantly. She threw her grin in my face as she stood before me, drawing attention to the deliberate way that she wasn't wearing her mask anymore.

"Close the portal."

Yang's words surprised me and I looked over to find that I had left the portal open, and without thinking about it, I closed it. My mind was spinning too quickly to question it.

 _This was not how this was supposed to go,_ was the only coherent thought I could nail down. Opening the Vault was going to be a lot more difficult with so many witnesses. With the right sleight of hand as I open a portal to Vernal, I can still pull this off, but it's going to be suspicious. Not to mention once I do get the Vault open, I think have to enter inside and grab the Relic without everyone here turning on me.

 _Shit._

Ominously, the elevator in the background began to hum as it rose back up top. I ignored it for the people in front of me as I tried to work out a way to spin this.

"How the hell…?" I asked Yang quietly and sternly.

She gave me a cocky shrug. "Don't worry, we won. We won't be hearing from any of them for a _long_ time."

"That's not what I meant and you know it," I hissed at Yang, who looked like a damn mirror image of myself with that smug grin.

"Hey Raven," Tai called out, making me go stiff. I'd hoped that, for some reason, he would forget to gloat. "About that deal…"

The elevator began to hum once more in the background, this time as it came down. I ignored it again.

"Has anyone seen Jaune?" Ruby called out as she tended to her somewhat-injured friends. "He could heal— _Jaune!_ "

I was still trying to think out a way to spin this and didn't register the noise I was hearing.

"Jaune, over here! We need—Jaune, where are you going?"

"So, Raven, how's your plan looking now?" Yang asked me cockily, but with a hint of an edge underneath it. It snapped me from my thoughts and I stared her down.

Until Jaune pushed her aside from behind.

"What are you doing down here? I—"

I didn't get to finish, because Jaune hit me in the face with enough force to knock me flat on my ass. My ears rang from the blow, and somewhere along the way I lost my mask.

I rolled up onto my feet, drawing my blade. " _What the hell is going on!?_ "

* * *

Yang's POV

* * *

By the time Raven had sent us a portal, there wasn't anything left to do in Kuroyuri except for hold off the last few stragglers of Grimm. Hazel, Tyrian, and Mercury had been… dealt with. Not all of the blood on our clothes was our own. I felt bad for Nora especially as I remembered her reaction after the Breach, when she realized that she had killed White Fang members. We didn't really have time to dwell on it, though.

As we walked through the portal, that wasn't what mattered. Getting to safety was what mattered, because I wouldn't have been able to hold things off for much longer. Out of the three of us, I was the only one whose Aura still held, but my legs felt like jelly. I had dug far deeper into the Maiden's powers than I had realized could be done, and I wanted nothing more than to just keel over and take a nap.

Seeing Raven's reaction when we arrived gave me some strength back. It let me walk right up to her face to gloat, and I absolutely loved basking in how frustrated, confused, and upset she was.

That was, until an arm grabbed my shoulder and pushed me to the side, pushing off to get momentum to hit Raven so hard that her mask flew off.

I stood there dumbly for a few moments, wondering what exactly was going on. Raven was in a similar place.

" _What the hell is going on?!_ " she shouted after bouncing off the ground and rolling backwards onto her feet, drawing her weapon out to the side to make it obvious she wasn't kidding around.

All her dramatic flair nearly cost her again, because she only narrowly was able to get her sword up in time to parry away Jaune's overhead smash with his claymore. Raven's instincts kicked in and she tried to turn her parry into a pommel strike, but couldn't completely slip inside of Jaune's guard. He brought one hand off his sword and blocked the blow on his gauntlet. Raven used the block as an opportunity to kick backwards, skidding several feet towards the Vault to create space.

Her eyes locked onto Jaune's sternly. Whatever his eyes held, I couldn't tell from behind, but it wasn't a good sign that he had been silent the whole time. This probably wasn't just him wanting to ruin Raven's moment or undermine her play. Jaune was angry enough that this felt like him cutting ties, but even that didn't feel totally right. He should be talking, throwing words in Raven's face to antagonize her.

 _It'd be a strange time to finally come around, but hell, now is as good of a time for us to do this as any._ I may be tired, but this is a fight that I need to help with. At least he picked a time when we had backup here with us. We don't need to beat Raven so much as make it clear to her that the easiest path would be letting us go.

I looked over to find everyone completely confused by what was going on. Ruby and Blake looked like they wanted to jump into the fight too, but weren't sure of themselves. I motioned for everyone to stay put. "Stay here. This is… uh… it's how they work out their differences, trust me."

Dad and Qrow were the two who knew Raven best out of the group. The fact that they didn't disarm made the rest of my team nervous.

I turned to walk over to Jaune, who was glaring down Raven hatefully. As I got closer, I could see that his arms were shaking from how angry he was. It was something I recognized easily, because I do the same thing, only a lot more often than him.

This no longer felt like just Jaune coming to his senses and wanting to leave. Something was wrong here.

"Jaune—" I called out as I approached him from behind, reaching out to gently grab his arm. I tried to hide how cautious I was being with him, but it came through in my voice anyways.

" _Stay out of this!_ " Jaune hissed, swinging his arm back in my direction. His reaction caught me off guard and he hit me in the face, causing me to stagger backwards and nearly stumble onto the ground.

Jaune was so focused on Raven that he didn't even notice or turn to check on me. I doubted he even realized that he had hit me, much less smacked me in the face. That, when combined with how quiet he was being and how his hands shook, began to alert me that something was _really_ wrong here. My instincts were screaming at me that something was up.

"You whiny brat!" Raven chastised angrily, whipping her sword out to the side. It sounded like she was berating a child for misbehaving, and was using it to vent her frustrations with her plans getting derailed. All of this blowing up right in front of dad and uncle Qrow probably embarrassed Raven, and making up for that was all she was focused on. She didn't quite realize just how angry Jaune was. "I told you that Yang would be _fine_! All you had to do was have a little faith and stick to the fucking plan. I wanted Lionheart alive, but you just _had_ to have your way, didn't you?"

I looked down to find that I wasn't the only one with someone else's blood on them, and put together than Raven had sent Jaune to deal with Lionheart on his own. Something had happened there, obviously.

There was an awkward beat in the conversation. Raven expected Jaune to answer, to have some snide comeback or to put the onus back onto her in some way, like they normally did. She expected him to try to show her up and get smart with her, like this was just another one of their very violent mother-son talks.

The only sound was the shell to Jaune's sword hitting the floor as it transformed down from a claymore to a broadsword. The implicit threat that held wasn't missed by Raven: Jaune was switching to a weapon he was better with. _Deadlier_ with. He had no intention of talking this out.

I could hear how heavy Jaune was breathing. He was _seething_ at her, and she still didn't see it yet.

" _Fine._ If you want to do this in front of them, then let's do it," Raven huffed. Without her mask, her frustration was easy to spot. Things were not going according to her plans in the slightest, and she was lashing out without realizing what was going on here. She held her sword out at Jaune, giving him a sort of fencer's solute, except instead of mutual respect, it felt like she was announcing just how badly she was going to beat him. _So, the opposite of a fencer's salute; A fencer's taunt, perhaps_. "Don't disappoint me. I'm not in a forgiving mood."

Jaune's breath grew heavier. He brandished Angau in an aggressive stance.

Raven leapt at him in a blinding fit of speed, slashing at him diagonally with a long, red blade. Instead of just blocking the blade, Jaune slashed back at it perpendicularly, meeting the blade half-way in an aggressive move. Not many people would have stepped _into_ that attack from Raven of all people, and the only person that wasn't surprised was Raven.

I noticed someone's presence beside me, and afford a quick glance to find that dad had walked up next to me. He leaned over to whisper something in my ear, without taking his eyes off the fight. "You sure about letting this play out?"

"It gets violent, but usually…" _Usually, Raven pulls back once Jaune accepts he's beaten._ I had a gnawing feeling that Jaune wouldn't accept anything this time. "Something feels wrong this time."

"Just say the word and we'll break this up," dad offered, crossing his arms but not really hiding how anxious he was.

" _If we can_ ," I mumbled. Three on one were good odds, but not… _great_ odds. I don't have just a ton left in the tank after Kuroyuri, and I have no way of knowing how long my powers would last, but I know that Raven's are fresh.

Nervously, I kept my eyes on the fight, hoping that it wasn't going to come to that.

Raven's blade shattered on impact with Jaune's, and she twisted in mid-air to avoid Jaune cutting all the way through her blade to get to her body. She skidded to a stop just behind Jaune and immediately brought her pommel to her waist, loading a new blade. It popped out a split-second later, trying to slash at the back of Jaune's ankle before he could even twist around fully. The yellow blade she pulled out was just the right distance to reach Jaune but significantly short and quicker than her standard nodachi blade.

It didn't matter. Jaune wasted no movements, bringing the sword around before the rest of him had turned that way, flipping his wrists to drop the blade's tip downwards. Raven's blade was blocked inches in front of Jaune's leg. He wasn't fazed in the slightest with how close the blow had come to landing and immediately stomped down on the edge of Raven's blade, before bringing his blade up to force Raven to make a choice. He began to swing down in a powerful diagonal strike that was bolstered by the long wind-up of raising the sword all the way up, leaving Raven with few options.

Instead of trying to yank her blade out and then redirect its momentum up to give herself a chance at parrying the attack, Raven twisted her wrists and snapped the thin blade in half, leaving it with a jagged spike. The new 'blade' had a short reach and was only as long as the pommel, but Jaune was already within its striking range. His overtop blow was slow enough that Raven could sidestep and parry it away, and the instant she was clear of the blade she lunged in, looking to stick the jagged point into Jaune's stomach.

With Jaune's blow leaving both hands holding his pommel down below his waist and Raven slipping past his right guard to give his kidneys a prod, Jaune did the most natural thing he could: he let go of his pommel with his right hand, and caught her sword by the blade. Aura sparked to protect him as the blade slid through his grip. It stopped an inch from Jaune's eye, only once Jaune's hand had made it to the guard at the end of the blade. His Aura shone brightly, and the only reason the blade stopped instantly was Jaune's Semblance negating its momentum.

The speed with which Jaune's hand shot out to stop Raven's attack had rivaled Raven's own. He was dialed in right now, fighting at a level that I had only seen him achieve in short flashes.

He didn't hesitate to drop his sword entirely, doing so with his left hand even before he had fully caught Raven's blade with his right. His fist launched at Raven's head and she narrowly pulled her neck back to avoid it, and as soon as it passed by, Jaune yanked it back at her head once more. Raven committed to pulling back to play defense, and let the blade in Jaune's right hand slide out of her pommel as she yanked her arm back, bringing it and the other one up in a crossed guard to catch Jaune's forearm.

A blade made from Jaune's Aura protruded from Jaune's closed fist. Its point stopped an inch short of Raven's eye. Had she not let her blade go, she wouldn't have stopped that blade in time.

Raven's eyes went wide—as did mine. We both realized that unlike Raven's attack, Jaune's would not have been blocked by Aura. His would have killed her on the spot, and it was meant to.

Suddenly— _finally—_ Raven realized what she should have noticed earlier, had she not been too frustrated to see it. This fight took on a whole new meaning for her.  
Dad didn't know how Jaune's Semblance worked, but he could read Raven's reactions better than anyone. He sensed that something had changed in the fight too, and I felt him tense up beside me.

Raven's eyes remained wide as she strained to keep that blade from inching close to her eye. Both her arms and Jaune's shook from exertion as they each fought a deadly match of inverse tug-of-war. Suddenly, Jaune's expression turned from hateful to hateful _and_ strained, and Raven realized instantly that something was up. His Aura blade pulsed red and grew slightly brighter as Jaune fed into it, and the size of the projection grew very suddenly.

It grew by several inches. Raven managed to break the stalemate with a final push of effort as Jaune focused on enlarging the blade, but didn't come away unscathed. Jaune had cut a long, thin streak across Raven's cheek, and from the look on Raven's face, she was genuinely rattled. A small trickle of blood ran down her cheek before Raven's Aura kicked in and sealed the cut.

She forced Jaune's arm to the side, yanking on it to force him out of position and bringing her knee up into his gut. The move surprised Jaune and stunned him enough for her grab his shoulder and use it to vault herself over him, allowing Raven time to re-arm her handle in mid-air and create enough space for her to breathe.

The move launched her right next to the Vault.

"What has gotten—" her voice belied a slight sense of panic on her part, and it was cut off as the broken bit of blade Raven had surrendered in their last exchange whizzed through the air. It cut right where Raven's head had been, before embedding itself in the stone of the Vault just behind her.

By the time Raven looked up again, Jaune had picked up his sword and was charging at her. He had shifted it from a broadsword into two shorter katanas, swiping up at Raven from so low a position that the blade scraped across the ground, sending sparks and dust into Raven's face.

Raven caught the blow on her blade and immediately returned a blind slash of her own, trying to stop Jaune from using the dirt in her eyes to his advantage. Jaune blocked it with his left sword, dropping the right one down to swipe at Raven's thigh. She took a small step backwards, knowing that she didn't have much room with the Vault behind her, but created enough space for the blow to pass by. As soon as it did, she launched that knee up at Jaune, using her blade to stop Jaune's free blade from blocking it. That knee rammed into Jaune's gut, creating enough space for her to get her foot up into that gut. As Jaune tried to chop it off with his left sword after recovering from its missed strike, she pushed off of him and jumped backwards forcefully.

Jaune's Semblance activated this time, stopping him from stumbling backwards from the kick. Raven's feet hit the Vault wall with her in a coiled position, ready to launch back at Jaune with a devastatingly powerful slash that would be too fast for Jaune to get his guard back up.

Instead, her momentum fizzled as she had to dodge to the side to avoid Jaune's katana from being thrown into her neck. She slid down the Vault harmlessly, but it took precious time to do so. By the time her feet made it to the ground, it was too late to bring up her sword to block the horizontal blow Jaune was swinging at her head with both hands. Her hand twitched and I could see in her eyes her frustration as she realized she couldn't resort to her Maiden powers, and that Jaune was giving her all she could handle in this exchange, and maybe more. In that moment, it felt to me like she realized that she couldn't beat him without injuring him significantly.

She placed hand out on the Vault to her side and pushed against it to help her drop her body underneath Jaune's sword just before impact. Sparks shot out from Jaune's blade scraping against the Vault, and Raven kicked off from it, drawing a new blade and cutting deeply into Jaune's Aura around his thigh as she shot off. Jaune grunted from the damage and the blow forced that leg to give out, putting him down on one knee.

This time, she put significant distance between her and Jaune. Nearly thirty feet. But when she turned around, her expression soured.

She had placed her hand on the Vault. It had responded to the Spring Maiden, and had begun to open. Worse for her, everyone who was still watching from the edge of the bridge began to realize what that meant. Whispers and a few gasps from the crowd watching made it clear that Raven's secret was out.

"That's enough!" Raven roared, losing her own temper now that so many things had backfired in her face all at once. She wasn't accustomed to losing, and her temper showed that. With her greatest secret now out in the open, she let her Maiden's flames burn around her eyes as a threat, and a promise. "You will drop your sword and yield immediately, or you will _bleed until you can no longer hold it!_ "

Jaune slowly and deliberately picked up his other sword, melded them back into a broadsword, and then spat in Raven's direction to let her know exactly how much he cared for her words.

Raven let her rage be known. Jaune had just challenged her authority and her strength itself, and had done so knowing exactly what came next. The fury of the Spring Maiden crashed down on the boy like a hurricane.

Raven shot past Jaune, catching herself on the Vault, and launched at him again. A pillar of ice formed and she shot off it back at him. Again. And again. Shards of blades flew in all directions, as each exchange shattered one of Raven's disposable blades. It was a lot like watching Weiss rip opponents to shreds by bouncing off her glyphs, only with more raw power. The blows from her sword, Jaune could block and even managed to inflict some small cuts of his own, but he couldn't do that _and_ avoid her magic.

A blade would be blocked, and a delayed burst of fire would hit him. Spikes of ice would appear out of the ground beneath him, forcing him to roll away just in time to nearly have his head taken off. Jolts of lightning would shock him hard enough that his skeleton could briefly be seen.

Dad and I both decided at the same time that we weren't letting this play out any longer, not now that magic was on the table. This felt a lot like the end of the first confrontation between Raven and Jaune I had spied on, where once Raven broke out her powers, Jaune had no options left but to take it. The problem was that Jaune was clearly not going to surrender, for whatever reason. He would force Raven to back up her comment about making him bleed so that he would drop his blade.

We both rushed forward, but by that point, it was too late. Jaune's Aura had held, but the strength in his legs gave out as he was overwhelmed. As soon as his back hit the ground, Raven's boot dug into his chest, and her blade pressed up against his throat. I was only feet away, but it might as well have been a thousand miles. Dad froze too, just a few feet further away from Raven than I was.

Red eyes glared down furiously. Blue ones glared back with more hate and pain than I'd ever seen before.

" _Do it_ ," Jaune dared her, his words dripping with hate and pain and venom. "Kill me too, why not?"

Raven looked like she considered it, but to my relief, she dismissed that thought. Her heel dug deeper into Jaune's chest, though she tilted her head ever so slightly in confusion at Jaune's words.

"Go on, do it," Jaune taunted her hatefully. His voice sounded hollow and empty. "What's one more Arc to your body count?"

Raven's brow furrowed in confusion. Her eyes were no longer angry so much as they were leery. She could sense something was off, and now that she had won the fight and her rage was wearing off, she began to become suspicious about what was going on.

Jaune's eyes did not grow any softer, however.

"What are you so worked up about?" Raven asked, her voice low enough to afford them a little privacy from the rest of the gathered crowd. I doubted it was meant to be condescending, but Jaune flinched—or recoiled angrily, really—at her tone. Her boot dug in deep and her blade pushed just a little more firmly against his neck, stopping him from trying anything.

" _Vernal,_ " Jaune spat out. I was confused by the answer and stepped forward cautiously, hoping to pull Raven off of Jaune and get everyone to talk things out from here on in. _Maybe this did end up like their normal fights, and now that it's over, things can calm down…_

Raven stared at Jaune suspiciously for a moment, before her eyes went wide with realization, surprise, and… and horror? _Fear?_

"Vernal _Arc_ ," Jaune spat out again. Blood drained from Raven's face for reasons I didn't quite understand yet.

"Jaune, I didn't—" Something about that name rattled Raven, as if everything had made sense and she'd suddenly seen a ghost. She began to stagger backwards and didn't quite seem to know what she wanted to say. "You weren't there—"

The _instant_ her weight was no longer pressed down on Jaune, he summoned what was left of his Aura into one last blade and jabbed it into Raven's knee, sending out a splash of blood as he crippled her mobility. Raven let out a pained gasp as she fell backwards onto the ground, and rather than return to her feet and fight back, and began to crawl away.

Jaune was on his feet the next moment, and might have killed Raven then and there if I hadn't put myself directly in front of him. I put my face directly in front of his to force him to see something other than Raven, hoping that would break him loose. He tried to lean to the side to see around me instead.

"Who's Vernal Arc?" dad asked loud enough so that either of them could answer. The question gave me a feeling of dread about what the answer would be, given it was the source of Jaune's rage and it had struck panic into Raven's heart, two reactions that did _not_ make any sense to me.

"She _was_ my sister," Jaune spat out, looking directly past me and glaring at Raven, who had finally collected herself and hobbled up into a standing position, favoring her injured left leg heavily. Jaune continuously pushed up against me, trying to force me aside so he could finish what he'd started. "And she _was_ the Spring Maiden."

It took me a moment to grasp what exactly that meant. There was a reason that Vernal—the one at the camp—was named that. It was the previous Spring Maiden's identity that she was using to hide the fact that Raven was the Maiden now. _Which means Raven had to take the powers from the previous Maiden, which was Jaune's sister!?_ Raven had someone steal the identity of Jaune's sister and never told him!?

How did she get the powers in the first place?

My head whipped around to Raven with a hard glare.

" _What did you do!?_ " I held out one arm to hold Jaune back, and made it clear that I was prepared to let him loose at any moment. The only reason it kept him back was the death-grip I had on the collar of his shirt.

"She killed her!" Jaune yelled at Raven. "She took her from me. She stole her powers. And that wasn't enough for you, was it!?"

"I didn't kill her!" Raven shouted back weakly. "You weren't there—"

" _I was there!_ " Jaune shouted back.

"You were too small to remember!" Raven returned, her voice rising to match Jaune's. She was _very_ defensive, though. "You couldn't possibly know what happened!"

"You couldn't _just_ kill my sister, could you? You had to steal her life _and_ take me!" Jaune shouted over Raven, without listening to her for a moment. "It wasn't enough for you to snuff her out, was it? It wasn't enough for the Arcs to die out. You had to let one survive and then make him abandon his name! You wanted to turn me into you, just to salt the wound!"

"That's not—!"

" _Go to hell!_ " Jaune screamed, his voice cracking violently as he choked back tears. Raven flinched and shut up. "You lied to me for years! All this time, I never realized I was just a trophy. Just a monument to the great Raven Branwen's power and cruelty. A reminder of that time she murdered a little girl and then raised her brother without him ever finding out. Is that what I am to you!?"

"That's—" Raven's own voice cracked now, and she actually struggled to regain her composure for the first time that I had ever seen. Once she did, she managed to sound a little angry, but not much compared to Jaune. "—that's not what happened! I didn't kill your sister!"

"Oh, what, she just killed herself?!" Jaune spat out in a bitter, sardonic manner.

"She did!" Raven shouted forcefully, as if desperate to be believed.

"You expect me to believe that?" Jaune asked cynically. "That a girl—who was, what, maybe ten years old?—that a _child_ kills herself, while the most bloodthirsty, power hungry, heartless bitch that Remnant has seen since Salem stands there and talks her out of it?"

Jaune stepped forward into my outstretched arm. I wasn't sure why I was still holding him back, but I held him there. Raven… didn't have an answer for him.

"I swear I didn't kill her, Jaune."

"I don't care if you _are_ telling the truth. I refuse to believe you ever again," Jaune hissed lowly. "I trusted you. I believed you when you said we were family. I _wanted_ that! I've _always_ wanted a family, and you— _the same person who ripped it away from me_ —made me think that you were that family!" Jaune lurched forward again, and I almost let him go this time. Once he was held back, I dropped my arm and made it clear I wasn't going to stop him again. "I gave up everything I'd ever wanted to make this work! You offered me my freedom and I turned it down for you. Gods, what a fucking power trip that must have been for you!"

Jaune's voice bounced off the walls of the cave. Nothing else dared make a sound.

"Strip me down to till I have nothing left, and then trick me into choosing to stay with you. Do you get off on it? Do you hate m-me _that much!?_ " Jaune's voice cracked again, and the tears finally fell. He didn't even bother trying to hold them back anymore. "Or is it a subservience thing? You must just thrive on dominating others. Crushing my identity and replacing me with you must make you feel so powerful, doesn't it?!"

Jaune waited for her to say something, but she… didn't. Couldn't. She stood there, wide-eyed, and took every bit of what she deserved. Raven Branwen, of all people, shrunk under the weight of Jaune's fury.

"T-That's not true, Jaune," Raven spoke finally, and timidly. "This wasn't about making you into—I wasn't… I wasn't trying to break you, or… or rob you of who you are. I just… I wanted—"

" _You had me take your fucking last name!_ " Jaune screamed at her, louder than any before it. "What, you expect me to believe that after all of this, that you _really_ just wanted me to see who my family was?" Jaune asked, echoing the words Raven had used countless times now to explain her decision to send Jaune to Beacon.

Raven dropped her head low, staring at the ground in shame. Her voice was so quiet, I almost missed it. " _Yes._ "

"Have it your way, then," Jaune announced bitterly, before reaching around my waist and grabbing Crocea Mors.

He held it out in front of him, showing off the sheathed ancestral blade of the Arc family, before throwing it off to the side unceremoniously. It clattered and skidded across the ground, coming to a halt near the edge of the ground.

Jaune's head turned towards me ever so slightly.

"Yang, whatever happens next, don't hold me back." His vision returned back to Raven, and Jaune gripped Angau Glas with both hands. "It's past time for a Branwen to die."

Raven perked up in surprise as Jaune's words, eyes going wide as they looked up to find Jaune charging at her with the sword she had once gifted him. In the armor that matched hers. With his mask still attached to his hip.

Panic and fear shot through Raven, who couldn't fight back with her knee mangled as it was. She knew she couldn't disarm Jaune in this state. Her only options were let what happens happen, or cut Jaune down with her Maiden's powers like a coward.

Jaune stepped forwards at her, making his intentions known as he wielded Angau Glas.

Raven squeezed her eyes shut and turned her head as she raised her arms. Gasps—and Ruby's scream—were heard in the distance, far too far away to stop the stream of magical energy pouring out of Raven right now.

Raven finally stopped, slowly and sadly looking up to see what she had done. There was a tear falling from her flaming eyes.

Those flaming eyes met my own in shock. She'd couldn't have expected her attack to be rebuffed by another Maiden. _She'd never expected Jaune to survive, knowing what she'd just chosen to do._

Her eyes turned to Jaune, dreading what came next. Angau Glas struck Raven in an upward diagonal, with enough fury in the blow to strain her Aura. Crimson streaks fizzled across Raven's body, only just narrowly holding together at the last second. Raven couldn't have done anything to weaken the blow.

It sent her skidding backwards across the ground, stopping right in front of dad's feet. Limply and desperately, she reached for her sword and drew the shortest blade she had. With Jaune followed after her slowly and deliberately, letting his sword drag across the ground to let Raven know exactly how close she was to her end.

Before she could cut open a portal, dad's hand reached out and grabbed her wrist, stopping her. Her eyes went wide with terror as she looked back up at the man she still claims to have loved once.

" _T-Tai,_ " she croaked out desperately. "Please don't—don't do this."

Dad held her wrist tightly for a moment more, staring her down harshly. He softened up in the end, unable to bring himself to help kill her, and released her hand by shoving it away. "Leave. I don't want to see you coming back to either of them."

Raven nodded anxiously and cut open a small portal for herself, probably to Vernal. She half-limped, half-crawled her way through unceremoniously, closing it behind her immediately.

The moment her portal closed, Jaune's sword buried itself into the floor where Raven had just been. For however angry Jaune had been, he could have killed her if he had hurried after her. I doubt it was intentional on his part. Subconsciously, there was still part of him there that didn't _want_ to kill her. He was probably going to need a lot of time to sort himself out.

Jaune finally snapped in that moment. With a guttural yell, he released everything he had left inside him as he took Angau Glas and threw it as far off the side of the cliff as he could.

He dropped to his knees as soon as he was done.

* * *

"Jaune?" I asked as I approached him cautiously, waving frantically at the others to back the hell up and give him space. I doubted that Jaune had realized yet that they had all just seen everything unfold. They had no idea what had just happened, and honestly, I don't think _anyone_ involved knew what had just happened.

"Jaune?" I asked again, gently placing a hand on his arm as I knelt down with him from the side.

" _It hurts_ ," Jaune choked out, having no strength left to hold himself back any longer. Tears dripped down and he hung his head lowly. "Why? Why would she do this?"

"I… I don't know, Jaune," I answered as honestly as I could. I couldn't risk lying to Jaune in even the tiniest way, not after that. "I don't think she knows, either."

"M-My whole life, she's been hiding my family from me. I-I thought she was just sparing me the details, or I thought that she didn't want there to be any competing family for me." Jaune's fist clenched into a ball and shook angrily as he admitted the latter. "Why would she take my life from me?"

"She didn't," I answered, again, as honestly as I could. My hand traveled down Jaune's arm and interlaced with his fingers forcefully, squeezing it tightly. "You have your whole life ahead of you. _We_ have our whole lives ahead of us."

"I can't go back with them, Yang," Jaune said limply, motioning slightly with his head towards where our teams watched on. "Not after… with what I did, I…"

"Jaune, they all just saw what happened. If _any_ of them don't blame Raven, then they'll have to take it up with me." I paused, squeezing Jaune's hand tighter. He looked up at me for the first time. "We'll fix this, Jaune. We'll fix everything. We'll get through this, and you'll live a long, happy life, even if it's just to spite her." I gave Jaune a weak smile to let him know that part was a joke, but that the sentiment was legitimate. I _would_ beat the hell out of any of them if they so much as look at Jaune the wrong way right now. _And I also don't mind the idea of being happy in order to spite Raven._ "Besides, as the new Fall Maiden, I'll need some protecting. You seem qualified for the job."

I threw that in because I was worried that Jaune would feel hurt that I had hit it in the first place. I thought it would get a reaction out of him, or that he would at least ask about it.

Jaune didn't answer. He stared off in the distance blankly, which scared me because it was a look I've seen before, just after he tried to kill Pyrrha.

"Look at me, Jaune," I said softly, squeezing his hand as tightly as I could without hurting him. He gently snapped out of it and look me in the eyes. "Everything's going to be okay. Things are going to be better now, and I'm not going anywhere. Got it?"

I gave Jaune the most hopeful smile I possibly could, praying that I got through to him.

Jaune looked at me and tried his absolute damnedest to smile for me. He gave everything he had trying to curl his lips up just to make me feel better, despite how horrible he felt. His lips quivered the whole time, and after a great struggle, he broke down into tears and dropped his head, ashamed that he couldn't smile for me.

My heart broke for him on the spot, and I made a silent vow that if I ever saw Raven again, I would kill her for this.

For now, I pulled Jaune into my shoulder and wrapped my arms around him. He'd done the same for me once, been the shoulder to cry on when I thought my world was crumbling. That had seemed so bad at the time and was nothing compared to this, but they were similar in one way: the worst of it was over. Jaune was, for the first time, free. From the lies, the manipulation, the controlling… just free. Funnily enough, the tears he was bawling into my shoulder didn't feel like tears of joy.

I looked up over Jaune's shoulder to make eye contact with everyone else. No one really knew what to say or do. Dad was the closest to us still, and he still looked stunned from what he'd seen from Raven. Through that, though, I could see a new emotion in his expression as he looked at Jaune: pity. If anyone were able to empathize with Jaune right now, it would be the other two people Raven abandoned in dad and me.

Qrow was the first to duck out, making some excuse about needing to look into what was said about Lionheart's treason. It was a weak excuse and he seemed confused on how to feel about Jaune now, but it was good enough for him to walk over to the elevator. Weiss was next, and though she didn't say a word, it was clear she was giving us privacy for now. She grabbed Ruby by the arm and tugged her towards the elevator; she resisted, eyes wide a fragile as she looked at Jaune. I gave Ruby a nod to let her know it would be okay and she eventually Weiss drag her away. Dad quickly caught up to help Weiss out, sliding right next to Ruby on the girl's other side.

That left Ren, Nora, and Blake. Nora looked devastated for Jaune, which made me feel like she didn't hold as much of a grudge against him as she had let on the past few days. I had a feeling just from looking at her that if I went off to hunt down Raven, she'd be the first to go with me. Ren's expression was the one that stuck with me the most. He'd been the hardest to read previously and I thought that was because he held the most against Jaune out of the group, and now, he looked genuinely distraught. It was the first time I can remember seeing such vivid emotion expressed by him.

Nora cautiously took a step towards us and I made eye contact with her, shaking my head tightly to warn her to stay back. I didn't think she'd try to make this worse, but that's the only way I can imagine this playing out right now. After everything Jaune's been through and all the questions that have to be running through his head right now, having a reminder of what he did while influenced by Raven couldn't go well.

Nora hesitated at my disapproval, her eyebrows rising in surprise. I shook my head a final time to make it clear what I meant, and Nora's face fell, but she seemed to understand. She took a few seconds longer to stop and stare, but eventually turned around and walked towards the exit, grabbing Ren's wrist as she went. Ren didn't respond immediately, but gave in to her tugging after a few moments.

Leaving Blake. I wasn't sure what to expect from the person Jaune was closest to after me. She wore a small, tight frown that expressed displeasure with what happened more than anything. She looked and Jaune and then back to me, silently asking if I could handle this alone.

I gave her a small nod, one partner to another, and she returned it. And then softly mouthed _good luck_ to me before turning to leave.

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: First things first, props to the guys in the Discord who caught on to the Vernal plot twist ahead of time. Bravo, _Xannthic_ and someone else whose message I forgot to pin. _You know who you are, because I tried to DM you that one time to tell you not to spoil the surprise and then deleted the DM immediately, making you wonder if you got a DM in the first place._**

 **I was asked recently in the Discord whether I intended to write Raven as the cleverest player in the game, because if so it appeared that I was failing at it. _Nope._ Raven is certainly clever, but no one in the show was perfect, and no one in life is perfect. No one in my story is perfect either. They all have (sometimes) small but specific drawbacks.**

 **In the show, Raven is clearly a good player (Vernal as a decoy was ingenious) but not perfect. Cinder betrayed Raven before Raven could do the same, costing Vernal her life. Her specific flaws in the show were her cowardice and self-delusion. She was scared of Salem and self-deluded into thinking she could be strong enough to keep Salem at bay. The confrontation with Yang in the Vault at the end fo V5 shattered that illusion, leaving Raven with a literal mirror image of how strong she could have been.**

 **God, I love that scene. Raven's character flashed so much more depth and intrigue in that brief moment where Yang surpasses her. It's not a redemption moment though, because she doesn't redeem herself. She leaves with her delusions shattered and serious, existential questions about who she was and what she was doing with her life haunting her.**

 **The raw emotion in that scene directly inspired MoNT's creation. When a loose idea about Jaune being raised by Raven first came to me, I really didn't want to write another 100,000 word story. _LOL._ I did what I normally do, which is think about the idea whenever I'm bored or spaced out. I don't plan out plots or anything; I just get lost in my head, imagining scenes that captivate my imagination. Being as dramatic as I am, this usually means that I envision climaxes or moments of maximum drama or impact. **

**Two of these scenes were just so juicy that I decided I just couldn't _not_ write the story. Both scenes, funnily enough, didn't make it into the story in the exact ways I envisioned them; such is the way stories go, after all. But they're close.**

 **Scene 1: _Jaune kills Pyrrha in the Vault._ Not 'injures,' not 'allows someone else to take over her body.' The OG plan was for Jaune to straight up put Pyrrha down in the middle of his rage, with Cinder there to assist. No Ozpin showing up. He wouldn't cool down until he got out of the Vault, where the weight of what he just did would have started eating at him. It wouldn't be until he saves Blake from Adam at the fairgrounds that he realizes that one betrayal shouldn't make him hate his friends, and at that moment the full guilt hits him. This was how it was planned to go down well into writing the story, and only got shuffled around once I realized that Yang had just as much of a dynamic with Raven to explore as Jaune. because...**

 **Scene 2: _Yang stops Jaune from killing Raven in the Vault, and then tells Raven would have deserved it because he was the monster she created._ The plan was that Yang would have broken off with Jaune for killing Pyrrha and never would have gone with Raven, leaving Jaune alone and guilt-wracked. A perfect piece of clay for Raven to mold. Things would have played out like the show, where Raven and Jaune team up with Cinder to ambush the protagonists at Haven. Lionheart would have been charged with keeping Jaune distracted as Hazel, Merc, and Em began executing his subdued friends, but would have let the Vernal line slip and would have sent Jaune berserk. Yang breaks free when he boosts her Semblance, and then she catches back up as he tries to finish off a weakened Raven. **

**That's a more streamlined plot conclusion. Had I stuck with that instead, the story would have ended about fifteen chapters ago. If MoNT were a novel and not a weekly-updated story, I probably would go back to that. Writing a novel is cheating, though, because you can edit things and clean things up with the benefit of hindsight. Live stories are hard, because, as the legendary Ernest Hemmingway says, _the first draft of everything is shit._ **

**And _no_ , I'm not editing down MoNT into a novel or anything. I'm just saying that, if I _did_ , I'd do the other ending and cut out some other stuff as well. Ilia's scenes early on, for example.**

 **Eh, enough talk from me. I'll blab more about behind the scenes stuff and how the story was originally planned out in next week's chapter, and the epilogue(s?).**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _youngsavage_

"The letters being directly addressed to Pyrrha makes so much more sense, and for me justifies what happened the last few chapters.

Holy shit. That's all I have to say for that revelation at the end of the chapter... the next one is going to be wild."

 **Yep, that was the plan with the letters. It was Amber acknowledging that, for lack of a better way to express this, _shit's fucked up._** **She didn't know for sure that Pyrrha _would_ come back, and she didn't even know whether or not their body would die from her suicide attempt before Pyrrha could regain consciousness. But, just in case, she wrote the letters. A little less guilt on her conscience. **

**I kinda wish that I had waited to reveal Pyrrha and the letters. The plan had been not to mention Pyrrha again until the epilogues. Raven was going to have an epilogue, and then Pyrrha. But yeah, making you guys wait almost two months felt like too long of a gap for that plotline.**

 **Pyrrha's still getting an epilogue, by the way. Just not as long now that some of her content has already been revealed. There are two interactions in particular that I _really_ want to write. **

**As for the Vernal reveal, _good grief_ have I been waiting for that. I've mentioned in passing that I've sprinkled a couple of details in MoNT that will be fun for anyone re-reading to come across. Most have been slight hints at Jaune's sister having been a Maiden. **

**If you go back to the chapter where Pyrrha reads the 'Arc File' that Jaune got from Torchwick, pay attention to the initials of his family. I named his parents after my sister and _Turquoise Leaf_ in part because it was funny, in part becuase turquoise _is_ a color, and in part to distract from the fact that one sister was _V- Arc._ Vernal Arc. _Sneaky sneaky._**

 **I mentioned at the time that I had an unredacted version of that file written out. That's going to be the beginning of Raven's epilogue, actually. We might just learn what happened that night...**


	72. The pre-epilogue

**Author's Note: I know I said that I extended this story to this final chapter so that I wouldn't leave things hanging after that last chapter, but _come on_ , it was totally so that we could hit Chapter 69. _How freaking perfect to end on, amiright?_ I take comfort in the fact that nothing. _nothing_. I do to end MoNT could be worse than Game of Thrones' end...**

 **I'm sure I'll ramble about behind the scenes stuff at the bottom, but there are two planned epilogues. If you have any fun/interesting questions about MoNT, how it started, how it shaped out, or my thoughts on it, go ahead and ask them. I'll try to pick a couple to quote and then answer in the epilogues. I don't know if I'll release the epilogues the next two weeks as if they were chapters or if I'll take a small break; I'll just try to write them, but without the weight of a deadline like a chapter.**

 **This first scene takes places a couple of days after Pyrrha first wakes up, which puts it _after_ the events at Haven Academy by a day or two, but the scenes immediately after jump back to the direct aftermath. Just keep in mind that these scenes are not linear, per se. **

**That said, _and for the last time_ , enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 69:** _"I'm sure that that could have gone worse. I don't know how it could have gone worse, but if there is one thing I've learned, it is that things can, and usually do, always get worse." – Jaune Arc_

* * *

Pyrrha's POV

* * *

Amber's notes warned me about the situation that she had fled, and what could happen if I showed my face in public. The people who attacked Vale had agents inside the government of Mistral and all sides were looking for me. I couldn't afford to let that keep me from going home, though. I had to get back.

I kept my identity hidden as well as I could as I made it to the nearest town large enough to have a train station. It took three days of walking to get there, and fortunately Amber's backpack had the supplies to get me there in the form of some water bottles and dried jerky. I was hungry by the time I arrived, but that could wait.

Hiding my identity wasn't as hard as I had feared. After several days of walking through the woods, I wasn't exactly clean, which helped conceal my face a little. With a rain jacket Amber had packed, I had a hood that could hide my hair adequately. With those working in my favor, I was just a very tall, green-eyed woman traveling alone in Grimm-infested forests with a sword, shield, and a backpack to my name.

Not exactly the _best_ disguise, but the town I arrived at was abuzz with activity to the point that no one recognized me or even bothered to notice me. Amber had a wad of lien at the bottom of her backpack— _and I did my best not to imagine where she got that from_ —that bought me a ticket to Haven, and from there I could board the Argus Express. Within the day, I would be home.

On the train, I found out what all the fuss was about. Relayed news broadcasts played on a TV screen and it was… interesting, to say the least.

" _Again, we are urging all people to take precautions against the wildfire. Although it appears to have begun near an abandoned settlement, the risk of the flames spreading to populated areas cannot and should not be ignored. Citizens are encouraged to pack go-bags and have them ready, should evacuation orders be issued at any time. The Council is working around the clock to monitor the situation, but the loss of Haven's headmaster is providing logistical difficulties…_ "

A wildfire was surprising, at least. It also explained why everyone was too preoccupied to notice me. From Amber's timeline of events, I've been gone for over a month since the Vytal Festival, which would put things in the middle of summer, or around five months away from the peak of winter. At least, back in Argus that is, since we were north enough to have long winters. All of that is to say that it's a little early for a dry season—normally Mistral doesn't worry about fires until late summer or early fall, after a full summer has dried out the landside.

Somehow, I feel like Jaune is involved with that.

The loss of Haven's headmaster I'm _certain_ involved Jaune in some way. That wasn't as surprising to me as a wildfire, but since the fire wasn't spreading quickly enough to affect the train tracks I was on, I paid more attention to the news when it talked about headmaster Lionheart.

" _No details about the death of Haven Academy's headmaster have been officially released, but what we do know paints a difficult picture. Authorities are treating the matter as a criminal investigation, and on-scene reporters have verified that more than one body was transported out of Haven Academy. Presumably, this second death was related to that of the headmaster's, which calls into doubt whether this could have been a tragic medical issue or even a suicide."_

My heart sank at the news that more than one body was removed. It was stupid and silly of me to worry who it could be. So what if it _was_ Jaune? I shouldn't be sad if that were to happen, considering what he put me through.

 _Unintentionally_ , some part of my mind challenged. _He made a mistake and tried to save me_ , it continued. _He couldn't have known about Amber._

I put a mental foot down and pushed away those doubting thoughts. It didn't matter than he couldn't have known what would happen. He still shouldn't have ever stabbed—

My memories flashed before me, as they had ever since I woke up. I _knew_ that thinking about the event would trigger this, but was too caught up in my thoughts to stop myself. This time, all I saw were Jaune's eyes glowing with hatred, piercing into me. And I felt a sharp pain in my abdomen as the dagger I still had in my backpack stabbed me.

I faded out of the trance eventually. A hand ran up to my stomach subconsciously, and relief shot through me. The clothing was dry, and the pain was gone. A ghost of a sting lingered in my mind, but that was all. I released the breath that I had been holding, and the relief as fresh air rushed into my lungs made me wonder how long I had been that way.

" _The Council has not commented publicly about headmaster Lionheart's passing, and there is no agreement among analysts as to what this means. Prevailing analysis suggests that the Council has too much to deal with to comment. The wildfires in central Mistral only serve to split their focus from negotiations with the infamous 'Branwen tribe' of western Mistral. We in the news complex have been hearing off the record that a deal to legitimize this group as a private security corporation contracted with the government is close to consummation, but with the loss of Lionheart and a natural disaster developing on the capital's doorstep, talks could become strained. Least helpful, however, are the rumors that are beginning to swirl about the late headmaster's cause of death."_

Now I perked up. Amber's notes already mentioned some sort of negotiations, and she believed that Raven Branwen wouldn't like working for the government, but wouldn't have a choice. Amber seemed to enjoy the idea of Raven being put into an uncomfortable position, probably as some small form of payback. She had also warned me that Raven would make the most of such an opportunity, and to steer clear of her if at all possible. Yang was already trying to get Jaune to leave. Something about the woman rubbing off too much on her disciples, influencing them to become hardened killers and suppress emotions. It sounded like Amber was exaggerating a little bit.

With the… problems I've been having since I woke up, it didn't sound like the worst thing in the world, though. The emotional suppression, at least.

" _It is already well-circulated that the mastermind of the attack against Vale posed as a transfer student from Haven Academy. We actively refrain from mentioning the name of such a person as a matter of policy to not publish the name of terrorists, mass killers, and serial rapists. Unsubstantiated rumors now speculate that Leonardo Lionheart might have been a part of this conspiracy, and that the second body recovered could be a new member of the same terrorist cell. These rumors are, at best, conjecture, and it is equally likely that the headmaster died in battle against such terrorists. After taking down Beacon Academy and its headmaster, it is possible that Haven Academy was the next target. A Councilmember, speaking on the condition of anonymity, indicated that several specialists from Vale who have been hunting down members of this terrorist cell have been at Haven for a few days, lending credence to the idea that Haven was a new target. It appears…"_

I tuned out after that. I had enough extra pieces to the puzzle from Amber to figure out that these 'rumors' were the closest thing to truth available so far. She had said there was a mole somewhere within Mistral's government. It could have been Lionheart, or it could be the Councilman leaking things to the news to cover their tracks. The fact that Lionheart was dead made me suspect it was him.

It didn't end up mattering. I spent a grand total of ten minutes in the capitol as I changed trains. Argus is a summer destination for Mistral, and the Express was busy enough to have several round trips going each day. I had to avoid getting an official ticket, though, because unlike the small kiosk I used beforehand, the ticket counters at the station usually requested ID. I had mine on me—it was part of my few possessions that Amber had packed—but it was still risky to use it, especially here in the capitol if I'm not certain that Jaune took out the people hunting Amber.

For the first time in my life, I broke a major law and stole away on a train. It wasn't exactly hard, either, which concerned me for the level of security used. There were Huntsmen on the train and they have automated anti-Grimm weapons, but the fact that I could stow away so easily was a bad sign. Granted, I have a Semblance that can open any door and that makes it uniquely hard to stop me from boarding, but I hadn't even needed to use it.

They never even checked tickets once everyone was on board. A few hours later, I was there. _Home._

Or not quite, but it wouldn't be long. My feet sped up almost on their own as I got closer and closer. The streets felt familiar and inviting, like I was settling back into things. A left just past the fruit market, a right two streets down, and then it was up on the left.

My heart leapt when I turned the last corner and saw a familiar car sitting in the driveway. I knew that the address hadn't changed while I was at Beacon, but it still felt incredible to _see_ how close I was to home.

I took the front porch steps all in one bound and rapped on the front door so hard I had to push some Aura into my knuckles to stop the stinging.

" _Coming_." My heart leapt and sank simultaneously at her voice. I heard her footsteps stop at the edge of the door, and a small change in the peephole's color told me she was checking who was there. We'd learned during my tournament days that just opening the front door was a great way to have reporters try to barge in, and I was honestly surprised that she had even called out without first checking.

The door swung open, and my mother stood there with a look of shock on her face. " _Pyrrha?_ "

"Hi mom," I answered, waving meekly and only just now realizing how bad I looked after a journey through the forests. Dirt-stained, wearing minimalist survival gear that hid my features, with a rugged backpack and a plain sword and shield that weren't even my own… I felt embarrassed to be showing up like this.

That only lasted for a few moments, before I rushed in and hugged my mother.

"Pyrrha, what happened?" she asked while returning the hug. There was urgency and dread in her voice, like she just knew that something had gone horribly wrong. It had to, for me to show up here like this. "W-When I didn't hear from you after Beacon, I…"

"There's so much I need to tell you," I mumbled into her shoulder as I buried my face there, trying to wipe away some tears. For all I was worth, I was trying to use this to release some pressure.

My own words had the opposite effect, and a sickening chill ran down my spine. _What could I tell her?_ How could I explain _any_ of what happened to her? I'd have to tell her about _magic_ , and witches and wizards, and a woman who controls the Grimm hunting down an entire family, and a surviving four-year-old being taken by a bandit queen and then infiltrating the school she sent me to that was run by an immortal wizard, and how that boy nearly killed me and let another person's soul that was transferred into me take over me, and then use my body to—

"Pyrrha, what's wrong?" mom asked again. Her voice was even more scared now that my grip on her had gone rigid and I was bawling into her shoulder.

I'd never felt so alone as I did just then in my mother's arms. I couldn't tell her what was wrong. I couldn't tell _anyone_.

And the only people I _can_ talk about it to are the ones who already know. They're… not exactly people I want to talk to, either. If I can't even look at that knife without locking up, how could I talk about it with _Jaune?_

"Pyrrha, are you okay?"

I didn't answer. I couldn't.

* * *

Blake's POV

* * *

Things were quiet around the house. It would have been a fantastic change of pace under different circumstances, though. After yesterday, though, there was an unspoken weight on everyone's shoulders. It was a lot quieter in here than it should have been, given that we were all gathered in the living room and having a discussion.

Well, all of us minus two: Jaune was outside, having already found how good the cliff face was for brooding, and Yang was guarding the door that led out to him.

"Well I'm sorry, I am _not_ showering in this house now!" Nora protested. She was still loud, but even she wasn't nearly as loud as she usually would be. Even Nora's impassioned, dramatic outbursts had been dampened by the exchange we'd all seen the day before.

"For the last time, it's _fine,_ " Qrow tried to reassure, though his annoyance was starting to spill over into actual frustration. "If you've already been doing it, then what's it going to hurt now?"

That was the wrong thing to say, as _all_ the girls gathered around the man got upset. The look on his face as he realized that he had just reminded all the _underage_ girls that they'd be living, changing, and showering in a house that was being monitored by bad guys was priceless.

I waited back and watched, looking for my opportunity. This argument was only breaking out because it distracted everyone from thinking about what happened in the Vault, and everyone seemed eager to fan the flames if it served that purpose well. Yang was watching from her post next to the door curiously, but hadn't joined in yet, content to watch for now.

"What Qrow _means_ to say—" Taiyang called out, coming to his old teammate's aid, "—is that we performed a thorough sweep on Lionheart's office yesterday, after—" Taiyang cut himself off, eyes subtly shifting in Yang's direction for just a split second. "We found and deactivated every listening device he had here, so you don't have anything to worry about. And we never found _any_ camera feeds or video footage either, so no one was recorded in the shower." He threw that last bit out, giving Qrow some side-eye for accidentally stirring everyone up.

"Yeah, but what about noises we make in the shower?" Ruby asked sincerely. "They heard those!"

Several sets of eyes turned to Ruby in shock, including _very_ awkward looks from her dad and uncle. Yang hid her face in her hands to stop herself from laughing.

"Why… are you all looking at me…?" Ruby asked, keenly aware that she must have said _something._ It took her a few moments to get it, but her face lit up the same color as her cape as soon as she did. " _N-No!_ I didn't mean—I wasn't doing that in the shower!" Ruby's eyes nervously flicked over to her dad and uncle, and she looked like she wanted to die. "Sing! I sing in the shower, okay!? _That's_ what I meant!"

There was an awkward pause as everyone continued to stare at Ruby.

"You guys suck!" Ruby announced with a pout, before sinking back onto the couch. She glared at Weiss and me. "You two _knew_ what I meant, too."

"I actually need to know the answer to Ruby's question."

" _Nora,_ " Ren chastised. I wasn't sure if she was kidding or not.

"Look, I'm not exactly thrilled about how things went down either, but we already have our things here," Qrow let out finally, getting us back on topic. "It's free for us to stay here, and we're going to be here for at least a week before we can get moving to Atlas—" Qrow's eyes shifted over to Yang, where the Relic of Knowledge hung from her waist, "—so we might as well make the most of it."

"A week?" Yang called out from the edge of the room. "I thought you said we would move out as soon as possible. We could be moving _right now._ "

"The headmaster of Haven Academy was just killed in his office," Qrow answered, defamiliarizing the events that had played out to make a point. "We can't just leave that mess for someone else to clean up. There would be a murder investigation."

Qrow's words hung in the air tensely as he locked eyes with his niece.

"They're _not_ going to go after Jaune for that," Yang let out aggressively, pushing herself off the wall and walking forwards towards us.

I tensed in my seat. Ren, Nora, and Weiss—my accomplices, because Ruby can't keep a secret—all gave me a look that showed me they saw it too. _She's not guarding the door._

"They're not," Taiyang agreed, softening his voice to calm Yang down. "But it's going to take time to show the Council that their headmaster was corrupt."

Yang continued to move forward, and I watched her every step. I just needed her to take a few more.

"How much time could you need?!" Yang asked incredulously. "We have the feeds he was spying on us with. We have his scroll history. Hell, the body of a terrorist he was working with was right next to him! Not to mention that they don't have a murder weapon to tie to Jaune…"

"All of which is extremely convincing," Tai agreed, "but we're trying to convince a political body. Instead of an hour to explain everything, we're looking at two or three days. That doesn't even mention that they're a little distracted with a ground war that still needs to be resolved and a wildfire that was started at Kuroyuri yesterday."

"Hey, I didn't hear anyone complaining at the time," Yang sassed back, igniting flames around her eyes to make a point as she looked to her uncle. Qrow shrugged.

Yang hadn't moved forward any more steps, and I just needed her a little further forward so that I could disappear in her periphery. My accomplices all gave me strained looks, silently asking what I was waiting for.

"Did we skip over the part where we agreed Jaune _deserved_ not to be charged with murder?" Weiss asked, putting on her snoody 'heiress' voice. To everyone in the room, Weiss' words were so ridiculous on their face that she obviously couldn't mean them. To everyone except Yang, that is, who was currently wound very tightly and lashed out if she thought someone was doing something that might make things worse for Jaune.

 _Bless you, Weiss._ Yang took the bait immediately. I didn't stick around to see her eyes shift to red as she glared down Weiss, but Yang took two steps towards the girl, putting her in the center of the room.

I left a shadow clone sitting in my seat and flipped backwards out of the chair, landing as quietly as I could before sneaking off to the back door. Yang had been guarding access to Jaune ever since it all went down yesterday, and this was the first real opportunity any of us had had to talk to him.

I opened the door, snuck out, and closed it behind me all without a word. With the easy part over, I rested against the door and let out a long breath to calm myself down.

Standing right out in front of me was Jaune, staring off over the cliffs in the morning sun. _Now, the hard part._

I walked up from behind Jaune, taking the same spot off to his side that I had taken next to Yang a few mornings ago. That felt like a good enough place to start as any. "You know, I found Yang in that same spot two days ago, doing the same thing."

"Having an existential crisis?" Jaune asked sardonically.

"Mourning," I answered seriously, ignoring his attempt at a joke.

"I'm not—" Jaune cut himself off, realizing that denying it was stupid. He didn't _just_ feel betrayed; he felt like he had lost something. That much was obvious at the time, but I had a feeling that it wasn't something he wanted to admit. "What was Yang mourning?"

"Amber," I responded softly. Jaune flinched inwards despite my tone. "I didn't realize it at the time. I thought Yang was just sad that Amber chose to leave her, but after…" _after the Vault, after seeing Yang with Maiden powers, after she used them to stop Raven from killing Jaune,_ "…after yesterday, things are making a lot of sense in hindsight."

" _Yeah_ ," Jaune let out sadly, "tell me about it."

"You didn't know either?" I asked. I was prying and I knew that, but I had to start somewhere, and it was better to pry about Yang than it was to pry about Raven.

"Nope," Jaune answered, popping the _p_ in an attempt to emulate his normal self, the one that would answer serious questions with glib answers. The attempt fell flat on its face.

"Are you upset with her for hiding it?"

Jaune's eyes shifted away from the cliffs in front of him, cutting to the side to give me a curious glance, before going back to where they had been.

"No."

"You're… not?" I asked cautiously. I'd actually thought he would be, so this answer was the first to catch me slightly off-guard.

"Blake, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I don't have anyone left," Jaune let out darkly. "If Yang will still have me, then my feelings about what she did are irrelevant. I can't afford to lose anyone else."

Jaune looked to me nervously at the end of his words, but I made sure to continue staring off ahead over the cliffs, letting him know that I was neither going to be pushed away that easily nor was I going to meet his eyes and judge him for any of it. Once he felt assured of that, I saw in my periphery that he looked back out over the cliffs.

"So you _do_ have negative feelings for what she did."

"Yes, I'm upset that she didn't tell me!" Jaune let out in a sudden outburst, much more aggressive than the last one. "Part of me feels betrayed by her for it. Part of me hates her for it. Part of me thinks that it doesn't matter. Part of me wants to put a ring on her so she can't leave. Part of me wants to tell her to go find someone better, and part of me wants to think that she chose me for a reason." Jaune paused for a moment, breathing heavily. "I'm kind of a mess right now, Blake. I don't know what I think, and that's just about _Yang._ "

"So you're saying that if someone were to attack Yang, you couldn't bring yourself to defend her?" I asked, cutting my eyes over at Jaune.

Jaune met them with a flat expression. He looked like he was about to have some snipping remark about how obvious the answer to that question was, but as soon as he started to say it, he realized my point.

"Okay, fine," he let out with a huff, seemingly upset because I had prevented him from moping _too_ hard. "Maybe I know how to feel about Yang. That doesn't make any of the rest of it easier."

"Doesn't it?" I challenged, emboldened by my minor victory. "Tell me, what are you going to do now?"

"I don't know," he copped out, whipping his head back to look out over the cliffs to avoid eye contact with me.

"Yes you do," I responded, suppressing the urge to roll my eyes. "Yang's the Fall Maiden now. You're going to leave her unprotected?"

"No."

"Then you're going to go with Yang," I concluded for him simply. He didn't challenge it. "See how easy that was?"

"I'm grieving and you're mocking me?" Jaune cut at me, with just a hint of his usual playfulness returning to his voice. His words gave me a slight sense of déjà vu.

"Yang is the Fall Maiden and is carrying a Relic out in the open, at least until we can get it to Atlas. That means in the short term, we're _all_ going with her." I paused, letting that set in. Jaune seemed to squirm uncomfortably. "Have you thought about that yet?"

"No, I…" Jaune shifted his head to look in the opposite direction of me, hiding his eyes. "After what I did, after—after _Pyrrha_ , I don't know if I can face them."

"You're facing me," I said. Jaune chuckled darkly at that, and I realized that he was still turned away from me—specifically _not_ facing towards me. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah, well, you came out here and found me. I didn't seek this out," Jaune admitted softly, dropping his head and returning it to facing forwards so that I could see him again. "I haven't exactly moved much. If the others haven't come out here to scream at me, or ask me why I did it, then they must not think it worth it."

Jaune believed his own words, and there were several things wrong with that line of thinking. That said, I almost laughed at him because of how easy it would be to debunk. I wouldn't even have to touch on any of the hard parts.

"That's not for lack of trying."

I let the words hang ominously, staring back out over the cliffs as they sunk in. Jaune inevitably turned to look at me curiously, trying to figure out what that meant.

"Yang has been guarding access to you since we got back last night; she says that you just need some time to process things. Nora, Ruby, even Weiss and Ren tried to get permission to talk with you. I had to use my Semblance to slip by her, and the others are inside distracting her." Out of curiosity, I turned around to check on the door behind me. Yang wasn't at the doorway but was sitting in the window glaring at me, and drew a line across her neck as a promise for what was going to happen when I was done here. Our ruse had been found out. "I think your girlfriend is going to kill me."

"That sounds like her," Jaune deflected, with just a hint of humor in his voice once more.

Like that, Jaune let the conversation die limply without ever responding to the fact that his theory on why we didn't 'want' to talk to him was flawed. That just wasn't good enough. I couldn't leave him like this. There was more I could do for him.

"Would you like help?" I asked.

Jaune looked over at me and I continued to look forward, giving him a little privacy to think. "With what?"

"Convincing the others," I answered. There was no way I was going to be much help sorting out the exchange between Jaune and Raven. I'd had two loving parents invested in me growing, and a distinct lack of dead siblings, subterfuge, manipulation, or lying. If he _wanted_ my help to sort things out, then I would try to give feedback as best I could, but I planned to avoid that if possible. There were other ways I could help. "Ren and Weiss are going to be the hardest to win over, but even they want you to come back."

"I don't even know where to start—"

"That's why I'm offering to help," I cut in gently, before he could dwell too much on the despair he felt. "I can talk to them. Soften them up, get them to think about things from your perspective, and get them to a point where they're willing to accept any apology you can give them."

Jaune looked at me strangely. I could feel his eyes on the side of his head as he tried to figure out what was going on, and I failed to hide a small smile growing on me.

" _Why?_ " Jaune asked. "Why do that for me?"

I smirked coyly and cut my eyes at him briefly, before looking back out ahead.

"Because if I were in your position, that's what I would hope you would do for me." I let the words sink in, and it didn't take long for Jaune to realize exactly what I meant. Those were his words, not mine. "Oh, wait, you already _did._ "

"I-I…"

"Not everything you did was bad, Jaune. In fact, you did _good_ things, despite how you were raised." He had been an infuriating friend at Beacon, but he _had_ been a friend. A good one at that, at least to me. Jaune was the reason that I didn't leave my team, and he had gone to Weiss to make sure that she would accept me back. If anything, this was just the same gesture returned to him. "I haven't forgotten that."

"But I betrayed you," Jaune cut in skeptically.

"You did," I confirmed, failing to hide my smirk. "And I was pissed when I found out that you were helping the White Fang." I smirked as I undercut his point. He _did_ betray people the night that Beacon fell, but I wasn't one of them. There were no promises with me that he broke that I can think of.

"That's not what I meant!" Jaune cut in angrily. "Everything about me at Beacon was a lie, Blake. It was lies layered on top of a bigger lie." Jaune's voice hitched before he continued, and the blank stare he wore made it clear that the 'bigger' lie was related to how he was raised. "I didn't even know just how much I was being used!"

"And?" I asked simply, which shut him up. "You told us that you were at Beacon to become something better. You said that you just need to break free, and that then you could be something different. Do you remember that?"

"It was a lie, Blake," Jaune admitted. "I wasn't at Beacon to become a better person. I was at Beacon to become _Raven_ , and I didn't even know it."

"You don't even see it yet, do you?"

With a sigh, Jaune took the bait. "See what?"

"That person you always said you were trying to be? That place you were trying to reach so that you could start over? _You're there, Jaune._ " I turned to Jaune, meeting his eyes to show him how serious I was. His eyes were conflicted, but he was starting to see my point. "You're free of her. She can't do anything to hold you back now. Maybe you're not a good person, but that was never the goal. You just wanted to _try_. Now, you finally can."

"And _that's_ why you want to help?" Jaune asked cynically, looking down at his feet.

I slapped him in the back of the head, just hard enough to jolt him.

"I want to help because we're friends, and because you've done it for me," I cut back, not afraid to let a little frustration show. "Now, do you want my help reconciling with your other friends or not?"

Jaune took a deep breath, trying to find something to say or some way to stall this. By the time he let it out, it was clear to him that he had nothing.

"Okay, you win," Jaune let out with a chagrined grin. He dropped down onto one knee, looking up at me dramatically. His voice drawled to antagonize me, but he still meant the words. "Blake Belladonna, would you please help me fix every mistake I've ever made?"

"Get up before Yang tries to kill me even harder," I hissed, kicking him in the shin. Jaune _laughed_ , and it felt like a weight came off my shoulders. "I'm not fixing all of them, you idiot. Just… the ones I _can_."

Again, I'm not nearly qualified to handle his issues with Raven. I doubt anyone can be.

"Good enough."

"Now, I need you to go distract Yang. I'm pretty sure she wants to strangle me right now, and if you could tell her that I solved all your problems, that would go a long way towards me not dying."

* * *

"So?" Nora asked expectantly as I walked back inside from my talk with Jaune. He had elected _not_ to distract Yang for me, meaning that I had to walk right past her to get back to the group. She did not look pleased with me, but was restraining herself, probably because I did actually get Jaune to talk to me. I could feel her hands twitching in the direction of my throat, though.

"He's… confused," I summarized as best as I could. I really didn't even have the vocabulary to describe the state he was in with great detail, so I elected not to try. "And hurting. He doesn't know what he thinks of any of this yet."

" _Wow_ ," Yang's voice drawled venomously, "I wish someone could have told us that before you went out there."

"He _is_ willing to try to apologize with each of us," I continued, enunciating the words with small, sharp pops as a dig at Yang, "with my help."

"Does he even know what he's sorry for?" Weiss asked, a mix of skepticism and mistrust on her face. That was undermined by just enough worry for Jaune, though, and I wasn't concerned that she would hold a grudge. She should understand what it's like having a manipulative parent try to steer your life against your will, after all. And really, Jaune had helped her reassess her outlook on life once before, so she should be willing to do the same for him—albeit on a much larger scale. _And Ren and Nora should understand the desire to_ have _a parent, being orphans for most of their life._ And Ruby and Yang lost a mother, with Yang losing two.

Am I really the only one in the group with two loving parents? And I left on… rough terms, too, which probably wasn't fair to them. Especially not now that they were right about Adam and the White Fang.

 _Damn._ I'm going to have to go home and apologize to them eventually. That… won't be fun.

"What Weiss means is, does Jaune know how much blame he should assign to himself, as opposed to Raven?" Ren stated diplomatically.

" _No_ ," Jaune's voice called out from the doorway, where he had apparently cracked the door to listen in on our conversation, "he's got no clue."

"Jaune!" I let out almost in a hiss, flattening my ears against my head as I glared at him.

"Sorry, I tried to let you handle this, but… I guess I'm tired of not facing problems," Jaune answered sheepishly. The look on his face told me that he wasn't lying about it, and it sapped away any of the animus I held at him for hanging me out to dry—even if, technically, the group was already in on it anyways. "That, and it was either this, or sit out there alone with my thoughts. That's… not a pleasant option."

"Your company isn't exactly 'pleasant' either," Qrow quipped from his spot leaned up against the wall. He received several sharp glares for blatantly trying to antagonize Jaune out of this, including what looked like a heat-seeking missile launching at him in the form of Yang getting to her feet, but Jaune shot back before any of us could.

" _Scoreboard_ ," Jaune responded in the same antagonistic tone that Qrow had used. "First Beacon, and now Haven. You're, what, 0-and-2 now?"

"I don't know if I'd be counting Haven if I were you," Qrow answered, though his tone had lost some of its aggression.

"Good point. At least you only let an _abandoned_ city get destroyed this time."

Qrow scowled, but shrugged the words off, conceding the exchange. Whether that was partially because of the dirty looks he was getting from his nieces for trying to make things harder…

In any matter, it was nice to see a little bit of the old, asshole Jaune, if only momentarily.

"So…" Nora let out after a few awkward moments of silence where Jaune and Qrow traded lingering glares. "What brings you around here?"

"Oh, you know, the usual," Jaune answered, picking up on the ridiculousness of Nora's phrasing. "Just assassinating Academy headmasters and having my world crumble around me. I figure that now that I've done that at both Beacon and Haven, I should try it at Atlas next."

Jaune received a slap on the arm for that from Yang, who had made her way over to his side when it was clear that she didn't need to beat sense into her uncle.

"Sorry," Jaune mumbled, wilting under Yang's pressure, before a mischievous smile crept on his face again. "I'm actually retiring from killing headmasters. The world-crumbling thing, though, I just might try that again. Not sure yet."

" _Jaune._ " This time I was the one who cut in, and Yang gave me a grateful nod for helping her out.

"Okay, okay, sheesh. Tough crowd."

"You're deflecting," I pointed out flatly.

"I am," Jaune acknowledged plainly, before going silent.

An awkward hush fell over the room, which only one person was stubborn enough to break.

"Are you here to apologize?" Weiss asked in a tone that suggested she was both leading the question and legitimately asking it.

"No," Jaune answered firmly, though his posture didn't exactly speak of confidence. "Not really. I'm not sure that I really can apologize for some of the things I did."

"Then why—"

"But I can live them down," Jaune continued, cutting Weiss off. "I can try to make up for them, or at least, not let them be in vain. I… I guess. I don't really have a very thought-out plan here. My head's still spinning a little, to be honest. I guess I'm here to ask what's next."

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.

"Yang's a Maiden now—" Jaune stated, his eyes shifting over to his side, where Yang shrunk in on herself a little, mostly from not having told Jaune before yesterday, "—and is wearing a very dangerous piece of jewelry on her hip. My plan is to keep her safe." Jaune paused to let all of us take in just how significant threats against Yang would be, now that she was also the bearer of a Relic. "I'm going to take a guess that all of you have the same plan."

Jaune looked around the room to confirm it, but he really didn't need to. There were firm nods and a _yup_ from Ruby all around.

He looked up to Qrow and Taiyang, who both nodded. Qrow's was a begrudging nod, but at least indicated that he would allow them to be on the same side. Even he would concede that having Jaune protecting his niece was a good thing.

"I guess that means we'll be seeing a lot of each other then," Jaune announced to the group, with just a hint of humor returning to his voice. "Which means we've got time to figure things out. At the very least, it gives you more time to prepare all the lectures I probably deserve." Jaune looked dead at Weiss for that one. "I promise that I'll do my best to make it up to each of you, but… well, it might just take a while. I _will_ do it though."

Jaune looked around the room to see if anyone had anything to say, or any objection. Weiss looked like she wanted to. Nora did too, and even Ren seemed on edge, but they couldn't find anything to say. More likely, they still were just as unsure as Jaune was about who they blamed. In the end, taking a little more time to think on it was agreeable on all sides. It also meant that Jaune could spend time recovering without fear of what we might say or do to him.

The bastard really had undercut my offer to help smooth things over by doing it himself, and yet, I found that I didn't mind it this time.

"So," Jaune announced, looking up to Taiyang, "what's the plan?"

* * *

Jaune's POV

* * *

The door to the cliffside balcony opened behind me. I didn't turn around to face whoever it was, but that was because there were only really two people I would expect to come out here right now: Blake or Yang. _Maybe_ Nora, just because she's hard to predict, but I have a feeling that she reads deeper into things than she lets on, and would realize that letting things settle would be wise.

The footsteps approached me from behind, and as they arrived my visitor linked their arm around mine and cozied up into my side to stare out over the cliffs with me. _Yang, then, unless Blake has suddenly taken a keen interest in filling the hole left by—by Amber._ My mind hitched on the word and it dampened my mood a little. Amber—or Pyrrha, or a mix of the two—had to be my greatest failure, right? All the other stuff either wasn't as bad or I can give decent excuses for. Beacon and Vale were destroyed, but I really was working against Cinder before Ozpin interrupted; I took Yang to Raven's camp, but I was being manipulated for over a decade.

Pyrrha, though? She was being manipulated by Ozpin and I took it out on her. And then Amber decided to… well…

"Yang?" I asked, mostly to get her attention but also to eliminate any chance that this might actually _be_ Blake.

"Hmm?" she hummed in acknowledgement.

"What happened with Amber?" I felt Yang stiffen slightly, and made sure to let her know that I wasn't accusing her of anything. "I'm not mad or anything. Just… trying to fit the pieces together. You didn't do anything wrong."

"I hid it from you," Yang mumbled a little guiltily.

"Yeah, well, not very well," I responded just a little cheekily, letting her pick up from my voice that I really wasn't upset. "In hindsight, I should have known something was up when I woke up to you bawling into my shoulder…"

"I wasn't—" Yang cut herself off before I could get too much of a rise out of her. "Okay, _fine_ , maybe I was. What's your point?"

"I don't have one," I let out softly, releasing any tension in the conversation. "I'm just curious what happened and… if there was anything more I could have done."

"You wouldn't be the first to wonder that," Yang mumbled as she adjusted herself to lean further into my side. "All I knew is that I woke up early that morning with a text from Amber, and I had her powers. It was as much of a surprise to me as it was to everyone else."

"Do you… still have the text?" I asked, hesitating as I did so. If they were Amber's last words, then there was probably something personal about that. She _chose_ to give Yang her powers, and there was no telling just what she might have said to Yang. It could have been personal—it probably _was_ personal—and I didn't want to pry into that if it would make Yang uncomfortable.

Yang shifted at my side to free up one of her arms, and before I could ask what she was doing, she had pulled her scroll out. She didn't even hesitate to pull it up for me, which made me feel silly for hesitating now.

She held the scroll out to me without ever unlocking it. The background of her scroll was a screenshot of a text from Amber. _"Good luck, Yang. This should help you."_

I let out a short, bitter laugh that I couldn't quite suppress. Leave it to Amber to write seven words and let her actions say the rest.

"I had to hide it when it first happened, but now that the secret's out there, I like using this as a background," Yang commented. There was a hint of amusement in her voice from where she was acknowledging that it _was_ , just a little bit, morbidly funny. "As for why she did it, you probably can guess as well as I can."

"Yeah…"

The conversation trailed off after that. Yang was content to stand there tucked into my side and let me think, and I needed both of those things at the moment.

She eventually broke me out of my thoughts with a sharp slap to my chest, more to get my attention than anything.

"That was a lame apology, by the way."

"Yeah…" I mumbled weakly, thinking back on the confrontation I had just skated through. "It wasn't really an apology. I didn't really have a plan for going in there, so the way I see it, that went _really_ well."

"You didn't have _any_ clue what you were going to say?" Yang asked incredulously. "You know what, that actually does sound like you. It _could_ have backfired horribly, though. What made you do it anyways?"

I didn't answer immediately, instead having to turn my head to hide my expression. I was in a mix of grinning out of being caught and blushing out of being embarrassed at having no real plan.

"You did it to mess with Blake, didn't you?" Yang's voice went flat. "You _idiot._ You could have ruined any chance of making up with them!"

"You're over-selling it," I countered, _hoping_ that I was right. "If I still don't know how to feel about yesterday, then there's no way they can. What I did wasn't _that_ risky."

Yang's responded specifically by not responding. She let an annoyed silence speak for her.

"It worked out, didn't it?"

"I guess," she relented finally, giving up with being upset and leaning further back into my side. "Are you okay with what comes next?"

I didn't respond immediately, instead thinking about it. Apologizing to everyone individually will take some time, but that's something that I finally have, and it won't exactly be hard. _Hey, so I'm sorry about literally everything I've done since I knew you. Are we cool?_ That was a solid template, and might only need minor adjustments, such as going down on my knees for Weiss. All kidding aside, it won't be hard for me to say I'm sorry for what's happened; the hard part will be making up for it.

What I'm dreading is the talk with Ren and Nora about reforming our team. I don't have a clue how that will go, and I'm not sure if I _want_ to reform it. If they do, I might oblige as a sort of penance, but my place now is with Yang. What if they want to go back to an Academy while Yang goes on missions or something? If I have to choose between them, then JNPR doesn't get picked. _Or JN_R, as it would be now._ Which is another factor that makes things harder…

"Atlas?" I asked leadingly. I knew what she meant, but it wasn't a topic I wanted to dive into further right now. Deflecting the topic felt better for now. "I guess so. It's still summer, so it can't be _that_ cold."

If Yang noticed that I was deflecting or was annoyed by it, she didn't let it be known. "I was thinking more of who we'll be working with: dad, Qrow, Ironwood…"

"I think out of that bunch, I'd take my chances with Ironwood," I joked grimly. Qrow and I had the obvious history, and Taiyang seemed a decent enough guy, but he is well aware of how, uh, _deep_ ly important I am to his daughter. The one mitigating factor there is that they both just saw the falling out of epic proportions I just had with Raven. Ironwood, despite having interrogated me once or twice, honestly didn't strike me as all that bad. Yet. "You'll be there, right?"

"Absolutely."

"Then I'll be fine," I answered confidently, pulling Yang a little closer to make my point. "In a great, fucked-up twist of irony, I have now acquired a Fall Maiden who is more loyal to me than to Ozpin. This wasn't _exactly_ how I planned it, but…"

Despite just what that was referencing—Pyrrha, Beacon, and my original plans—Yang laughed at that.

"More like _I_ acquired some kick-ass powers and a bodyguard," Yang shot back playfully.

"Keep telling yourself that," I teased.

"What happens when Ozpin shows back up?" Yang asked, shifting back into a little bit of serious tone again. "He's supposed to reincarnate or something, right?"

"I thought about that," I responded with a slight frown, before that turned into a sly grin. "Gods, I hope I'm there to see his face when he learns everything that's happened while he's been gone. There's no telling who he'll respawn in. Could be some random kid or some old man. Personally, I just hope he doesn't come back as General Ironwood."

Yang laughed at that a little harder than I was comfortable with. It would be just my luck to piss off the man and then him turn around and gain Remnant's largest army, all while I was traveling straight into the middle of Atlas.

"You think you can work with him now?" Yang asked after calming down. "I can make sure he works with us even if he doesn't like it. I don't know if I can make _both_ of you put up with each other."

"I'll be fine," I let out, hoping that I could find some rationale to backfill that answer with in the few seconds I had. "It occurs to me that I hated the man because I was raised to do so. Maybe now, we can start over."

"Doubt it," Yang interjected glibly. "I don't think she could have taught you to have so much contempt for him. Some of that was really you."

"Well, then I guess I'll need you to keep me in check," I half-joked, before coming to a strange thought. "Kinda like how he thought Pyrrha would keep me in check, actually. _Huh_."

"Do you think he planned it that way?" Yang asked, trying not to giggle at the absurdity of it.

"Do I think that he planned for me to accidentally resurrect Amber, steal both you and her, go to Raven's camp, inspire her to build up an army to protect half of Mistral with, kill all of Salem's current henchmen, and then have Amber kill herself and give you the powers, all so I would finally come to the table and work with the man?" I asked, my voice absolutely dripping with sarcasm.

"Well, he _did_ like playing chess," Yang rationalized, her voice still giving away how funny she found her own words.

"What, you think he was playing, like, eleven-dimensional chess?" I asked, cracking a grin. "Nah. He tried to play chess, and I flipped the board over and threw a tantrum. That's more my speed anyways."

Again, Yang laughed more than she should at that last bit. "Story of your life…"

* * *

 **Closing Thoughts: For once, the name of this segment is finally accurate. Huh.**

 **Ah, well, this was fun. Thanks for sticking around this long, since I totally didn't want or think it would take this long. This story was supposed to be 200,000 to 300,000 words, and that was only because I thought I was overestimating the length. Early on, I had each and every scene for each chapter outlined all the way through chapter 25. I quickly realized that as I wrote the characters interacting and the events unfolding and watched characters bounce through the world, new scenes wrote themselves. Dialogue went from "these guys talk and the words weigh on Jaune without them knowing" in the outline to thousands of words in a chapter.**

 **That chapter 25 outline that I had before starting this fic ended up covering through chapter 50 of the story. And, like any story, it underwent major changes along the way. Some of the things I wanted to do didn't make sense with other things that I wanted, and some things just... didn't carry the weight that they did in my head. Rather than force characters to do things they probably wouldn't, I tried to let things flow naturally, as much as an AU where Raven applied her legendary mothering skills to raising Jaune can flow naturally.**

 **What might surprise you guys the most is the original pairing for the story, because the end result sure surprised me. _There was no pairing._ Jaune was a dark, gloomy figure who was caught up in fighting to be free of Raven, Ozpin, and anyone else. He didn't have time for romance and certainly didn't really even think about it. There was going to be a little bit of dramatic tension where Pyrrha liked him and was trying to get something going there, but it wasn't going to work. The romance wasn't going to work, that is, and it would have been the point. A Jaune/Pyrrha romance does not fit this version of Jaune, at least not with what he was dealing with and what his outlook on life was. That failed kindling of a relationship was only supposed to make it more impactful when Jaune killed Pyrrha permanently, which also didn't make it in. **

**So why Dragonslayer? Well, in true Yang fashion, her character took what it wanted without regard for my plans, so to speak. Yang was barely even in the outline if I remember correctly. The outline originally had a scene where Jaune found something good about each of his friends and that was going to give him the motivation to break free, but that was all I can remember Yang being included for. As I let characters interact as best I could, I very early on realized that something was intriguing about Yang. Her reaction when Jaune injured Ruby was pronounced and made Jaune reflect on himself. That instantly caught my eye, and made me do some thinking.**

 **Yang _totally_ wrecked my outline and challenged me to rethink a lot of things, and I can easily say that it made my story better. I don't know how I ever glossed over throwing Raven's biological daughter into the mix when planning out this story. **

**There came a point when I had to decide, with finality, that my outline was only a guideline to a good story and that it should not hold back a better story. I'd loved writing the dynamic between Yang and Jaune early on, as it let me get quippy and write some snappy dialogue, but I wasn't committing to the idea of making Yang a love interest. _I'm not good writing romance,_ my mind supplied (truthfully, too). _The point was to have Jaune specifically not be paired._ **

**I remember the moment that I decided _screw it_ , this outline can get rewritten or discarded for all I care; this is happening. It was the bar scene at Junior's. Yang was supposed to get mad and drag Jaune back, but that was it. But I kept writing that scene and letting things flow, and really letting the idea of Jaune pissed at everything and the alcohol starting to muddle his thoughts all swell in my head. And then the idea to have him call her Raven wrote itself, and it sealed how the rest of the story would go. **

**This was back when I was still ahead of my release schedule by a week, and I remember for a full week having this uneasy knot in my stomach, worrying over whether or not it was a stupid, bone-headed decision to write Yang discovering Jaune's secret. I could see the path to Dragonslayer that this could bring about, but I could also see it blowing up in Jaune's face - and in mine, as the writer. It might leave me at a dead end. It could have haitused the story.**

 **I sat down, thought it out, and tried to revise my outline. Scenes started coming to my head. _Yang not getting info from Qrow, leaving Jaune her best option._ _Yang's confrontation with Jaune, which just dripped with the drama I love to write. The Beacon dance. Yang seeing Raven and Jaune fight._ It was official: from the moment Jaune called Yang the wrong name, my story had gotten _so_ much more fun to write. **

**Honestly, my last reservation was _how the hell do I write a romance and fit it into the Fall of Vale arc?_ I've never had a romance, and I'd hate to make that obvious by how I write one. ' _Better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt,'_ right? Do I take things slow, or should one of them make strong, overt moves?**

 **In the end, I felt like an idiot for worrying about it. _Let the story write itself, Ike._ The Beacon dance scene was the one hard thing to write. It was a tender moment and it was one of the things I was most nervous about falling flat. After that, Yang and Jaune's snappy/snippy dynamic started to get a little flirty. One would make a teasing joke in the style of "oh, come on, you know you love me" and the other would not deny it. Jaune started sharing secrets with Yang, which was a sign that he trusted her even if he didn't quite realize it. **

**Ah, and then the pizza scene. When I say I let scenes write themselves, my biggest example is that scene. I start with an idea and start writing, stopping only to tweak something if it feels out of character. Action and reaction dictate the flow. Someone throws a pillow, Yang starts swinging the pillow, Jaune counters and pins her, teenagers realize what happens to themselves when they get pinned to a wall, Jaune screws up because he's still Jaune Arc, and then Yang gives one final challenge while walking off, knowing Jaune isn't one to let a challenge stand.**

 **Man, I'm so glad I suck at sticking to outlines. This story could have been a lot less fun. There still would have been the fun political tensions of the Fall of Vale arc, but Jaune would not have quite as much to lose without Yang. And her inclusion suddenly made Raven a _lot_ more intriguing to write as well...**

* * *

 **Comment of the Week:** by _Onibii_

"I'm surprised Oscar hasn't showed up yet. Also weird thing to type since your story might end but since Adam died during to Fall of Beacon that means Sienna Khan is still alive and well."

 **Oscar's actually planned to show up in the epilogue, just to satisfy the possibility that he could be kicking around. I had Pyrrha explicitly think about how long it has been to keep people reminded of the timeline. In the show, Oscar shows up in Haven at the same time the teams do. This is after a six-month time skip between V3 and V4. Ozpin reincarnates into Oscar while there is still work to be done on the farm, and since the time-skip shows it to be winter when RNJR leaves Patch and then apparently spring in V4, that means that it could have been a whole year at the most.**

 **It's been a month. Hell, Vale might still be on fire; not like fire crews can put anything out with a freaking dragon chilling up at the school. I _will_ have Oscar come into the story just a little bit early by flexing my _fanfic author powers_ , but having him show up for this confrontation felt forced on my end. **

**And yup, Sienna is alive. I'm sure there's a lot of political damage control being done, trying to disown Adam and the Fang who died in the attack. Ilia, if you remember, surrendered to Ironwood after claiming leadership following Adam's death. I'm considering an epilogue surrounding the Trial of the Century, where Atlas and a join council of the other nations all decide the fate of Ilia Amitola as a symbolic gesture, and whether public execution is necessary. It would also be a good chance to introduce Ghira and (more importantly for my Discord) Kali Belladonna, as delegates from Menagerie there to denounce Adam and Ilia. I don't really have a plot for that yet, but I'm considering it for its merits in serving as a good epilogue. It gives information about the world that the story wasn't concerned with, just for curious readers.**

 **Anyways, that's enough from me.**

* * *

 **Next up for MoNT: _Epilogue 1, Birds of a Feather_**


	73. Epilogue - Four Souls for Two Bodies

**AN: Change of plans. I'm bumping _Birds of a Feather_ to be the last epilogue instead of the first one, because it's my favorite of the three and I want to save it for the last upload of MoNT. **

**Since these aren't technically chapters, the formatting is going to be a little different. No intro quote, different headers, and different POV style – 3rd, instead of 1st. My other non-chapter uploads have been handled similarly (Raven's Christmas special, for example).**

 **Note: this is the first of two uploads at the same time. Once you're done reading this one, there's another epilogue uploaded right after it. It just felt better to split them into their own documents.**

* * *

Four Souls for Two Bodies

* * *

"Did Uncle Qrow seem off to you?" Yang asked Jaune idly.

She only looked up – or down, as it currently was – at him when he didn't respond. The ride on the Argus Express had lasted a few hours so far, the first of which Jaune had been a paranoid wreck for. _She_ was out in the open, after all, and Yang's newfound Maiden status carried with it an ever-present threat that had Jaune on edge. Throw in that fancy new gold hip-ornament the cool kids call a 'Relic' and _yeah_ , Yang understood why he was nervous about her being in the open. She had half-jokingly suggested that they buy her a mask to wear full-time, since that worked well for another Maiden they knew.

Jaune had not reacted well to that comment at the time, and everyone watching could tell it was out of stress.

Fortunately, the ride had been smooth. There was a minor Grimm patch but it wasn't anything unusual according to the conductor, and the automated turrets took them out. Right now, Yang had gotten Jaune to truly relax for what felt like the first time since their break with Raven. In a train car to themselves, Jaune was laid out on his back with his head resting comfortably in Yang's lap. She had idly played with his hair for a while, and looking down now, she realized that he hadn't answered her because he was asleep.

She didn't have it in her to wake him from the first truly peaceful rest he'd had in a week just to ask him if her uncle had seemed odd to him. Qrow _had_ , though, back at the train station. Even before then, as they got to get ready to leave the house he was off, now that she thought about it. The way he continued to look around and check his scroll felt like he was waiting for something. Whatever it was, it never happened, and Yang felt that was probably for the best. It was probably just paranoia. There was plenty of that going around.

Yang looked down to her other arm and smiled. While her right had played with Jaune's bangs, her left had intertwined with his and come to rest on his chest. Even asleep, his fingers stayed that way. A warm smile crept up on her face. She loved the boy laid down on her lap, flaws and all, but he could be so overprotective. Not that she wasn't either, but it made it a struggle over which one of them got to sacrifice to protect the other, and that was a score that she had to work to keep even. Jaune felt like Yang had done enough for him already – or to say it more bluntly, he felt like he didn't _deserve_ what Yang did and would do for him, and thus needed to do more before Yang ever had to do anything for him.

It was endearing, if not a little sad. He'd always been a bit hard on himself for that, and Yang wouldn't blame him for that; not since learning who his mother was, anyways. Sure, Yang had gotten the chance to protect him a few times – she had joined the Tribe to get Jaune freed from Ozpin, which counted for something – but it was infuriating how those opportunities didn't come up much.

And now, here she was, helping him fight to pick back up pieces that had been shattered more than a few times now. She hated that she didn't even get the _chance_ to protect him from this. In fact, Jaune had always gone out of his way to protect _her_ from Raven while they were at Beacon. To see what that bitch did to him made her blood boil and her stomach churn, all made worse by knowing she couldn't have protected him from that.

All of that was why, when both her and Jaune's old scrolls began beeping, she didn't tell him about it. One cursory glance to figure out what caused the noise told Yang all she needed to know. _This_ was something that she could protect Jaune from… or maybe she could at least pull a Blake and help smooth things over before Jaune got involved.

As they approached the city of Argus, their scrolls picked up a local signal. After leaving Raven's private network, the only calls that could be made were to other scrolls within short range.

Amber's scroll had just become active, and Yang could use the signal strength to track it down.

* * *

Yang's feet felt like lead. She had tried to distract herself from just what exactly she was about to do by focusing in on finding Amber's scroll. It hadn't proven as hard as she had hoped; the hardest part was convincing Blake and Ruby to run interference so that she could slip away from the group once they arrived at the station – and to play it safe, she left the Relic with Rubes. From there, Yang ran into the spitting image of Pyrrha on her way through some small fruit market when that person noticed the weapons that Yang was carrying with her. Yang would have guessed it to be Pyrrha's older sister, though she wasn't too surprised to learn it was Pyrrha's mother. Nor was she too surprised when Pyrrha's mother had told her that Pyrrha had returned home.

Nor was she too surprised when Pyrrha's mother told her that Pyrrha hadn't been the same since coming home, and that something was clearly wrong. Yang had swallowed hard at the time when told that. Fortunately, she hadn't been pressed to see if she had known why this was. She got the impression that Pyrrha's mom could tell that it was something serious, and would gratefully settle for any help that Yang could provide.

Hence Yang's lead feet now. In front of her was a door, and on the other side of that door was a small gym with a single occupant.

After some time to summon her courage, Yang opened the door and pushed forward. Taking a page out of Jaune's book, Yang didn't really have a plan for how to handle this and was going to wing it. How _could_ she know what to do? There was no telling what Pyrrha knew, or what she remembered, or what she had experienced.

Yang's plan was simple: roll with the punches. She prayed that this wouldn't – and feared that it would – be literal.

She walked in and could immediately tell that Pyrrha knew _something._ The girl was practicing with a simple spear and shield against three training dummies, going through different 3v1 techniques and forms at an alarming pace. Shouts and grunts echoed off the cheap plaster walls as Pyrrha blazed through her training at a speed that Yang knew wasn't a good sign. Going through forms and moves quickly was a sign that you were good at them, but going through them for minutes at a time until exhaustion forced you to stop was a whole different kind of sign.

Pyrrha was pushing herself hard, and Yang knew it was to distract herself from other things.

"Pyrrha?" Yang called out tentatively. She was kinda hoping that Pyrrha was so focused in on maiming her imaginary enemies that she wouldn't hear her, and then… well, she didn't know. And then Yang would shrug her shoulders, lament that at least she tried, and leave? Yang admonished herself for letting such a stupid thought distract her in such a serious moment.

No such luck anyways. Pyrrha's head turned around to find the source of the noise. Green eyes locked onto lavender ones, and Pyrrha's body went stiff.

Fear shone in Pyrrha's green eyes.

"Pyrrha?" Yang repeated, hoping to get the girl to respond.

" _Y-Yang?_ " Pyrrha answered, barely above a whisper. Shock was the only way Yang could describe Pyrrha's reaction, though other things like horror and uncertainty were mixed in.

Yang took a step forward towards Pyrrha. "Pyrrha, is that yo—?"

Yang cut herself off as Pyrrha flinched hard at Yang's movement. The blonde had been prepared for this meeting to go bad fast – as in, violent or aggressive – and immediately stepped back, reflexes ready.

Pyrrha didn't attack, though. The opposite, actually. She shrunk back behind the wooden training shield she held and kept the spear poking out the top, in an extremely defensive position. All because Yang had taken one step towards her.

Yeah, this wasn't good.

Yang tried to throw her hands up in front of her to show neutrality, but attempting to do so reminded her that she was still carrying Pyrrha's old weapons, Miló and Akoúo̱. Instead, Yang slowly bent over to set them on the ground, raising back up just as slowly. Pyrrha watched from behind her shield, with her fear melting away into just uncertainty as Yang made no move to attack.

"I'm not here for a fight. I promise," Yang assured Pyrrha, not knowing exactly what to say or do but knowing that this was a simple place to start.

Pyrrha slowly stood up, letting her weapons fall to her side. Really, it was more accurate to say that Pyrrha forced herself to drop her weapons to her side and straighten up, because the action did not come naturally.

"Sorry," Pyrrha answered automatically, still eyeing Yang nervously. Pyrrha's voice was distant and hesitant. "It's just that the last time I saw you, you slammed me into a desk and took out half my Aura."

Yang flinched at the words, remembering the moment well. She had wanted to rip Pyrrha's head off at the time for sealing Jaune's fate, without stopping to think over Pyrrha's situation at all. That was bad, but hindsight made it worse: by taking half of Pyrrha's Aura, she had weakened the girl before her fight with Jaune. _If she'd had her full Aura, does Jaune get the chance to stab her?_ That question wasn't one she had asked out loud to anyone, because Yang was convinced she already knew the answer. It was the largest reason why she didn't hate Jaune for nearly killing his partner; after all, that had been a group effort.

"Yeah well, the last time I saw you…" Yang fumbled her words awkwardly in response. Not having a plan was already biting her in the ass, and it soon dawned on her that going down the road of last time she saw Pyrrha's body was a horrible idea. "…uh… you were—"

"I was someone else," Pyrrha cut her off, making Yang's eyes go wide.

"You… know about that?" Yang asked lowly. "You remember…?"

Pyrrha shook her head. "The last thing I remember was my fight with Jaune." She paused awkwardly here, her eyes staring off at something. Yang _knew_ that look. It was the same look Amber had whenever Pyrrha's subconscious had flared up. _Was Amber trapped in there somehow?_ She had described it as memories flooding into her mind at the time. If nothing else, Yang knew that the distant look on Pyrrha's face meant she was reliving something.

Pyrrha snapped back to reality moments later. "I blacked out after that, and then I woke up next to a cliff, bleeding from a cut I apparently gave myself with this." She pulled out a dagger that was holstered behind her back. Yang's eyes locked onto the object, immediately recognizing it as Jaune's ceramic dagger. Pyrrha held it out to the side so far that it wasn't even in her periphery, as if just seeing the knife would tempt it to stab her again. Like she wanted to keep it as far from her as she could.

"Is that…?"

"Jaune's?" Pyrrha finished for her, still not risking looking at the dagger. Instead, she tossed it to Yang, who caught it easily. While Yang examined the blade and confirmed that it was Jaune's ceramic one, Pyrrha summoned her old weapons to herself with her Semblance.

"Do you… know what happened between then and now?" Yang asked nervously, getting back on topic hesitantly.

"Yes."

Pyrrha's answer sent a chill down Yang's spine. She couldn't get a read on what that answer was supposed to mean.

"O-Oh," was all that Yang was able to get out. A wave of panic washed over her, and she realized that she would have liked Pyrrha to not know before she got here. Yang would have had to tell Pyrrha everything that had happened – the guilt would gnaw away at her for the rest of her life if she hid the truth from Pyrrha – but explaining it would have given Yang a chance to at least… influence how Pyrrha took it. She wouldn't _lie_ , but Yang could soften the blow on a couple of things, or try to explain to Pyrrha just how complicated and difficult all their decisions were. Framing was important. "Are you… upset about anything?"

Yang wanted to smack herself in the face as soon as the words left her mouth. Is she _upset_ about anything? What sort of a question was that?

The look that Pyrrha gave Yang was no surprise. Yang really hadn't ever seen Pyrrha get angry or uppity with someone; the Invincible Girl had the patience of a saint, as far as Yang's memory served. Yet now, Pyrrha gave Yang a flat glare, and it was clear that there was anger and resentment bubbling up.

"Sorry," Yang let out almost immediately. "That's a stupid question."

"It was," Pyrrha answered curtly.

The space between them was only ten feet, yet it felt much farther than that. The air felt icy, and that wasn't from Yang's powers.

"You said you don't remember anything about it…" Yang let out, taking a small risk by speaking and drawing more attention to herself. She had to, though; there was still an angle Yang could try. "Are you sure you know what happened?"

"Yes," Pyrrha answered again, similarly to before. "Amber—" Pyrrha cut herself off, biting her lip in uncertainty. It was the first expression that wasn't hostile towards Yang that the blonde could recall since showing up.

It also confirmed that Pyrrha knew of Amber.

"Amber what?" Yang pressed.

"Amber wrote me letters," Pyrrha answered, hesitantly. For the moment, her animosity had been forgotten, and Yang sought to expand on that by making it clear she was listening patiently. "They weren't really a suicide note, but… well, I guess, they kind of were. She told me what had been happening since I've been gone, and what… what all she did while in control of my body."

Pyrrha's head dropped down in shame as she struggled to get those last words out, and that did nothing but deepen Yang's guilt.

"I'm sorry…" Yang let out, desperate to see the shame wiped from Pyrrha's expression. It wasn't right for her to be ashamed of anything, not when everything had been done _to_ her. If that meant taking more attention back onto herself, then Yang was willing to make that sacrifice. It worked, as Pyrrha looked up to make eye-contact with Yang, a move which reminded Yang of how awkward the situation was. "…for… for letting Amber—"

"Defile my body?" Pyrrha cut in to offer Yang the word she was struggling to find.

Yang flinched. She hadn't been going to say something so… _intense_ as that, but she really couldn't argue against that description. Yang still wasn't sure of the legality of what Amber had done – that she had enabled. To Pyrrha, it obviously had to feel like being violated. Yet, at the time, Amber was the person in control. Was it still Pyrrha's body, and if so, did Amber have no right to make any decisions? That would make Amber a passenger in the best case, and a prisoner in the worst. If such a thing could even be decided in court, Yang didn't think that Amber could be convicted of doing anything wrong.

But it sure as hell _felt_ wrong, even if Yang didn't think there were any 'right' decisions at the time.

"Y-Yeah," she confirmed weakly, eyes trailing down to avoid eye-contact with Pyrrha. The girl's anger had begun to return, at least from what Yang had seen in her eyes, and Yang knew that there was no way she could get through a proper apology if she had to watch Pyrrha's emotions the whole time. "I'm sorry that I helped her do that. I knew that you might still come back and that Amber didn't have any right to do that, but I… I couldn't just not help Amber."

Yang risked looking up at Pyrrha. The girl's expression was unreadable, her eyes distant. At her side, her fists were clenched as she tried to maintain a grip on herself and the world around her. "I-If you hate me for it, I understand. I'm not exactly proud of it either." _That didn't mean that Yang was going to say that any of the other options would have been better._

Yang's words snapped Pyrrha back into focus. "I don't hate _you_."

Yang gave Pyrrha a curious look, going so far as to tilt her head to the side.

"There are two people I blame more than anyone for what happened," Pyrrha explained cautiously. "You aren't one of them. I don't… _hate_ you."

"You don't?" Yang asked, surprised. A little spark of hope welled up in her. If Pyrrha didn't hate Yang, then maybe reconciliation wasn't impossible. Maybe Pyrrha would be open to going and rejoining her team. _Maybe this all could be fixed._ It was a bit ambitious, sure, but Pyrrha really didn't hate Yang for helping Amber whore around a bit with Pyrrha's body. If that wasn't a good sign, what was? "Why not?"

"Amber… was not shy about giving me details of what she did. Nor did she make any excuses for it. She told me exactly what she'd been doing, and how frequently. But she also made it clear that she would have done it with or without your permission, and that you at least kept her safe."

"I could have done more to stop her," Yang pointed out. She wasn't sure why she felt compelled to speak out against her own self interest here, but she did. It felt honest to her, or at least fair, that she take some blame here – more blame than Jaune, who actually had been against the idea.

Pyrrha nodded in agreeance. "I wish you would have at least tried. She did say that you were always pushing her to try to bring me back, so I… I think that counts for something.

"I don't hate you for it, but I… I can't forgive you for it, either," the redhead let out cautiously. Yang could tell from Pyrrha's tone that she had picked up on Yang's little spark of hope from earlier; Pyrrha didn't want Yang to get too far ahead of things. That was not a great sign. "I'm not going to hold a grudge, but… I-I don't think I can be friends or anything."

"I… I understand," Yang struggled to let out. She thought she did understand, and maybe deep down she really did agree that Pyrrha was making the right decision for her, but that didn't mean that it made it easy for Yang to swallow. Yang helped herself get over that by focusing on other angles. After all, Yang and Pyrrha hadn't been exactly close at Beacon – love triangles tended to do that, if you could have even called them that at the time. There were others that wanted to get Pyrrha back more than she did, and it was more important that Yang bridge those relationships than her own one with Pyrrha.

Pyrrha spoke before Yang could fully collect her thoughts.

"It's not that I don't want to forgive you," Pyrrha's voice cut in. It carried a mix of awkwardness and nervousness, showing that Pyrrha clearly wasn't any more comfortable than Yang was. "I-It's just that I… can't. I _want_ to forgive you, but every time I try to tell myself that it's okay, I just get…" Pyrrha's fists balled up and she shut her eyes forcefully, trying to contain her frustration. "I get angry! I get angry at you, and at myself, and Amber, and it makes me nauseous just thinking about what she did to me."

"I know the feeling. Trust me," Yang let out lowly, not knowing any other way to comfort Pyrrha. Yang recalled first learning about Jaune's secret, and the confusing swirl of emotions that had been. All things considered, she figured what Pyrrha was going through was probably a more impactful version of that, and that wasn't a description that made Yang feel any better.

"And I don't have anyone I can talk to about it," Pyrrha let out vulnerably. She sounded exhausted. Hell, she _looked_ exhausted. Yang wondered if she had been sleeping well, or even at all. _Did she lie awake at night, scared that if she closed her eyes someone else would take over her again?_ "I-I can't just go tell my mom that a magical Maiden's soul stole my body and let people have sex with me, or that I was nearly killed by my partner after I betrayed him for a wizard, or—" Pyrrha's voice rambled on until it stumbled over itself, leaving her panting and trying to sort herself out.

"You could talk to me."

" _No_ ," Pyrrha said sharply, in an abrupt change of manner. When she saw how Yang flinched, she retreated back in on herself. That made Yang feel even more like shit; even now, Pyrrha was still a nice person. "I-I'm sorry, Yang, but you being here isn't… helping me. It's actually making it harder for me to keep a grip on things."

"I could help you get through this," Yang offered, pressing just a little bit. She didn't want Pyrrha to think she was forcing her into anything, but Yang felt that she owed this to Pyrrha. "I know more than anyone what Amber did. I can help you, Pyrrha. I want to help you."

Pyrrha looked at Yang distrustfully, which stung.

"I think the best thing you can do to help me is to… to stay away from me."

Yang's eyes widened, and Pyrrha backtracked a little.

"I-I don't mean that harshly, Yang—" she let out quickly. "—it's just… I need space. I need a chance to forget about it all, and seeing you just keeps it all fresh."

Yang's instincts screamed at her not to give in – not to give up on Pyrrha. Her mind overrode them. She hated the idea, but if this was what Pyrrha wanted – if this would help Pyrrha heal more – then she had no right to demand otherwise.

"Okay," Yang let out defeatedly, eyes dropping down.

"Thank you, Yang," Pyrrha let out, relieved that there wouldn't be an argument over this. She turned to return to her training.

"What about Jaune?"

Yang noticed the unnatural stiffness that stopped Pyrrha mid-turn.

"He's one of the two you blame, isn't he?" Yang asked, almost challenging Pyrrha. She would regret that later, but she couldn't help herself now. Yang needed to push, for her own conscience's sake. "It's him and Amber, isn't it?"

"Amber, yes," Pyrrha answered cautiously, turning around and eyeing Yang distrustfully. "Jaune—" She cut herself off and looked down. Pyrrha didn't exactly know what to say. "He's not the other one. I don't know if I _hate_ him, but… I know I can't face him."

"Are you sure?"

"Am I sure?" Pyrrha repeated the question incredulously. "I can't hear his name without being paralyzed. I can't close my eyes without seeing him coming to kill me again. I can't sleep without reliving that night in my dreams. _Am I sure_ that I can't face him?!"

"Right," Yang mumbled weakly, dropping her head in shame. "I'm sorry. I didn't – I should have known."

Pyrrha waved off her apology, turning around to try to compose herself better. Yang had gotten an honest glimpse into what Pyrrha was going through, though. She hated it, but if leaving Pyrrha on her own to heal was the best thing for her, then Yang would keep Pyrrha a secret from the rest of the group. She personally thought Ren and Nora could help without stressing Pyrrha too much, but it was clear that Yang's suggestions weren't welcome anymore.

What stung maybe more than anything was that Yang had to admit that there wasn't anything she could do to make it up to Pyrrha. Yang's mistakes couldn't be rectified, made up for, or atoned for. The guilt would have to linger. The only thing she could really do was spare the others from knowing that Pyrrha was alive but wanted to stay away from them. She knew that it would hurt Jaune in particular, and the whole reason she had come here was to spare Jaune from having to.

She did have one final question before she left, though: who the other person Pyrrha blamed was.

As if arranged by fate, there came a new voice from the entryway.

"E-Excuse me, ladies?" a nervous, young voice called out. Pyrrha and Yang's attention were drawn up to some random twelve-year-old, dressed like some sort of farmhand. He looked terrified to be standing in front of them. "Are you Yang and Pyrrha?"

"Uh… yeah?"

"Can we help you?" Pyrrha asked, putting on a convincing mask that concealed any of the emotions she had just been under the control of.

"Uh, yes, actually," the kid answered nervously. "Or… I'm supposed to be able to help you."

Yang and Pyrrha shared a confused look. Pyrrha's hands tightened around her weapons, though she hid the action well. Yang didn't feel threatened by a kid younger than Ruby who wasn't armed, but this did feel weird to her.

"Do we know you?" Yang asked succinctly.

"M-My name is Oscar Pine," the boy answered, clearly nervous. He had a small twitch as he paused, and it sounded like he maybe mumbled something under his breath. "I'm supposed to tell you that you might also know me as… Headmaster Ozpin?"

* * *

Oscar was now completely convinced that he had gone insane.

Not that he needed convincing still. He had come to grips with that the first day that a voice had popped into his head, trying to convince him to abandon his home and go fight the Grimm as the re-embodiment of an immortal warrior wizard. He had spent every day for nearly a month mentally yelling at that voice to shut up. He wasn't crazy and he wasn't going to listen to the obvious imaginary voice whispering impossible things in his ears.

His conviction wavered by the day. The voice would tell him something that made sense, and at first, Oscar could rationalize it. _Sure, it predicted the contents of Mistral's headmaster's tea tray, but Oscar had seen a picture of it before, Oscar think._ Since the voice was just some broken part of his own mind, of course it could know that.

Tests like that began to get harder to rationalize, so Oscar just decided to ignore them entirely. That didn't work for long, so Oscar just accepted that he was crazy and went on with his life as normal.

Then, the craziest news cycle in his living memory came around. The headmaster of Mistral was both dead and a traitor – a dead traitor, which technically were the best kind – and a wildfire raged on while other terrorists from Vale had been killed.

The voice in his head had known so much detail about each of these characters _before_ the news described them that Oscar knew something was up. _Maybe_ this voice was telling the truth. After all, Beacon's headmaster died in the attack on Beacon, which was performed by these same people. _If_ this voice really was that person reincarnated, then yeah, he would know details about his attackers.

That voice said that their connection would grow daily, but that their link was too weak for him to take over Oscar's body yet, which was why Oscar needed to decide to leave on his own.

What the heck _that_ meant was never explained to Oscar, but he decided to go along with the voice's instructions now that he couldn't deny that something strange was happening.

That was the moment he knew he was completely crazy, even if he was only going because he wanted to know what was going on.

Now, Oscar was dead. He was convinced of it.

He had been in Argus for a day, sleeping in the train terminal overnight while posing as someone with a train ride the next morning. That had made him a nervous wreck, but his voice in his head said that he would watch over him while they slept. This didn't make Oscar feel that much better, but he didn't have a choice.

While wandering a fruit market the next day, Oscar had laid eyes on a gorgeous woman and had instantly known her name: Yang. Yang Xiao Long, as his voice explained, as it proceeded to give him details about her. Her combat record at Beacon, her performance in Beacon's entry exam, her romantic entanglement with a problematic student, and her tendency towards violence when her hair was touched/sliced/stained.

So, Oscar let himself be talked into going after this Yang person, despite that violence thing. That led him to some small gym, with another gorgeous woman that Oscar recognized as Pyrrha. That was two people in a row that this Oz person in his head already knew. He even asked them if they were Yang and Pyrrha, and they said yes.

He _wasn't_ crazy. This voice really did know what it was talking about.

Inspired by that, Oscar went on to say the other thing the voice told him to. That he was 'Headmaster Ozpin.' The girls recognized this name, Oscar could tell. That was great! It felt as if the weight of the world had lifted from Oscar's shoulders. He truly wasn't crazy. This Ozpin voice in his head was real.

And then Oscar's life flashed before his eyes. Pyrrha's expression soured rapidly and before he could even flinch she had launched her spear right at Oscar's head.

" _Pyrrha! NO!_ "

The last thing Oscar saw was a wall of white, followed by darkness.

The next thing he felt was the sensation of being out of breath. That was odd. Dead spirits didn't need to breathe – the one in his head didn't, at least. He let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding, and that confirmed that he wasn't dead. He was breathing, at least, and usually breathing people were alive.

It was dark because he had closed his eyes and tried to cover his head with his arms. He knew that he didn't react in time to dodge that spear, so he wasn't sure what had happened.

He opened his eyes to find a wall of ice directly in front of him, with Pyrrha's spear frozen in it. The tip poked out dangerously close to his face. That must have been the white flash he saw.

 _Ms. Xiao Long? Interesting,_ the voice in his head mumbled to itself. _I can think of a couple of blondes who wouldn't like that development._

"I-I think I'll just go," Oscar let out meekly as he backed away in fright. Idly, he touched the front of his pants with his hands, and was somewhat relieved to find that he hadn't wet himself.

 _Wait_ , the voice in his head cried out. _We need them to connect us with my regular associates._

"No way," Oscar responded, eyeing the blonde approaching him cautiously. She flinched and slowed her approach, thinking that he was talking to her. Yang walked towards him like he was some sort of wounded animal.

 _Ask Ms. Xiao Long if she is in contact with her uncle._

"How is that a priority right now?" Oscar asked incredulously. "She just tried to kill me!"

"It's okay. She just thought you were someone else," Yang tried to calm him down. "She's… frozen right now. It'll be okay, I've got you."

 _Ask her about her uncle, and if he has my cane._

"Is the cane seriously that important?!"

 _It has sentimental value._

"I almost died!"

 _Your instincts would have kicked in to save you if you would have had the cane._ _It's an anchor that will help speed along our synchronization._

"Are you… okay?" Yang asked him, watching him interact with – with himself carefully. "You're the next version of Ozpin, right?"

"You _know_ about me?" Oscar asked, distracted by the idea that he might yet not be crazy once more. He was losing track at this point.

 _Be careful. She only knows through sources who aren't friendly to me._

" _Oh, like how this has been friendly so far?_ " Oscar mumbled back under his breath.

"I do," Yang answered, nodding more than was necessary to try to ease him along. She didn't even look at him like he was crazy when he mumbled back to the voice in his head. "I… have a friend who told me about this. He knows more than I do about it."

 _If you want to rile her up, ask her how often she has slept with this 'friend.'_

"Why would I _want_ to do that?" Oscar cut back at the voice in his head. He remembered the conversation about this woman hurting people who touched her hair. There was no way Oscar was going to say _that_ to her.

Yang cocked her head to the side, confused. She still didn't quite look at him like he was crazy, which was good.

"N-Not you," Oscar tried to explain. "Ozpin. I think that's his name. He's a voice inside my head."

"I… see. Not the weirdest thing that's happened recently," Yang let out lowly, eyeing the ice wall, behind which Pyrrha was struggling to break free of her own ice prison. "I could take you to him. He… won't like Ozpin coming along, but I'm sure it would help explain things."

"That sounds—"

 _Ask her if she is traveling with her uncle. We_ _must_ _rendezvous with him immediately._

"Ugh, _fine_ ," Oscar growled, before turning back to Yang. "I'm supposed to ask if your uncle is there."

"Yup."

 _Does he have my cane?_

Oscar rolled his eyes. "Does he have Ozpin's cane?"

" _That's_ what Ozpin is worried about?" Yang asked, rolling her eyes. Oscar decided he liked this woman. She felt like she was on his side.

Maybe that was just because he had a limited sample size, and the other woman he had met tried to kill with instantly.

Pyrrha had finished chipping her way out of her ice prison, and was staring him down hard.

"I-It can wait," Oscar let out limply. "I think you two were talking about something. P-Please, feel free to finish."

" _Ozpin._ "

The word sent a shiver down Oscar's spine. To his relief, Yang stepped between the two of them.

"Pyrrha, don't," Yang warned sternly. "I know what he did to you. Let it go."

" _Let it go?!_ " she shouted, never taking her eyes off of Oscar. "He made me throw away everything I wanted, Yang! He turned me against my own partner. He made Jaune hate me! I just wanted to be a Huntress and help people. I didn't want… I didn't want this!"

Ozpin had many thoughts about that, and Oscar tried to ignore them as he kept a watchful eye out for any sudden movement from Pyrrha. One thing Ozpin insistently repeated finally made its way to Oscar's lips.

"Ozpin says you can still be a Huntress."

Pyrrha's focus snapped to his eyes with a fury that scared the hell out of poor Oscar.

"I don't _want_ to be a Huntress anymore," Pyrrha let out lowly. There was a slight air of desperation in her words. "I don't know what I want. I don't know who I am anymore, but I will _never_ listen to anything he has to say again. He took that from me."

"We should go," Yang let out diplomatically, trying to calm Pyrrha down.

"I _do_ want that," Pyrrha let out, trying to force herself to calm down. It didn't work very well, Oscar thought.

Yang turned around to face Oscar briefly, before nodding towards the door. Oscar didn't need anything else said to him for him to head out that door as fast as possible.

Yang stayed behind a moment longer, turning back to face Pyrrha one more time.

"I'm sorry, Pyrrha. For everything."

"Yeah," Pyrrha let out, dropping her head down and taking a breath. "Yeah, so am I."


	74. Epilogue - What Happens Next

**AN: This is the second of two epilogues uploaded at the same time. Head on back and read that first one if you haven't yet. That one focuses on tying up two loose ends. This one is more a small glimpse into the world of Remnant following the events of this story.**

 **The last epilogue will go up next week. It's my favorite, and it ties up two more loose ends.**

* * *

A lone Seer Grimm hovered over the charred remains of a failed Mistralian settlement, moving slowly as it examined ground zero of the wildfires that were only just now being contained. From her shattered palace an untold distance away, Salem hummed in displeasure. Though the noise was communicated through the Seer, there was no one to hear it.

Therein lay the problem.

One did not live to be Salem's age without learning the value of imagination, and so when none of her underlings reported back to her all within the same time frame, it didn't take her long to conjure a scenario to explain it. They were all dead. They had all, simultaneously, failed.

If it were just Mercury failing to report in, she wouldn't have batted an eye. The kid was in over his head and was clearly just looking out for himself. Hazel, even, would not have surprised Salem; perhaps someone had finally broken through his thick skull that his actions were incongruent with his motivations. Salem doubted that logic would magically heal the brawler's shattered heart, but it wasn't out of the realm of the possible. Similarly, she could think of reasons why Lionheart or Watts would go dark: cowardice and self-preservation.

But Tyrian? Salem had broken Tyrian's mind so long ago that if there was _any_ chance he would ever desert, it would have come up by now. The Faunus worshipped Salem like the goddess she was back when she and Ozma ruled the world together. Despite his annoying personality and how grating his clear mental instability could be, his fanaticism for her reminded her of better times. It reminded her of how things _should_ be, how they should have been.

If Tyrian did not report back, then he was assuredly dead. And if Tyrian had died, then Salem felt very confident in assuming that all her other agents had died.

That one Seer roamed the charred countryside to confirm her suspicions. News was slow to the Grimmlands and she couldn't send a Grimm into civilization so easily, so learning if Lionheart or Watts had been compromised was off the table for now. Finding evidence of what had happened with Hazel, Tyrian, or the boy after Salem's first Seer had been destroyed would be all she had left.

She eventually found what she needed in the ashes of Kuroyuri. A body charred well beyond regular means could achieve – not even the heat of a wildfire would do _this_. There was literally no flesh left on the blacked bones, but a tangled and charred cord of chitin nearby confirmed the body as Tyrian's. Even from thousands of miles away, Salem could feel through the Seer the lingering hint of power on his corpse. No wildfire could burn – or melt, more accurately – flesh this completely. Even dust would struggle to achieve this, unless an impractical amount was burnt at a steady rate, an occurrence that would not happen during battle.

Magic lingered on Tyrian's body. Familiar magic, akin to her own, though reduced in potency. It had once been Ozma's. Tyrian was killed by a Maiden. That, or Ozma had already reincarnated, though the difference mattered not. The ambush had been seen through, and Qrow Branwen either had a Maiden on-hand or Ozma. Suddenly, their insistence on taking out the Seer during the battle made sense: they were taking out Salem's eyes so that she wouldn't know which it was.

She was tempted to assume they had a Maiden, or even that one of the children there was a Maiden. It would take time to confirm this.

With a sigh, Salem dismissed the Seer on her own end, giving the one in Mistral orders to return home. It was time to take stock.

The 'game' she and Ozma played was played in waves. That was how she preferred it, anyways. She would spend years building up forces, obfuscating her efforts, and trying to spread Ozma too thin, and then she would send her strength crashing down on the world. There had been many such waves, and many different lessons had been learned by both her and her former lover. Ozma had taught her the power of such waves in the first place. After their violent split, she had subjugated the world for years. It was Ozma who first played the role of the mouse in their game, hiding and building up strength. Her kingdom came crashing down practically overnight, and it was a lesson she would never forget.

She wondered if Ozma regretted teaching her that now that she had done it to him so many times that she lost count.

She taught Ozma the value of terror by sending dark things to go bump in the night. Fear only stirred up the Grimm – they drew strength from it through some process gifted to them by their God that not even she had yet to replicate. Salem brought Ozma's first, primitive world crashing down on itself.

Ozma rallied the people and showed her the power humanity could wield when united, and since then, he had been in control. She had given him fits here and there, but those were more probing attacks. For centuries, she had been waiting.

Ozma hadn't been idle. He took inspiration from her use of shadows and utilized shadows of his own. Cloak and dagger operations, such as that pesky Arc family that somehow drew breath still, had kept her operations suppressed quite effectively.

Until this most recent wave, when Oz had precious little remaining of an organized spy apparatus. In a delicious bout of irony, the presence of an Arc on the field this time had kept Ozma from rooting out Salem's play. The capital of Vale was destroyed, and blood ran red through its streets. It had been well over a century since Salem had done something so bold, and she knew that each soul destroyed tore at Ozma's weak heart. For such a small batch of underlings, a very large victory had been achieved.

Yet Salem did not quite feel victorious.

The Fall Maiden had escaped and Cinder had been killed. The Arcs defied her by showing themselves to be alive. Mistral, despite having its headmaster in her pocket, escaped unscathed. The Relic of Knowledge had slipped through her fingers. And Salem was left without any pawns on the board.

Much had been accomplished with very little. So much more had been left on the board.

There were two options left to her, one patient, the other not. She could plunge herself into the Grimm pools once more, stir up the rage and hatred within her, and then march out on the world with an army of Grimm. With Vale belonging to her Wyvern, the world was effectively split down the middle. Vacuo was isolated and would fall easily. She just wasn't certain that Mistral and Atlas would fall after that. Ozma had taught her never to let humanity band together under a common cause, and with the White Fang movement fizzled out, there was nothing in the short term that she could use to divide them. Humanity would stand united against her army, and would likely survive. Not many, but enough to rebuild while she nursed wounds for decades.

That would only set her back farther.

"The other option it is, then," she announced to herself, all too aware that she had no acolytes left to be speaking to. That would be the first order of business. Salem needed loyal followers, warriors, schemers, scientists, politicians, revolutionaries, and anything else she could utilize. There would always be disgruntled pawns that she could turn, but finding them would be difficult. As for fighters, well, it was time to start from scratch. Send Grimm to destroy a village and abduct its children. Her brand of training was brutal and would kill off all but the strongest. It was how young Cinder came into her service, as well as Tyrian.

She was starting from scratch. This wave had crashed against the shore and knocked over a few sandcastles. Now, the tide drew it back out into the ocean.

 _Ozma can have his peace._ In a few decades, after their monuments and memorials had rusted and their memories had faded, she would return. The next wave would crash harder than the last.

Why attack this generation again? They had bled to win security for their families. Salem was going to attack their children next, just like she always did.

* * *

Jaune watched with a smirk as Yang trained Oscar in hand-to-hand combat. The last thing he had wanted was _another_ case of someone's body getting taken over by someone else's soul, but life just seemed to enjoy pissing Jaune off. He just couldn't even catch the slightest of breaks, could he? It was _Ozpin_ this time.

That was why he smirked every time Yang punched a fourteen-year-old boy in the face. He knew that there was a difference between Oscar and Ozpin, but hitting Oscar in the face was as close as you could come to decking Ozpin. Seeing Yang do that did wonders for him.

"I don't think you should be smiling that much at child abuse," the voice of General Ironwood called out, announcing their host's presence as he walked up beside Jaune. Since delivering the Relic to Atlas for safeguarding, they had all been staying as guests of the Atlas military while they decided their next move. Given Yang's need to hide her powers and Weiss' need to stay hidden from her father, that included access to private training facilities in an off-the-books manner.

"Hey, it's happening under your watch," Jaune quipped back, cutting his eyes coyly at the general. "I'm not the one with a public image to maintain."

Ironwood rolled his eyes, one of the most casual actions Jaune had seen him take. "At this point, maintaining my newfound stardom is nearly impossible."

"Hey, you're the one who 'single-handedly' took down all of the White Fang aboard Amity," Jaune pointed out with a chuckle, repeating some of the more exaggerated language that had been floating around the news.

"I believe we both know that all I did was rally the students there. Hardly a stroke of military genius," Ironwood retorted, letting his exhaustion with the exaggerated story show. Both of them knew that Ironwood _had_ performed a critical feat in defeating Adam Taurus and putting down the remaining Fang, but they both recognized that the story that was being told was of value. The largest reason that Atlas hadn't been blamed too harshly for the Attack on Beacon was all the eye-witness reports of Atlas' general leading the survivors of Amity to safety. Instead of taking the brunt of public ire, Ironwood was propelled to stardom thanks to accounts from people like Team SSSN, and that was enough to keep international relations from icing over. It had also massively strengthened Ironwood's standing in Atlas – after all, without him being perceived as Atlas' leader, the country would have had to close its borders.

"Being a war hero is fun, though. Right?" Jaune asked teasingly.

"I would have preferred it had there not _been_ a war," Ironwood answered tiredly. He cut his eyes at Jaune. "If only things had played out differently, hmm? Maybe Vale wouldn't be destroyed."

"Take that up with Ozpin," Jaune cut back defensively. They both knew that he wasn't blameless on that account, but Jaune wasn't ever going to say that aloud. His eyes trailed over from the wizard's reincarnation to his fiancée, and he rubbed the new ring on his finger idly. "I happen to like where things stand now."

"I'm sure you do," Ironwood commented, content to back off a little. "I would just point out that our current status could have been achieved without necessitating the loss of thousands of lives."

"How so?" Jaune asked, only semi-curious. He had recently decided not to take anything for granted, and was sticking with that commitment fiercely. Questioning past choices was a path that led to madness.

"I seem to recall us having a couple of off-the-record conversations back during Beacon."

Jaune let out a soft chuckle. "I seem to recall mentioning that someday I would be the one to interrogate you."

"Yes, well, I won't hold my breath on that one," the general quipped back, keeping his voice low. "I recall telling you that if you wanted information on your family, that going to Ozpin would be your most fruitful option."

The words jogged free some memories of their conversation. Ironwood and Ozpin weren't seeing eye to eye – which was and still is a good quality in Jaune's eyes – and Ironwood had offered to keep their conversation hidden from Ozpin.

"Now that you mention it," Jaune started in, "I feel like you could have offered me a _little_ insight into my family. I did read a report about them with _your name on it._ "

"Yes, Ozpin has since mentioned that he found that report on your scroll when he captured you," Ironwood responded, allowing himself to yield under Jaune's ire just a little. "Ozpin and I… had a conversation recently about that. It seems that I knew some details that not even he did. I had always assumed that he knew Vernal Arc was Lionheart's Maiden." There was a hint of humor in the general's voice.

"You _did_?" Jaune asked, breaking out of his feigned interest in the spars to look at Ironwood directly. "Ozpin didn't know about that. Qrow and—none of them knew that."

"Yes, well, Ozpin and I have always employed different methods. Atlas' spy activities on its allies were expansive to the point of paranoia. Still are in some ways..." Despite his words, Ironwood didn't seem shy about admitting that. He looked kind of smug. "Some things slipped through our grasp – such as Raven Branwen making plans to desert, or the Arcs having a son. We knew that Lionheart had lost the Spring Maiden and the Arcs at nearly the same time. Since we were… monitoring things, we knew that he only searched for one of those. We assumed that meant he was killing two birds with one stone, hence—"

"Hence the Maiden being with my family," Jaune concluded, nodding along. "Why not share that with Ozpin?"

"And subject myself to a lecture about not following his lead and over-committing my forces?" Ironwood asked rhetorically, to which Jaune shrugged. He wasn't going to suggest running things by Ozpin ahead of time. The explanation worked as far as he was concerned. "To be completely honest, I always suspected Ozpin knew anyways. I was not going to subject myself to criticism from him all to tell him something he already knew. I suspect you understand this sentiment," he added with a chuckle.

Jaune rolled his eyes, but didn't deny it.

"Had I known then what I know now, I would have offered you a job."

"I was purposely avoiding working for Ozpin because I didn't want to trade one leash for another. No way in hell you could have talked me into that."

"I believe you would have fared better under my wing than any of your other options," Ironwood stated coyly, using his terminology intentionally. "Except maybe Torchwick, but something tells me you would have had to give up certain things to go work with a criminal full-time."

His eyes trailed up to Yang, and then to the rest of the teams fanned out over the rest of this training area.

"Subtle," Jaune drawled, drawing another chuckle from Ironwood. "Speaking of Torchwick, did you ever find out how he got that file from Atlas' records?"

Ironwood's immediate agitation brought a grin to Jaune's face. " _No._ That file was kept in paper format only, with only one redacted copy in circulation and one original locked in a secure vault, and I wrote it myself years ago. Someone with access to Atlas intelligence records had to manually copy it for him."

"That sounds like a pretty easy trail to follow," Jaune egged the general on. "Any chance I could see that unredacted one?"

"Why would you want that?" Ironwood asked, before finding a better question to ask. "Why would I let you?"

"Because I can have the Fall Maiden make life very inconvenient for Ozpin, and make sure that he knows that it's your fault," Jaune answered in an idle threat. He smiled, prouder at his play than he should have been. Knowing that he had leverage against Ozpin made him feel so much better about his current position in life, even if he was technically committing to work with the man now. Knowing that if push came to shove, Yang could kill Ozpin and would choose him over anyone else felt amazing. He idly fidgeted with the ring on his finger. "Or, you could just do it to be nice. I still don't even know my family's names."

They both knew that was a shameless emotional ploy, but it was true. Ironwood gave in, rolling his eyes as he did so.

"I'll see what I can do," he mumbled. "Anything else I can help you with?" Ironwood asked sarcastically.

"Yeah, could you soundproof Yang and I's quarters? The last thing I need is Taiyang busting in and—"

Jaune turned around to find Ironwood already walking off, shaking his head as he did so.

* * *

"If I have to proofread this _fucking manuscript_ one more god damn time—" Koi let out angrily, bursting into his boss' office.

"Koi, what the hell—!"

"—I'm going to blow my brains across the front page of this newspaper!"

The Editor-In-Chief of Mistral's second-most popular newspaper was not having a good day, week, or month.

"I thought you were supposed to write the news, not make it," his boss – the over-involved owner of said newspaper, the Mistral United Press Company – sniped at his golden boy. It was a snobby phrase that Koi used often when berating younger editors, interns, field journalists, or even his boss. Having it thrown back at him, humorously or otherwise, did nothing to help Koi's mood.

"Would you _please_ tell me why you're wasting my talents and ruining my brain cells with this… this excuse for English!?" Koi shouted, not finding any words that described the collection of words he slapped on his boss' desk lowly enough. The paper knocked over the nameplate that sat on the desk – not that the owner of a newspaper _needed_ one, but he still liked to show off. The gold-plated lettering made the words _Patrick Rodger Eyon_ pop on the black background.

"What is this, the Vasilias manuscript?" Mr. Eyon asked, putting on his readers as he picked up the papers.

"What is this, the Vasilias manuscript?" Koi mocked back at his boss. None of the other employees would dare mock such a demanding and powerful boss as Pat R. Eyon, and normally not even Koi would have, but this was a special circumstance. That damned manuscript was making Koi a dumber human for having read it. _And he had to read it numerous, countless times._ "Yes it's the fucking Vasilias manuscript!"

"That was rhetorical," Mr. Eyon sniped back. "It's all I ever hear about from you. Why did—" he cut himself off, looking down strangely as he realized that he had a _print_ manuscript in his hands. "Why in the hell did you print it off? The original file we got was digital."

"I wanted to hit my monitor each time I read this thing," Koi grumbled angrily.

Mr. Eyon wasn't quite sure if that was a joke. "That… explains why the papers are so crumpled. Aren't you worried about getting them out of order?"

"I promise you, reading them out of order would make it more coherent."

"Come, now, you're exaggerating," Mr. Eyon condescended, much like he had the last dozen or so times Koi had come in here to rant. He put up with it, though. The MUCP had spent too much money acquiring the rights to a book deal with Mr. Vasilias for him to let the project falter. "Calm down and tell me what problem you're having this time."

"What problem? _What problem?_ The entire thing is unreadable!" Koi protested loudly. He gestured openly to the manuscript, confident that literally any line would back his claim. "Just look for yourself!"

Eyeing his star editor cautiously, Mr. Eyon pushed his glasses up firmly against the bridge of his nose, and began reading aloud.

 _Two enemy sidelines drew together, but froze before their clash could spill the blood of the losers. This night had killed so many innocent children, men, and women, but the bloodshed was not yet finished. Hopefully, this time, that blood would only pour out guiltily._

"I'm… not sure I read that correctly?" Mr. Eyon stopped reading aloud to question whether he understood the inflexion the author was going for.

"No, that's how it is _meant_ to be read," Koi tacked on. "Keep in mind, this is after, like, six rounds of edits. _Keep going._ "

Mr. Eyon eyed Koi nervously. He was already beginning to suspect he was correct.

 _The White Fang had rued this night –_ "I'm sorry, does he mean 'ruled'?"

Koi threw his hands in the air. "I don't fucking know at this point."

 _The White Fang had rued this night, murdering innocent humans and Faunus all night._ "Okay, does he realize that by separating humans and Faunus, he's saying…?"

"I fucking doubt he knows the difference."

 _The White Fang had rued this night, murdering innocent humans and Faunus all night tonight. And they would have killed every last single person on the all of Amity Arena, that is, unless one man hadn't been there. Atlas General Ironwood had, with one hand holding one gun holding thirteen rounds, beat back the savage racist supremacist terrorist douchebags._

 _All but one of them._

" _Alas, I shall cap off this night of glory for the Faunus by quenching my blade in the heart of the heartless cyborg from the frigid north!" Adam Taurus shouted out ferally, pointing his cutlass out across the No Man or Faunus's Land between him and the great General._

"Adam Taurus used a ninjaken, correct?" Mr. Eyon asked, arching an eyebrow.

"How the hell he went from a straight blade to a curved cutlass, I don't know," Koi answered. "If he'd called it a katana he would have been wrong, but fuck, that would have at least been stylistically close. Cutlasses and ninjaken aren't even from the same time period, or kingdom."

 _Adam Taurus's words inspired what few, pathetic racist murderer terrorists he had left alive. Cheers and shouts of inspiration went up, and Adam grinned from behind his massive, devilish, red horns. They went up and out, curling back like a demonic and racist ram's horns would, if that ram also drowned kittens in its spare time._

" _Surrender, worthless coward, and face justice that you can beg for mercy from," General Ironwood shouted back, silencing the White Fang. He stole the very air out of the room, despite it being an open air coliseum. Calmly and as cool as possible, General Ironwood casually loaded a fresh magazine into his badass thundercannon, before pointing it level and straight at the face of the devil. "Because the justice you face now won't care for it."_

 _The evil Faunus behind Adam Taurus collectively shit themselves_ – "Okay, what the hell am I reading?"

"Keep going. It gets worse."

 _The evil Faunus behind Adam Taurus collectively shit themselves, but the fiend was too stupid to see that he had lost both the battle, the war, and the support of even his own terrorist scum friends._

" _When I am done fulfilling the destiny of all Faunus and crushing the plague of humanity beneath my boot, I shall return to this spot and build a monument to how your death signaled the start of a glorious era of bloody evolution. I'll rip my new crown from your robotic heart and I'll stain that pretty white coat of yours, General."_

" _Once I've put a bullet in you and your band of hypocritical incels, I will bring peace and stability to the world for humankind and Faunuskind, and your only legacy will be a red stain on my coattails that I will have bleached out before morning."_

"Who the fuck talks like this!?" Mr. Eyon yelled, finally breaking.

"Just keep going."

"Why would I?" he yelled again, flipping hastily through the pages. "It's just page after page of confusing adjectives. I _think_ he's describing the fight between Ironwood and Taurus, but he uses the word epic, like, a lot!"

"An average of four times per paragraph," Koi confirmed smugly. _Yeah_ , he had done the math. Anything was better than reading the thing legitimately. "The next twenty pages are their fight. Adam actually dies at four different points, Ironwood fires thirty-seven shots before reloading, and the fight lasts until sunrise – and began at sunset."

"You know what—" Mr. Eyon collected himself, before tossing the papers unceremoniously at Koi. "—it's your problem to deal with. Get me a publishable manuscript by next week. I don't care what in the hell you have to do."

"Why are you doing this to me?" Koi whimpered. "Did I do something wrong? Has my department been underperforming in sales? Do you think I slept with your daughter or something?"

"I want you because I need this thing done as soon as possible," Mr. Eyon explained, "and because you're the only person on staff that has experience editing novels."

"Hey, we agreed that what I do in my spare time—"

"Yes, yes, I'm not talking about dragging that in here," Mr. Eyon waved off Koi's concerns. "I'm just saying that you are used to both writing and editing large volumes of pure fabrications quickly."

"When you put it that way, I want a co-author credit."

"Do you _really_ want your name attached to this pile of flaming shit?"

"…nevermind."

"That's what I thought."

Unable to let the conversation die, Koi shifted gears to find a new way to complain about Neptune Vasilias' writing skills, or lack thereof.

"This shit reads like a twelve-year-old wrote a script for an action porno while blind, high, and drunk."

"I wouldn't know what that looks like," Mr. Eyon dismissed out of hand. "I don't watch porn blind."

"Seriously, why are we even publishing this shite?" Koi asked, staring down his boss. "And why so god damned quickly that we can't rewrite – I mean edit – it?"

Mr. Eyon took a deep breath and decided that Koi was _not_ planning on leaving his office until he got better answers. He pushed away anything on his desk and made it clear that he was going to give Koi and honest answer, looking him dead in the eye.

"I need that shit published as fast as possible so I can make a movie on it."

"On _this?_ " Koi asked, incredulously. "Why the fuck didn't you just buy the movie rights to Mr. Vasilias' story?"

"There was a bidding war over that. It was cheaper to get the novel's rights."

"It's a shitty novel, and that's being favorable. If you missed out on the movie rights, why the hell did you buy the rights to _this?_ "

"Because," Mr. Eyon grumbled, keeping his voice low, "once we publish his book, we then hold the movie rights on that book. It's a loophole in Mistral copyright law. The production company that bought the movie's rights starts filming next month, so if we can get this shit published before then, I can whip up investors and a production company of our own to get filming even sooner."

"You're going to shoot a movie without _any_ preparation faster than the blockbuster that's already in pre-production?" Koi asked, incredulously. "Do you know how awful that movie will be?"

"Do you see how awful this script is?" he responded, waving the manuscript up. "It's not about making a _good_ movie. The Brother of Light himself couldn't turn this shit into anything of quality. What we _can_ do is undercut the production, hit theaters first, and throw in enough stunts and pyrotechnics that general audiences go to see it regardless of the critics."

"I hate this plan."

"I'll hire you to write the script," Mr. Eyon countered immediately. "And do it under a false name so no one can trace it back to you."

"No."

"Two percent of the profits?"

"No."

" _Four?_ "

Koi looked back down at the pile of burning manure in his lap that was _The Gun Who Saved The World: the Neptune Vasilias Experience of the Heroics of General James Ironwood, a true story_.

"Fuck it, four works."

* * *

 **Any resemblances to real-life characters in the above section is purely non-coincidental and totally hilarious, get off my back. Maybe I should make the Adventures of Editor Koi, who writes something on the side, and his controlling boss Mr. Pat R. Eyon my next story.**

 **Jokes aside, the two questions I get asked the most are: when is the epilogue coming out, and what comes next?**

 **Well, now you know the first answer. Here's this one, and next week will be the** **last upload for** _ **A Man of No Tribe.**_ **It's… my favorite epilogue. Not played for laughs or anything. If you noticed a certain pair of birds' resolution is missing from the epilogue, next week is the reason why.**

 **So, that other question.** _ **What am I writing next?**_

 **Nothing.**

 **Probably nothing.**

 _ **Maybe**_ **nothing.**

 _ **If I can help it, nothing.**_

 **I like being done writing, as bad as that sounds. MoNT's been a hell of a lot of fun, but** _ **fuck me**_ **if this didn't take long to write. Anywhere from three to ten hours weekly, occasionally more for those long chapters that I just can't stop myself writing. Do you know that I originally thought that MoNT would be around 100k words long? I told myself that** _ **maybe**_ **I would break 250k.**

 _I also didn't have a name for the story and "A Man of No Tribe" was just a crappy placeholder name I spat out in ten seconds back when I was naming folders on my laptop, but that's neither here nor there._

 **So yeah, I'm looking forward to being retired from fanfiction… again. It didn't last long after** _ **Wash It Away**_ **, so who knows. I think this technically is like the fourth time I've 'retired' from writing fanfics...**

 **But, I'll tell you what. Listed below are all the ideas that have been bouncing around my head. The way that I come up with a story is an idea comes to me, then I play with it in my mind for a while, and if it really grips me and I can see places to go with it, I end up writing it to get it out of my head. Both my RWBY fics began this way. The first one was supposed to just be a one-shot, then an idea to make it a two-shot hit me, then I realized I had an entire plot to play out and it just happened.**

 **So here are the ideas I've been sitting on. If there is any one idea that everyone loves, well, I** _ **am**_ **a pushover. :D**

* * *

 _ **Untitled Team STRQ Story**_ – _Before Ruby lead RWBY through the RWBYverse, there was the OG team: STRQ. Taiyang Xiao Long is known today as 'Entire Team,' but that wasn't always the case. He was a carefree asshole from Vacuo on a team with a literal angel in Summer Rose, and two twin jackasses from Mistral who snuck their way into Beacon. Or, they think they did. Oh, and why is Raven terrified of Adjunct Professor Peter Port?_

Likelihood of being written: 8/10

I've always thought about the idea of writing a STRQ story, but honestly, I always just figured that it would be a crowded field. Every fandom seems to have one or two premises that just _everyone_ writes about – and I'm no different. My HTTYD story _Exodus and Return-us_ starts from the premise of 'protagonist runs away from home,' which is like half of that entire fandom.

I am still kinda surprised that we don't have a Coeur-level story written about Team STRQ's Beacon days, or if we do, it has somehow flown under my radar. I'd be interested to see the concept done well, which is why I _haven't_ written it.

I don't have a plot for it. I have bits and pieces – fun moments, running gags, funny scenes, impactful emotional stuff that needs to be built up, and moments that give insight into how the characters end up like they are in the show – but I have absolutely nothing to string them together.

So, if this gets written, it won't be a coherent story. It will be more a collection of one-shots. I actually already have one written, but I'm going to sit on it unless I really commit to this thing.

* * *

 _ **The Way We All Drift Apart -**_ _It's been, what, five years since they kicked Salem's ass? Much to Ozpin's shock, Ruby told the world about Salem and the stakes they were up against – and it worked. Salem was dealt a blow that it will take her decades to recover from. Now, RWBY and JN_R are rockstars the likes of which have never been seen._

 _Yet, the allure of that life wears off. The gang finds themselves all getting hitched and thinking about starting families – after all, they hadn't bought the world peace for no reason. The only problem is one member, Jaune, has been drifting away from the group for years now. Blake, Sun, Nora, and Ren take a surprise trip to his home in Argus to convince Jaune that it was finally time to go meet someone, and set him up on a date whether he wants it or not._

Likelihood of getting written: 10/10

This one is hard to describe or give a primer for, because it's partially a mystery story. _Why is Jaune drifting away from everyone? Why does he resist it when they all offer to help him find someone to settle down with? Why does he want to be left alone?_ There really isn't a great way to describe what's in my head for this, but it's not a long idea and it has some fun character moments that it tortures me that no one else can experience yet.

I've even talked in the Discord with one of the guys I play For Honor with about this. _Woosha, I swear to god, if you spoil the pairing for this story, I will hunt you down._

Right now, if you put a gun to my head and told me to write a fanfic, I would crank this baby out instantly.

* * *

 _ **The Adventures of Peter Port, the Greatest Hunter Remnant Never Saw Coming –**_ _Before that manly mustache turned white, Peter Port was a terror to the Grimm of the world. No, those stories he tells are not exaggerated. In fact, they're actually trimmed down, as Dr. Oobleck warned that no one would ever believe the full versions._

 _In this lighthearted and over the top fic, we travel along with Peter Port himself as he flips Salem and Ozpin's chessboard on its head in his search of monstrous fiends to slay, women to woo, and more monstrous fiends to slay!_

Likelihood of getting written: 2/10

This is more for the meme, and yes, it would be mostly a comedy outing. Come on, though, tell me you wouldn't love to read the over-exaggerated exploits of Peter Port, be they massive Grimm or maybe even other mysterious, wandering Huntresses like The Grimm Reaper…

(someone in the Discord floated that idea earlier and I would _totally_ steal it)

The adventures of how Peter Port fathered every character in the show's cast is also too delicious to pass up.

* * *

 _ **I taught you better than that –**_ _Weiss Schnee is magically teleported to a room with a movie screen. What? Oh, this is another one of those fics where the character watches the show and comments on it. Okay._

 _One catch: Weiss isn't alone. Her sister, Winter Schnee, will be there with her, and together they will watch every single one of Weiss' embarrassing fight scenes in high definition, with instant replay and slow motion when needed._

 _Maybe if you had ever won a duel, Weiss, then this wouldn't be so embarrassing for you._

Likelihood of getting written: 9.5/10

Another comedy outing, but this time going even harder for the meme. I love poking fun at tropes in the fanfic community, and the "the characters all watch their own show" one transcends fandoms. _And I hate it, right up there with Song Fics and OC-protagonist stories._

This one, though, I would be okay with. It would be an excuse for me to rewatch every one of Weiss' fight scenes and be as absolutely nitpicky as possible. And it would be an overall short thing to write, too.

That sounds right up my alley, doesn't it?

* * *

 _ **Continuation of "Choice" –**_ _Choice is the two-shot centering around Emerald and Mercury I wrote a little while ago. If you haven't read it,_ _ **go read it.**_ _I'm pretty proud of how it turned out._

Likelihood of getting continued: 4/10

If there's just an overwhelming outcry for this one, I might consider it, but I really like where this one ends. It doesn't _need_ to go any further. Emerald and Mercury end that right where they need to be: with each other.

Time travel is a pretty common starting point for RWBY fics these days – I mean, Coeur alone has two centering around the same character being a time traveler. Em and Merc being the travelers is a fun twist, and I'm sure I could figure out a few more chapters to pile on to this two-shot if I had to. I'm personally deciding if they would feel obligated to go stop Cinder's main plans, or just cut their losses and go be happy.

I would hope they go be happy.

* * *

 _ **Untitled White Knight story –**_ _Volume 5 left Jaune in a bad place. Pyrrha died and left him feeling like an idiot. A guilt-ridden idiot. So he trained and trained and punished himself so that he could avenge her. Do something right for once. And he utterly failed. He failed so hard that he got Weiss stabbed. He was such a fool for thinking he could ever be a hero, and it breaks his heart because that is truly the only thing he desires in this life._

 _Weiss is in strange new territory. She had finally cut ties with her biological family, and while that was long overdue, it meant that she had nothing left. That wasn't true, though, and she recognized that her friends were her real family. Comforting Yang went better than she expected. So why was no one doing anything about Jaune? They could all clearly see he was spiraling, right?_

 _Well, if no one else was going to do something, she would. Weiss had precious few friends left as it was; she couldn't bear the thought of losing another._

* * *

Confession: White Knight was and probably still is my number one RWBY ship. The fact that I wrote a Dragonslayer fic is not lost on me. I do love me some Dragonslayer now, but something about White Knight still draws me in. The darker themes that Jaune was being hinted at in V5 – before they were handwaved in five minutes in V6 – didn't pair well with Yang's carefree nature, so I thought.

 _Hah._

But still, I do think that they work better with Weiss, provided that it is more of a slow burn. Hell, the fic itself might end up more of a friendship and healing fic, with only the hints of a budding romance at the end.

And another bonus: it should be short to write.

The downside is that I waited too long to write it. V6 came out and put a damper on all my White Knight enthusiasm by having Jaune's depression/angst/self-worth issues get solved by a statue and a five-minute conversation.

* * *

 **And, lastly, here's one more little scene. This is a bigger time jump than any of the others, but since the Discord (** _read: Torra_ **) has been insistent on this, I figured I would oblige.**

* * *

Ten Years Later

* * *

Discounting the entirety of the nation of Atlas, Patch was probably the single most secure island in all of Remnant. To the layman, its transformation sort of made sense, too. During the Fall of Vale, Patch had served as a vital staging ground for Huntsmen and Huntresses trying to minimize the casualties of the capital. The small island had been home to a few Huntsmen before that event, but then had become even more important during the push to take back Vale from the Grimm a few years later. Once it was internationally agreed to commit to rebuilding Vale, the first thing that would be needed was, of course, a staging ground to attack the Wyvern from, and why fix what isn't broken?

Before any work could be done on a liberated Vale, Patch was fortified until the island was a strange mix of a military base and a suburb full of Huntsmen and Huntresses. It came as no real surprise to anyone that the place continued to be inhabited almost exclusively by Huntsmen, Huntresses, and their family now.

Of course, those behind the scenes were aware of a somewhat coordinated effort to achieve this outcome. If anyone had ever asked Yang if she felt bad for using the combined resources of the world's governments to build her and a lot of her friends and classmates homes in one of the most kick-ass new suburbs around, she would have shrugged. She and Jaune were paranoid, and were most likely two of Salem's most personally hated targets. There was no way in hell they would take anything less than the most secure house possible to raise their kids in. Using their influence to create a neighborhood filled with other Huntresses and Huntsmen was a no-brainer.

While watching her husband wrestle with their children at the small park in the center of Patch, Yang heard a sound that sent a chill to her spine. There was really only one thing on Remnant that Patch was not safe from: a portal.

Yang was far enough away from Jaune that he hadn't noticed, which meant that he wouldn't be able to get their kids away without being alerted. That could cost precious time. Yang didn't even bother putting on the mask cut out in the shape of her symbol, the flaming heart. What would it matter if the flames around her eyes were seen, anyways?

She faced Raven's portal for the first time in years, ready to kill whatever walked through.

Raven stepped out slowly, unarmed, and with her hands held before her to make that fact apparent. She acted as if she didn't want a fight, but Yang's babies were on the line right now. Nothing was going to fool her.

"Peace," Raven called out softly, closing her portal behind her and keeping her voice soft enough that Jaune never noticed them. "I'm not here for violence."

"I made a promise that if I _ever_ saw you again, I would put you down," Yang growled at her mother bitterly. "Tell me why I should break that promise now."

Raven's eyes carried over Yang's shoulder, and she _knew_ that Raven had spotted her family. Ice ran through Yang's veins and she ignited her eyes into flames as a clear warning. At the slightest movement, Yang was ready to kill to protect them.

Raven's point was clear, though. Yang wouldn't risk a fight with her kids so close if she could help it. All Raven needed to do was not push it.

"Why are you here?"

"Vernal… passed today," Raven let out quietly. She sounded sad, which struck Yang oddly. Raven wasn't masking her emotions nearly as well as she used to, and Yang wasn't sure if that was intentional or not. Age had finally made its presence known on the infamous Spring Maiden, who was nearing fifty now. Her hair only had controlled streaks of silver in it, which made it clear that Raven wasn't _that_ old yet, but her face was starting to wrinkle. All that Aura and magic did wonders for a complexion, but nothing lasts forever. Qrow had recently started rocking the salt and pepper look too, but his face looked better than Raven's. Giving up the bottle had done him wonders. He was approaching the ten-year mark; Ruby had been planning a party around it.

"You mean the woman you pretended was Vernal," Yang cut back sharply, not caring in the slightest if her tone bit into her mother. Even if Raven really were sad over the loss, hell would freeze over before she got any sympathy from Yang.

Raven nodded solemnly, accepting Yang's ire gracefully. "You know, I don't even remember her birth name. I doubt she did either…"

An awkward silence fell between them. Yang was still tense, but Raven was not. She couldn't look up to make eye contact with Yang.

"How did she die?" Yang asked finally.

"Poisoned," Raven answered. "Nothing I could do but watch her die in agony over several days. It was harder than I anticipated."

"I guess making her take the target on your back finally came back to haunt you," Yang sniped harshly. "But let's be honest, you didn't watch her die slowly, did you?"

Raven's eyes closed, but she shook her head. "I put her out of her misery, yes, if that's what you were referring to. She asked me to."

Yang wasn't sure why that bothered her. It probably had to do with the last time she saw Raven. When Raven closed her eyes and chose to kill Jaune to spare herself, not knowing that Yang could stop the blow with her own Maiden's powers. The idea of Raven putting Vernal out of her misery struck too close home to that memory.

"Why are you here, Raven?" Yang asked aggressively, making it clear that she didn't care what Raven had to do or whether it hurt her to do so.

"I don't know," Raven answered quietly. "I had heard that you had kids. I guess that—"

" _No_ ," Yang cut her off, taking a threatening step towards Raven. "You don't get to meet them. You don't _exist_ to them. If you take so much as a step towards them—"

"I won't," Raven acquiesced meekly. She looked like she wanted to say something more, but her eyes got stuck looking over Yang's shoulder. There was a real sadness there that not even Yang could deny. "I shouldn't have waited so long. I… I regret that."

"As far as I'm concerned, you came back too soon," Yang growled at her mother. The lack of reaction from Raven kept throwing Yang off, though. Raven was content to accept Yang's ire; maybe even agree with it.

She wasn't a threat. Just a sad, lonely old woman, regretting her life choices.

Yang turned herself enough to watch both Raven and her family playing in the distance at the same time. She still wasn't taking any chances, though, and was a step closer to them than Raven was.

Four blondes wrestled on the playground, oblivious to the fact that a second Maiden watched them. The three kids all teamed up on their father, who relished in playing the role of the bad guy, knowing that it would end with all three kids dogpiled on him to bring him down. They were still young enough that they weren't trained with weapons, and Jaune often wished that they would stay that size forever. Taiyang would always nod knowingly when the comment was made.

Yang didn't disagree.

"What are their names?" Raven asked quietly. Yang cut her eyes dangerously to her mother, warning her that she was crossing a line. Her fists balled up. "I'm not going to do anything. You've made it clear I'm not welcome, and I… I would just like to know."

"You don't get to ask for _anything_."

"I know," Raven answered solemnly. "All the same, though, I would still like to know."

Yang knew that Raven could probably find out if she really wanted to. The fact that she didn't already know meant something, but Yang wasn't sure what. In the end, how defeated Raven sounded right now was what pushed Yang to do it. That, and the futility of trying to hide it.

"Our youngest, the boy, is Sunny," Yang said after a long silence. Raven looked to her curiously. "You know, as in 'sunny little dragon.'"

"I'm sure Tai was thrilled."

"I'm sure I don't like your tone."

Raven's eyes dropped down. "Fair enough."

Yang eyed Raven suspiciously, but continued on. Something about being a mother made Yang eager to talk about her kids all day long, no matter who it was to. Her old team were already sick of hearing stories about them, and Yang loved telling them because they were all too polite to tell Yang to stop gushing about her babies. "You can't see it from here, but he has Jaune's eyes. Looks just like his dad and his gramps combined."

" _Gramps_ ," Raven let out with a small laugh. "Gods, that's perfect for Tai."

Yang let it slide, though it bothered her that Raven should be allowed any joy from the situation. She agreed with the sentiment too much to be angry, though.

"Our middle is the one in the pigtails," Yang continued, her demeanor softening as she looked over her kids. The girl in question had received an extra helping of Yang's Branwen genes, causing her eyes to behave like Yang's: sometimes red, sometimes purple. Hers were a deep, royal purple instead of Yang's lavender, though. They were gorgeous, and even as a little girl she had a frightfully piercing stare. "We had a… hard time agreeing on a name for her."

"Why is that?" Raven asked.

Yang eyed her suspiciously.

"After what _you_ did to Jaune, he had no family left. Barely even a concept of it. That's why I took his last name." Her tone was blatantly accusatory, and she didn't care. That last bit was true, too; she had always seen herself as a hyphenated sort of girl, or maybe she would replace the 'Long' with her husband's last name; _Yang Xiao Arc_ or maybe _Yang Xiao Long Arc_. But after Raven literally took Jaune's name away from him, she was going to be _damned_ if she contributed to that in even the slightest way. When Jaune had first floated the idea of hyphenating to let her know he was okay with it, she nearly bit his head off. The poor fool had no idea why. "It was important to me to undo that."

"And it was hard agreeing to that?" Raven asked, just a hint of snark in her voice that ticked Yang off.

"Well, when I suggested we name our second daughter after one of his sisters, it freaked him out," Yang spat back out venomously, making sure Raven understood just how much Yang hated her for that. "He already lost them once. Just naming our little girl after his sisters terrified him that he might lose her too, so _yes_ , it was hard to agree on."

Raven flinched in on herself, as she damn well should have.

"We tested out other names. Like an idiot, I mentioned naming her Amber. That didn't go over well."

"What, naming your kid after that girl who wanted to have a threesome with you didn't sound good?" Raven asked, giving me a slight smile. Yang had half a mind to knock Raven's teeth out for that, but didn't. Her words struck too close to home. There were other reasons not to pick Amber, but they'd ruled Blake's name out for... a related reason, after all. Yang still had yet to come up with a lie to tell Ruby about why they couldn't pick Blake, though she suspected Ruby knew by now.

"We thought about naming her after Ruby, or any of our other friends," Yang pressed on, not dignifying Raven with a response. "But that raised the question of why we picked only one of them. Which made Jaune want to do it even more, just to cause some drama, but I ruled out."

"What did you settle on?"

Yang smirked, just a bit. Her cheeks heated up slightly, but Raven would never know why. "Kali."

"You named your daughter after the Queen of Menagerie?" Raven asked, semi-incredulously.

"We named our daughter after my old partner's mother, who… just happens to kinda be queen of Menagerie. If they wanted to send a nice gift, hey, that was just a bonus." They had, too. Nothing crazy, but a gift basket with some fun trinkets. The fact that they sent a small pair of kitty ears to wear, and the fact that little Kali loved to wear them, was hysterical to Jaune and Yang.

Raven laughed softly, though somewhat bitterly. The action reminded them of something she would have done, though her reasoning would have been a lot more cynical.

"And your eldest?"

Yang's eyes returned to the 'fight' in front of them. Sunny and Kali had wrapped themselves around Jaune's legs to immobilize him. Jaune could have easily run laps around the whole island with them dangling from his legs, but he played along, pretending to curse them for foiling his legs' ability to move. The way they giggled made Yang's heart flutter.

Their eldest used the opportunity to knock Jaune over by tackling him at the waist. She was all of five years old, but had a running start and actually did have a little force behind that leap. She took after her namesake well.

"I assume there was a similar naming dispute…?"

"No, there was an obvious choice for her," Yang answered. "Summer."

Yang let the words settle in, cutting her eyes to see how Raven took it. Her eyes swirled with complex thoughts and emotions. Of the children's two grandmothers, Yang knew it wasn't lost that Summer had been their first choice for the eldest, and that Raven's name would _never_ be getting used.

That had to sting. Yang hoped it did.

"I-I want to develop a portal for them," Raven blurted out suddenly, dropping her eyes low out of shame. "You know my offer. Qrow never liked it, but he knew having me on-call to protect you when you were little was valuable. I could—"

" _No._ "

"I'll do it more than one time if needed," Raven tacked on desperately. "I can—"

" _No,_ " Yang repeated forcefully. "This is the closest you'll _ever_ be to them. Do you understand?"

Yang took her eyes off Raven and returned them to her family.

Raven never responded. Yang heard a portal open up behind her.

"I'm sorry."

"I'm not," Yang called back without hesitating. The portal shut behind her moments later.

Yang turned around to ensure she was gone, and let out a tight breath once she was convinced.

She turned and immediately went to join her family.

"Uh oh, looks like mommy's coming!" Jaune called out, using Yang as a distraction to free himself from the dogpile. Three little voices squealed as they looked up to find her walking towards them.

Jaune's eyes met Yang's briefly. He gave her a serious look, one that told her that he had noticed exactly what was going on. His hand subtly patted Crocea Mors at his side, letting her know that their kids weren't as defenseless as she had feared. He had trusted her to handle the situation, despite how much she knew he would have loved to confront Raven himself. _Gods, she loved that man._

Yang nodded to him. They were safe. She saw him relax as the message was conveyed.

"It's time to go, guys," Yang cooed, trying to let down the kids as gently as possible. "It's almost dinner time."

" _Awww,_ " all three of her kids whined in chorus. Scratch that, all _four_ of her kids, because Jaune joined in. He _always_ did that, making her out to be the bad guy. Those three had their father wrapped around their finger.

Yang shot Jaune an agitated look for that.

"Maybe if we ask nicely, she'll let us keep playing," Jaune announced to the group, knowing exactly what he was doing.

" _PLEASE!_ " Summer Rose Arc shouted first, hopping up off her father to give Yang the puppy-dog eyes that Yang was convinced Auntie Ruby had taught her at some point.

"Please please _pleeeeeaaaase_!" Kali Belle Arc asked, spinning around to lay on top of Jaune's chest and look up at her. She was too much of a daddy's girl to hop up just yet. Jaune peaked out at Yang from behind their Kali Belle's pigtails and fake cat ears.

" _Please?_ " Sunny Xiao Long Arc – or Sunny XL as Taiyang insisted on calling him – asked timidly, which tickled her heart every time. Say what you will about the girls, but their son was a mama's boy for sure.

Jaune looked up at Yang and smiled at her, content in his work. Yang _hated_ that smile. That smile absolutely melted her. She and Jaune _were_ going to stop with two kids, and to this day she blames that stupid, goofy, pure smile as the reason they had a third child. She could not say no to that smile. If Jaune wasn't careful, they were about to drop the kids off with gramps and go work on numbers four through eight.

Yang rolled her eyes and gave in.

With a big, theatrical stomp, Yang shifted from mom-mode to evil-tickle-monster-mode. The kids recognized this like they always did, nervously giggling and scrambling to hide behind their dad as Yang Arc hunted them for their ticklish spots.

Life was good.


	75. Epilogue - Birds of a Feather

**AN: The last upload of** _ **A Man of No Tribe.**_ **We made it.**

 **This first section is the document that Jaune acquired from Torchwick back during the V2 arc. We read it in the story through Pyrrha's eyes, but that was a redacted version. I've been waiting so long to show you guys the full version. I have only changed one thing, and that was renaming one of Jaune's sisters from Susan to Saphron to line it up with the show. That detail is irrelevant in the big picture, as all you guys saw before was 'S. Arc,' but hey, consistency with the show is good.**

* * *

Birds of a Feather

* * *

 _Operator: James Ironwood_

 _Designation of Operator: Specialist; Atlas Academy Headmaster_

 _Report Type: Intelligence Compilation – CLOSED_

 _Subject: Arc_

 _Security Level: Atlas Academy Headmaster's Eyes Only_

 _Tags: Arc; Foreign Espionage Agents (FEA); Mistral; Haven; Maiden, Spring; Grimm; Vale; Archived; Assassination; Magic; Great War, the;_

 _Persons: Witch, the; Wizard, the; Lionheart, Leonardo; Arc, Julius; Arc, Turquoise; Arc, Kathryn; Arc, Rebecca; Arc, Saphron; Arc, Vernal; Arc, Joyce; Arc, Belle; Arc, Kaitlyn; Arc, Janna; Unknown #1; Unknown #2; Unknown #3; Unknown #4; Unknown #5;_

 _This report is to serve as the sealing document for the entire topic of 'Arc,' in accordance with Atlas protocol. This document will be redacted heavily._

 _The first verified use of the term 'Arc' was around 200 years ago as a designation, although common theory speculates that the term is older than that. It is known that 'Arc' is a family line dating back to Vale's earliest protectors, to the time where knights served in roles occupied by Huntsmen today; it is speculated that the Arc lineage is related directly to an incarnation of the Wizard, though unconfirmed._

 _As knights were phased out of use, the Arc clan largely disappeared from the public eye, and strong intelligence suggests that this was to form Remnant's oldest active espionage society. This is speculated to have happened 60 to 70 years prior to the Great War, and seeing how very little is known about the Arcs from the inception of their espionage society until the Great War, it can be assumed that they were successful. Common speculation puts it that the Arcs were the greatest spy ring Remnant has ever seen, and that they worked as the left hand of the Wizard._

 _During the Great War, one man with the name 'Arc' publicly emerged to play a significant role for Vale's forces: Julius Arc. Julius Arc's weapon has been the subject of much exaggeration, but most accounts of it confirm the double-crescent symbol used by the Arcs in the time of knights, providing the only definitive link between the Arc clan symbol and the descendant Arcs._

 _After the Great War, the Wizard focused his energy on building four Huntsmen Academies across Remnant; during this time, early Mantle intelligence reports document a break between the Arcs and the Wizard. The cause of this development is unknown, but from this point on, the Arcs refused to work with the Wizard, and as a result were susceptible to targeting by the Witch._

 _In the 80 years since the erection of the Huntsmen Academies, Mantle and Atlas intelligence reports tracking the Arcs show a record of dwindling numbers, leading up to four years prior to this report. After that point, Atlas has no further record of any Arc activity. It was known that the Witch's forces had increased their efforts to hunt down the remaining Arcs, and conventional wisdom suggested that the Arcs had gone completely underground in hiding._

 _At the time of their disappearance, nine Arcs remained in one family unit: Turquoise and Kathryn, and their seven daughters, Rebecca, Saphron, Vernal, Joyce, Belle, Kaitlyn, and Janna._

 _It is known now that their disappearance was facilitated by Headmaster Leonardo Lionhart of Haven Academy. Despite his connections to the Wizard, Lionhart worked to facilitate the disappearance of the Arcs alone. Proprietary Atlas reports suggest that Lionheart's Spring Maiden was Vernal Arc, offering insight into Lionheart's decision to keep his involvement hidden. It is believed that the Wizard was unaware._

 _On August 12th_ _of this year, Atlas was notified by Beacon Academy and the Wizard that the Arcs had been located in a remote location in Mistral, and aid was requested in their recovery and protection. On August 13th, two of Beacon's agents arrived on location to find a cabin burnt to ashes, with 13 corpses found in varying states:_

 _The bodies of Turquoise, Rebecca, and Saphron were found on the ground surrounding the cabin; analyzation of their wounds indicates death by impaling._

 _The body of Kathryn was found on the ground surrounding the cabin; cause of death is confirmed as beheading, though her leg and arm were severed before this._

 _The bodies of three unknown persons, designated as Unknown #1, #Unknown 2, and Unknown #3, were found on the ground surrounding the cabin. #1 had been eviscerated, #2 had been impaled through the throat with his arm severed, and #3 had been cut in half at her waist._

 _Six sets of charred remains were recovered from the burnt cabin. Three are confirmed to be the youngest Arc girls by their small size, with two more assumed to be the middle Arc twins, Vernal and Joyce Arc. The sixth set of remains is assumed to be a fourth assailant, designated as Unknown #4, as this one was still pinned upright against a stone fireplace by a charred Fire-dust blade, missing its handle._

 _It is important to note that no DNA records of any Arc member exist, so verification of identities of the charred bodies is not possible. Neither Vernal nor Joyce Arc are confirmed dead, though it is the opinion of this organization that they are. Unknown #4 did not match any records also._

 _The lack of survival of any Arc, in tandem with tracking evidence from the scene, suggests that at least one assailant survived, designated Unknown #5. It is possible that Unknown #5 could be more than one person._

 _No evidence from Atlas or her allies suggests that the Maiden Powers have been captured by the Witch; their inheritor is believed to be random, and a search across Mistral has been enacted as a joint operation between all Kingdoms. It was reported than an inordinate surplus of high-level Grimm were found within the area, and Grimm are suspected to have interfered in the attack, but any involved Grimm evaporated before arrival._

 _It is the opinion of this agency that all members of the Arc family lineage have been killed. As such, this topic has been officially sealed as a closed matter, pending further redactions._

* * *

Qrow sighed to himself as he made his way into the low-end bar. He was freely willing to admit that while being the high-functioning alcoholic that he was brought him to establishments like this often, his work for Ozpin brought him to places like this almost as often as he would go anyways. Not just a bar, but a known hang-out for criminals, and almost certainly a criminal front. It was the sort of place criminals went because they knew they could cut loose or talk business, since they practically ran the place and had most of the patrons on their payroll.

Qrow went to these places a lot back when he was undercover. The sign on the door caught his attention. _No Faunus._ Given that this place was rumored to have been chosen by Roman Torchwick as a watering hole ever since staking a claim on Mistral's criminal empires, Qrow found this sign funnier than he did revolting or sad. It was about as far as the thief could have gone from running the White Fang, to the point that it _had_ to be deliberate. "Guess the kid's stories about Torchwick weren't wrong…"

He walked in and immediately felt eyes on him. Ugly types, mostly, and the looks he received matched that. Thugs and ruffians didn't stop what they were doing to stare at him, but things certainly slowed down as he strolled forward to the bar. The bartender noticed him and moved to receive him wordlessly, and there was a tension to his movements. Everyone here had no doubts that a Huntsman had just walked into their hangout. What they didn't know was that as long as they left him alone, he didn't care what they were up to.

He had far eviler things he was prepared to deal with.

Qrow stopped right in front of the bartender, staring him down. Before he could even speak, the bartender nodded towards the stairwell that led to, probably, some private rooms upstairs. He'd taken one look and Qrow and known who he was here for. The Huntsman blamed the family resemblance for that. _Had to be the eye color._

Sure enough, the entire upstairs area was empty, save for one person. Sat at the far end was a very miserable-looking sister of his, with more than enough to drink sitting in front of her.

Qrow thought up all manner of snappy one-liners that would really dig into his bitch of a sister's spirits as he walked over. Bile boiled inside him as he got closer. This was the woman who had claimed to love their team. Qrow had believed her, and still might—to this day he wasn't sure, which was all the more reason to hate the bitch. She _had_ loved Tai, though. He was certain of that.

She left anyways.

She'd loved her daughter, too—Qrow had _seen_ the way Raven looked at Yang. When she thought no one was around and it was just her and her newborn daughter swindled in her arms, the look on Raven's face was impossible to fake. It was a sight that Qrow had never expected to see in his life.

She still left.

Not just that, but then she left her life as a Huntress behind and went back to the fucking tribe. As if just leaving wasn't enough, she chose to go back to what she was doing before her new life as a Huntress. Qrow had thought that there was nothing more Raven could do to live down the life she'd left behind, and that infuriated him, but he was so wrong. She didn't just leave; she tried to replace what she had with a new kid. Tried to start over, only taking the things she liked from each of her lives.

Raven tried to change the way the world worked by eliminating the need for herself to sacrifice. And it had come back to haunt more than just her. That part, Qrow was learning to hate more than anything. Despite the rocky history between him and Jaune, Qrow was willing to admit that he didn't deserve what happened to him.

And yet, instead of expressing all the hate that his sister deserved, Qrow walked up, took a seat opposite from her, and poured himself a drink.

He felt guilty, now, and that ate away at him from the inside. His anger fizzled out.

" _Fuck off_ ," Raven's voice broke the silence. It was a bit raspy and her speech was slow. She'd been drinking for a while now, not that Qrow needed the confirmation. Raven had no-showed any of the final negotiation sessions with the Council, instead sending Vernal — _or whatever her real name is_ — in her stead. A tactical mistake on Raven's part, as the Council took offense to it and Vernal was forced to give up a few of the Tribe's demands in order to get the deal done.

"I take it you're celebrating your new position?" Qrow asked gleefully. Okay, so maybe he wasn't going to be _completely_ graceful about this. This bitch deserved anything Qrow could give to her and more, after all. "You're basically the protectorate of half of Mistral now. Isn't that exciting?"

" _Fuck. off._ " Raven never took her eyes off of the glass in front of her. Her cheeks were almost as red as her eyes, a sign of the work the alcohol was doing. Those very eyes seemed to be glassed over.

Raven Branwen was drowning in pervasive thoughts and whiskey. Qrow never thought he'd see the day…

"If you're looking for sympathy, you're not going to get a lot from me," Qrow stated simply, before reaching over to grab the open bottle in front of Raven. There was an empty fifth on the floor behind her, making the fact that this one was half-empty—and the fact that Raven was conscious, much less sitting upright—impressive to even Qrow. He wondered if she'd downed it so fast that it hadn't kicked all the way in yet.

Raven angrily tried to snatch the bottle away before Qrow could take it. It was petty and she was clearly lashing out, but the attempt was pitiful. In her state, Qrow had the bottle in his hand and on his side of the table before Raven even swung. Once her attempt failed, she slumped back down in her chair in some sort of angry pout, before glaring back at her glass. She made a point never to look up and make eye contact.

"If you're looking for a fight, I'll still kick your ass like this," Raven hissed, mimicking her brother's words. Maiden's flames framed her eyes, though she continued to stare at the glass instead of looking up at Qrow menacingly. He caught on that she had no real appetite for a fight, despite her anger. That anger wasn't directed externally, it appeared.

Qrow poured himself a glass and downed it in one go. He had a ways to go before he was even buzzed, and he wasn't about to let his sister out-drink him, now was he? "What makes you think I'm here for that?"

"Why else would you be here?" she asked lowly.

Not long ago, seeing his sister like this would have been one of the highlights of his life. The term 'comeuppance' wasn't strong enough to describe what she deserved for what she did to Tai, Yang, Summer…

Now? Now, guilt gnawed at Qrow. He had hated her so much for leaving Tai that he was fine to cut her out of his life completely — working with her for Oz made that hard, but it gave him an avenue to express to her daily how much he hated her for it. Once Summer died, that stance only hardened, and even thought Qrow didn't get a chance to show her his contempt daily, he liked to believe that Raven could feel how much he hated her. Call it a twin link or something.

Qrow had never stopped to ask if Raven might have needed him. He knew that Summer had desperately tried to convince her to stay, but he wasn't the same as Summer. He _knew_ Raven, and understood the way she thought in ways that Summer just wasn't capable of. Yet it never occurred to him that maybe — just _maybe_ — he could have helped her. After all, she ran away and immediately began trying to fill the void that she had created by doing so. What if all it would have taken to bring her back was one simple conversation with her? One act of forgiveness? If he'd swallowed his pride and anger and gone to her with the intention of helping her — of trying to get her to realize just how much she wanted what she left — would she have stayed gone? Or would she have come back?

Had Qrow gotten over himself and at least tried, maybe his team would have been whole once more. Maybe she would have brought the children she was raising in the Tribe with her. Jaune and even Vernal might have had a chance at a normal life, not… whatever it is that they got. An opportunity not explored, but one that ate away at Qrow each time he saw Yang fighting to fix Jaune. That it had taken Qrow this long in his life to see it embarrassed him.

Qrow felt guilty. It was time to at least _try_.

"Maybe I'm just here to check on my baby sister," he responded softly, giving Raven as friendly of a cheeky grin as he was capable of giving to this woman.

"I'm older than you," Raven responded gruffly, seemingly annoyed at Qrow for forgetting or, more likely in her mind, for trying to take the title from her while she was too drunk to notice.

"We don't know that for sure," Qrow mediated. It was the same old line he had always used, and it had always rung a little flat. That didn't matter right now as much as just getting Raven to focus on _anything_ else did. If he had to get teased as the younger twin, well, that was fine. His pride would survive, he was sure. "Not like we ever got to ask our mother or anything."

Growing up orphans in the Tribe, they hadn't ever known their parents. It was something that Qrow and Raven honestly never cared about—or at least Qrow didn't. Parenting was apparently now a touchy topic for his sister, so he couldn't be certain that she wasn't secretly harboring resentment towards the world for her upbringing. That didn't feel like Raven's style, though; if she resented you, she let you know about it. Raven certainly didn't act like she hated the world for its cruelty. _Small mercies_ , Qrow thought.

Raven went silent at the word 'mother,' and Qrow mentally kicked himself. _Can't blame that one on my Semblance, either._ No, looks like the subtle approach was out.

"I'm not actually sure if you are a better mother than ours was," Qrow pondered, acting like he didn't know the bear he was poking. "I mean, for all we know, she traded two babies for a pack of cigarettes. I certainly have no memory of our actual parents. Do you?" He knew the answer to that. They had been abandoned young — young enough that Raven didn't have a portal to their mother, or at least to their mother's final resting place like she has with Summer. Their mom had left before imprinting anything on Raven.

Raven's offered no reply other than seething silence. If she could make the glass she was staring at explode just by looking at it, Qrow was certain the thing would shatter.

He kept going. He needed to keep digging in the wound until he found the bullet. That was the only way to get it out.

"Yeah, I thought not," Qrow drawled, pretending to be upset that she wasn't answering. Raven's hatred grew. "She definitely gets no points as a mother. You left Yang behind too, though, so maybe the shit's genetic or something…"

Qrow almost flinched as he said the words. An angry, hot breath of air shot out of Raven's nostrils as she tried to find some way of being any angrier without spontaneously exploding.

"If that's where it ended, I would say it's a tie, but you had to go and make things _interesting_." He paused and checked in his target. The pot boiled, but he needed it to spill over. He kept going. "Raising a second kid after leaving the first? Shit, you lose points for that but get some back because you're still raising a kid. So… still at zero, I'd say."

Raven let out another angry breath, this time struggling to maintain control of her breathing. The table popped from where she gripped the rim.

"The shit you put that poor kid through, though, that's gotta make you lose points. So I guess our mom wins."

She was so close. Qrow needed more than just a push.

"Actually, Jaune might not turn out that bad, and that's coming from _me_. Could even end up doing some good for the world if he sticks with it."

That got a reaction out of Raven. Her neck twitched in his direction and she had to fight her impulses to continue glaring at her glass. He was under her skin now, that much was clear. Time for the final blow.

"I guess that, if your children are kept far away from you as possible, then you aren't a fucking horrible excuse for a mom, sis—"

Raven exploded out of her seat at him, with one of her spare knives in her hand. The absolute fury in her eyes was only dulled by how much alcohol swam there still. Her move would have had no chance on landing even if Qrow had been surprised, but seeing as he was waiting for it, it failed spectacularly.

She tried to stab his face in a fit of rage, and Qrow caught her wrist easily, stopping it in mid-air. She was out of position and had no business throwing that attack so recklessly, and would have been embarrassed of the effort if she were even a little sober. Qrow crossed that arm across her body as he slammed her wrist down on the table, forcing her in an awkward state. His other arm snaked out, grabbed her glass, and threw the contents in Raven's face.

Raven's cry—either surprise or pain from whiskey to the eyes—was cut off as he folded the arm he had a grasp off and slammed Raven's face down onto the table. He put his weight into her back to keep her on the table, but to his surprise, she didn't fight back or struggle. The knife she'd gone at him with was in his free hand now and he could have ended her right there, and Raven Branwen wasn't fighting back against it.

Her eyes were squeezed shut, and he could feel sharp sobs wrack her chest as she tried to suppress her cries.

Qrow had no fucking clue what to do from there. He'd been hoping that he'd knock some sense into her with the tough love approach, because honestly, he didn't think he was capable of any other love for his sister. Even his tough love approach had devolved into him twisting the knife in her wounds — figuratively — before throwing alcohol in her eyes and slamming her against a table.

With a sad sigh, he released his pressure and helped Raven back into her seat. Some part of him couldn't bear to see his sister like this. He'd never, in his life, _expected_ to see his sister like this. Qrow tossed a napkin over to her to wipe the tears and whiskey from her face, making a show of standing up and walking around with his back to her as he did so. It was to protect what little pride in herself that Raven had left, and they both knew that, but Qrow couldn't bring himself to take last shred of dignity from Raven.

He wanted to. He just found that he couldn't. Not even Raven deserved for him to stoop that low.

Qrow returned to his seat a minute or two later, once Raven had recollected herself. His mind had been spinning the whole time, and the theories he had held about his sister as recently as when he strolled into the room were unraveling. She _was_ hurting, which meant that she did, in some way, care. That she recognized what she did was wrong, or that she regretted it, or that it was a mistake. That didn't fit with any of Qrow's theories on who Raven Branwen was prior to just now.

"You saw nothing," Raven stated bitterly. It came out limp and pathetic. Her voice was not smooth by a long shot, and at least she could blame it on the alcohol, even if they both knew that wasn't why her voice had hitched.

Still, he played along. Humored her. "Saw what?" Raven glared at him limply, thinking him to be mocking her. He wasn't, and he was going to let her have whatever dignity she held on to, but Raven clearly didn't trust him on that.

Qrow wanted to press her on it then and there, but decided against it. Instead, he shifted the topic in a way that he could still get a point across, but also let Raven calm down a little further before getting to why he was here.

"Do you remember when Ozpin gave us our powers?" he asked leadingly.

Raven's lips drew into a tight frown and she looked at him with flat irritation. "I'm not in the mood to have this story thrown in my face again."

"I'm serious, Rae," Qrow pushed sincerely. In the past, he _had_ loved to tell the story as a way to humiliate Raven, but he was going somewhere else with this. "Do you remember it?"

" _Hmmph_ ," Raven responded gruffly.

"Ozpin gave us the ability to turn into birds. I remember flying down to peck at Tai like the asshole I was." _Am_ , Qrow's mind supplied helpfully; _the asshole I am._ "You? You flew straight up, higher than any normal Raven would ever fly. You went so high that you ran out of oxygen and passed out."

Qrow tried to make his voice light and humorous in a way that wouldn't come across as mocking, but Raven seethed at him, still expecting this to just be about him rubbing salt in her wounds.

"Can't use Aura if you're unconscious, and I wasn't good enough as flying to catch you out of terminal velocity. If Goodwitch hadn't been out there in Beacon's courtyard, you would have died as a bird, not ten minutes after being granted that ability."

"Is there a point to this?" she growled.

"Just because you're free to do something doesn't mean you should," Qrow answered, summarizing what he was getting at because he could tell if he went any longer, Raven would tune out. "That, and it shows who you are. You push boundaries almost as if you need to push them. You fly higher than you should, you grow stronger than you should—" Qrow tapped besides his eye to make it clear what _that_ implied, "—you take more than you should, and you try to control the world around you more than you should."

" _And?_ " she asked resentfully. He knew that she could see his point. That last line was too obvious not to.

"Sometimes boundaries push back."

"You must be enjoying this," Raven accused, snapping out of her trance to glare at him. He was on the right track if he was getting under her skin like this. That she felt the need to make Qrow the subject instead of herself meant that she didn't _want_ to examine herself. She knew what she would find. "Seeing me like this. After all I've done to make you hate me, this must just be glorious for you, huh?"

"I thought it would be," Qrow answered gruffly. Raven couldn't detect any lie there, but found herself struggling to reconcile with that. Qrow _wasn't_ enjoying this? If nothing else, at least he wasn't the only one who didn't understand the other now. "You actually liked the kid, huh?"

"What sort of stupid _fucking_ question is that?!" Raven raised her voice in reply. "Did I 'like' the kid? The one I raised, despite Salem hunting for him and the risk that put on me? The one that I restructured my whole fucking Tribe just to try to keep around?!"

Qrow let her settle down from her outburst, and Raven realized that she was making a point through her response. It wasn't the point she was trying to make, though.

"So why'd you do it?"

"Do wha—?"

" _You know what_ ," Qrow cut off her stupid deflection before it got out of her mouth. "The kid's sister."

Raven went silent. Her eyes trailed down guiltily until she was staring at the whiskey stains on the table from where Qrow had thrown her drink in her face.

"Why'd you kill her?" Qrow asked. He wasn't sure he knew the answer to that one, but he knew that he had to find out.

"So _that's_ why y-you're here," Raven slurred, starkly reminding Qrow of how inebriated she was. The fact that it hadn't been obvious until now meant that she'd been fighting hard to appear normal — to hide weakness. Now, either her control had been broken, or the alcohol had finally won out. "Find me when I'm weak and… and pry it out of me. Anything I say's going right back to them, isn't it?"

"No, it's not," Qrow stated softly. He knew Raven wouldn't believe him, but he meant it. As much as he wanted to get Raven to say something that would perfectly fix everything for Jaune and Yang, he wasn't here for them anymore. This was a Branwen matter. He was here for Raven's sake.

A shiver ran down his spine as he admitted that to himself.

"I'll give you my word that nothing you say here is ever mentioned again, to anyone."

Raven stared at him curiously, her vision struggling to focus on him. She might have even believed the offer.

"S-Swear it," she demanded, "on Summer's grave."

Despite her state, Raven could still stare her brother down to see if he would fold.

"Do you mean that literally…?"

Raven pushed herself to her feet—which was a bad idea, as she very nearly bit the dust, catching herself on the table at the last second. Once she realized that she couldn't stand, she gave up on her plan to dramatically cut open a portal to Summer's final resting place. "If you need to, we can go visit it."

"That won't be necessary," Qrow dismissed, failing the fight to hide a smirk at Raven's drunkenness. "I swear on Summer's grave that everything said in this room between us _stays_ in this room and between us," Qrow stated, only giving in to dramatic theatrics because Raven appreciated that sort of stuff. He made sure to slowly and thoroughly spell it out to her.

Raven was suspicious, but she was also drunk as hell, so that was good enough for her.

"Why'd you kill his sister?" Qrow asked, knowing that he'd either get a confession or he'd get her to set the record straight.

"I didn't," she answered back, still seemingly angry over being accused of it in the first place. "She killed herself."

"Sure," Qrow drawled, preparing to deconstruct the situation to make it painfully obvious why no one believed her the first time. "You just happen to be in the final thoughts of a suicidal ten-year-old, and then take the brother that no one knew she had and kind of raised him as your own, but hid who he was and who his sister was from him for that whole time without any apparent reason." Qrow stared at her flatly, and Raven gave in to sheepishness as she shrunk down. "That's a lot more likely than you, being the brutal Darwinist that you are, killed this child and stole her powers, and didn't want the kid you'd grown attached to finding out about it for fear he'd resent you."

Raven's silence spoke volumes. She sat there guiltily, refusing eye contact.

"Does he?" she asked weakly.

"Resent you?" Qrow asked to confirm the question. When she nodded, he shrugged. "Unclear."

That wasn't the answer Raven wanted to hear, but it was probably the best answer she could have hoped for.

"I-I really didn't kill her."

"Then why hide it?"

Qrow's question was simple, and Raven didn't want to answer it. She shied away from him, but couldn't overcome the compulsion to answer. To get it off her chest. The alcohol worked in his favor there, too.

"I hated her for it," Raven answered quietly, staring down at her lap.

* * *

 _When she and Qrow agreed to split up to cover more ground in their search, Raven had no intention of actually searching. She had a meeting with the Tribe soon. It was supposed to be the first step for her to come back, and once they realized how strong she'd become, it wouldn't take her long to ascend to the top. There was a chance it was an ambush, though, and Raven wanted to be fresh just in case, so rather than tire herself out by flying as fast as she could over the endless trees of Mistral, she glided lazily and drifted far out of the range she had agreed to search._

 _Qrow would hate her for it, she knew, and she also knew that she'd convince herself that her brother's opinions didn't matter to her. Tai would be another story, but he and Summer were already engaged. Why would he even bother coming after her, especially when Raven makes it clear that she's leaving Yang behind for good?_

 _To Raven's surprise and distress, up in the distance a small explosion went off. More smoke followed out of it._

 _Raven froze. Lionheart had narrowed down their search area with reliable intel, and Raven was specifically_ _ **not**_ _in that radius. They weren't supposed to be way out here, and what are the odds that this was just an unrelated explosion and fire? She couldn't afford this. She had places to be and a life to leave behind — wasting time and energy saving this stupid family that didn't want the help could cost her. Not to mention that this was no small ambush. Raven was leaving Ozpin's service entirely; why go out of her way to piss of Salem?_

 _It didn't sit right with her on a gut level, though. Back before Beacon, she would have never had the instinct to rush in and help someone who was dying. If anything, she'd jump in on the other side and try to get some loot for herself. That was going to have to change if she really did go back to the Tribe — she couldn't afford to be soft and pathetic. Raven needed to let that part of herself die._

 _Curiosity, she told herself, was the reason that she investigated anyways. She made a choice not to radio it in as a compromise with the part of her that wanted to leave entirely._

 _There was carnage out front, pure and simple. Dead bodies and severed limps strewn all over the place. There was more red, blood-stained grass than there was green grass, though the dying flames caused by the explosion she'd seen didn't help that. Not all of the bodies were blonde Arcs, either, meaning that they'd taken some of the bastards with them._

 _Raven wanted to look away. The body of the family's patriarch, Turquoise Arc, struck a resemblance to Tai. Seeing him lying there lifeless and mangled made Raven's stomach turn. She_ _ **forced**_ _herself to look at it, to take it in and memorize it. To let that softer side of herself die, she told herself. She didn't like it, but knew it was necessary. She needed to harden._

 _A scream from inside the burning cabin tore Raven's attention away. She was sprinting inside before she even realized why._

 _It was a little girl's scream. A pained, horrified,_ _ **dying**_ _scream. All Raven could imagine was a helpless blonde-haired girl with gorgeous lavender eyes dying a painful death at the hands of Salem's assassins. It was as if the universe mocked her pathetic attempt to harden herself._

 _The cabin wasn't engulfed in flames yet, and had enough ventilation that smoke didn't choke Raven out as she entered. She rushed through the cabin until she came across the source of the scream._

 _There was a man standing in the middle of the room, with his side to her. Raven didn't know him by name but recognized him from her service to Ozpin: the man worked for Salem, if that hadn't already been obvious. The man held two twin girls in the air, one by a choking grasp on her throat and the other impaled on a spear of some sort. Blood poured down the chest of the impaled girl, and rage rose inside of Raven. The sight hit too close to home._

" _Now, which one of you is the Maiden?" the man asked the girls tauntingly, looking between them expectantly. The one on his left was the only one conscious —_ _ **alive**_ — _enough to recognize the question, but refused to answer._

 _Raven perked up at that one word._

 _The man watched with a malicious grin as the girl on his right very obviously expired. Her neck went limp and her head rolled forward. The sight horrified Raven. "Well, it appears that it wasn't Joyce." His eyes shifted to the other girl, who had her eyes squeezed shut. Light from the fires reflected off tear tracks for the girl. "I guess that leaves you, Vernal."_

" _P-Please—" the girl—Vernal, a_ _ **Maiden**_ _?—choked out, only to be cut off as the man squeezed her throat tighter._

 _The man made a show of dropping his polearm and the body of the girl it held up. It plopped on the floor with a sickening sound._

 _Without warning, the man drew a dagger and plugged it into the diaphragm of the girl he held, up under the ribcages. He twisted violently as he did so, ensuring as much damage as possible. It was a technique designed to kill Aura-users, as no amount of the stuff would heal that wound fast enough to prevent death._

 _Raven was on him half a second later, but it was too late. The man never saw it coming and she made sure it would be his last mistake, driving a red fire-dust blade straight through the man's heart. She rammed into him and forced him back several yards until he hit the wall of the cabin. Raven disengaged her hilt and let the man dangle there on the wall, impaled through the heart._

 _She hadn't realized the furious scream she let out as she did so until after the fact. Clearly, Raven had a lot of work before she had cleansed herself of any softness for her old life._

 _Scratching on wood snapped Raven out of her thoughts. The girl, Vernal, was trying to crawl over to her dead sister._

" _She's gone," Raven said, not knowing what else to say to the girl. Raven was never a very comforting person to be around, but for one of the first times, she regretted that fact. The girl's sister wasn't the only one who was gone, as Vernal would bleed out within minutes with a wound like that. It was something that nothing could save her from._

 _The girl looked up at her with a mix of fear and resolve in her eyes, as well as desperation. Honestly, Raven was surprised that such a small child hadn't curled up on themselves at the pain. She looked to be maybe nine, yet held Raven's gaze._

" _A-Are you here to…?"_

" _No," Raven answered simply, sheathing her handle back in its apparatus to put the girl at ease in her final moments. "I'm not with them."_

 _ **Never will be**_ _, Raven told herself. She was leaving The Game entirely._

 _Vernal pointed weakly towards a table. Raven followed with her eyes and spotted the huddled form of a small boy, unconscious, underneath the table. The child was the same size as Yang and was wrapped around what appeared to be a shield. Raven figured the child had been given an old shield to hide behind or hold on to while his parents fought outside. It was the last thing he'd have of them, her mind unhelpfully supplied. An image of Yang huddled under a table, crying as she held onto Raven's sword tormented her momentarily. She shook the thought away violently._

" _No o-one knows about Jaune," Vernal explained weakly. Her voice was losing strength fast. "W-Will you p-protect him?"_

 _Raven looked down to find the girl staring up at her hopefully. Raven couldn't look the girl in the eyes. She was leaving, after all. She needed to tear the softness out of herself. Bringing a child along would be the opposite of that. A child couldn't live with the Tribe, not one that was_ _ **that**_ _young. She couldn't drop it off with Qrow or Tai, either, because they'd know that she found the Arcs. Raven wouldn't be allowed to leave peacefully, because the timing would forever convince Ozpin that Raven had learned something that made her leave. Or that she had been involved with why no one else had found the Arcs._

 _No, she was leaving and couldn't afford anyone coming after her. This wasn't worth the risk._

" _P-Please!" the girl pleaded, blood starting to slowly pool in her mouth, making her cough. "He'll die!"_

" _Okay," Raven finally let out. She didn't look down at the girl immediately—she didn't want the girl to realize that Raven was only saying it to shut her up, and didn't mean it._

 _She thought that if she just waited a few seconds, the girl would be dead and Raven wouldn't be on the hook for what she was about to do: act like nothing happened. It was the only way to ensure that her plans would still work._

 _When she looked down, the girl was still there, still holding on to some tiny bit of strength. They met eyes briefly._

 _Vernal took a tiny dagger from her waist and cut her own throat, never breaking eye contact. It sped up her final moments by only a handful of seconds._

 _There was a flash and a rush of heat consumed Raven's body, sending cold chills down her spine that didn't make sense to her. Her muscles were rigid like she'd been electrocuted, and air swarmed around her, pushing smoke out of the way. Raven knew_ _ **exactly**_ _what had just happened._

 _The girl had just cursed her to inherit her powers._

 _Powers that would haunt Raven for the rest of her life, she knew. That would ensure that both Ozpin and Salem hunted Raven endlessly once they found out._

 _This fucking nine-year-old had just undone every fucking thing Raven was trying to do._

 _ **How dare she?**_ _Did she think Raven wanted those powers? Strength was one thing, but strength that ensured an impossible fight always followed you was a curse, and one that she'd just been given. All because she had to investigate. Because she_ _ **had**_ _to see for herself. Because she_ _ **had**_ _to find that scream._

 _She glanced over at the unconscious boy under the table._ _ **Fuck that kid.**_ _She'd show this stupid girl. So you want to curse Raven and die before Raven could get revenge? That's fine, Raven will just let your brother die. He was low enough to the ground that the flames would get him before the smoke would, too, making it even more painful._

 _Raven backed away and cut open a portal to her contact in the Tribe. Fuck it, if she had these powers, then there was no reason for subtlety. It was time to burn away the chaff, both from the Tribe and herself._

 _She turned her back to leave through the portal, but hesitated. A small, guilty voice gnawed at her. Her soft side, she recognized. The very thing she sought to rip out of herself._

 _She also knew from experience that doing this would embolden that stupid guilty voice in her head by giving it real fodder to torment her with. She'd never cut out her weakness if she emboldened her conscience like this. Any time she tried, thoughts of this moment would always flash in her mind and undercut her resolve._

 _With a frustrated sigh, she walked over and scooped the small boy up, shield and all._

* * *

Silence settled over them. Raven hadn't told Qrow a story so much as she had just confessed something to him. Her eyes had remained locked onto the bottle on the table the whole time. She hadn't dared look him in the eye, or even risk looking in his direction. And once she had stopped talking, Qrow let the silence hang.

All things considered, what Raven did wasn't that bad, at least not by Qrow's standards for her. The thought crossed his mind that Raven might have lied, but he dismissed it. Why would she lie to him now? All she could gain were sympathy points from Qrow — which she clearly didn't care for — and all she could lose was sympathy — again, from Qrow. And Qrow knew his sister. She didn't do 'guilty' often, but it was unmistakable when she did. She wasn't lying.

Besides, she was drunk.

"Why hide it?"

The question left Qrow's lips unintentionally as he expressed his thoughts out loud. It took him a second to even realize he had said anything, because Raven didn't react. She continued to glare into the bottle, lost in her own world of introspection.

"Why didn't you tell Jaune what really happened?" Qrow asked, a little more forcefully now that he actually intended to speak. "That his sister gave you her powers, or that you avenged her?"

"It wasn't that simple," Raven let out lowly, her voice warning Qrow to back off. She already regretted opening up this much, seeing how her brother had instantly decided to criticize her.

"What's not simple about that?" Qrow asked incredulously. "You lost both him and Yang because you didn't tell him a very harmless truth. How did you not see this coming?"

Raven bristled, but refused to take her eyes off the bottle.

"I didn't—" Raven began to speak, and Qrow could tell that he was about to get an honest answer until Raven cut herself off. She bit back the words and chastised herself for even considering answering truthfully.

Qrow pushed. "You didn't what?"

A low, irritated grumble emanated from Raven, likely realizing that Qrow was going to push until he heard the rest of that answer. Begrudgingly, she gave in. "I didn't know what I wanted, okay?"

Raven spat the answer at him, hoping that her frustration and resentment would distract Qrow from how significant her words were. Her brother — wisely — bit his tongue, letting Raven feel the compulsion to explain herself. Had she looked up at him, she would have realized what he was doing, but the label of the bottle in front of her still had Raven's eyes glued to it.

"I know who you think I am," Raven growled at him. "I'm some heartless bitch who has a scheme for everything and knows exactly how to get what I want."

Raven looked up from her bottle to glare at him, challenging him to say differently. She honestly didn't expect him to challenge any of it.

"You're not heartless," Qrow corrected. Not long ago, you wouldn't have gotten him to say that with a gun to his head. Raven flinched in on herself, looking hurt by his words somehow. She looked like she didn't believe him or, maybe worse than that, that she didn't agree.

"But I am the others," Raven stated, skating around the disagreement to push her greater point. "I _am_ a ruthless bitch who will get what she wants through any means necessary."

Again, she looked to him to challenge her words. Qrow remained silent this time, though he gave her a tight frown. He might have challenged the word ' _will'_ in that sentence given the events of this week, but he knew there would be better times to bring that up.

Raven looked away guiltily, staring off at the floor opposite from Qrow. "I just… don't always know _what_ I want."

Again, Qrow let the silence compel her to explain, and again, she didn't catch onto this because she couldn't bring herself to look her brother in the eye.

"I didn't know what I was doing back then, okay? I know you had this idea of me back then as the heartless woman who wanted to leave, but I didn't know _what_ I wanted. I just know what I hated and… and what I feared." Raven struggled to say that last word, and it wasn't from any intoxication-induced slurring. Admitting fear had always been difficult for Raven, even in situations where only the insane wouldn't have been intimidated. It was a pride thing for her, and it came with their genes; Qrow struggled with it in other areas too. "I feared… I-I feared…"

She couldn't bring herself to say it.

"Salem," Qrow filled in for her finally. She looked up at him in surprise, as if it had been some great secret that no one was supposed to have known. "We knew, Raven. _I_ knew. Do you think I don't recognize the look in your eye when you're about to flee?"

Raven dropped her head.

"I feared—I feared _her_ ," Raven said finally, still avoiding a true confession of 'weakness,' "and I hated leaving. I hated being alone. I hated not having what I was giving up."

"A family," Qrow interjected softly. The pieces were starting to fit into place for him.

Raven scoffed. "I thought I was weak for wanting it. _Still might, honestly,_ " she said, her voice dropping low. "So when I had a kid who was a target for Salem and a huge reminder of the other kid I'd just left behind, you'll have to forgive me for hating the fucking thing."

Raven tried to get angry, and Qrow couldn't tell if it was at her old self for hating Jaune or if she was _trying_ to hate Jaune. If it was the latter, she was failing at it.

"I didn't tell him because I didn't think I _wanted_ what I ended up wanting. His sister cursed me and his existence just rubbed salt in my wounds. Why would I tell him anything? I thought I hated the kid."

"But you didn't…"

"No," she answered softly, with a hint of fondness at the memories, despite her chagrin for having to admit that she didn't know something so important. "But by the time I finally admitted that to myself, I had already dug a hole."

"You still could have told him," Qrow cut in. "He would have understood eventually."

Raven laughed darkly at her naïve brother. The sound unnerved Qrow.

"You're overestimating just how recently I realized all this."

That shut Qrow up. He'd been thinking that after a few years, Raven found herself liking Jaune. After all, she had bonded to Yang fiercely in those first few months, back before she started having doubts. For a time, it had been her and Tai happy together, and Team STRQ was on top of the world.

But if Raven really did try to live that down, then there was no telling how long she would have tried to hold it against Jaune. If it wasn't until recently that she realized her attachment to him—say, when she sent him to Beacon or just before—then the situation was a bit stickier.

Normally, Qrow would have left things there. But Raven was drunk, and if there was ever a time to push her to say more, it was now.

"When'd you realize it?"

Raven looked up at him, eyes doing their best to focus. Even drunk, she recognized an obvious fishing attempt for what it was, but after a few moments to stare him down, she gave in anyways. "A year ago," she answered with a shrug. "Or two years ago. Maybe four? It was hard to tell, okay?"

"Hard to tell? Sis, we're talking about the difference between hating someone and liking them. This isn't rocket scie—" Qrow cut himself off abruptly at the guiltily, tormented look that flashed over his sister's face. She _didn't_ know the difference, or wasn't good at distinguishing it. Had she deluded herself that strongly since leaving?

That thought made Qrow's stomach turn, because it made it crystal clear to him just how desperate Raven was for some sort of emotional connection during those years. And all he had ever done was hate her from afar, and make sure she stayed away from Tai, Yang, and Ruby.

"I didn't know what I wanted. I did things for him without realizing it, but I also went out of my way to push him for existing more than once," Raven said guiltily. She was hiding behind the words, and little else. "We butted heads so much while he was growing up that I thought he hated me. _He_ certainly thought he did. It took me a long time to figure out how things stood, and by then… by then, all I could do was send him to Beacon."

"And the rest is history, huh?" Qrow asked. He'd heard bits and pieces of the story from there on in, and had been involved in part of it. He had no doubts that he'd have a full recounting eventually, and since Raven knew that, she let the conversation fall silent.

They sat there, sharing the silence for a few moments after that. Qrow was glad that he wasn't inside Raven's head right now. He wasn't exactly sure how she was taking the events from earlier that week, but how hammered she was right now certainly didn't bode well. He knew from experience that Branwens weren't able to drown their sorrows in alcohol. No matter how many sheets into the wind you got, memories still swam in your head. Hell, he'd been drunk since Summer's death and could still _feel_ the flap of her cape standing right next to him sometimes — though it didn't help when Ruby assumed that same position during battle without realizing it.

Whatever Raven was trying to ignore would not be ignored. She may try to drown her demons, but, unluckily, they're champion swimmers.

"How is he?" Raven asked finally. Her voice was low and defeated. It sounded like she was asking out of curtesy more than curiosity. She _knew_ how he was doing; she'd been the one to hurt him.

"Not… horrible," Qrow answered, trying to spin things positively for a change. This room was already depressing enough with the two of them there.

Raven looked up at him, a surprised expression on her face.

"He's attached to Yang at the hip, not that I can blame him. Every now and then, he gets lost in his thoughts and wears that sort of blank face that—" _that Raven's wearing now_ , "Yang brings him out of that."

"Glad to see something good came from my parenting," Raven mumbled as she poured herself a new glass, having a little bit of trouble with the hand-eye coordination aspects. "Or in spite of it."

"He's gonna pull out of it. Kid doesn't really have a choice, what with Yang and Tai forcing his hand…"

"Tai?" Raven asked, her emotions unreadable even to Qrow. That was a can of worms he wanted to stay sealed indefinitely.

"Tai's taken a shining to the kid, surprisingly," Qrow explained, taking a sip from his own glass to match Raven's. "I thought he'd go all papa bear on the dude who bedded and then basically eloped with his oldest daughter, but I guess he figured that Jaune had been tortured by Yang's parents enough."

Despite himself and everything he was trying to accomplish by being here, Qrow couldn't help but give Raven an accusatory look at that. She shrunk down guiltily.

"Nah, Tai's always been a softie. Yang gave him puppy-dog eyes once and he gave in," Qrow pivoted, letting any pressure off his sister. He watched her carefully for her reaction, just in case. "Figured that if anyone was equipped to help Jaune deal with being lied to and manipulated by you, it was him and Yang."

"That's good," Raven commented idly. Her eyes had that thousand-yard stare to them as she had gotten lost in her thoughts again.

"You know, we're leaving for Atlas tomorrow," Qrow stated tentatively, watching his sister's reaction closely. Her eye twitched slightly, but she made a conscious effort not to react. "We're taking the Argus Express in the morning."

"That's nice."

This wasn't working. He'd have to be direct, though he wasn't sure how she'd react.

"You should talk to Jaune before we leave."

To Qrow's surprise, she didn't react at all, instead hiding behind that distant stare. She didn't respond, either.

"Raven, you made a mistake. A lot of them, by the looks of it. Letting him leave without trying to make up will be another one."

"What am I supposed to do, _apologize_?" Raven scoffed at the word. That Branwen pride reared its ugly head once more. "So what, I say I'm sorry and that fixes everything? Makes my kids not hate me and makes everything go back like it was? Brings back our teammate, restores Vale to its former glory, and slays Salem as if by magic?"

Qrow was familiar with this. It was the same thing he used to do, back in the STRQ days. Give all the reasons that apologizing wasn't going to work as an excuse not to apologize. Summer used to cut right through him with one question:

" _Are_ you sorry?"

Raven looked up at him in surprise before scowling at him. Qrow hadn't been the only one Summer had torn into on occasion. Raven's glare told him she knew exactly who he was quoting, and that she didn't appreciate having Summer thrown in her face like that.

"Don't bring her up like that," Raven hissed at Qrow, not even acknowledging her hypocrisy. "It cheapens her memory."

"Oh?" Qrow chimed in. "Do you want to go there?"

It took Raven a second to process the words, but her expression paled.

"N-No," she let out weakly, realizing that bringing up Summer was a losing battle for her. Something fragile in her voice told Qrow that Raven wasn't in any state to bring that up either.

"You're lucky _she_ isn't here to straighten you out," Qrow said sternly. Bringing up Summer was a sore topic for him too, but he pushed past that for now. Raven bristled under his words. "What would she think of what you did to Jaune? What would she _do_ to you for it?"

Summer was one of the nicest, most even-keeled people Qrow had ever met. It took a lot to get her furious. What Raven did to Jaune, who was just a _child_ , would have made Summer lose it.

Summer would have killed Raven for it by now.

"I get it!" Raven yelled at Qrow, desperate to get him to shut up. Whether or not the alcohol in her system exaggerated it, Raven was not in control of her emotions right now. Flames danced wildly around her eyes as a threat of what would happen if Qrow pushed the topic further. "I get your damn point, now shut the hell up and let me drink."

Raven reached out for the bottle on the table. Qrow beat her to it, unceremoniously knocking it onto the floor. Glass shattered and the amber contents of the bottle soaked into the floorboards. Raven glared up at him, but was losing the energy to be angry quickly. She was struggling to even focus her eyes on him now.

Qrow was fine to drop Summer as a topic, and return right to the other one, punctuating his words slowly and deliberately. "Are. you. sorry?"

Raven's head dropped as she tore her eyes away from Qrow's once more. Not for the first time, Qrow did not envy her for what had to be swimming around in her head. Whatever combination of guilt, remorse, anger, resentment, self-pity, or any other emotion was battling there kept her from answering.

She _was_ sorry. Qrow could see that much plainly. His sister was drinking her night away alone when she could be celebrating becoming a legitimate army and earning a large paycheck. As hard as it was to admit, she had outplayed Salem's lieutenants and taken their heads, leaving the Grimm Queen's forces likely crippled. She might have just bought peace for a generation while Salem rebuilds, all because she played the game that she had avoided for so long.

But she played herself, too, and that cost her more than she's likely to admit. _Too clever by half_ , so the expression went.

"I don't know," Raven let out softly, refusing to meet his eyes. Qrow might have believed that once.

"Yes you do."

Raven's head dropped lower out of shame for being caught lying so easily. That confirmed it to Qrow that Raven was sorry and she knew she was sorry. Apologizing wasn't a matter of admitting to herself that she was wrong. It was a matter of admitting aloud that she was wrong.

And that damn Branwen pride stood in the way.

"I-It doesn't matter," Raven let out, rattled. She was desperately and transparently looking for an excuse now. "Even if I go to him, I won't get close to h-him." Raven hiccupped and nearly lost her balance as her intoxication started to hit her in full force. "They'll attack me t-the moment… that they see me."

"I'll help," Qrow offered, surprising Raven with his words. They kinda surprised Qrow, too. "Leave it to me to keep the others back. I can make sure you get a chance to apologize. Tai, Ruby, the teams, Yang... none of them will _ever_ know, if that helps."

Raven's surprise turned to fear as she realized that she was out of excuses. This could actually happen. She had no way around this, try as she might.

And she did keep trying.

"E-Even if I do, what would i-it matter?" she asked desperately. "H-He'll still hate me. I-I'll go to him and m-make a fool of myself, only t-to have him spit in my face?"

"He's angry," Qrow confirmed. "He's earned the right to be angry. He's also earned your apology, and the right to spit in your face if he wants to."

"S-So what? I go and a-ap—" Raven hitched on the word apologize, as if the very concept wounded her pride too much to say. "—say that word and w-what do I get from it? Nothing will fix this, Qrow. Th-They're not coming back. Why even try?"

"Apologies aren't _for_ the other person. They're for _you_ ," Qrow answered, reciting some old proverb he vaguely remembered Summer babbling about. Or maybe it was Ozpin; Qrow wasn't certain. "It alleviates the guilt, and it is a lot better at it," Qrow said, pulling out his personal flask and making a show of setting down between them, "than this is. _Trust me._ "

Raven scowled at him, clearly not buying it, to her own detriment. Qrow got the sinking feeling that he wasn't going to be able to fix this. _At least he tried this time._ It was better than nothing, though knowing now what he did about Raven's state when she left the team, he was likely to hold his inaction against himself for a long time.

"If that's true, why are you s-such a fucking mess?" Raven growled venomously, nodding towards the flask. A low blow, but Qrow would never pretend like he was the model of someone who had it together. If Qrow was the standard Raven judged herself by, then that was just pathetic; even worse was that Raven was failing to live up to that standard.

Qrow shrugged the words off, taking his flask and uncapping it. "I don't _have_ any other way to deal with the guilt," he said simply and honestly. He sounded detached from reality. "Believe me, if I knew who I could apologize to, I'd do it in a heartbeat."

Raven's expression softened slightly, but not enough. She wasn't convinced, and he hated to leave it there, but he'd played all the cards he had. He waited around a moment longer, hoping some inspiration would strike him, or Summer's ghost itself would reveal to him how to get through to Raven.

It never came. With a sigh, Qrow took a defeated swig from his flask, before capping it and rising to his feet. Raven looked up at him in surprise, nearly swaying over as she did so.

"Don't do this, sis," Qrow said in a final, desperate attempt to convince her—though he knew it was doomed to fail. His voice was raw with emotion that he rarely displayed, and some part of him hoped that this aspect would be the final straw that broke Raven. "Even if Jaune and Yang still hate you, even if he humiliates you for even trying to apologize, even if he tells you he never wants to see you again, it won't hurt as much as not trying will. It will devour you, sis. _Please_ don't do that to yourself. You don't want that."

Raven locked eyes with him the whole time he spoke for what felt like the first time that night. Qrow's words cut into her, too, whether by the emotion they conveyed or by the fact that she _knew_ what he was telling her was right. He could see it in her eyes that he was getting through to her, and for the first time she let him see the pain in her eyes. The self-hatred, the anguish, the self-pity, the regret, the torment, the sadness, the depression, the rage, the sheer terror — all of it reflected in crimson eyes, glassed over by alcohol and a little more moisture than should be there.

Raven dropped her head just before Qrow could finally convince her. In a final stroke of bad luck, a poor word choice had distracted Raven just enough to steer her off course.

"I don't know _what_ I want," she mumbled, ashamed.

Qrow swore softly under his breath, dropping his own head as he turned to leave. He had been so close. He wouldn't have fixed things — he knew that nothing could — but he could have made them better. He could have helped.

At least this time, he _tried_ , right?

"Raven," Qrow called out with his back still to his sister, standing just before the stairwell to take him out of the room. He turned back around just enough to meet eyes with his sister. There was one last thing he had to know for sure. "When you left the team… was there anything I could have done? To bring you back, or just… to help you?"

"Yes." Raven's single word cut deep into her brother. "I-I left Yang to make you think me irredeemable. I knew that if you or Tai had tried to… tried to convince me to come back, that I would have. So I made _certain_ you hated me too much to try."

Qrow dropped his head out of shame. It had worked, he supposed. He _did_ hate Raven too much to try to redeem her before. Hearing her admit as much wounded _his_ pride, and worse than that, revealed a flaw about himself that he should have seen long ago.

He turned to leave, but guilt stopped him from going down the first step. It took him a moment to realize it, but leaving now would make him the same as his sister.

No, there was something he had to do now. The very thing that he'd been trying to convince his twin sister to do.

"I'm sorry," Qrow said lowly, after walking back to the table to stand just next to Raven. She couldn't bring herself to look at him, instead following his hand. "That I let it work."

Qrow laid a fistful of lien on the table, and then took the flask that Summer had given him long ago out of his pocket. The same flask that was both his crutch and the one thing keeping him functioning. A gift Summer had given him to commemorate the night that Summer had broken through to Qrow and made him realize that he wanted to be a part of their team and leave his old life behind. A gift that he had warped into a disease that controlled him ever since its giver had died.

He laid in on top of the lien. It was long overdue, honestly. And Team STRQ only had room for one alcoholic max. He prayed that Raven wasn't about to take that title, but he did not have faith that she wouldn't.

This wasn't for her, though. This was for him.

He took his hand off the flask for the last time, leaving it with Raven.

"Next round's on me, sis."

* * *

 **I'm... free. It is finished.**

 **I'm going to miss writing this, aren't I?**

* * *

 **Shoutouts:**

 **This has been a lot of fun, and as much as my ego would love it, the story would not have shaped up the way it did without input, feedback, (some) criticism, encouragement, and suggestions. I'm gonna try to name them all here. If I missed one, DM me on Discord and call me silly names.**

* * *

 **My sister -** This story might not have been written without you giving me that very insistent push after hearing this crazy, overly-dramatic idea for a RWBY fic. In return, you got to be worshipped by my Discord, so I feel like you got a good reward. But, still, thanks sis.

 _Even though you're not reading the story anymore._ :O

* * *

 **Avidlag/Siival/Words/Incredible Lag/Henry von Henderson -** Whatever name you want to go by, thanks for suggesting making a Discord for this story. It has been an absolutely horrible suggestion and has created more stress than it's worth, but hey, it's been way too much fun. I now have a small army of people who are very good at making me the butt of a joke. _It's what I always wanted._

Oh, and you're also probably my most negative beta reader, which I actually do like. You've challenged plot points, directions, intentions, and descriptions in ways that only mostly offended me as the author, but MoNT came away sharper for it. That I truly am grateful for.

Now, if you ever make me fulfill that stupid DnD host thing, all of the nice things here are null and void.

* * *

 **TurquoiseLeaf** \- Man, I don't know if I've ever had so much fun as I did back during the Turquoise Rebellion Meme days. I remember checking my email each Sunday, just waiting to see what Turquoise or Turquoise-inspired madness lay waiting in the reviews.

Plot twist: Turquoise was actually one of the first mods for the Discord. Un-plot twist: Turquoise took over the Discord (and even MoNT) for a few days and then relinquished his power. He was also a silent member of the beta group on the Discord, though I think of this as more an offering to the Leaf God.

It was fun, man. Glad we both wildly overcommitted to such a stupid joke. lol

* * *

 **All the members of the secret beta squad on Discord -** After making the Discord, I decided to start uploading chapters via a Google Doc whenever I finished them. Originally, my goal was to let the mods read the chapters early as a reward for having to be mods in that Discord… and if they caught spelling mistakes and marked them, _hey_ , everyone profits from that. It wasn't a real beta position, but more like beta by a very lazy committee. I wouldn't have it any other way.

So here are all of the people on Discord who contributed that way for any length of time:

 **Lives2DieAgain -** Lives is our most active mod following the great Discord collapse, and has been around in the editing channel for a while. Occasionally, I'll even get a good suggestion from him.

 **Silverforest (Silvolde on FF dot net) -** Silver's joins Lives and Siival as one of the longest-running members of the beta squad, and would definitely be the most consistent member. Every week, I'd see a couple spelling things caught by him, almost without fail. He's also a fanfic author in his own right, and every now and then I get to return the favor with his RWBY How To Train Your Dragon crossover fic, _A New World._

 **Knightmare Frame Razgriz -** Another RWBY fanfic writer that I sucked into the editing bay via the Discord. Knightmare's working on _To Serve with Honor_ and the Discord keeps pestering him to upload more quickly, so if you want to pick up the story so that you can also pester him to write faster, we'd appreciate the help. Knightmare's also been a stealth mod on the Discord in the past, and has a secret role as of now.

 **Hemlock** \- Any alcohol-related things in the Discord probably got corrected by our resident beeramid expert. Such as explaining to me that Strawberry Sunrises are based on tequila, but only after I established that Yang doesn't like tequila. Come on, bro, you could have been a little quicker on that.

 **South Carolina -** South's been a bit quiet as of late, but he also served as a mod for the Discord for a while. The most notable thing about south is that for a long time I struggled to figure out which SC was the real SC, because _someone_ went and changed the names of like 15 inactive accounts to SC in order to make their own faction. Fun times.

 **Eric d'Orleans -** I also haven't seen Eric in the Discord in a hot minute, but he was part of the OG squad that encouraged me finish my chapters more than a day before uploading them so this beta squad could even happen. He also happens to live in the same town as me, so anytime I missed a week, the Discord threatened to send Eric to hunt me down. Hasn't happened yet.

 **Dicko -** Our token Brit in the server, Dicko was also by far the most dedicated spell-checker in the group. That said, I was not very good at uploading chapters more than a day out, so it was hard for him to ever have the time to check them, but when he did, the chapters became so much smoother for it. He's got two RWBY one-shots up here on under his handle _Mr. Dicko_ , and I remember quasi-betaing one of them. Go check them out.

 **Jwadd01 -** Our resident Aussie, though I think they're starting to multiply. Jwadd is still around some, but he hasn't been a mod since the old server collapsed. He types " _REEEEEE_ " a lot these days. You've been warned.

* * *

 **Infernus Phyre -** Not a member of the beta squad, but Infernus was working on a sketch/drawing of that illusion that Neo tricked Amber with. A NSFW drawing, which naturally made him many friends in the Discord very quickly. In my book, that more than earns a shoutout here.

* * *

 **Mallobaude** \- Shout out for Mallo. Cool dude, that Mallo. Does a great Raven voice while reading smut. Trust me on that one. He's also a Moose.

* * *

 **Eating Upside Down -** I still have a screenshot of that hate review/roast framed on my mantle. It's getting harder and harder to explain what it is to each new person that sees it.

* * *

 **Well, that's all I've got. Thanks for the help, guys. It's been real.**

 **One last plug for the Discord: as V7 draws near, if you want a place to hangout and shitpost about RWBY, and occasionally have some good RWBY discussion, come on down.**

 **If not, then thanks for reading. Hope I see you guys around on reddit or RWBY Amity Arena.**

 **Bye.**


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